Samsung Galaxy A50 Review UK

Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: Overview & Price

So you’re interested in the Samsung Galaxy A50? Great, because in this review we cover everything you need to know as well as showcase the best Samsung Galaxy A50 contract deals in the UK.

The Samsung Galaxy A50 was back on March 2^nd of 2019, and it aims to be a cost-effective smartphone that competes in the mid-range market

Here are some of what to expect;

• AMOLED display
• Android 9.0 Pie
• 128GB internal storage
• Triple camera set up
• 4000mAh battery

The Samsung A50 is currently pried at £309 here in the UK, making it an affordable handset for those not looking to break the bank on a smartphone.

We managed to find some extremely impressive Samsung Galaxy A50 contract deals here in the UK.

The A50 is a stunning smartphone that offers much of what you would expect of a 2019 mid-range phone.

You may be wondering, is the Samsung Galaxy A50 waterproof? Find out shortly in this review.

Let’s take a closer look at what the phone has to offer…

Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: Design & Display

The Samsung Galaxy A50 design is interesting to say the least; the first thing we noticed about this phone is that it looks incredible.

The phones frame and back panel are made from plastic, whilst the screen is made from Gorilla Glass 3, this ensures a little extra protection for your screen.

The back panel is made from a material that Samsung calls “Glastic”, this is extremely interesting and it reflects light in a strange way.

Thanks to this material, the phone seems to change colour when the light bounces off, the panel no matter which was you turn the phone.

The Samsung A50 comes in four different colours, either Black, White, Blue or Coral.

We were lucky enough to get our hands on the Black to conduct this review, and even with the black we found that in direct sunlight the phone would looks almost multi-coloured.

Now although the Samsung A50 is made from plastic, it doesn’t feel cheap.

This is because the phone weighs 166g, which is actually rather heavy for a smartphone, we like this about this mid-range device as it definitely feels a lot more expensive.

The phone fits comfortably in one hand and feels quite sturdy, however we would recommend investing in a case and screen protector if you want to keep this device in tiptop shape.

Samsung does provide a protector in the box but it isn’t the best, an Otter-box would serve you much better.

Unfortunately, the Samsung Galaxy A50 is not waterproof, Samsung has not gave this device an IP rating.

Which means you will need to be careful when using the phone around water, as it will surely damage the phone.

The front of the phone is pretty basic thanks to that huge display with the teardrop notch, but more on that soon.

When flipping the phone over you will find the triple camera set up in the top corner, as well as the Samsung branding which is centred.

At the base of the phone you will find a 3.5mm headphone jack, which ensures you don’t need to go out and purchase a set of Samsung Galaxy Buds.

There is also a USB-C charging port at the rear with a single firing speaker.

Across the side of the phone is where the power button and volume rocker sits, both feel nice to press and make a satisfying click noise when pressed.

The Samsung Galaxy A50 display has a huge 6.4-inch Super AMOLED panel that looks fantastic; it has a Full HD+ 2340 x 1080 resolution and a pixel density of 404ppi.

At the top of the display is the small notch, which to be honest we didn’t mind as it doesn’t hinder any video playback or gaming experience.

If you do find that the notch is slightly annoying then turning it off in the settings is extremely easy.

The Samsung A50 has a 91.6% screen to body ratio, which means its excellent for watching Netflix and YouTube, as well as gaming and much more.

As previously mentioned the screen is coated with Gorilla Glass 3, which gives it extra resistance from scratches and scuffs, we found this useful as we often carry our car keys in the same pocket as our phone, and because of Gorilla Glass we are yet to see a mark on our personal phone yet.

With the display being an AMOLED we found the colours to be fantastic, black are deep and reds and yellow really pop from the screen.

As well as this the display gets extremely bright, up to 420nits in manual mode and 550nits in auto mode.

This means that when using the phone in the peak of summer and in direct sunlight, you will have no issues viewing content, although your battery will drain slightly faster.

Another great feature of the Samsung A50 display is that it has an always-on feature, meaning you simply need to glance at your phone to see the time and date, although there is no notification LED.

Just like is seen on the Samsung Galaxy S10, the A50 comes with an under the display fingerprint sensor, this means that you can store your passwords and other important information under your thumb.

However, this is definitely one of the slower fingerprint sensors we have used in 2019.

The A50 even has face unlock, however, this method is certainly not as secure as a fingerprint, but it is more convenient to use and faster.

