We haven’t paid much attention to mid range phones from Samsung because the over experience was, well, disappointing. The Samsung Galaxy A50 is the first mid range phone from Samsung that proves they’re listening to the consumer and finally putting out a handset that is a serious contender to take the title of best mid range smartphone of 2019.
The light weight combined with excellent ergonomics makes the Galaxy A50 comfortable to hold. The back panel smoothly flows and curves around the edges ensuring there are no hard edges hurting your palm. Samsung has retained a 3.5mm jack at the bottom, and the device charges over USB-C. The power and volume buttons are located on the right, and they share the same color as the mid-frame.
There’s no fingerprint sensor at the back as the Galaxy A50 features an in-display solution — the first for a Samsung phone in this category.
The in-display fingerprint module isn’t the ultrasonic sensor we’ve seen on the Galaxy S10 but the more mainstream optical solution. As such, a green light is emitted whenever you put your finger over the activation zone, and it takes over a second to authenticate your features. This feels slow compared to the sensor on the Galaxy S10 or the OnePlus 7 Pro.
The Galaxy A50 comes with facial recognition, and with Android Pie’s Lift to wake feature, facial recognition was my biometric method of choice. Facial recognition doesn’t work with any apps, though, you’ll still have to rely on your finger print if you want to use biometric security in an app.
The Galaxy A50 features a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED FHD+ display, and the waterdrop notch does a great job minimizing bezels at the top of the device. The 91.6% screen-to-body ratio is great, but there is a chin at the bottom. The display itself is fantastic, and while the resolution isn’t quite the same as that on the Galaxy S10, you get vibrant and saturated colors. It can feel over saturated at times, especially when looking at photos, the Samsung’s camera is known for heavy saturation. Combine this with the display and the colors sometimes look comical.
The Galaxy A50 also has excellent contrast and brightness levels, and I had zero issues viewing the contents of the screen under harsh sunlight. The one downside on the display side of things is that there’s no notification LED anymore, but you get Always On Display.
For those wondering what the performance will be like, The Mali-G72 MP3 GPU is plenty capable for gaming, and in general the Exynos 9610 is one of the best chipsets in the budget category right now. The base variant of the Galaxy A50 has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and there’s also a 6GB edition with 128GB of internal storage that will be sold in global markets.
There’s also dual SIM connectivity, and Samsung is offering a dedicated slot for a MicroSD card in addition to the two SIM card slots.
The Galaxy A50 gets a single bottom-firing loudspeaker that’s fairly loud in a small room but not sufficiently loud in busy areas. There’s barely any bass and the high frequencies (treble) can be a bit too shrill at times. Call quality was great on both ends of the line.
One of the key features on the Galaxy A50 is the camera arrangement. There are three cameras at the back, with a 25MP primary lens joined by an 8MP wide-angle shooter and a 5MP depth sensor.
There’s an easy toggle to shift between the regular and wide-angle lens, and you get the option to select the amount of background blur. The camera does a great job in daylight scenarios, but it struggles when there isn’t enough ambient light around. The photos tend to be a bit oversaturated and a few shots taken in daylight tend to have an almost painted-on quality to them. You lose out on detail in low-light images, and there’s a lot of noise.
When it comes to low light the Galaxy A50 is not great, the photos are usable but they lack detail and can be noisy.
Selfies!
The front camera can also take Live Focus photos. It’s a software trick that does great in ample light and not-so-bright conditions, although the camera tends to soften the face a bit if there isn’t enough light. As for regular selfies, the same applies: You get plenty of detail in daylight pictures and a softer output indoors and in low-light conditions.
Battery life is excellent thanks to a generous 4000mAh battery that ensures you easily get over a day’s worth of use. The phone also has 15W fast charging, and you get a 15W charger in the box.
