Samsung Galaxy A52 Long Term Review: It’s A Sensible Purchase
August 9, 2021Samsung’s A-Series phones are becoming progressively better with each passing year. Last year’s A51 proved that good looking devices needn’t be expensive. Its successor the A52 took that notion to the next level. It’s a fairly slender phone with metal side rails mated to a matte coloured rear shell.
Performance wise, it’s marginally better than the A51. The device performs flawlessly for most tasks with the exception of ‘heavy-duty’ gaming. Switching between apps or launching them consecutively, doesn’t pose a problem for its processor and RAM. App crashes are extremely rare, if that.
Performance: Snapdragon 720g, 8GB RAM
Display: 6.5-inch (1080 x 2400)
Weight: 189g
Storage: 256GB
Battery: 4,500mAh
Features:4K, 1080p video recording
Rear Camera:64MP Wide, 12MP ultra-wide, 5MP Marco, 5MP Depth
Front Camera:32MP
Rating: 9/10
Price: RM 1,499.00
Said feat was considered a pipedream a few years ago in this segment of the market. Loading social media apps, picking a picture, editing and cropping it (using SnapSeed), then publishing it – happens without a hint of hesitation. Said smoothness is due in part to the display’s 90Hz refresh rate.
This coupled with the mid-range hardware allows the A52 to punch above its weight class. It is better behaved than its predecessor and exhibits traits of flagship devices launched a couple of years ago – such is progress. The 1080p AMOLED panel produces punchy and vibrant colors, which should be appreciated by most consumers.
We aren’t going to delve into the specifics in this article because we’ve covered an in depth review of the A52 in a previous post. Check out : Samsung Galaxy A52 Review: It’s A Mid-Range No More
Here, I’m going to touch on my experience with it in the past 5 months. Over time, most phones become slower and less dependable. The same is true of the Galaxy M31, our favourite phone of 2020. Fresh out of the box, it performed like a true trooper. But as the months went by, the performance gradually deteriorated.
The phone would freeze when opening apps, said app crashes became more frequent, and the M31 would fail to recognize the presence of my sim card at least once a fortnight. It also exhibited a rare quirk where the display would randomly stop responding to touch input. Turning off the screen for a few seconds, remedied the issue.
Surprisingly, the A52 doesn’t have those issues or different ones. In fact, it performs just as well today as it did when first turned on. The phone is tasked with handling both work and personal apps, uploading content to social media, streaming YouTube videos, and switching between multiple chat apps.
It’s photo taking abilities haven’t faltered either. Photos that it captures look crisp and well exposed. The quality is nowhere near that of the Galaxy S21+ or Ultra (Link phone reviews), but for the average Joe it’s impressive. Thanks to the onboard Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), videos look far more stable and composed.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for a mid-range device, the A52 should be on your shortlist. It performs well, has enough battery power to last a full day, supports 25W fast charging, and looks cooler than the phone it replaces. My experience with it has made me question why anyone would spend more for a flagship device when they could buy this one instead.
