Samsung Galaxy A53 5G review
One UI 4.1 on top of Android 12
The Galaxy A53 5G runs the latest Android 12 and One UI 4.1 combo. It is still missing the occasional feature here and there compared to the flagship Galaxy S22 line, but nothing unexpected or too major for most users.
One major selling point Samsung has for many of its mid-range devices is the promise of extended software support. This is the case with the A53 5G as well. You can expect 4 OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches. A sweet deal if you tend to keep your phones for a while.
One UI remains one of the best and most popular custom Android implementations out there. In recent years, most changes to the UX have been careful and incremental and have mostly amounted to extra polish and flair. Even users coming from older Galaxy devices should feel right at home, but some new additions to the mix are still worth mentioning. We'll just do a quick overview.
The lock screen looks the same as before with two monochrome shortcuts - dialer and camera. The under-display fingerprint reader will likely be the primary method of unlocking for most, but you can still use face unlock either instead of or alongside it. It can be more convenient in certain situations, but it generally is less secure since it's just using the selfie camera.
An always-on display is available - it's the simplified version from One UI 3. You can choose between a few clock styles or opt for an Image Clock. Music info is also supported. The feature can be always-off, always-on, scheduled, shown only when new notifications are available, or you can opt for tap-to-show for 10s.
The lock screen is largely unchanged, as mentioned, and has a lot of customization options available.
One UI 4.1 looks even cleaner than v.3.x, but its logic remains the same - there are homescreen, widgets, notification centre, task switcher and an app drawer.
As we mentioned, the Galaxy A53 5G doesn't have all of the One UI 4.1 features. Samsung's new Smart Widgets are one of the weirder omissions. Perhaps these are on their way and simply haven't reached the A53 yet. They are really convenient since they allow joining data from a few widgets into a single one.
One of the new One UI 4 features is Color Palettes. This is the implementation of the vanilla Android 12's Wallpaper colors. There are usually four Color Palette suggestions in addition to the default One UI Blue/Black one. Those are picked automatically by the software, depending on your current wallpaper. The color you choose will become the main one in the newly created theme (think Windows' "accent color").
These accent colors are applied on the dialer, the quick toggles, and other tiny UI bits. You can choose to apply them to the app icons as well.
One UI has always offered great customization. You can use one of a few wallpaper services to automatically change your lockscreen or homescreen. The powerful Theme engine is here as well.
Wallpaper services • Galaxy Themes
The dialer allows you to pick between two layouts for the in-call screen. You can also set up a background image or video for that screen, though it's going to be all the same for all of your calls - you can't have a different one on a per-person basis.
Navigation is highly-customizable as well. You can go with gestures and tweak them to your liking or revert back to old-school buttons and even swap the home and back buttons for a truly retro navigation scheme.
The Settings menu contains a new Privacy Dashboard. Here, you can easily see which apps use some of the most important permissions (for privacy). You can control the camera and control access across apps, opt for clipboard access alerts (useful if you copy passwords, social security numbers, IBANs, among others), and a full-blown permission manager if you like to dig deeper.
You get a whole bunch of options for using your Galaxy with other devices to enable various use cases. Wireless display is the most obvious one. You can just do display mirror this way though since the Galaxy A53 5G lacks Samsung DeX. It is still reserved for Samsung's flagship devices and hasn't made its way down the chain. Plus, the A53 5G can't do video out from its USB Type-C port, which is kind of the primary way to use DeX.
The Link to Windows feature provides you with an interface to your phone from your computer so you can exchange images, manage notifications on your PC or even make calls from it.
Another option along those lines but with more limited potential is Continue apps on other devices. This requires you to be logged in to your Samsung account on both devices, hook them up to the same Wi-Fi network with Bluetooth enabled and use the Samsung Internet browser or Samsung Notes. You'll then be able to copy and paste text and images across and open the same tabs in the browser.
No DeX • Continue apps on other devices • Link to Windows • Android Auto
Other staples of proprietary Samsung software include the Edge panels - the panes that show up when you swipe in from the side and provide tools and shortcuts to apps and contacts. Game launcher, the hub for all your games, which also provides options for limiting distraction when gaming is here to stay as well.
Otherwise, the software package is similar to other Samsung phones, with an in-house Gallery app, the Game Launcher app, and a proprietary file manager. Naturally, Samsung's Internet web browser is also available.
