Samsung Galaxy A53 5G price in India
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G Comes in two variants in India. Both variants have 128GB storage. Its 6GB RAM model is priced at Rs 34,499 while the 8GB variant is priced at Rs 35,999. Of the two, the model with more RAM seems to offer more value for money. The phone has been launched in four finishes. These include Light Blue, Awesome Black and Orange. I received its Light Blue variant with 8GB RAM for review.
Design of Samsung’s Galaxy A53 5G
The design of the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G is based on the Galaxy A52s 5G and some elements are also seen in the recently launched Galaxy S22 series. Overall, the design of the phone looks quite different and fresh. The mid frame of the phone is made of polycarbonate but on the sides it is wide and flat as seen in Galaxy S22 devices. The design of Galaxy A52s 5G has been taken in the rear panel. It is polycarbonate with matte finish. The phone feels very smooth and premium in the hand. It does not easily get fingerprints or stains on it. Its camera module looks integrated into the back panel but it is slightly protruding. This phone is a little thicker than the old model. The black out provided for the camera lens looks quite attractive.
On the lines of Galaxy A52s 5G, it also has a 6.5 inch Full HD Plus Super AMOLED display. It is flat and comes with Gorilla Glass 5 scratch protection. The left and right borders of the phone are slim but the phone feels a little thick at the top and bottom. Fingerprint scanner is also provided in the display. It works as expected and is reliable. I liked the way Samsung has fitted the earpiece on the display and top frame as it is barely visible. Like the previous model, it has IP67 rating for dust and water protection.
Specifications and software of Samsung Galaxy A53
Galaxy A53 5G has Exynos 1280 processor. Samsung used the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor from the Galaxy A52s in the Galaxy A73 5G. Galaxy A53 5G has 5G, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, and normal satellite navigation system. 3.5mm headphone jack is not provided in the handset. Also, this time USB Type C audio adapter is not provided with the box. The phone has support for dual 5G standby. It comes with a hybrid dual SIM tray that supports microSD card up to 1TB.
Talking about interface, Samsung’s One UI 3.1 is available in it. It is based on Android 12 and gives the best custom Android experience. The theme engine changes the colors of the interface and app icons based on the wallpaper selected for the home screen. There is also a lot of bloatware available in the phone, which also has a long list of Samsung apps. Additionally, there are Microsoft and third party apps as well. But you can remove most of them.
Samsung Galaxy A53 performance
Limiting the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G SoC to the Galaxy A73 5G did not prove to be a profitable deal for Samsung. Exynos 1280 SoC performs well in regular use but no significant difference was seen in benchmark tests. The Galaxy A53 5G scored 498 points in Geekbench’s single-core test and 1,806 points in the multi-core test. The phone scored 3,72,582 points on AnTuTu. These scores are around that of smartphones priced lower than this. This shows that in this price segment the phone is less powerful than its price. In comparison, the older Galaxy A52s had scored 739 points in the single-core test and 2,733 points in the multi-core test on Geekbench. In this respect, the older model proves to be more powerful.
Talking about graphics quality, in Call of Duty: Mobile it could reach only medium with the frame rate at ‘Max’. The game was being played on the phone but there were lags at some places in between the matches. The touch sampling rate of the display also didn’t impress much. The game ran best at ‘Low’ graphics and ‘Medium’ framerate settings, which is disappointing for a premium smartphone. I also felt heat in the phone after Call of Duty: Mobile gameplay but there was no impact on performance. Asphalt 9: Legends ran smoothly on default settings.
The refresh rate of the display varies between 120Hz and 60Hz. During the testing period, I found that it remained at 120Hz even while browsing webpages, streaming videos on Instagram or YouTube. The only time it dropped to 60Hz was while using the camera app and playing games. The Super AMOLED display of the phone is quite bright. Its colors are punchy and shines clearly even in direct sunlight. It does not support HDR but the content looks good in video streaming and blacks also look deep. The sound of stereo speakers is balanced and quite loud.
It proves to be better in battery life than its older model. It has a large battery of 5000mAh. It lasted 19 hours 44 minutes in the HD video loop test, which is quite impressive. In normal use the phone lasts for two days which is a good thing. The company does not provide a charger in the phone box. I plugged my 61W USB PD charger into it. The phone supports 25W charging. It charged from zero to 100 percent in 1 hour 51 minutes, which is not bad but not as fast as its rivals.
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G cameras
The cameras of Samsung Galaxy A53 5G are the same as the old model. The rear has a 64-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, a 5-megapixel macro camera and a 5-megapixel depth sensor. It has a 32 megapixel camera for selfie. The camera app can be customized and many shortcuts are also available in the viewfinder.
Photos taken in daylight were quite good and had ample dynamic range along with details. Like the Galaxy A52s 5G, the colors in the photo were slightly oversaturated and a slight blue tone was also visible. The macro camera is quite useful, picture detail was good. Portrait shots of the selfie camera were also quite crisp and clear with no lack of detail and dynamic range. Edge detection was also quite good.
When shooting in auto mode in low-light, the camera showed good dynamic range but I did notice some noise. At the same time, in Night Shot mode the camera took one second more time to capture the shot. Photos were brighter but details were reduced. The standard Night mode also took a few seconds to capture low-light landscapes but the quality was good. Even after turning on night mode, selfies taken in low-light appeared with blur and noise.
Its ultrawide angle camera takes good shots in daylight but the photo looks blurred and stretched at the edges. Low-light shots were quite low in quality and looked soft even at the best quality.
1080p videos shot at 30fps in daylight were recorded quite stable and the dynamic range was also good. The same footage was recorded at 60fps with slight shaking. Videos shot at 4K were the best in detail but lacked stabilization. Low-light videos were quite low in quality. 1080p videos shot at 30fps in low-light appeared blurry and had a shimmering effect. The primary camera struggled to focus at night.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy A53 5G smartphone has a lot of potential, but it falls short in performance. This is because of its new processor. I think this processor is mid range Galaxy M33 5G (Rs 18,999) and not for a phone above Rs 35,000. The daylight performance of the phone is quite good. This is the only phone in this segment that comes with IP67 rating. Galaxy A52s 5G (Review) It gives better gaming performance, it also has a headphone jack and a charger also comes with the box. The price of the phone (Rs 32,499) is also lower than the new model which makes it a better option.
Talking about rivals, iQoo 9 SE (Starting at Rs 33,990) gives it the biggest competition. We have not reviewed this phone yet but it has a better Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC and a 66W charger is available in the box. 8GB RAM is available in its base variant. If you want a clean Android experience, then Motorola’s Moto Edge 20 Pro You can see that it comes with Snapdragon 870 SoC and also has a 108-megapixel primary camera.