Samsung Galaxy A50s review: Good upgrade but still similar to Galaxy A50

Galaxy A50s is available in India starting at Rs 20,999, We find out in our review if the phone is worth its price tag given the competition today.

By Sanket Vijayasarathy: In recent months, Samsung has been releasing updated versions of phones launched in the first half of the year such as the Galaxy M30s, Galaxy M10s, Galaxy A20s, Galaxy A50s and Galaxy A70s. These phones carry that same DNA as their original counterparts but with upgraded internals and looks to make them more relevant in the second half of 2019. The Galaxy M30s (Review), for example, offers a 2-day battery life and 48MP triple cameras. Today, we are looking at the Galaxy A50s.

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You may remember the Galaxy A50 (Review) from earlier this year. It was a sleek and attractive smartphone with features like and AMOLED display, in-display fingerprint sensor and a solid battery life, making it a great deal under Rs 20,000. The Galaxy A50s is similarly sleek-looking, but with an arguably more attractive design and upgraded hardware such as a new Exynos 9611 SoC and 48MP triple camera setup.

While the Galaxy A50 started at just under Rs 20,000, the Galaxy A50s is available at a slightly higher starting price of Rs 20,999. Does the Galaxy A50s pack enough to make it worth buying under Rs 25,000? We review to find out.

Galaxy A50s Design

Holding the Galaxy A50s will instantly remind you of the Galaxy A50. It brings the same sleep, slim and lightweight body that we loved about the original model. The Galaxy A50s measures 7.7mm in thickness and weighs at just 166 grams, making it a terribly light and easy to hold smartphone. The slim form factor combined with a curved rear panel offers a great in-hand feel to it.

The curved rear panel is made of plastic, which becomes a little more disappointing on a phone above Rs 20,000. That being said, the plastic body makes the phone lightweight and comfortable to hold, so that’s a positive trade-off, if any.

The biggest visual change comes to the panel itself, which gets a checkered pattern on the back with each box offering a different shade of the same colour. The Galaxy A50s comes in Prism Crush Black, Prism Crush White and Prism Crush Violet colours. The violet colour definitely stands out from the renders. I received the black option which actually looks grey-ish and offers a prism-like gradience when viewing it from different angles.

Galaxy A50s is a tall phone, but easy to work with in one hand. Reaching the top of the display will require some readjusting of your grip, but the buttons are at a good length and offer a very nice tactile feel. The volume keys and power button are on the right side of the slim frame. On the left side, there’s a SIM tray that can hold two nano SIM cards and a microSD card. The bottom of the frame sees a 3.5mm headphone jack and a speaker grille on either sides of a Type-C port.

Galaxy A50s Display

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Samsung hasn’t changed anything when it comes to the display and rightly so. The Galaxy A50 offered a stunning 6.4-inch FHD+ (2340×1080) Super AMOLED Infinity-U display which returns on the Galaxy A50s as well. No surprises here that the AMOLED display looks fantastic with vivid colours, excellent brightness levels and viewing angles.

The Galaxy A50s gets a 1080p resolution, which is crisp and sharp for watching videos, playing games and reading texts. The added bonus here is that the phone also comes with Widevine L1 certification, which means you will be able to stream content on platforms like Netflix and Prime Video in true HD clarity.

Galaxy A50s Performance and Software

Samsung is using a newer 2.3GHz Exynos 9611 SoC chipset inside the Galaxy A50s. The A50 got an Exynos 9610. The difference between the two processors is marginal, so don’t expect a massive boost in performance. Exynos 9611 is based on a 10nm FinFET process and is equipped with a Mali-G72 MP3 GPU like its predecessor.

Out of the box, the Galaxy A50s feels snappy as you would expect. Apps open and load quickly and I didn’t encounter any crashes during usage. The 6GB RAM model that we received for review could easily handle switching between apps, although you may encounter some stuttering when doing so.

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The Galaxy A50s performs well enough with day-to-day usage like browsing the web or social media apps, messaging and video streaming. However, it won’t feel extremely fluid or smooth as you will notice some stuttering while scrolling through apps. It will run games like PUBG smoothly on medium graphics, but anything higher than that will cause drops in framerate and lags. The 10nm chipset is quite efficient and helps reduce battery drain while playing games.

Overall, the Galaxy A50s delivers a decent mid-range performance, but one expects a lot more from phones above Rs 20,000 today. It’s speed doesn’t come close to what the Redmi K20 delivers in this segment. It even feels more sluggish than the Realme XT that costs around Rs 16,000. As long as you don’t stress it too much, the Galaxy A50s should do fine, but you will need to consciously hold yourself back.