Gallery • Game Launcher • File manager • Edge panel
The Gallery is where you'd find the new Object Eraser feature. Once you enter photo edit mode, you can opt for object eraser from More options. This is a fancier way of saying smart delete - you either paint over an object or tap on it for automatic selection. And then you hope for the best - if the object's surroundings aren't too complex, you will get a good outcome. Otherwise - it's a mixed bag. Samsung's fancy experimental shadow and reflection erasers are not present for now, though.
Beyond all of this, the Galaxy A53 5G comes loaded with a standard set of apps from Samsung, Microsoft and Google.
Granted, the list has gotten a bit extensive, but there is nothing here that we would consider bloat in the traditional sense. Anything you don't personally like or appreciate having on your device can be easily uninstalled or, failing that - disabled.
As always, One UI runs incredibly smooth and provides a truly industry-leading custom Android experience, chock-full of extra features and customizability.
Performance and benchmarks
The Galaxy A53 5G is equipped with Samsung's new Exynos 1280 chipset. It is replacing the Snapdragon 778G inside last year's Galaxy A52s 5G and is new silicon from Samsung's own foundries. So, overall, pretty interesting on multiple levels. At least we think so, though the Korean giant doesn't seem to share the same enthusiasm. For one, the official specs for the A53 5G don't even mention the particular part number. And even after we confirmed it on the review unit itself, Samsung's official semiconductor website still lacks an entry for it as of writing this review. This has happened before, though. It's almost like Samsung doesn't like to draw attention to any of its Exynos chipsets, which are less than flagship-grade. It definitely doesn't mean that the Exynos 1280 is bad in any way.
The Exynos 1280 is made on Samsung's 5nm manufacturing process. So not the latest and greatest flagship 4nm one, but still impressive and essentially last year's tech. In the CPU department, the Exynos 1280 is packing two "big" Cortex-A78 cores, clocked at up to 2.4GHz and six "small" Cortex-A55 ones, working at up to 2.0GHz. The Snapdragon 778G in last year's Galaxy A52s 5G that is getting replaced technically uses the same basic ARM cores, though in their custom Kryo variants, but with a symmetrical 4+4 configuration. So, technically, we expect the Exynos 1280 to be less potent than it in some multi-core scenarios. Let's kick things off with GeekBench and CPU runs.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
3682 -
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
3296 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
3049 -
Realme GT Master
2917 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
2832 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
2801 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
2796 -
Poco X3 Pro
2574 -
Realme 9 Pro+
2335 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
2225 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
2063 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
2063 -
Realme 9 Pro
2020 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
1891 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
1848 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
1820 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
1780 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
1738 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
1729 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
1719 -
Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
1673 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
1662 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
1627 -
Realme 9i
1581 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
1577 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
1372 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
588
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
1171 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
1096 -
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
906 -
Realme 9 Pro+
814 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
787 -
Realme GT Master
785 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
771 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
743 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
736 -
Poco X3 Pro
735 -
Realme 9 Pro
694 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
688 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
687 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
636 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
608 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
603 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
592 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
569 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
560 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
537 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
525 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
511 -
Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
505 -
Realme 9i
384 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
376 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
376 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
153
This expectation checks out in actual benchmark scores. The Snapdragon 695 5G with its 2 + 4 CPU configuration seems to be a closer match to the Exynos 1280 in terms of CPU performance. Oddly enough, despite its lower clocks speeds, the former seems to be doing a bit better in an all-core load scenario, while the latter is more powerful in single-thread execution.
Interestingly, the Galaxy A52s 5G with its Snapdragon 778G seems to have its A53 5G successor beat in the CPU department. Noticeably so in multi-threaded workloads.
This unfortunate trend continues with AnTuTu and its more compound tests. It incorporates GPU testing and also takes into account things like storage and memory. We can clearly see the Galaxy A53 5G getting outpaced by both the Galaxy A52s 5G and the older Galaxy A52 5G.
