Last spring, Samsung announced three Galaxy A-series phones that were all destined for U.S. retailer shelves. This year, it’s promising just one new model for U.S. customers: the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G. It offers some modest upgrades, which is fine because the A52 5G was a pretty good phone. But its best new feature is a $50 lower price, which at $449 for 128GB of storage puts it below Apple’s $479 iPhone SE with 128GB. Maybe that’s a coincidence! Probably not! Also debuting today is the Galaxy A33 5G, which is coming to markets outside the U.S.
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The most notable hardware change on the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G is the switch to Samsung’s new 5nm Exynos 1280 processor. The version of the A52 5G sold in the US featured a Qualcomm processor, so using the house-brand chip represents a change of strategy, perhaps in order to keep the price down. Or maybe it’s the chip shortage that’s to blame. Either way, it’s paired with 6GB of RAM, which is a healthy amount of memory for a mid-range phone.
There's also a bigger battery in the A53 5G — up to 5,000mAh from 4,500mAh in the previous model. Battery performance was already good on the A52, so Samsung's claim of two full days on a single charge on the new model seems reasonable.
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Almost everything else on the phone carries over from the previous generation, starting, of course, with 5G. There's also the same 6.5-inch 120Hz OLED panel, IP67 water resistance, a stabilized 64-megapixel main camera with a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens, and 25W fast wired charging. These were all very good specs for a mid-range phone last year, and they continue to stand out in the 2022 model.
The Galaxy A33 5G looks almost identical to the A53 5G, but has a slightly smaller 6.4-inch OLED with a top refresh rate of 90Hz. It also uses different camera sensors, with a lower-resolution 48-megapixel main camera, though it still includes image stabilization. Otherwise, the specs are largely the same, including an IP67 rating and a 5,000mAh battery.
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There's another improvement to these models that you won't find in any spec sheet. For some devices, Samsung has promised four years of operating system updates and five years of security updates — the A53 5G and A33 5G will be included. That's one of the best support policies for a flagship Android phone, and certainly one of the best you'll find for a mid-range phone.
Source of information: theverge.com
