Samsung Galaxy A50s review: A serious contender in the under Rs 25,000 segment

Image: Samsung website.

The year 2019 has seen a massive influx of mid-range phones from Samsung's M-series and A-series, so much so that Samsung has virtually left no price point untouched.

Last month, the company launched its newest addition in the A-series — the Samsung Galaxy A50s.

So, is this the phone which you must consider in the Rs 20,000 range? Let's find out.

Samsung Galaxy A50s is an upgraded version of the Galaxy A50. We spent some time with the new phone and tested the phone's display, cameras, battery, and general performance. Here are our findings.

Design

At first look, you'll find the A50s to be quite sleek and easy to hold despite the 6.4 inch screen size.

The front is pretty much all screen, with a small camera notch at the top ('Infinity-U').

The screen corners are rounded. It has a thick chin while the sides and top borders are much narrower. The edges are very slightly curved.

The back panel has been tweaked to include a prism-like design which only accentuates the reflective colours. One would have a really hard time i in keeping it clean as the back is susceptible to fingerprints and smudges easily.

That said, I'm just waiting for a Samsung phone that comes with a smudge-free back cover.

There’s a camera module situated on the top-left corner of the back panel followed by an LED flash.

The volume and power button is on the right edge while the double SIM-card slot and a micro SD card slot are present on the left edge.

The bottom edge still houses a 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C port and a speaker grill. There’s an additional one at the top of the notch cutout.

The Galaxy A50s has the same dimensions as the Galaxy A50. It dimension are 158.5 x 74.5 x 7.7 mm, and it weighs 166 grams.

Display

Samsung Galaxy A50s features a 6.4-inch Full HD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) resolution display which uses a Super AMOLED panel.

The u-shaped notch cutout on the front houses the 32MP selfie camera.

The screen is also topped with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The screen is bright, the colours are sharp and the viewing experience quite pleasant.

There is an in-display fingerprint sensor, too, but it is not the fastest that we have seen. The face recognition is not the most developed either, as it takes some seconds for the phone to unlock.

The phone has a Widevine L1 certification to ensure an excellent viewing experience when it comes to HD content on Amazon Prime, Youtube or Netflix.

Camera 

One of the most significant updates to the Galaxy A50s is its primary camera.

A large focus here has gone into bringing the 48MP camera to the A-series.

Apart from the primary sensor, there’s an 8MP ultra-wide lens and a 5MP depth camera in a triple lens set up at the back.

The camera app features a dedicated night, live focus, pro, scene optimiser modes.

I was impressed with the live focus pictures as it had an accurate edge detection. The pictures clicked had sharp details, the app brightened up and cleaned the pictures as well.

The 32 MP selfie camera is definetly an upgrade from 25MP found in A50.

The selfies clicked were pretty good with bright and punchy colours, but not the best certainly.

Performance

Samsung Galaxy A50s is powered by Exynos 9611 chipset and is paired with 4GB/6GB RAM and 128GB storage.

The version we got was equipped with 6GB RAM and 128 GB storage.

You also have an option to increase the storage up by 512GB using micro SD card.

Exynos 9611 is a slight upgrade from the 9810 chip of the phone's predecessor, the A50.

The processor easily allows you to multi-task social media apps, photo editing apps, heavy games and camera. The Game Booster tool does aid in smooth performance.

Battery

The 4,000 mAh battery lasts quite long despite heavy camera use, long gaming sessions, and even binge-streaming.

The 15W charger enables fast charging as well. A full charge lasts well over a day easily with moderate use.

Price

Samsung Galaxy A50s is priced starting at Rs 22,999 with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage. The second variant has 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage to boot, is priced at Rs 24,999. However, with the current Diwali sales going on, you may find attractive offers which can help bring down the price of the phone under Rs 20,000.

The A50s comes in three colours-- Prism Crush Black, White and Violet.

Verdict

The A50s looks impressive, and scores on many  parameters, especially performance. The 48MP camera does take some very good daytime shots. Both the hardware and software feel highly polished. There are no big negatives for the pricing, we could have just asked for a better fingerprint sensor/face recognition.