For the sake of thoroughness, our review unit has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Testing was done with RAM Plus, which Samsung's name for virtual memory set at the default 4GB. It can go down to 2GB or up to 6GB, but it didn't make any actual difference in benchmark scores. The feature is geared towards keeping more apps open in the background and restoring them quickly more than anything else.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
745496 -
Poco F3
631850 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
566529 -
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
543986 -
Realme 9 Pro+
495096 -
Poco X3 Pro
453223 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
429675 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
375528 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
335353 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
334981 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
329802 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
295442 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
288914 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
286216 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
279579 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
279342 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
261309 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
261282 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
242155 -
Realme 9i
229368 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
228044 -
Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
226561 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
185358 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
122822
AnTuTu 9
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
881428 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
719696 -
Realme GT Master
529263 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
527663 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
506432 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
504424 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
437872 -
Realme 9 Pro+
416031 -
Realme 9 Pro
401894 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
386474 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
384646 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
382902 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
379313 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
345223 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
333668 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
319093 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
244526 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
223188 -
Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
222125 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
165959 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
136286
Don't get us wrong, the Galaxy A53 5G is still a decent mid-range performer and it is holding its own. However, the Exynos 1280 chipset is a bit of a downgrade from earlier Qualcomm chips and that generally means the Galaxy A53 5G is often underperforming within its competitive price bracket.
The Mali-G68 GPU inside the Exynos 1280 while also decent in itself, is also a notable downgrade from the Adreno 642L inside the Galaxy A52s 5G.
GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
53 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
38 -
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
30 -
Poco X3 Pro
26 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
19 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
19 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
18 -
Realme GT Master
18 -
Realme 9 Pro+
17 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
15 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
12 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
12 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
11 -
Realme 9 Pro
11 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
10 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
10 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
9.2 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
8.4 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
7.9 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
5.7 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
4.6 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
3.3
GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
31 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
24 -
Poco X3 Pro
17 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
13 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
13 -
Realme GT Master
13 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
13 -
Realme 9 Pro+
11 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
10 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
7.8 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
7.8 -
Realme 9 Pro
7.8 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
7.2 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
7 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
7 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
5.8 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
5.7 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
5.5 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
3.3 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
3.1 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
2.2
GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
44 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
38 -
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
30 -
Poco X3 Pro
27 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
20 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
20 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
19 -
Realme GT Master
19 -
Realme 9 Pro+
16 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
15 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
12 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
12 -
Realme 9 Pro
12 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
11 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
10 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
10 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
9.4 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
8.7 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
7.8 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
7.3 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
4.8 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
3.4
GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
29 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
25 -
Poco X3 Pro
18 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
14 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
14 -
Realme GT Master
14 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
14 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
10 -
Realme 9 Pro+
10 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
8.8 -
Realme 9 Pro
8.2 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
8.1 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
8 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
7.5 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
7 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
7 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
5.8 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
5.1 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
3.1 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
2.9 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
2.3
On the plus side, it is encouraging to see that the Galaxy A53 5G is performing about on par in graphics tests with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G and the Realme 9 Pro+ both of which are equipped with a MediaTek Dimensity 920 chipset that has the same Mali-G68 GPU. A four-core variant, to be exact, which, given the similar scores likely means the Exynos 1280 is using four GPU cores as well. We still don't know why Samsung is reluctant to publicly share that data.
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
69 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
56 -
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
45 -
Poco X3 Pro
38 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
28 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
28 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
28 -
Realme GT Master
27 -
Realme 9 Pro+
23 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
22 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
19 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
17 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
17 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
16 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
16 -
Realme 9 Pro
16 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
16 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
15 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
15 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
13 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
12 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
12 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
12 -
Realme 9i
7.3 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
6.8 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
5.2
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
74 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
57 -
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
52 -
Poco X3 Pro
45 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
33 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
33 -
Realme GT Master
33 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
33 -
Realme 9 Pro+
27 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
25 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
23 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
20 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
19 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
19 -
Realme 9 Pro
19 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
19 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
17 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
17 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
14 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
14 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
14 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
14 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
9.3 -
Realme 9i
8.2 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
8 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
6.2
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
98 -
Samsung Galaxy S22
97 -
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
77 -
Poco X3 Pro
67 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
49 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
49 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
47 -
Realme GT Master
46 -
Realme 9 Pro+
41 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
38 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
35 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
30 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
30 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
30 -
Realme 9 Pro
29 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
28 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
26 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
26 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
23 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
22 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
21 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
21 -
Realme 9i
14 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
12 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
8.3
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
108 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
103 -
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
89 -
Poco X3 Pro
75 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
56 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
56 -
Realme GT Master
56 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
56 -
Realme 9 Pro+
45 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
43 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
38 -
Realme 9 Pro
35 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
34 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
34 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
32 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
29 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
29 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
26 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
26 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
24 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
24 -
Realme 9i
23 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
15 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
15 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
9.4
GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
116 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
116 -
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
108 -
Poco X3 Pro
93 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
69 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
68 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
64 -
Realme GT Master
57 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
57 -
Realme 9 Pro+
56 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
55 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
42 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
42 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
41 -
Realme 9 Pro
41 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
39 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
37 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
35 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
35 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
34 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
31 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
29 -
Realme 9i
20 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
18 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
14
GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
173 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
133 -
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
127 -
Poco X3 Pro
102 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
78 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
77 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
77 -
Realme GT Master
77 -
Realme 9 Pro+
68 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
64 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
60 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
47 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
47 -
Realme 9 Pro
47 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
43 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
39 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
39 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
37 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
35 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
32 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
32 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
24 -
Realme 9i
23 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
21 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
16
We remind you that when comparing GFXBench scores across different devices only the offscreen scores are relevant and only kind of since the resolution of the phone's display need to be taken out of the equation.
