At Samsung, "mid-range smartphone" is pronounced "Galaxy A", the family we regularly talk to you about here. Normal: the Galaxy A ensure the bulk of sales in France at the Korean. The Galaxy A52s, available recently, has a number of advantages on paper.

And since we are never short of a good idea at the editorial office, we decided to review the arguments put forward by the manufacturer in order to check whether this A52s was really worth the detour.

Summary

Galaxy A52s 5G price and availability

The Galaxy A52s 5G has been available since mid-September at the recommended retail price of €459 (excluding subscription or subsidy). It is only available in France in a 6 GB RAM/128 GB Flash version in four colors: black, white, lavender and mint.

More power?

The Galaxy A52s features a Snapdragon 778G 5G SoC. Designed by Qualcomm to provide good performance in the mid-range, it takes up most of the technologies of the Snapdragon 888, which equips the flagships of the year. Display management is unsurprisingly entrusted to the Adreno 642 L. The set is supported by 6 GB of working memory and has 128 GB of internal storage, expandable by adding a micro SD card.

All of this bodes well for decent processing power, which our tests confirm. Without being on a par with the flagships of the moment, it will be able to run applications that consume system resources without noticeable problems. On the gaming side, we were able to enjoy Genshin Impact in high detail at 30 fps without noticing jerks. Call of Duty mobile also remains perfectly playable without having to sacrifice anything in terms of detail.

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

About games, we will not hesitate to activate Game Center, the utility grouping the games installed on the device. It has a set of parameters intended to optimize the gaming experience, even if it means reducing autonomy. It provides, for example, significant ease of use by authorizing, for example, the temporary blocking of certain notifications or by favoring performance to the detriment of autonomy.

No problem either for everyday applications, nor for traditional video editing or photo retouching. The 6 GB of RAM allows smooth operation of Android 11 and the OneUI 3.1 house overlay. No fluidity problem in multitasking, provided you don't leave around twenty applications open!

Without a doubt, the power improvements over the Galaxy A52 5G are dramatic. If you are looking for a powerful but not overpriced smartphone, then the Galaxy A52s 5G will satisfy you in this aspect. Players will appreciate the comfort provided by the available power.

A screen worthy of the top of the range?

Samsung knows how to equip its premium smartphones with quality screens. But what about the mid-range? That of the Galaxy A52s uses a 6.5 '' Super Amoled panel displaying 1080 x 2400 pixels in 20:9 format (density of 405 dpi). A perforation, located at the upper end of the median, houses the front camera. Samsung announces a peak brightness of up to 800 nits. We want to believe it, as the screen remains readable in direct sunlight.

On the colorimetric side, Samsung always sins by boosting the colors a little in order to make the image more flattering to the eye. We can rectify this by choosing the "natural" display mode in the settings. Finally, despite HDR10 compatibility detected by our test tools, this does not appear anywhere in the technical sheet.

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

Whether reproducing still or moving images or displaying an interface, the Galaxy S52s screen delivers. The image it produces is indeed worthy of the screens fitted to high-end models.

Watching a film or a series is a real pleasure, especially with headphones. Only the presence of slightly thick black borders by current standards and the absence of curvature of the waterfall-like edges remind us that this is a mid-range product. Given the quality of the image, we quickly forget these two small drawbacks!

Better picture quality?

Is Samsung right to highlight the improvement in the photographic quality of the Galaxy A52s? Before answering, let's remember that the Galaxy A52, its predecessor, impressed us with the quality of the images produced.

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

The rear camera of the A52s consists of three shooting modules, the fourth only being used to record depth of field information:

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

The front camera has a 32 Mpxl sensor (1/2, 8 '', 0.8 µm photosites) as well as a 26 mm f/2.2 lens.

Samsung has therefore not really broken its head and takes over the identical photographic configuration of the Galaxy A52. This is not to displease us, because the whole was already rather successful.

Ultra wide-angle © Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

Main module © Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

Zoom 2x © Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

The image produced outdoors by the main module is convincing and detailed. In ultra wide-angle, a lack of sharpness on the edges of the scene appears, reducing the sharpness of the details. In 2x zoom, no notable problem to highlight and the image turns out to be good.

Zoom 4x © Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

Zoom 10x © Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

We note in 4x zoom the appearance of a slight mottling on the finest details, due to the smoothing applied by the AI ​​and amplified by Jpeg compression. The result remains quite usable and you can even afford the luxury of cropping. Unsurprisingly, the 10x zoom images are much worse, the image processing algorithm doing what it can to recreate the missing information.

In lower brightness or in night mode, the result is also convincing with the main module. It suffers from the same shortcomings at ultra wide-angle or when using the zoom, with the added bonus of increasing digital noise with the magnification factor. However, we remain at a very acceptable level given the price positioning of the A52s.

