Samsung Galaxy A52 Review: Is the device performance worth the price we spent?

Perhaps many people would think, the Samsung A52 with Snapdragon 720G is not the best option in the price range. But not sure, what if Samsung’s new smartphone performs amazingly well? To find the answer, let’s see the Samsung Galaxy A52 review below:

Unboxing

The Samsung Galaxy A52 5G’s box is quite simple, but the box is fixed, the front has a black version of the device. In addition to the main device, the included accessories are a 25W fast charger, a USB-C charging cable, and a SIM stick.

Design

The feeling of holding the Samsung A52 5G in our hand is quite light as it weighs only 189 grams. Although the frame and back surface are finished with plastic, the touch is smooth and comfortable. Everything is done meticulously and firmly, a plus point is that it supports IP67 standards to give you peace of mind in wet environments.

The back of the device has a prominent camera cluster that looks 3D in this way and has Quad cameras with LED flash. Coming to the front, we noticed that the surrounding border is a bit thick but still looks good. We think this black version is suitable for those who like elegance.

Also, the “punch hole” placed in the center looks attractive and does not greatly affect the experience.

Display

Samsung A52 phone has a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED screen with Full HD+ resolution that supports a refresh rate of up to 90Hz. Images are sharp, colors are vibrant and scrolling and swiping are smooth. One more thing, the device also supports fingerprint unlock under the convenient screen. One more thing, the device also supports fingerprint unlock under the convenient screen.

Camera

The camera system also meets the photography needs of many subjects, especially dynamic young people. The Quad-camera system includes a 64 MP main camera with OIS optical image stabilization, a 12 MP super wide-angle camera, a 5 MP macro camera, and a 5 MP depth measuring camera. Shooting speed from this camera system is relatively fast and photos are detailed, supporting 4K video recording.

And the front is a 32 MP high-resolution selfie camera, which also supports 4K video recordings for you to post photos and videos on social networks Tiktok or Facebook.

As of now, we can provide very limited details for the camera, because in this Samsung Galaxy A52 review we will focus on the performance of the device itself and we will talk about the camera later in a separate camera review article.

Samsung Galaxy A52 specs

Despite being in the mid-range segment, the Samsung Galaxy A52 still has its very impressive configuration parameters, as follows:

• CPU: Snapdragon 720G (based on 8 nm process and includes 8 cores)
• GPU: Adreno 618
• RAM: 4 GB, 6 GB, or 8 GB
• Internal memory: 128 GB or 256 GB
• Operating System: One UI 3.1 (based on the latest Android 11)

But the configuration parameters of smartphones sometimes differ from the experience, will the Samsung A52 have this situation or not? Please follow the actual gaming experience on the Galaxy A52 below. Well, we have used Perfdog software to measure the FPS of each game.

Samsung Galaxy A52 Gaming Experience

Let’s start the gaming performance in this Samsung Galaxy A52 review with the PUBG Mobile. We have experienced the PUBG Mobile game on some smartphones running Snapdragon 720G and in general, those devices are difficult to play this game smoothly, even the Samsung A52 is the same. When playing, the FPS cannot exceed 30 FPS, but fortunately, this number is maintained steadily.

And with that FPS level, the PUBG Mobile playing experience on Galaxy A52 just stops at an acceptable level. The controls, parachuting, running, aiming, … are all ok. These factors occur when we set the picture quality to HD and the frame rate is high, if you want to play smoother, you can reduce the image resolution quality in the game.

Now comes the turn of the Call of Duty mobile game, although this game has heavier graphics than the PUBG Mobile, the Galaxy A52 competes with ease. You can see the chart below, initially, before the game, the FPS was 30 FPS, when we started shooting things together, the FPS was up to 60 FPS.

Thanks to that, when we shoot each other with one or more other players, the Galaxy A52 is still handled smoothly. The transition effect when moving or using the viewfinder is very smooth. We are completely confident to win MVP without any obstacles.

We experienced the performance of the Galaxy A52 through both PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile. While this is a bit tricky with PUBG, we remark that the Galaxy A52 can fully serve our basic entertainment needs (except for those who are ‘hardcore gamers’).

Performance score

Of course, we’ve only talked about performance in this Samsung Galaxy A52 review and we’ve also tried to score the performance of the device through apps like 3D Mark, PC Mark, and Geekbench 5. First is the Geekbench score, the results we have received were quite impressive.

• Single point: 542 points
• Multi-core score: 1,608 points

In 3D Mark software and PC Mark, Galaxy A52 also gives points that are strong enough to compete with competitors in the same segment, as follows:

• 2D graphic score (OpenGL ES 3.0): 327,988 points.
• 3D Graphics Score (Vulkan): 474,352 points.
• PC Mark: 8,509 points

Battery life

Besides good configuration, the Samsung Galaxy A52 packs a battery with 4,500 mAh capacity. At first, most of you will find this battery capacity is quite low compared to the general ground, but we have tested the Galaxy A52’s battery and the results will probably make you think again. By the way, we share the conditions of the battery test as follows:

• We experienced four functions which included Chien Lien Quan (maximum setting), YouTube, Facebook, and Chrome browser.
• Each app ran for 1 hour.
• The backlight was 100%.
• The headphone volume was 100% across.
• Did not activate battery saver mode or adaptive screen.
• Open social media notifications.
• GPS, Bluetooth, and NFC were off.
• High-performance mode, 90 Hz refresh rate was on.

So after testing with such ‘terrible’ conditions, our Galaxy A52 lasted for about 9 and half hours (in particular, 9 hours 25 minutes). This is a very impressive result despite the Samsung A52 carrying an additional 90 Hz display frequency.

This is the result, but under normal usage conditions, the device will require a full charge only after about one-and-a-half days.

When it comes to charging, Samsung’s new mid-range smartphone is equipped with a fast charger with a capacity of 25W. Unfortunately, it comes with a 15W fast charging cable included in the device box. We do not even know that, we had to use this cable and measure the time it takes to charge the device from 0% to 100%, the results we have obtained are as follows:

So it takes us more than 1 and a half hours (especially 1 hour 39 minutes) to fully charge the battery (0% to 100%) of the device. However, while charging from 0% to 50%, the Galaxy A52 has catchup little heat. But when this phase is over, the device starts cooling down, the charging speed is also slightly slower (you can see in the chart) and this will partially preserve battery life.

Final line

In short, we evaluate the Galaxy A52 as a stable performance for us to use every day, not too ‘terrible’ but not too weak. We think this device would be very suitable for those who need a well-known Android brand rather than Chinese smartphone manufacturers.

But as we said at the beginning of the article, this smartphone is not the best choice in the mid-range segment, especially for those who prefer smartphones with ‘muscle’ configurations. But the Samsung A52 has many other highlights in addition to the configuration, something that we will mention in a detailed future Samsung Galaxy A52 review in the article, please remember to look into it further.

So how do you think about the performance of the Samsung Galaxy A52? Please leave your comments in the comments section, thanks for taking the time to read this article.

Samsung Galaxy A52 price and availability

Samsung Galaxy A52 price starts from $398 for the base variant with 6GB RAM + 128GB storage and it can be purchased through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Bhphotovideo.com online websites.

Recently, we also reviewed the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G, which is the younger version of the A52. It has an impressive design, processor, and four camera clusters that cannot be ignored.