As a whole the Samsung Galaxy A50 display is impressive, we found it to be one of the main attractions of the phone, with bright colours making for a fantastic experience when binge-watching Netflix.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: Performance

The Samsung Galaxy A50 specs are great too, first off is the single firing speak which is situated at the very bottom of the device.

This speaker works well and is surprisingly loud, it does well to enhance gameplay when deep in a PUBG game.

The Samsung A50 comes with the high-end Exynos 9610 processor coupled with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM; this combination is great for a mid-range phone and does well to keep the device running smoothly.

As well as this the Samsung A50 comes with either 64GB or 128GB of internal storage, fantastic for those that love to store lots of music and photos on their smartphone.

See Related:

*Samsung Galaxy A80 Review*
*Samsung Galaxy A40 Review*
*Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Review*

The phone even has a microSD slot, which means you can add an additional 512GB if needed, although we think 128GB is more than enough for the average user.

We tested the phone on a couple of our favourite games and found that the devices handle demanding games pretty well, although we did notice some lag and fps drop when playing PUBG in high settings.

We also found the Samsung A50 to be rather slow even when navigating through the UI, although the phone does have lots of horsepower we did notice it slowing down when we had more applications open and exposed the device to stress.

Speaking of the UI the Samsung Galaxy A50 runs from One UI and Android 9.0 Pie, this is the same set up as you will find on the Samsung S10.

One UI is a great interface as we found it easy to use, with big application logos that are easy to press even with bad eyesight or chubby fingers.

One UI also comes with an easy to reach notification shade that makes checking your social media notification super easy.

The phone comes with pre-installed Samsung apps which are great to get you well on your way to using your phone properly, with file manager, gallery and voice recorder all their at your disposal.

Bixby is also featured on this phone; however, there is no dedicated button like you will find on the more expensive Samsung devices, simply hold down the power button to activate your virtual assistant.

One UI is definitely a step in the right direction for the Android market, it ensures a clean, easy to use UI that is simple yet effective.

We moved over from iPhone recently to a device with One UI and found with 2 to 3 days we were breezing through the UI like we had been using it forever.

As a whole we feel the Samsung Galaxy A50 specs are impressive, especially when you take into account the price of this phone.

Don’t get me wrong you won’t have the Samsung performance power as you would on the S range, but for most users, the A50’s power is more than enough.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: Camera

The Samsung Galaxy A50 camera is a 25MP f/1.7 main lens with an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide cam, as well as a 5MP depth sensor.

This camera set up is strong, however, the default output of the main camera is 12MP, shooting in daylight results in some impressive images.

The A50 camera is jam-packed full of features like the AR Emoji and Hyperlapsem, the cameras also have scene recognition too.

This means when taking a photo of a car, the phone will recognise that you are taking a shot of a car and use AI tech to try and make the image better for you.

Although we found that the phone does try to oversaturate images a little too much, resulting in a rather naff image. This can easily be turned off in the settings without causing too much hassle.

When shooting in HDR mode we found images to be the best, images come out with great colour and detail with little to no effort.

Dynamic range is decent, but it’s certainly not the best we have seen in a Samsung phone.

Digging into the settings will allow you to change from the 12MP standard shooter to a 25MP, this results in a lot higher detailed images that come out ready for social media.

One of our favourite lenses to shoot with is the ultra-wide; this shooter allows you to take great-looking images that come out with excellent contrast and detail.

We found this mode to be most useful when taking group photos, as the field of view widens and ensures you can fit everyone into the photo without having to bunch up real tight.

Portrait mode is actually very impressive for a mid-range device, the phone uses Bokeh to blur out the background to enhance the detail in the subject.

This mode is perfect for taking Instagram photos of yourself as the images often produce fantastic results.

The Samsung Galaxy A50 camera works well in low light too, however, we recommend sticking to the 12MP lens as this produces better images that the 25MP lens.

The ultra-wide-angle also struggles in low light, with images looking almost blurry and lack any amount of detail.

Moving around the front the Samsung A50 has a 25MP selfie cam, this lens has fixed focus and is excellent at taking high-quality selfies in the right lighting.

The Samsung A50 can record video in 1080p@30fps, this isn’t groundbreaking but it is certainly good enough to capture you some decent footage without fumbling around in the settings.

