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Article updated on July 23, 2021 at 1:30 AM PDT

Galaxy A52 5G review: Samsung's best budget phone with flagship features

Samsung's new 5G smartphone balances smart compromises with quality features to keep its low price of $500.

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Patrick Holland
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Patrick Holland has been a phone reviewer for CNET since 2016. He is a former theater director who occasionally makes short films. Patrick has an eye for photography and a passion for everything mobile. He is a colorful raconteur who will guide you through the ever-changing, fast-paced world of phones, especially the iPhone and iOS. He used to co-host CNET's I'm So Obsessed podcast and interviewed guests like Jeff Goldblum, Alfre Woodard, Stephen Merchant, Sam Jay, Edgar Wright and Roy Wood Jr.
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  • Patrick's play The Cowboy is included in the Best American Short Plays 2011-12 anthology. He co-wrote and starred in the short film Baden Krunk that won the Best Wisconsin Short Film award at the Milwaukee Short Film Festival.
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Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
8.5/10 CNET Score
$399 at Samsung
8.5/ 10
SCORE

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G

$399 at Samsung

Pros

  • 120Hz high refresh-rate display
  • Good battery life on 5G
  • Wonderful software upgrade support
  • Simple, clean, unified design
  • Good main camera with OIS

Cons

  • Fingerprint sensor is too low on screen
  • Macro camera is mediocre
  • Duplicate apps
  • 4K video recording lacks stabilization

With the Galaxy A52 5G, Samsung found an appealing balance between price, features and making smart compromises. It's the latest good sub-$500 5G phone and joins the nearly half a dozen phones from Motorola, OnePlus and TCL. The Galaxy A52 5G costs $500 or £399 (it isn't sold in Australia but that converts to AU$740). That's at the higher end of what's considered an affordable phone. The A52 5G also straddles the line between being a good affordable 5G phone and a fantastic one. The only other sub-$500 phones that do that are the iPhone SE, which doesn't have 5G, and the Google Pixel 4A 5G, which is now almost a year old.

The A52 5G has a high refresh rate display, years of OS and security support, a good main camera and good battery life. It has features that the more expensive Galaxy S21 and S21 Ultra lack like: a headphone jack, expandable storage and the inclusion of a wall charger in the box.

Read more: The best USB-C PD chargers of 2021

As with any phone, even a good one, not everything is roses and sunshine. The in-screen fingerprint reader is so annoying to use that I preferred to enter my PIN to unlock the phone. The mediocre macro camera seems like a frivolous add-on that is only there to boost the total number of cameras on the phone. More is definitely not better. There are many duplicate apps like Samsung's version of an internet browser and photo gallery app in addition to the ones from Google.

But after two months, when I step back and consider everything, the Galaxy A52 5G is an all-around good phone with some great features and a few minor and annoying flaws. It's a solid buy for $500, but as I write this review, you can get a Galaxy A52 5G unlocked on Samsung's website for $425, which makes it even harder to pass up.

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
Sarah Tew/CNET

Galaxy S21 Ultra-inspired looks in a plastic reality

The build is good. It's not premium and that's fine, because it feels good. When you tap on the back you can definitely tell it's plastic. (So don't tap on the back.) The look of the phone is clean. It has curved plastic edges, symmetrical thin bezels around the screen and a matte finish. The camera bump loosely echoes the one on the Galaxy S21 Ultra, in the same way my haircut does Kit Harrington's.

Over two months, the phone collected its share of nicks along the sides. The matte finish back definitely doesn't look fresh or new. Most people will inevitably put the phone in a case, so that shouldn't be an issue.

The A52 5G is rated IP67 for water and dust resistance and can be submerged under three feet of water for up to 30 minutes.

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G: $500 looks pretty damn slick

See all photos

Galaxy A52 5G has a 120Hz high refresh rate display

On the front is a 6.5-inch full-HD display with a hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera. The display is high-refresh rate and can be set to either 120Hz or 60Hz. At 120Hz, animations look smooth, gaming feels more immersive and even mundane things like scrolling through a feed look crisp. The display is without a doubt the best feature on the phone.

Brightness is good. Most displays on budget phones have horrible brightness, especially outdoors. Topping it all off is a slab of Gorilla Glass 5. Beware if you leave your phone screen down on a table and unattended. The coating will make it slide off a seemingly flat surface all on its own.

Let me level some expectations. This display isn't as good as the one on the Galaxy S21. But it is really good for $500.

The biggest downside to the design and display is the in-screen optical fingerprint sensor. The position of it feels low for one-handed use. I can rarely get the fingerprint reader to unlock the phone on the first attempt. I find it easier to just swipe up and enter a PIN.

