Samsung has definitely hit the jackpot with their A series devices, and with the success of these midrange offerings, the Korean manufacturing giant decided to refresh this lineup. Thus, the additional "s" was added to their names, one of which is the Samsung Galaxy A50s.
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| Samsung Galaxy A50s Review; A50 On Steroids |
The Samsung Galaxy A50s brings new features on the table as compared to the original A50, but does it gives more value than before? Let's all find out in our full review!
PHYSICAL:
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| 6.4-inch sAMOLED Infinity-U display |
In terms of physical dimensions, there is nothing much changed from the A50 to A50s, in fact, both of them measures and weighs the same, that is 58.5mm x 74.7mm x 7.7mm and 166 grams. The said is true when you compared it with its siblings, the A30 and A30s. And, as you may have guessed, the screen estate remained the same too, a 6.4-inch Infinity-U display made from Super AMOLED panel. One thing is a bit odd though, there was no mention if it still protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Thankfully, there is a pre-installed plastic film to protect it against the usual scratches.
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| Prism Back Design |
The primary and only difference in terms of appearance is the style of the back cover. This time around, it comes with a striking holographic design pattern, which Samsung calls as "Prism" and the shades of colors available in the Philippines are Prism Crush Black, Prism Crush White, and Prism Crush Green. The so-called Prism is digitized patterns of overlapping triangles, adds a more futuristic look to the A50s.
Samsung Galaxy A50s Unboxing and Hands-on
That being said, we will cut this section short because we might just repeat what we have noted with A50 before. But, in case you want to know more, you can watch our unboxing video (please see above) or you can read our Samsung Galaxy A50 Review; Samsung’s Mid-Range Champion in Years!
SOFTWARE:
Moving on to the software department, it remains almost identical as well with the non-s variant. It runs on Samsung One UI based on Android 9 Pie, and you can read more info about it at https://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/apps/one-ui/.
What we want our readers to know in this section is our favorite, the Samsung Members Benefits. The Galaxy A50s users are on for lots of treats, such as free McDonald's fries every Friday until December 27, free Chatime milk tea every Tuesday until December 31, and up to Php1,500 cashback on Booking.com until October 31.
PERFORMANCE:
The Galaxy A50s runs on Samsung's very own Exynos 9611 as compared with to A50's Exynos 9610. But, you might think, are there differences between the two chipsets? We know how you feel, and we have been there. Looking through their technical specifications, they are also almost identical. The same 10nm FinFET process, same octa-core CPU, same GPU, and lots of the same things. There is only 1 item we believed can be considered as an upgrade, the camera support. The newer chip now supports up to 64MP resolution, and this is something Samsung took advantage of, will talk about it in a bit.
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| CPU-Z Info |
Samsung also says that artificial intelligence is better with the Exynos 9611 than 9610. This is quite controversial since the improvement in the benchmarks scores are hardly noticeable. The same can said with everyday usage, from the usual UX navigation to playing high demanding games, we felt it has the same level of performance as the old A50. Probably, because our device is still new, and AI yet not needed at this point. Hopefully, it would help users in the long run. For the meantime, here are the benchmark results.
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| Benchmark Results |
Antutu - 150,201
Geekbench 5 - 276 (single core)
Geekbench 5 - 1,206 (multi core)
Geekbench 5 - 1,418 (RenderScript)
PC Mark - 5,901
3D Mark Sling Shot - 1,560
3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme - 1,456 (Vulkan)
3DMark Sling Shot Extreme - 1,399 (OpenGL ES 3.1)
3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited – 16,589
3DMark Ice Storm Extreme - Max
CAMERA:
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| 48MP Triple Rear Camera |
As mentioned earlier, the newer chipset supports higher camera pixels, and this is the most obvious improvement for the Galaxy A50s. The back is still mounted with 3 sensors, but this time around, the main one now has 48MP resolution as opposed to just 25MP of the A50, albeit the aperture is now f/2.0 versus f/1.7 before. The selfie snapper got pixel bumped too, from 25MP to 32MP.