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

Portrait mode does a good job of cleverly creating artificial background blur. Of course, the AI ​​sometimes gets trapped on complex scenes, but nothing really dramatic.

Portrait mode © Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

Portrait mode © Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

Macro shooting, on the other hand, produces a satisfying image thanks to a dedicated 5MP sensor. However, care must be taken to position the camera between 3 and 5 cm maximum from the object to be photographed and avoid tremors so as not to produce a blurred image.

Macro © Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

A final word on the front camera, of which we weren't expecting much. We were wrong: it produces beautiful images in broad daylight, a little less beautiful in low light. The self-portrait mode is also effective as the portrait mode of the rear camera. A nice surprise that selfie lovers will appreciate.

When Samsung claims the Galaxy A52s produces “better photos,” it's not entirely accurate. If the images are indeed of very good quality, they are not better than those of the previous models. Which is not really a problem, the Galaxy A52 5G having been honorably noted for the quality of its production.

More autonomy?

The Galaxy A52s has a 4500 mAh Li-Po battery that is charged via the USB-C port (no induction, reserved for the S range). Samsung proudly announces that you can go from 0 to 50% capacity in 30 minutes thanks to fast charging. This is surely why the manufacturer only saw fit to supply a 10 Watt mains unit... Do you find us cynical? You are right.

And to be honest, we would prefer that Samsung not provide anything more than to settle for a model that does not do the advertised job. Without losing sight that the competition does much better. Some, like Oppo or realme, offer a passage from 0 to 100% in about thirty minutes on competing models. Finally, let's move on.

geeky fashion

In reasonable use, the Galaxy A52s will last at least 1.5 days, or even two full days if you take care to adjust the energy saving settings. We will avoid excessively long gaming sessions, viewing the entire Game of Thrones and above all we will take care to lower the refresh rate of the screen while activating the adaptive brightness. In the same vein, we will deactivate the always on display, which always consumes energy.

Unsurprisingly, autonomy takes a little hit in geek mode. During our tests, we still exceeded a full day, without abusing 3D games too much. Of course, these are only estimates, the autonomy strongly depending on the use made. For example, leaving Facebook and Instagram running all the time can pump up an additional 15%. Here too, it will be necessary to think about activating the mechanisms with which the device is equipped in order to prevent unnecessary activity when an application is in the background.

Does the Galaxy A72s offer more battery life, as Samsung claims? If we stick to what the Galaxy A52 offered, the difference is not obvious, the latter being considered very good when Romain had tested it. It has remained in the high average of what smartphones in the category offer. It's already not so bad if you remember that energy consumption is traditionally the weak point of Korean products.

And also…

Design: plastic is fantastic

The Galaxy A52s uses the good old recipes of the range: Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on the front, plastic on the back. And between the two, a metal-like polyurethane frame. The control keys take place on the right side, the connectors on the lower face while the drawer receiving the cards (SIM and micro SD) finds refuge on the upper face.

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

Interesting detail, the back camera blends more pleasantly into the shell, a bit like what the Find X3 Pro offered (it's easier with plastic than with glass). The plastic used has a matte finish that is not unpleasant to the eye.

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

Despite this, the back side manages the double feat of getting dirty easily by capturing fingerprints – less than a glass surface, it is true – while giving off a worrying feeling of sensitivity to scratches. It would seem that the other colors (especially green and purple) are less sensitive to dirt than the black of our test model.

Good point on the other hand for the IP67 certification ensuring a tightness to dust and splashes, even to a short immersion.

Audio: ok

Let's get the question straight away: yes, the Galaxy S52s has a 3.5mm audio jack. This will delight old-fashioned enthusiasts, while brilliantly proving that the no-space-because-of-5G-antennas-advanced argument for certain models would be a bit far-fetched.

© Marc Mitrani for Presse-Citron

Without being exceptional, the headphones provided allow pleasant listening to music. We can improve the overall rendering by customizing the audio using the adapt sound function, or even take advantage of Dolby Atmos compatibility.

The Galaxy A52s has two speakers located on the upper and lower sides. The sound they produce is decent without being remarkable. The low mids and highs stand out well while the bass lags behind. Nothing too surprising for a product with so little volume in the sound box. We can still consider watching series or clips without going through headphones or an external speaker, but certainly not for hours.

Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G: what we think

Without a doubt, the newcomer offers everything you would expect from a good mid-range smartphone.

In addition to an excellent screen, performance revised upwards and a very correct autonomy, we appreciate the presence of a photo mode of good performance and incidentally the IP67 certification. Red card on the other hand for the supply of an undersized power adapter which does not do justice to the (almost) fast charging implemented.

With a very contained price increase (+10 € compared to the A52 5G), the Galaxy A52s could not be more recommendable.