3DMark paints a very similar picture of graphical performance on the Galaxy A53 5G.
3DMark SSE ES 3.1 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
7215 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
5015 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
5010 -
Realme GT Master
4988 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
4979 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
3631 -
Realme 9 Pro
2946 -
Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
2638 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
2529 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
2517 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
2391 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
2166 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
2135 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
1361 -
Realme 9i
1339 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
1316 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
886
3DMark SSE Vulkan 1.0 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
6605 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
4608 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
4274 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
4231 -
Realme GT Master
4020 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
3570 -
Realme 9 Pro
2773 -
Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
2509 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
2406 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
2395 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
2257 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
2012 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
2002 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
1383 -
Realme 9i
1291 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
1267 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
931
3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S22
7526 -
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
5432 -
Poco X3 Pro
3401 -
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
2491 -
Realme GT Master
2481 -
Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
2477 -
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
2470 -
Realme 9 Pro+
2296 -
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
2292 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
2014 -
Poco X4 Pro 5G
1211 -
Realme 9 Pro
1211 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
1204 -
Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
1185 -
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
1107 -
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
1104 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
1101 -
Samsung Galaxy A52
1040 -
Samsung Galaxy A72
1031 -
Sony Xperia 10 III
825 -
OnePlus Nord N10 5G
811 -
Samsung Galaxy A22
691 -
Samsung Galaxy A13
510 -
Realme 9i
452 -
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
439
The is well-behaved when it comes to thermals and throttling, but not perfect. The phone never gets uncomfortably hot to the touch, which is good for comfort, but also means that the chassis is not doing any heavy lifting when it comes to thermal dissipation and most of the heat remains trapped inside. Naturally, as that builds up, some thermal-throttling is inevitable and expected.
The A53 5G mostly does that gracefully over a longer period, which is what you want to see. There were some sudden drops, followed by peaks in the initial portion of the test, which is not ideal and can cause in-game stutters. That said, we never actually saw a drop significant enough to pose a potential issue, so we'll give thermal management a pass. It's not perfect, but decent enough.
All things considered, we kind of get why Samsung is in no hurry to share details regarding the Exynos 1280 chipset or to parade it in press materials for the new Galaxy A53 5G and A33 5G. While it is a decently-powerful chip, it is also a clear downgrade from the Snapdragon 778G used by last year's Galaxy A52s 5G and even falls short of the Snapdragon 750G inside the Galaxy A52 5G in some respects.
Even so, there is plenty of power here for One UI to run smooth and snappy. We also had no issues with any app we threw at the A53 5G. Even some games that can render at over 60fps that we tried got close to the 120fps "cap" in 102Hz mode. It's a capable phone, just not as capable as its predecessor.
Reader comments
- Anonymous
- 20 Dec 2024
- 2FY
Same problem here also.
- Aktiva
- 07 Dec 2024
- JbT
The security flaws are rated a 10/10 by Google and Samsung. Users are advised by both companies to disable Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Wi-Fi calling ASAP on the devices listed below: According to Samsung Semiconductor (January 2023), these are th...
- Assaad
- 26 Oct 2024
- S1X
My samsung A53 got wifi problem, always wifi get off, i cant connect to wifi.. am using it on mobile data