Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: A classy Mid-Rangers
Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: A classy Mid-Rangers
Samsung seems to be in the mood to hit back hard this year. The South Korean behemoth began 2019 with the launch of India centric Galaxy M20 and M10, which it claims have done overwhelmingly well. More recently, Samsung unpacked its 2019 flagships – Galaxy Fold and Galaxy S10-series – right before MWC 2019. Now, the company has once again turned the heat up in the budget and mid-range segment with three new editions – Galaxy M30, Galaxy A50 and Galaxy A30.
Of these, the A50 leads the pack and offers an interesting string of premium features without burning a hole in your pocket. In recent few weeks, we used this A-series phone as our daily driver, and based on our experience, here’s our Samsung Galaxy A50 review:
Samsung Galaxy A50 Price and Specification
| Model | Samsung Galaxy A50 |
| Display | 6.4 FHD+ Infinity-U display, 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| Processor | 2.3GHz Octa-core Exynos 9610 chipset |
| RAM | 4GB/6GB |
| Internal Storage | 64GB, expandable up to 512GB (Dedicated card slot) |
| Software | Android 9 One UI |
| Primary Camera | 25MP (F1.7) + 5MP (F2.2) + 8MP (Ultra-Wide) |
| Secondary Camera | 25MP (f/2.0) |
| Others | In-display, 4G Dual VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, USB Type-C port, 3.5 mm audio jack, proximity sensor, light sensor, and accelerometer |
| Battery | 4000mAh, 15W fast charging supported |
| Price | · 4GB + 64GB – Rs. 19,990
· 6GB + 64GB – Rs. 22,990
|
Samsung Galaxy A50 Unboxing: What’s in the package
Samsung hasn’t done anything really fancy with the packaging of its latest affordable offering. The packaging is neat and appears to be made of bio-degradable material. Inside the box, Samsung has bundled almost everything that is essential for a new buyer. The Galaxy A50 box contents are as follows:
- Samsung A50 mobile phone unit
- Travel Adapter
- USB Type-C Data cable
- Earphones
- Ejection Pin
- TPU Soft Case Cover
- User Manual and documentation
Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: Design and Build Quality
Samsung Galaxy A50 carry forwards the set legacy of A-series. The phone casts a positive spell as soon as you take it out of the box. Thanks to its curved back and light build, it offers excellent in-hand feel. The facia is dominated by a stunning, nearly edge-to-edge display with a u-shaped notch on top and a slight chin at the bottom. 
Looking at it from the rear side, it reminds me of Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 with its 3D Glasstic (as Samsung calls it) back panel. The rear panel has a glossy glass finish but it is actually made of polycarbonate. Samsung has cleverly tapered the edges ensuring good ergonomics and easy single hand operation.
The slim side rail is also made of polycarbonate with power and volume rocker stacked on the right edge – both of which offer a gratifying tactile response. All ports and the loudspeaker find a place on the bottom edge, while the SIM tray goes in a slit on the left edge.
As for the build quality, we didn’t see any bending or hear any creaking when we applied pressure on the back with our thumbs. All in all, the Galaxy A50 is thoroughly premium and solid.
Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: Display and fingerprint sensor
In true sense, it’s that display of Galaxy A50 which is the real star here. The phone comes with Infinity-U SuperAMOLED screen that just looks fabulous. It has a full HD+ resolution with 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The screen is bright, vibrant and seems well calibrated. With deep blacks and good viewing angles. Everything looks good on the screen, be it indoors or outdoors.
The Galaxy A50 display also comes embedded with a fingerprint sensor. Apart from the Galaxy S10-series, this is the only other Samsung phone to feature an in-display fingerprint sensor at the time of writing. It’s an optical sensor and not an ultrasonic one as on high-end Samsung phones.
Setting up the Galaxy A50 fingerprint scanner is a fairly easy process. It’s not anything as fast as the one you’d get on the OnePlus 6T, but it’s still quite consistent.
The Galaxy A50 also has a fast Face Unlock you could use instead. 
