Samsung just launched another new phone, the Galaxy a53 5g. It costs $450 dollars and comes with a large screen, multiple cameras and a big battery. It has a lot to offer for the price but there are still some compromises to be aware of.
The Galaxy a53 is the newest device in Samsung's lineup of lower priced phones. It's a step down from the Galaxy S22 but it also costs a little more than half the price. The Galaxy a53 was announced shortly after Apple debuted the new iPhone SE which is probably no coincidence, since they're around the same price. Overall the Galaxy a53 is pretty solid for a phone that costs less than five hundred dollars. I appreciate that Samsung is bringing some features from its more expensive phones like a screen with a high refresh rate and multiple cameras down to its more budget-friendly devices too. Samsung also lowered the price by fifty dollars compared to last year's Galaxy a52 and if that's not enough, the Galaxy a53 will get four generations of Android software updates and five years of security updates just like the S22 lineup. All of these factors make the Galaxy a53 a tempting choice, but keep in mind that since this is still one of Samsung's cheaper phones, there are some things you'll miss out on.
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There's no telephoto camera, so don't count on taking amazing photos from a distance. The processor also isn't as snappy as the one in Samsung's more expensive phones and the screen can be hard to see on a sunny day without cranking the brightness to the max. But overall this phone gets a thumbs up for the sheer amount of features you get for the price.
The first thing I noticed about the a53 was how similar it looked to the more expensive Galaxy s21 FE which cost $700 when it launched. Both phones have a fairly basic look with the matte finish on the back they also collect fingerprint smudges pretty easily, so I'd recommend using a case, but you'll notice that the camera cutout on the Galaxy a53 is different from the Galaxy s21 FE. The Galaxy a53 also has glossy edges that don't look quite as premium as the FE's metal edges and even though the Galaxy a53 has a slightly larger screen, the borders around the display are slightly bigger than the Galaxy S21 FEs but Samsung still did a good job of making the Galaxy a53 feel a bit more like its more expensive phones.
The screen occupies most of the front of the phone similar to Samsung's more premium devices and there's also an in-screen fingerprint sensor and facial recognition for unlocking the phone. Both of those things make it feel a little more modern than the $429 dollar iphone SE. Apple's phone still has an old-fashioned design with the fingerprint sensor built into the home button, the Galaxy a53 has a 6.5 inch Super AMOLED Screen that makes it larger than the 6.1 inch Galaxy S22 but slightly smaller than the 6.6 inch Galaxy S22 plus. It's a great size for those who want a phone that has a big screen, but isn't too difficult to use with one hand.
Display
The a53 can also boost its screen's refresh rate up to 120 hertz which makes scrolling through menus and home screens feel a little bit smoother. The a53's display is colorful and crisp enough for playing video games, reading and watching videos but it doesn't look as bright as the screens on Samsung's expensive phones like the Galaxy S22 plus and Ultra. I had to keep the brightness all the way up to comfortably view the screen in direct sunlight but again compromises like this are sure to be expected in a phone that's less than half the price of the Galaxy S22 plus.
Performance
The Galaxy a53 5G runs on Samsung's Exynos 1280 processor and comes with a 5000 milliamp battery the processor isn't as powerful as what you'd get in the Galaxy s22 but the battery is larger than the one in the regular S22 and S22 plus. Performance is fine for most daily tasks like playing games, checking email and streaming video but there is some occasional lag although it doesn't happen often enough to really feel disruptive. There have been a couple of times when the keyboard didn't show up right away in certain apps or when I'd have to press the home button more than once to quit an app. But again this doesn't happen often and I only noticed it really right after restarting the phone.
Battery Life
Battery life seems pretty promising so far, I'm typically able to get through a full day easily. Even with the refresh rate set to high after a full day of use, I still had just over 50% of my battery left the next morning. Just remember that battery life will always vary depending on how you use your device in addition to checking an endless stream of notifications throughout the day. I use the Galaxy a53 to take photos for about 30 minutes, turned up the brightness to its highest setting for about 15 minutes, played games for about 10 minutes and took a 13 minute phone call.
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Camera Specifiactions and Review
The Galaxy a53 has a 64 megapixel main, camera 12 megapixel, ultra wide camera, 5 megapixel macro camera and 5 megapixel depth camera. Image quality is good for a phone of this price but not always the best. There's plenty of color and detail yet photos taken in sunlight sometimes looked a little washed out compared to images taken on the iphone SE and Galaxy S21 FE. I also thought the S21 FE took better portrait mode photos than the Galaxy a53 5G. You can tell that the a53's photo looks a bit darker in comparison, but it's still a decent overall shot and there's no telephoto camera either so as you can tell zoom shots look a little bit blurry.
The Galaxy a53 also has a macro lens for taking detailed close-ups, it didn't always focus right away but it's pretty fun to use when it works. Still I was generally impressed with the versatility of the a53's camera for the price. Even though image quality is good instead of great, you get the flexibility to shoot in ultra wide and night mode. The iphone SE doesn't have either of those features. The Galaxy a53 camera is capable enough for most everyday use cases and you get a lot for the price but I wouldn't say this phone is ideal for photographers.
Software and OS
The Galaxy a53 ships with Android 12 and Samsung's One UI 4.1 software that means you won't have to wait to get the newest features from Samsung and Google. The Galaxy S22 also has the latest software right out of the box and it's great to see Samsung bring this to its more affordable phones too. One UI 4.1 is the latest version of One UI 4. Samsung's most recent operating system update it brings more customization options for themes and also more polished widgets among other changes. Samsung's new phone also supports up to one terabyte of expandable storage which is a rare find on today's phones. There's 128 gigabytes of internal storage too, which is pretty standard for most new devices that also gives it a slight edge over the similarly priced iphone SE which starts at 64 gigs of space and has no expandable storage.
The Galaxy a53 5G has a lot to offer for the price. It has a nice big screen with a built-in fingerprint sensor, a decent camera with several shooting modes and long battery life but it's worth remembering what you're sacrificing by going for Samsung's cheaper phone you might have to deal with the occasional performance hiccup and you won't be able to take a great photos from far away since there's no dedicated zoom lens that said I think most people shopping in the Galaxy a53s price range will be fine with. Those trade-offs the Galaxy a53 also tells us a lot about what Samsung thinks is most important in a phone.
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For Samsung it's all about the screen size, camera and battery. It's clearly trying to imitate its more expensive phones by bringing features like a nearly borderless screen and the multi-lens camera to the a53. Apple on the other hand takes a different approach, Apple is more concerned with matching the performance of its more expensive phones, since the iphone SE runs on the same chip as the iphone 13. So what did you think of the Galaxy a53? let us know in the comments and don't forget to check out other posts as well.
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