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G

There are four cameras on the rear of the Galaxy A52 5G: A main wide-angle camera, an ultrawide camera, a macro camera and a depth camera.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The Galaxy A52 5G has four rear cameras, but only the main one is good

There are four rear cameras on the A52 5G, one of which is a depth-sensor that works with the main camera to give you some absolutely fun and ridiculous AR effects and decent portrait mode photos.

Galaxy A52 5G macro camera

The macro camera is a bit of an odd duck. It allows you to focus close like on the foam of a cortado. But the margin of error between your subject being in-focus and out-of-focus is incredibly thin. I wish there was focus peaking available to see when you have focus on your subject.

Patrick Holland/CNET

There's a macro camera. And (sigh) we've seen this from other phone companies. It's not that most people probably won't use a macro camera on a phone, it's that compared to the main camera on the A52 5G, the macro camera isn't great. It allows you to focus closer, but you need to be steady. You're just a handshake or breath away from being out of focus. I wish there was focus peaking on the macro camera to help you see when your subject is in focus and when it's not. Pro Mode offers focus peaking but for the main camera only.

Galaxy A52 5G ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera is fun. It gives you a great exaggerated perspective.

Patrick Holland/CNET

The A52 5G has a decent ultrawide-angle camera. The main camera has optical image stabilization and a 64-megapixel sensor that combines pixels for a 16-megapixel photo with good detail and brightness.

Galaxy A52 5G ultrawide camera

In good light, image quality from the ultrawide camera is decent. It's still a step behind the main camera in terms of dynamic range and image noise.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Photos from the main camera are good. Your personal taste will vary when it comes to the amount of color saturation. To me, it's a touch oversaturated but still looks good.

Galaxy A52 5G main camera

Red cars go faster, right? Colors from the A52 5G are punchy.

Patrick Holland/CNET
Galaxy A52 5G main camera

The A52 5G did well grabbing focus on a very curious beagle. 

Patrick Holland/CNET
Galaxy A52 5G main camera

This shot really pushed the A52 5G to its limits. Highlights start to blow out, but details are pretty good in the leaves.

Patrick Holland/CNET
Galaxy A52 5G main camera

The A52 5G doesn't have a dedicated telephoto camera and instead relies solely on digital zoom. I took this photo with 3x digital zoom.

Patrick Holland/CNET

In lower light situations, you start to see the main camera's weakness. There is a Night mode to help, and photos look decent but you're not going to get the same results as Night mode on the Galaxy S21.

Galaxy A52 5G main camera

In mixed lighting, the main camera does OK. Details start to look soft and noise correction starts to make skin tones smudge.

Patrick Holland/CNET
Galaxy A52 5G main camera

In low light, details start to look soft almost like a painting with all the noise reduction the A52 5G applies.

Patrick Holland/CNET
Galaxy A52 5G main camera

Night mode can create some eye-catching shots. But things look very processed compared to Night mode photos from the Galaxy S21 and S21 Ultra.

Patrick Holland/CNET

The A52 5G can record 4K video which in good light is good but as it gets darker, image noise and artifacts become more apparent. Curiously, you can't use the optical image stabilization when recording 4K video. But if you drop down in resolution to 1,080P video, you can use Super Steady which works very well. Take a look at the video below to see sample clips shot with the Galaxy A52 5G.

The selfie camera has a 32-megapixel sensor and Samsung's full-arsenal of face-smoothing, jawline-defining and eye-enlarging tools. And then there's Fun mode that lets you use Snapchat AR filters without using Snapchat. You can use Fun mode with the main and depth cameras on the back or the selfie camera. Fun mode actually lives up to its name.

Galaxy A52 5G Fun mode

With Fun mode, I can finally be the brunette with cat-eye glasses I've always wanted to be.

Patrick Holland/CNET

To put this all into perspective, both the iPhone SE and Google Pixel 4A 5G have better overall camera systems for photos and videos -- both also have fewer cameras. That speaks less about the A52 5G's camera prowess and more about what Apple and Google are able to put into their phones.

Peppy Android performance for the price

The A52 5G has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G chip with 6GB of RAM. It runs Android 11 and at the time I'm writing this, runs the July 2021 software update. Performance is good. It's not blazing fast which is apparent with the small delay that occurs when I open the camera from the lock screen, or rotate the phone between portrait and landscape.

In benchmark tests it scored ahead of the Google Pixel 4A 5G and just behind the Motorola One Ace 5G. See the results of our benchmark tests below.