Also Read: Samsung Galaxy M30s with 6,000mAh Battery Now Official
Camera Samples:
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| Day, Normal |
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| Day, Wide |
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| Live Focus |
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| Selfie |
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| Wide Selfie |
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| Live Focus Selfie |
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| Night, Normal |
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| Night, Wide |
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| Night Mode |
Surprisingly, the A50s rear cameras deliver better images than its older brother, and pretty impressive too! We shot several subjects then compared it to the Galaxy Note9, and we can say that the outputs are on the same level, if not better. The added pixels, and probably the better camera AI, give the A50s high remarks when it comes to the photography department.
That is, if shots are taken during day time or when the lighting is in excellent condition. However, during the night time or in low light conditions, the quality is noticeably lower. We suspect that it is because the aperture is now f/2.0 as compared to f/1.7 of the A50. We are not camera expert, but as far as we know, a lower f-stop or smaller number means wider or bigger aperture, thus more light passes through. And, in the case of A50s, it lets in a lesser light.
Thankfully, Samsung now equips the A50s with Night Mode shooting, which is the most convenient way to improve the quality of the images shot on darker environments.
Meanwhile, the front camera gives users more pixels than the A50, and since the aperture remained f/2.0, the outputs are slightly better.
CONNECTIVITY:
Just like its older brother, the Galaxy A50s is a true dual-SIM handset, as there is a total of three card slots, two for the Nano-SIM cards and 1 for the MicroSD card. This simply means that consumers do not need to choose between dual-SIM capability or storage expansion. Both SIM 1 and 2 support 4G/LTE connectivity including band 28, also known as 700MHz band.
The other wireless connectivities are the dual-band WiFi, NFC, Bluetooth version 5.0, multiple satellite positioning system, and the old school FM radio receiver. For wired connections, we are happy to report that the 3.5mm audio port is still present, and the USB is the newer Type-C.
BATTERY:
The power source of the A50s is a 4000mAh non-removable lithium-polymer battery, which according to Samsung can last up to 14 hours of internet usage over LTE, additional 1 hour if over WiFi, up to 20 hours of video playback, and up to 32 hours of 4G talk time.
Based on our own test, it usually lasted over a day even under excessive use. On PC Mark Battery Test, it got a highly commendable grade of almost 14 hours. Meanwhile, it supports 15-watt fast charging, and with the included desktop charger, it only took a little over 1 hour and 50 minutes to fully-charged it from 0%.
FINAL WORDS:
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| Samsung Galaxy A50s |
The Samsung Galaxy A50s is a decent upgrade from the A50 with its more sophisticated design, and better overall camera performance, not to mention you can get the base variant with the same asking price as the A50. However, we have to admit that if you are coming from the A50, it is not necessary to upgrade to A50s. But, if you are looking for a phone with good specs-to-price ratio and polished hardware/software execution, then the Galaxy A50s is something to look at.
Samsung Galaxy A50s Specs (Philippines):
- Dual Nano-SIM, dual standby, supports LTE connectivity
- 6.4-inch FHD+ sAMOLED (2340 x 1080) capacitive touchscreen Infinity-U display, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
- Dimensions: 158.5mm x 74.7mm x 7.7mm
- Weight: 166 grams
- Android 9 Pie with Samsung One UI
- 64-bit octa-core (4 x 2.3GHz Cortex-A73 + 4 x 1.7GHz Cortex-A53) CPU, ARM Mali-G72MP3 GPU, Samsung Exynos 7904 chipset
- 4GB/6GB RAM
- 64GB/128GB internal storage, expandable up to 512GB via MicroSD card, uses dedicated slot
- 48MP f/2.2 + 5MP f/2.2 + 8MP f/2.2 triple rear cameras with LED flash, 2160p video recording at 30fps
- 32MP f/2.0 front camera, 1080p video recording at 30fps
- Multimedia Player, supports 4K 120fps video playback
- FM Radio
- 3.5mm audio jack
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 2.4GHz+5GHz
- Bluetooth v5.0
- NFC
- GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo
- USB 2.0 Type-C
- Sensors: in-display fingerprint, accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
- Battery: 4000mAh Li-Po, 15W Fast Charging
- Colors: Prims Crush Black, Prism Crush White, Prism Crush Green
- Others: face unlock
- Price: Php15,990/Php18,990