Samsung Galaxy M52 5G Review: The best value in its price segment

The magic continues when you flip the phone to its side. At just 7.4mm in thickness, the M52 5G leaves a striking impression. If I were to nitpick, I would say the A52 feels better in the hand because I like devices with some extra heft but, this is subjective, and there is no denying that Samsung's engineers had to appease some voodoo gods to get the phone this thin, with the kind of hardware it sports inside.

All of this isn't without some compromises. For one, there is no headphone jack, which sees itself sacrificed, to make way for the design. It's a fair enough trade, but if you rely on wired headphones, then this device isn't for you. Another drawback to the thin frame is that it becomes annoying to take handheld videos, especially if you have shaky hands like mine. 

There are also no stereo speakers here, probably because there was no room to include them. Depending on how you use the device, this might or might not be a huge issue, but if you are used to stereo speakers, you will find the omission disheartening. Also absent is water and dust resistance.

Overall, Samsung has managed to make a device that feels premium despite being lighter and thinner than the competition in this price range. It does have concessions, but if you know what you are getting into, you might be able to overlook them.

Display

Like all of Samsung's Super AMOLED screens, there is very little to complain about the 6.7-inch display here. You get deep blacks, rich colours and, more importantly, a 120Hz screen refresh rate. Paired with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 778G SoC, the scrolling is buttery smooth. Sadly, the refresh rate isn't dynamic, but Samsung does give you two options to choose from in settings - 120Hz and 60Hz - to preserve battery life if need be.

The viewing angles are also great, the brightness excellent, and the contrast crisp. If I were to nitpick again, I would say the auto-brightness gets a little too aggressive at times, but that feels more like a software issue than the screen. It's also Widevine L1 certified, which means it can handle high-definition videos with resolution of 720p and up without any problems.

Performance

The M52 5G is a showcase for the Snapdragon 778G SoC. It's an eight-core chipset built on a 6nm node. There is a prime Kryo 670 A78 core clocked at 2.4GHz, three Kryo 670 A78 power cores clocked at 2.2GHz and four Kryo 670 A55 power-efficient cores clocked at 1.9GHz. Together with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM and the Adreno 642L GPU, it has enough power to keep things running smoothly. There is also 5G support across 11 bands and WiFi 6.  

You will see some micro-stutters on odd occasions, but 90% of the time, the experience is comparable to Samsung's flagships. M52 ships with OneUI 3.1, which is the company's custom skin on top of Android 11. It's a well-optimised, mature operating system with tons of options for power users and casual callers alike.

As for bloatware, there are pre-installed apps that the phone ships with and as usual, Samsung continues to bundle its take on system apps alongside Google's for needless repetition. Worse, things like the Galaxy Store will continuously bombard you with notifications, which gets annoying after a while.

While OneUI is colourful and easy on the eyes, there are weird oversights like longer app names covering the page icons in the app drawer. Overall, OneUI is a colourful alternative to stock Android and offers tons of features to fine-tune your experience.

Surprisingly, gaming performance was hit or miss. On titles like NFS No Limits and Asphalt 9, I could lock in a smooth 30fps without any noticeable lags or spikes. Battlegrounds Mobile India seemed to struggle a bit more. On maps with not too many players and default settings, the framerate oscillated between 50fps and 60fps, sometimes wildly. On crowded maps with bigger gunfights and vehicles, the frames dipped to low 30s.

Despite the gaming performance, the M52 is still a strong software experience and pushes above its weight when it comes to day to day performance.

Cameras

The M52 has a triple-camera setup on the back. It has a 64-megapixel primary sensor, along with a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 5-megapixel macro camera. 

With enough light, the M52 camera performs well. It produces sharp, well-detailed images, even if they come out a bit oversaturated. The lack of a depth sensor hurts the camera unit, with portrait mode photos suffering the most and relying too heavily on the software.

In low light, you miss out on some of the finer details. Night Mode helps with this issue somewhat and reduces noise. This setup performs much better with more light.

The issue is more pronounced on the 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera, which struggles in low light but manages some decent shots with enough light. The 5-megapixel macro camera is just here to fill out the spec sheet and performs on par with other similarly specced camera units on other phones, which is to say, it's horrible. 

The 32-megapixel camera on the front of the phone is similar to the performance of the primary unit. Capable with some decent lighting and worse in low-light. The software also tends to oversharpen images by default. 

Thankfully, Samsung includes an array of options in their software suites for the camera's that let you fine-tune things to your liking. 

Battery

The 5000mAh battery on the M52 is capable of some impressive results. The phone was idle with minimal usage for close to 4 days, and with heavy use, it could easily hold a charge for a day with some juice still left. You can eke out even more out of a single charge if you drop the refresh rate to 60Hz. 

Samsung offers a 15W charger in the box, but the battery supports 25W chargers as well. The phone is quick to charge as well, with 30 minutes getting you close to 45%. 

Conclusion

The 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variant of the M52 costs Rs 24,999. At that price, only a few phones offer specifications similar to this device. The POCO X3 Pro has a better SoC and a slightly larger battery but falls short compared to the camera and design. 

The Realme 8 Pro has a better camera on the back but not on the front. It also has a smaller battery and an older SoC. The Mi 10I is in the same boat, and The OnePlus Nord is more expensive with weaker hardware. 

Samsung has clearly done its research in the price segment, and the aggressive pricing for the M52 5G makes it a phone well-worth considering. Till things change, the M52 5G sits alone in this segment, when it comes to the performance it offers for the price.