Samsung Galaxy A50 Performance Review
The Samsung Galaxy A50 is driven by an Exynos 9610 chipset. Samsung’s in-house developed chip is based on 10nm FinFET process and comprises octa-cores divided into two quad-core clusters. While one cluster has Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.3GHz, the other cluster has all Cortex-A53 CPUs ticking at 1.7GHz. The chipset is coupled with Mali G72MP3 GPU to meet your graphics requirement. The Galaxy A50 review unit that we have comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
On the software front, the Galaxy A50 has Android Pie-based Samsung’s new One UI. The new interface has been designed for taller phones that we have now transitioned to. If you have used a Samsung phone previously, you will notice that the interface has been completely overhauled. It’s easier to use with one hand, has colorful iconography and nifty animations.
Samsung has also added a ‘night mode’ which certainly looks great on AMOLED panel. It comes with both on-screen navigation button and full-screen gestures. Unlike the Galaxy S10 series, it doesn’t have a Bixby button. However, if you often use Bixby, you could configure the power button as a Bixby key. The new interface is also easy on resources. Samsung has also integrated ‘lock screen stories’ that we saw on the Galaxy M-series phones.
In terms of performance, the Exynos 9610 backed Galaxy A50 is consistent and snappy with day-to-day usage. Our Galaxy A50 unit featured 4GB RAM and we did experience some minor frame drops while playing PUBG in high settings. The game ran fine on ‘balanced’ graphics at medium frame-rates.
In case you are wondering how powerful the Exynos 9610 is, we’d say it’s one step below Snapdragon 660 – which is good enough for our usage.
Unlike most other phones that we have come across in this price segment, the Galaxy A50 RAM management is well optimized and it can hold multiple apps in the background.
Samsung Galaxy A50 Benchmark Test
| Benchmark Standard | Galaxy A50 Benchmark Scores |
| AnTuTu | 143166 |
| Geekbench Single Core | 1716 |
| Geekbench Multiple Core | 5504 |
| 3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme OpenGL ES 3.1 Sling Shot Extreme – Vulkan | 1282; 1344 |
Samsung Galaxy A50 Camera Review
The Galaxy A50 boasts of a triple camera system as one of its major highlights. Samsung has once again opted for a 25MP primary sensor (f/1.7 aperture ) which is coupled with a 5MP sensor (f/2.2 aperture) and an 8MP wide-angle sensor (f/2.2 aperture). For selfie lovers, there is also a 25MP camera (f/2.0 aperture) placed right inside the u-shaped notch.
The Galaxy A50 camera app offers features like Pro mode, Live Focus, Panorama, Slow motion, Hyperlase, AR emojis and a few more. Samsung has also added an AI-based intelligent scene optimization option. Of late, Samsung has started adding support for high-efficiency HEIF and HEVC format and can be enabled from the setting.
Dynamic range and contrast are great in outdoor settings. 
The camera can lock focus on close objects easily. 
Lowlight camera performance is reasonable.
Details aren’t as crisp as on Note 7 Pro, but the metering is more consistent, especially in tricky lighting.
Samsung has added a wide-angle camera that’s fun and also lets you fit a lot more in a frame. Images clicked from wide-angle lens don’t really match shots from the primary sensor and there’s a lot of distortion on the edges.
Unlike most phones in this budget, there is no dedicated night mode. The Galaxy A50 camera manages to shot decent photos in low light but doesn’t hold up well when scrutinized on a bigger screen.
On the selfie front, the Galaxy A50’s 25MP front camera manages to capture self-portraits with good details in proper lighting. It also comes with Live Focus option for bokeh effect which you can also adjust afterward.
Samsung Galaxy A50 Review Verdict With Pros And Cons
The Galaxy A50 seems to be a well thought out mid-range offering. The phone seems to be ticking a lot of right boxes. The design is cool, AMOLED display is good quality, One UI software is better than what most other Android brands have to offer, and battery backup is excellent. The day-to-day performance should be good enough for average users over a longer period of time. Overall, the Galaxy A50 practical experience is much better than what its spec-sheet implies.
The Galaxy A50 will face a stiff challenge from Xiaomi’s Poco F1 (review) and Redmi Note 7 Pro, which offer more raw power. Having said that, If you are not an avid gamer, the Galaxy A50 should serve you better.
Pros
- Excellent display
- Premium look and feel
- Good battery mileage
- One UI interface
- Supports HD streaming on Netflix and Prime
Cons
- Average low light photography
- Average gaming performance
Where can I buy the Samsung Galaxy A50 in India?
For the Galaxy A50, Samsung has partnered with Samsung Stores, Amazon India, Flipkart, Tatacliq and a few other online and offline stores.
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