Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G offers a minor mid-range upgrade

Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
(Image credit: Samsung)

If the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is a little too expensive (and foldable) for you, there's a new Samsung mid-ranger on the market in the form of the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G – the follow up to the Galaxy A52 5G that has only been with us for five months.

We felt that the Galaxy A52 5G was rather underpowered, so the upgrade is a welcome one: the new phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G chip, and there's 6GB of RAM on board. You also get 128GB of internal storage, which can be expanded via a memory card.

There's no change to the screen – that's still a 6.5-inch, 1080 x 2400 Super AMOLED affair, running at a refresh rate of 120Hz. It looks like the camera's the same too, a quad-lens 64MP wide + 12MP ultrawide + 5MP macro + 5MP depth module.

More of the same

The Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G brings with it a 4,500mAh-capacity battery, 25W fast charging, and IP67 water resistance (enough to survive 30 minutes at a depth of a meter or just over three feet) – that's all the same as the earlier phone.

You get 5G connectivity as well, which you've probably realized from the name, and the pricing in the UK is £409. We don't have international pricing yet, but that's slightly more than the A52 5G, which sells for £399 in the UK – so expect it to cost just above $499 in the US or AU$799 in Australia, SIM-free, if Samsung brings it to those markets.

Your color options are Awesome Black, Awesome White, Awesome Violet and Awesome Mint (Samsung's nomenclature, not ours), and in the UK preorders open on August 24, with shipping scheduled for September 3.


Galaxy A52 5G

The Samsung Galaxy A52 5G. (Image credit: Mats Karlsson/Techradar)

Opinion: Samsung's mid-rangers are well worth considering

Most of the Samsung headlines tend to be around flagships like the Galaxy S21 and foldables like the Galaxy Z Flip 3, but it's always worth a reminder that the tech giant makes smartphones all across the price spectrum.

Of course you're going to have to put up with some compromises as you head lower down towards budget territory, but the build quality and software smarts that Samsung phones are known for remain in place – no matter how much or how little you're spending.

We know that Samsung makes some excellent phone screens – so much so that other manufacturers use them a lot of the time – and that's one feature that's guaranteed to still impress even on budget and mid-range handsets, for example.

We're going to have to reserve judgment on the Galaxy A52s 5G until we've got our hands on it, but it looks to be another solid mid-ranger from Samsung. Perhaps its biggest problem is that there are so many excellent affordable phones already on the market.

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David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

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