Galaxy A50s ships with Android Pie-based One UI. It is unclear when the phone will get updated to Android 10, but Samsung has been fairly consistent at upgrading its portfolio to the latest Android version. You will be aware by now that One UI offers a system-wide dark mode, which the AMOLED display on the Galaxy A50s can really take advantage of.

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One UI also brings a cleaner and smoother interface with a new layout that lets you get most of your work done with just one hand. Apart from a few Samsung apps, Microsoft office apps and third-party apps like Helo, DailyHunt and Snapchat, you won’t find a lot of bloatware on the Galaxy A50s.

Galaxy A50s comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor and face unlock. Both the biometric options are slower compared to what brands like Oppo, Realme and Vivo deliver. The fingerprint sensor, for example, is sluggish and the animation doesn’t feel smooth at all. The bottom firing speaker can get loud, but isn’t extremely clear at higher levels. Galaxy A50s also supports Dolby Atmos surround sound through wired and Bluetooth headphones.

Galaxy A50s Camera

Samsung has upgraded the triple camera setup on the Galaxy A50s. While the A50 offered a 25-megapixel primary camera, the Galaxy A50s gets a 48-megapixel sensor, which keeps it up-to-date with the competition. The other two cameras in the setup includes an 8-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 5-megapixel depth sensor. The selfie camera has also been bumped up from 25MP to a 32MP sensor.

The Galaxy A50s cameras definitely look capable to take on phones like the Redmi K20 and Realme XT. They main camera is able to capture some really good-looking photos in daylight which isn’t surprising. Provided there is a good amount of light in your environment, the Galaxy A50s will capture attractive photos.

In low-light however, the phone begins to struggle. The dedicated night mode still doesn’t achieve the kind of computational photography that Oppo and Xiaomi are able to deliver. Photos will look grainy despite noise reduction doing its best and the overall picture will appear softer rather than clear and detailed.

You can easily switch between the main camera and the wide-angle lens to add more room in the frame. Wide-angle is handy in tough spots or if you’re looking for a new perspective shot. Be mindful that the quality takes a hit when you switch to the 8MP wide-angle lens. Compared to the high-resolution main camera, wide-angle photos will lack detail and sharpness. There is also a noticeable change in colour tone and the photo will look darker compared to the main camera.

The Galaxy A50s can take some sharp and delightful videos in 1080p and 4K. It can record 4K videos at 30 fps, which looks pretty good, but will be shakier compared to shooting in 1080p. The camera gets some EIS (electronic stabilisation) in 1080p recording, which is decent enough if you’re recording hand-held while walking.

The upgraded front camera also captures some crisp and natural selfies in daylight provided beautifying effects have been disabled. The sharpness and clarity of selfies will reduce as it gets darker, whether indoors or after sunset.

Galaxy A50s Battery

Samsung didn’t feel the need to upgrade the battery inside the Galaxy A50s. It gets the same 4,000mAh capacity as the original A50, which is fine. The Galaxy A50s will last you a full day on a single charge, but don’t expect the phone to last beyond that. I found the battery life to be pretty consistent no matter what I did through the day. Standby battery drain is minimal, and you can use Always On display without having to worry about significant battery drain.

Galaxy A50s supports up to 15W fast charging, but the company only offers a 10W charger in the box. If you own a 15W charger, you can fully charge the Galaxy A50s in about an hour and a half. It will obviously take longer using the 10W charger.

Should you buy the Galaxy A50s?

On its own, the Galaxy A50s is a pretty attractive phone, but largely similar to the Galaxy A50. It comes with a sleek and lightweight design and a stunning AMOLED display, much like its predecessor. The performance is good enough for day-to-day usage and it delivers a full day battery life as well. Cameras have been upgraded and are better compared to the Galaxy A50. That being said, I feel the upgrades are not drastic enough from the Galaxy A50.

When you consider the price of the Galaxy A50s, it becomes difficult to blindly suggest it, especially for its performance, given the competition. For a few thousand rupees cheaper, you can get the Reale XT, which offers a 64MP quad camera setup and a faster Snapdragon 712 SoC. A few notches higher and you can find the Redmi K20 Pro which is powered by a flagship Snapdragon 855 SoC. If you really want to buy a good mid-range Samsung phone under Rs 20,000, we would still suggest the Galaxy A50 which can be found for as low as Rs 16,999 during this festive season.

— ENDS —

Edited By:

Sanket Vijayasarathy

Published On:

Oct 17, 2019