This is the company’s first mid-range offering with anin-display fingerprint scanner.
Price: Rs 19,990 (4+64), Rs 22,990
(6+64)
Rating: 3.5 stars
Specs: 6.4-inch super amoled Infinity U
display, 2,340 x 1080 pixels, Exynos 9610 processor, 4/6GB RAM, 64GB storage,
dedicated microSD slot, triple rear camera: 25MP f1.7 + 8MP f2.2 ultrawide+ 5MP
f2.2 depth sensor, 25MP front camera, in-display fingerprint scanner, dual band
WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C, Android 9.0, 4,000mAh battery, 166 grams
Pros: Beautiful large amoled display,
stylish design, good camera performance in daylight, great battery life with fast
charge support, fast face unlock
Cons: Laggy interface, weak low light
camera performance, slow fingerprint scanner, glossy back prone to smudge and
fingerprints, plastic body, uses older Gorilla Glass 3
Samsung is on a roll these days – apart fromtheir excellent flagship S10 series, they have introduced a series of mid-range
A series phones. Thanks to the increased competition, Samsung is also getting
really aggressive with pricing and this is why the A50 starts at Rs
19,999.
Thisis the company’s first mid-range offering with an in-display fingerprintscanner. But hold on to your excitement – it doesn’t use the S10’s ultra-sonic
fingerprint scanner but the more conventional optical scanner that most other
brands (like OnePlus, Vivo, Oppo use). While the competition is using fourth
generation in-display sensors, the A50’s fingerprint sensor feels like first
gen technology. It is slow to recognize the fingerprint and fails to work about
50% of the time. Samsung has pushed out a software update to improve the
speed/accuracy but we only saw a marginal improvement. In comparison, the face
unlock works smoothly – much better than what we have seen on the M series
smartphones.
Performanceis where the phone confused us. It has Samsung’s octa-core Exynos 9610
processor coupled with 4/6GB RAM and 64GB storage. Our review was the 4GB RAM
variant and it could play games like PUBG and Asphalt smoothly. However, when
it came to performance, we were surprised to see random lags and sluggishness.
This was true of basic tasks like swiping left to the Bixby screen, switching
between running apps, editing photos and even closing apps to go back to home-screen.
This becomes more visible if there are more than 10 apps running in the
background – our theory is that is no optimization between the new Exynos chip
and the operating system. Battery life is the strong point of the phone – we
were able to get close to a day and half backup regularly. Plus, there is
support for fast charging and a fast charger is provided in the box.
TheGalaxy A50 features a triple camera setup on the rear which delivers greatresults in daylight. Photos have good amount of details and the camera
interface is zippy. There is a wide-angle lens which is great for shooting
landscapes and architecture. The third lens is a depth sensor which helps with
live focus and offers good edge detection. Portrait photos turned out great
with a good amount of bokeh but there are phones with much better camera
available in this price segment such as the Poco F1. Trouble is that in low
light, the photos suffer from soft details and we often ended with blurry
photos. We also didn’t like the fact that video recording is limited to full HD
resolution in the default camera app and that you cannot switch between the
standard and wide-angle lens while shooting. The front facing 25MP camera also
perform the same as rear camera – great photos in daylight but lacking in
detail when used in lowlight.
Someof the other features that we liked about the phone include dedicated microSDslot for storage expansion, loud output from the external loudspeaker and DolbyAtmos for audio. However, at Rs20k, the Samsung Galaxy A50 is a tough sell. The
Poco F1 offers much better performance with its Snapdragon 845 processor at the
same price and even scores high on camera and battery performance. The Redmi
Note 7 Pro delivers a better processor, premium glass design, excellent 48MP dual
rear camera and similar battery life at just Rs 13,999. If you are stuck on the
Samsung brand, you can get the Galaxy M30 at Rs 14,999 with a similar super
amoled display, triple camera setup and a large 5,000mAh battery.
