It was no doubt that last year’s Samsung’s Galaxy A51 was one of the best-selling phones in the world. To take on the competition, Samsung rolled out a replacement with significant improvements. But, with that said, let’s see how these latest upgrades stack up against its predecessor.
Oh on top of that, Samsung has also launched its latest product — the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag that is made for those who usually loses their phone or keys during the day.
Design: 4/5
Nowadays, most brands try to attract their users with appealing and flamboyant designs. Hence why this time, Samsung goes above and beyond to give its loyal users something special by giving them an inexpensive device with “designer finishings”.
Nonetheless, the Galaxy A52 has a nice design and, considering its polycarbonate structure, it feels well built and relatively premium. Though it’s completely unavoidable when it comes to grease and grime on the phone screen, the rear of the phone doesn’t collect a lot of smudges and fingerprints so that’s a +1, at least.
Furthermore, it feels perfect to hold the phone as the overall casing comes with a better grip.
Then, there’s the Super AMOLED screen which is a rather good 6.5-inch making the total dimensions of the device manageable to use. I believe the screen size is just right in terms of offering immersive entertainment to its users especially with its Super AMOLED screen that comes with an FHD resolution and a refresh rate of 90Hz.
Available in four different colours: Awesome Violet, Awesome Blue, Awesome Black, and Awesome White, it’s perfect for users to choose their preference that goes with their personal style.
As for the Smart Tag, this newest iteration comes with a plastic matte finish with a hole on the top so users can use a string and what not to loop it through. For colours, it is available in Black and Oatmeal so far in Malaysia.
Features: 3.5/5
In terms of camera quality, the phone features a quad camera with 64MP high-resolution that can also turn your 4K videos into 8MP photos. However, personally, I do find the camera a little grainy and do show some noise for my liking especially when taking photos for Instagram Stories. Another hit or miss for me is the macro sensor and it all depends on how bright of an environment are you in. So for instance, if you’re in a restaurant trying to take really good photos of your food — that would certainly be a huge miss.
Nevertheless, the nice touch of adding the OIS feature certainly helps when it comes to removing any jitter.
Aside from that, the phone comes with all of its usual modes like the Single Take, AR Doodle, Portrait and the new addition of ‘Fun Mode’ which gives its user a variety of Snapchat filters to choose from the camera app.
Furthermore, one of the simplest features of the SmartTag is that you can pair it with your phone via the SmartThings app and just like that, you can keep track of your belongings within 130 yards. But just keep in mind, that if you’re not a Samsung Galaxy user, you won’t be able to use the device.
Performance: 4/5
For the user interface, the Galaxy A52 uses OneUI 3.1 which is built based on the latest Android 11. The simple screen layout, arranged icons and more seem pleasing to the eye and absolutely minimalistic. However, if I have to be honest, I did find the overall design outdated making it look like previous Android devices when it first came out.
As for the processor, the Qualcomm SM7125 Snapdragon 720G (8 nm) CPU processor powers the Galaxy A52 with 8GB RAM and 256GB ROM.
Oh, the Galaxy A52 also carries an IP67 rating which is a pretty big deal for a smartphone that is this affordable. It can survive a 1M deep water submersion for at least 30 minutes, giving users peace of mind.
To find your misplaced item, you can use AR technology to locate your possessions via the SmartTag. Samsung devices will be able to assist you with an easy-to-use interface that will display how distant the missing item is from you. So when you get close enough to the item, you can choose to have it emit a loud ring in case it goes missing under your bed or closet.
Value: 5/5
For a budget phone, it’s pretty impressive that the Galaxy A52 stands out with impeccable features and an IP67 rating.
The phone retails at RM1,499 while the 5G variant is RM1,899 whilst the SmartTag is RM99.
Conclusion
Those who plan to get a second phone or is trying to gift someone a smartphone could actually go for this Samsung variant as it does come with amazing features. Plus, the price point should already get you hooked by now. No doubt, it is a good starter phone for anyone, if you’d ask me.
And the SmartTag? Well, it’s simply an easy way to locate your things from far away. With just three simple steps: Tag It, Find It and Simply Smart — you can now find any of your lost items.