GEEKBENCH V.5.0 SINGLE-CORE

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G 631Google Pixel 4A 5G 573Motorola One 5G Ace 651Apple iPhone SE 1,326
Note: Longer bars indicate better performance

GEEKBENCH V.5.0 MULTICORE

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G 1,890Google Pixel 4A 5G 1,567Motorola One 5G Ace 2,003Apple iPhone SE 2,638
Note: Longer bars indicate better performance

3DMARK SLINGSHOT UNLIMITED

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G 4,059Google Pixel 4A 5G 1,567Motorola One 5G Ace 4,146Apple iPhone SE 10,405
Note: Longer bars indicate better performance

It has Samsung's OneUI 3 interface, which I enjoy using. It's clean and friendly to one-handed use. There are several duplicate apps, which is annoying. But all Samsung phones, no matter the price, do as well. One of the best parts of the Galaxy A52 5G is that you get three generations of Android OS updates and at least four years of security updates. This is still a rarity for Android budget phones.

5G for less than $500 and good battery life

As the name indicates, this is a 5G phone that works on sub-6 5G networks in the US. I tested it in Greenville, South Carolina on T-Mobile and speeds were just OK. Despite an onscreen 5G indicator, many times the phone was actually connected to 4G LTE. This has everything to do with T-Mobile's coverage as the same thing happened when I tested other phones on T-Mobile here.
The A52 5G has a 4,500-mAh battery. Samsung claims two days of use when fully charged. I reliably got one day with the display at 120Hz. On days with lighter use or when the display was set to 60Hz, it easily lasted a day and a half.

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G

Even with the screen's refresh rate set to 120Hz, the Galaxy A52 5G lasted 17 hours and 40 minutes in our battery tests.

Sarah Tew/CNET

In our CNET battery tests with continuous video playback in airplane mode, it lasted a respectable 17 hours, 40 minutes and that was with the display set to 120Hz. That's longer than the OnePlus 9 Pro and the iPhone SE. In the same test, Motorola and its budget phones scored four of the five longest times of any phone this year. Keep in mind, none of these Motorola phones have a high refresh rate display.

It doesn't have wireless charging which is a wise omission, but it does support 25-watt fast charging. It's just that the included charger is only 15 watts.

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G specs vs. Motorola One 5G Ace, Google Pixel 4A 5G, Apple iPhone SE


Samsung Galaxy A52 5G Motorola One 5G AceGoogle Pixel 4A 5GApple iPhone SE (2020)
Display size, resolution 6.5 inch FHD+ Super AMOLED, Infinity-O Display (1080 x 2400 pixels), 120Hz6.7-inch FHD+ LCD, 2,400x1,080 pixels6.2-inch FHD+ OLED; 2,340 x 1,080 pixels4.7-inch Retina HD LCD; 1,334x750 pixels
Pixel density 407ppi394ppi413ppi326ppi
Dimensions (Inches) 2.95 x 6.29 x 0.33 inches6.54 x 3 x 0.39 in6.1 x 2.9 x 0.3 in5.45 x 2.65 x 0.29 in
Dimensions (Millimeters) 75.1 x 159.9 x 8.4mm 166.1 x 76.1 x 9.9mm153.9 x 74 x 8.2 mm (Sub-6 only); 153.9 x 74 x 8.5 mm (mmWave + Sub-6)138.4 x 67.3 x 7.3 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams) 6.67 oz; 189g7.49 oz; 212g5.93 oz; 168g (Sub-6 only); 6.03 oz; 171g (mmWave + Sub-6)5.22 oz; 148g
Mobile software Android 11Android 10Android 11iOS 14
Camera 64-megapixel (main), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 5-megapixel (depth), and 5-megapixel (macro)48-megapixel (wide), 2-megapixel (macro), 8-megapixel (ultrawide)12.2-megapixel (wide), 16-megapixel (ultrwide)12-megapixel (wide)
Front-facing camera 32-megapixel16-megapixel8-megapixel7-megapixel
Video capture 4K4K4K4K
Processor Snapdragon 750G 5GSnapdragon 750G 5GSnapdragon 765GApple A13 Bionic
Storage 128GBGB128GB128GB64GB, 128GB, 256GB
RAM 6GB 6GB6GBNA
Expandable storage Up to 1TBUp to 1TBNoNo
Battery 4,500 mAh5,000 mAh3,800 mAhNA, Apple claims it has the same battery life as iPhone 8
Fingerprint sensor Optical in-screenRearRearHome button
Connector USB-CUSB-CUSB-CLightning
Headphone jack YesYesYesNo
Special features 5G-enabled, 120Hz display, IP67 rating for water and dust resistence, 25W Fast Charging5G enabled, IP52/54 rating for water and dust resistence (IP54 for T-Mobile)5G enabled; dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM); fast chargingWater resistant (IP67); dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM); wireless charging
Price off-contract (USD) $500$400$499$399 (64GB), $449 (128GB), $549 (256GB)
Price (GBP) £399N/A, converts to £280£499£419 (64GB), £469 (128GB), £569 (256GB)
Price (AUD) N/A, converts to AU$740N/A, converts to AU$500AU$799AU$749 (64GB), AU$829 (128GB), AU$999 (256GB)