Speaker 1: This is the Samsung galaxy, a 52 5g. It costs $500 and kind of has a galaxy S 21 ultra look thing going on in the same way. I kind of have a kit Harrington haircut thing going on
Speaker 1: The difference between a good low cost 5g phone and a really good one is all about smart compromises. Very [00:00:30] few find an appealing balance as well as Samsung has found with the galaxy a 52 5g. In fact, the only other sub $500 phones that do this are the iPhone se, which doesn't have 5g and the Google pixel four, a 5g, which is almost a year old. The build of the a 52 5g is good. It's not premium and that's fine, but it feels good in the hand. When you tap on the back though, you [00:01:00] can definitely tell it's PLA. So yeah, don't, don't tap on the back compared to the galaxy S 21 and S 21 ultra this phone has a bunch of features that does more expensive phones. Don't like the headphones yet expandable storage, and it even comes with a wall charger in the box.
Speaker 1: The a 52 5g has rated IP 67 for water and dust resistance. That means it could be submerged [00:01:30] under three feet of water for up to 30 minutes on the front is a 6.5 inch full H feet display where a whole punch cutout for the sub camera. This display has a high rate and you could set it to either 60 Hertz or 120 Hertz animations look, smooth, gaming feels more immersive and even mundane things like scrolling through a feed. Look crisp, topping it all off is a slab of gorilla glass [00:02:00] five. Now let me level some expectation here is the display as good as the one on the S 21. Absolutely not, but it's really good for $500. The biggest downside to the display and design is the end screen optical fingerprint sensor. First, the position of it feels very low for one handed use.
Speaker 1: The fingerprint reader is low, and I rarely unlock the phone with one attempt. Find it easier just to swipe up and enter a pen. There are [00:02:30] five cameras on the a 52 5g, one on the front and four on the back. Now one of the rear cameras is a depth sensor, which works with the main camera to give you some absolutely fun and ridiculous AR effects more on that in a moment and some decent portrait mode photos. There's a macro camera and it's not that most people probably won't use a macro camera on a phone. It's just that compared to the main camera, the macro camera. Isn't great. It [00:03:00] allows you to focus closer, but you need to be really steady. You're just a handshake or a breath away from being out of focus. I wish there was focus peeking on the macro camera to help you see when your subject is in focus and when it's not promo offers, focus peeking, but only for the main camera.
Speaker 1: So result is a handful of slightly out of focus, close up photos of a flower with just one of them in focus. The a 52 5g has a decent Ultrawide camera [00:03:30] and a good for it. Price main camera. The main camera has optical image stabilization, a 64 megapixel sensor, which comes binds pixels for a 16 megapixel photo with good detail and brightness. Your personal taste will vary on how much you like the color saturation. To me, it's just a touch over saturated, but it still looks good. In low light situations. We start to see the camera's weakness, but there is no at mode [00:04:00] and photos look decent, but you're not gonna get the same results as night mode on the galaxy S 21, the a 52 5g can record 4k video, which in good light is good, but as things get darker image noise and artifacts become more apparent.
Speaker 1: Also, you can't use optical image ization when recording 4k video, but if you drop down in resolution, the full HD video, you can use super steady stabilization, which yes, works rather. Well. [00:04:30] The selfie camera has a 32 megapixel sensor and Samsung's full arsenal of face moving jaw line defining, and I enlarging tools. And then there's fun mode. Go on. You say, well, fun mode allows you to use Snapchat AR filters without using Snapchat. So I can finally be the brunette with cat eye glasses that I've always wanted to be to put this all into perspective, [00:05:00] both the iPhone se and Google pixel four, a 5g have better overall camera systems for photos and videos that speaks less about the a 52 5g S camera prowes and more about what apple and Google are able to pack into their phones. The a 52 5g has a Qualcomm snap, dragon seven 50 G tip and gigabytes of Ram.
Speaker 1: It has Android 11. And at the time I'm recording this, it's running the July, 2021 software update. [00:05:30] Performance is good. It's not blazing fast, but the only times I notice that is the small delay when I'm opening up the camera from the lock screen or when I'm rotating the phone between landscape or portrait or vice versa. But here is perhaps the best part. You get three generations of Android OS updates and at least four years of security updates. And as the name indicates, this is a 5g phone that works on sub [00:06:00] six 5g in the us. I tested it here in Greenville, South Carolina on T-Mobile and speeds were just okay, and a little all over the place. And sometimes despite having the 5g indicator on the screen, the phone would actually be connected to 4g LTE. Now this actually has everything to do with T-Mobile cuz I've seen the same exact thing happen with other phones.
Speaker 1: I've tested here. As I say, in all my reviews, don't get a phone just for 5g. See what your carriers, 5g [00:06:30] coverage and speeds are. Before you consider buying a 5g phone. The phone has a 4,500 million power, a battery Samsung claims two days on a full charge. Now I reliably got one day and that was with the display set at 120 Hertz on days with lighter use or with the display set to 60 Hertz. It lasted a day and a half easily in my CNET battery test with continuous video playback and airplane mode. It lasted a respectable 17 hours [00:07:00] in 40 minutes, and that was with the display at 120 Hertz. When you step back and consider everything the goy a 52 5g has it is a well rounded phone, despite some minor and annoying flaws. I use the a 52 5g on and on off for the past two months.
Speaker 1: And I gotta say, it's a solid buy for $500. Now, as I record this video, you can actually get one unlocked on Samsung's website for [00:07:30] $425, which makes it very hard to pass up. Now, if you wanna learn more about the GA Alexy, a 52 5g or buy it, check out the link in the description below. But now I wanna hear from you guys, what do you think about the galaxy a 52 5g? Did Sampson find a good balance in terms of features and compromises and price? And do you have a galaxy? A 52 G if so, [00:08:00] what has your experience been like so far? Throw your thoughts in the comments.
