Samsung Galaxy A52 is the follow-up to Samsung’s best-selling phone

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Samsung might be the world’s most popular phone manufacturer, but that doesn’t mean its best phone, the Galaxy S series, is the world’s most popular phone. Samsung stays atop the sales charts on the strength of its midrange smartphones, and last year (at least for some quarters) the company’s best-selling phone was the Samsung Galaxy A51.

So then: meet the Galaxy A52, the follow-up to Samsung’s chart-topper. These phones are such a big deal now that Samsung held a presentation for them, its third online show in as many months.

Galaxy A52 Galaxy A52 5G Galaxy A72
STARTING PRICE €348 (~$414) €429 (~$511) €449 (~$535)
SCREEN 90Hz, 6.5-inch 2400×1080 OLED 120Hz 6.5-inch 2400×1080 OLED 90Hz 6.7-inch 2400×1080 OLED
CPU Snapdragon 720G
(two Cortex A76 cores,
six A55 cores, 8nm)
Snapdragon 750G
(two Cortex A77 cores,
six A55 cores, 8nm)
Snapdragon 720G
(two Cortex A76 cores,
six A55 cores, 8nm)
RAM 4GB, 6GB, or 8GB 6GB or 8GB 6GB or 8GB
STORAGE 128GB or 256GB 128GB or 256GB 128GB or 256GB
CAMERA 64 MP Main
12 MP Wide-angle
5 MP Macro
5 MP Depth
32 MP Front
64 MP Main
12 MP Wide-angle
5 MP Macro
5 MP Depth
32 MP Front
64 MP Main
12 MP Wide-angle
5 MP Macro
8 MP 3X Telephoto
32 MP Front
BATTERY 4500 mAh 4500 mAh 5000 mAh
Other perks NFC, in-display fingerprint sensor, MicroSD slot, 25W wired charging, USB-C, IP67

There is a lot to talk about in this table. First, Samsung tossed in the Galaxy A72 in its presentation along with the A52. It’s the most expensive phone out of the bunch, but I don’t know why anyone would buy it if they have access to the A52 5G, which has a faster display and faster SoC. The A72 has a slightly bigger battery, but it also has a bigger screen, so I’m not sure if that’s going to result in significantly more runtime. Availability details are up in the air right now, so maybe regions would get either the A52 5G, or the A72 but not both? Speaking of availability, Samsung has only announced prices in euros, so for now we only know these are headed for somewhere in Europe. Samsung will probably expand the rollout over time.

The A52 5G looks like the best of the bunch, offering a 120 Hz screen for around $500, but everything packing at least a 90 Hz display is great. The “5G” here means sub-6 GHz 5G, not the more expensive, almost nonexistent mmWave 5G you get on flagship phones. The other two models are 4G-only. All the phones have most of the extras you would want, like IP67 water and dust resistance, NFC, stereo speakers, USB-C, and a MicroSD slot that can also double as a second SIM slot. The only things missing are a headphone jack (which is still a possibility for midrange phones) and wireless charging.

The designs for all three phones are identical. On the front, you get a hole-punch camera, a flat display, and slim bezels but still slightly thicker than you would find on a high-end phone. This is a midrange device, so the back is plastic instead of glass, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Plastic is easy to form, so the back is all one piece, with the plastic ramping up to form the camera block, leaving only round cutouts for each lens. Besides the usual black and white colors, there are also pastel blue and purple versions.

So many cameras

There are a ton of cameras: four on the back of each phone, along with an LED flash doing its best to also look like a camera lens. The cameras on all three phones appear to be identical, save for the A72 dropping a depth camera for a 3X telephoto. Samsung made a big deal about the main camera’s addition of optical image stabilization this year, which was not the case on the A51.

Samsung is really upping its game when it comes to the software. These are packing Android 11, and they come with three years of major OS updates and four years of “regular” (not necessarily monthly) security updates. These midrange Samsung phones have longer software support than you’ll get from Google’s Pixel line.

The phones are available today in Europe.

Listing image by Samsung



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