The phone does let you shoot in 4K but it does require installing a third party camera application.

The phone uses EIS to steady the footage and it does a great job too, this means you won’t need an extremely steady hand to take some decent footage or have to invest into a tripod.

Overall the Samsung Galaxy A50 camera is impressive, the phone has three different lenses to choose from to ensure you get the best shot to suit your scenario.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: Battery Life

When it comes to battery life the Samsung Galaxy A50 is excellent, the phone has a 4000mAh cell that can keep you going all day and night.

This, of course, depends on how you use the phone, as those who are putting that display to good use and watching lots of Netflix throughout the day will notice the battery draining quicker.

The A50 does support fast charging and comes supplied with a 15W charger in the box, this ensures that you can go from 0-100% in 1.5 hours, impressive!

The battery does drain rather quickly, especially when gaming and watching video.

However, we were happy to take with a compromise based on how quick the phone charges back up.

As a whole, there is nothing much more to say in the battery department, the Samsung A50 does well to keep you going and charges up quickly too.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: Summary

So should you spend your money on the Samsung Galaxy A50?

Well if you are looking for an eye-catching mid-range device that won’t break the bank.

Then yes, the A50 offers much of what you would expect of a 2019 smartphone, with a brilliant AMOLED display along with an impressive, well-built design.

As well as this the Samsung A50 specs of the phone are great, with plenty of internal storage to store tons of music and images, with the option for a microSD too.

We wished that Samsung Galaxy A50 was waterproof as it gives us, and other users peace of mind when using the phone around water.

The Samsung A50 camera is great, especially when shooting in HDR and portrait mode, and we love that the video recording feature has EIS, meaning you won’t need a tripod to take some half-decent footage.

Samsung Galaxy A50 128GB 6.4-Inch FHD+ Android Dual-SIM Smartphone - Black (UK Version) 

We hope you have enjoyed our Samsung Galaxy A50 review, feel free to comment and share to show your support.

You can even check out the best Samsung Galaxy A50 contract deals at the top of the post.

We also recommend checking out our Samsung Galaxy A40 and Samsung Galaxy A70 review too as these might be more up your street.

The Samsung Galaxy A80 could be a great buy too if you have the budget to stretch, we do recommend checking out our review just incase.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: Full Specification

Launch: 2019, February

Body:

• Dimension: 158.5 x 74.7 x 7.7mm (6.24 x 2.94 x 0.30 in)
• Weight: 166g (5.86 oz)
• Build: Front glass, plastic body
• Sim: Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

Display:

• Type: Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours
• Size: 6.4 inches, 100.5cm² (-84.9% screen-to-body ratio)
• Resolution: 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (-403 ppi density)
• Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass 3

Platform:

• OS: Android 9.0 (Pie)
• Chipset: Exynos 9610 (10nm)
• CPU: Octa-core (4×2.3 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.7 GHz Cortex-A53)
• GPU: Mali-G72 MP3

Memory:

• Card slot: microSD, up to 1TB (dedicated slot)
• Internal: 128GB, 4/6GB RAM or 64GB, 4GB RAM

Camera:

• Primary:
  – 25MP, f/1.7, 26mm (wide), PDAF
  – 8MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide)
  -5MP, f/2.2, depth sensor
• Features: LED flash, panorama, HDR
• Video: 1080p@30fps
• Single:
  – 25MP, f/2.0, 25mm (wide)
• Features: HDR
• Video: 1080p@30fps

Sound:

• Loudspeaker: Yes
• 3.5mm Jack: Yes
  – Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

Comms:

• WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
• Bluetooth: 5.0, A2DP, LE
• GPS: Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS
• NFC: Yes
• Radio: FM Radio
• USB: 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go

Features:

• Sensors: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, ANT+

Battery:

• Non-removeable Li-Pro 4000mAh battery
• Charging: Fast battery charging 15W

Misc:

• Colours: Black, White, Blue, Coral
• Price: As seen in above post

Tests:

• Performance: Basemark OS ||: 2292 / Basemark OS || 2.0: 2209  / Basemark X: 19106
• Display: Contrast ratio: infinite (nominal)
• Camera: Photo / Video
• Loudspeaker:  Voice 66dB / Noise 71dB / Ring 82dB
• Audio Quality: Noise -93.4dB / Crosstalk -92.3dB
• Battery Life: Endurance rating 98h