- Plastic construction on both, A53 is thinner
- 6.46″ AMOLED screen on both
- 120Hz refresh rate on both
- Exynos 1200 vs Snapdragon 720G
- Four rear cameras on both (but no zoom lens)
- Larger battery on A53
- But slower charging (15W vs 25W)
- MicroSD card slot available on both
- No headphone jack on Galaxy A53
Also read:
Display and Design
Slight differences
Both being Galaxy A series phones, they are made using good old plastic all around, but the construction is solid overall.
One thing missing on the newer A53 5G is a headphone jack, which was available on the A52 5G.
Being plastic, both the A53 5G and A52 5G weigh less than your typical 6.5-inch phone and are quite comfortable to carry in a pocket. This is one thing budget phones seem to do better than glass-and-metal premium phones.
You also get IP68 water and dust protection on both, so you know you don’t need to worry if you get some rain or in case of an accidental drop in water.
There is no difference in screen size as both have 6.5-inch screens (6.46″ if you want to be precise). Both use AMOLED tech and again both have 120Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling. The one thing Samsung keeps reserved for its flagships is dynamic refresh rate, so these budget models stay locked at 120Hz while premium models would dynamically vary the refresh rate and only fire up the 120Hz when needed.
Battery and Charging
The A53 might actually get a significant battery upgrade
Last year’s Galaxy A52 5G had excellent battery life, and Samsung is only doubling down on that as the newer A53 5G comes with an even bigger battery cell inside, while still keeping the same weight.
You get a 4,860mAh battery on the A53 5G vs a 4,500mAh one on the A52 5G, which is 8% larger capacity.
We will be running our independent tests as soon as we get the A53 5G, so stay tuned for the exact results coming soon.
One thing we are not certain is whether Samsung will provide a charger in the box. Latest rumors say that there will be one, but the actual charging speed on the A53 5G is expected to be slower at 15W compared to 25W charging on the last year model. It’s definitely strange that instead of improving certain aspects, Samsung is actually downgrading them, but we guess that’s all in the name of good old profits.
There is no wireless charging support, in case you were wondering. That feature is reserved for the more premium Galaxy S21 FE model and up.
Cameras
Still four camera, still no zoom lens
The Galaxy A53 5G has a more organic camera bump that now extends from the back of the phone and just looks plain cool.
However, at essence, it is identical to what we had on the Galaxy A52 5G, which was a main + ultra-wide combo, and two largely useless macro and depth cameras. The one thing missing here is a telephoto zoom lens, and Samsung only adds that one in more expensive phones like the Galaxy S21 FE or the Galaxy S22 models.
| Camera Specs | Resolution | Sensor Size | Pixel Size | Lens |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main A53 | 64MP | 1/1.7″ | 0.8µm | 26mm, f/1.8 |
| Main A52 | 64MP | 1/1.7″ | 0.8µm | 26mm, f/1.8 |
| Ultra A53 | 12MP | 1/3″ | 1.12µm | 13mm, f/2.2 |
| Ultra A52 | 12MP | 1/3″ | 1.12µm | 13mm, f/2.2 |
| Macro A53 / A52 | 5MP | – | 1.12µm | f/2.4 |
| Depth A53 / A52 | 5MP | – | 1.12µm | f/2.4 |
There are no major differences in hardware, no bigger sensor as far as current information goes.
Still, Samsung is constantly improving the software that makes the images, and we expect to see subtle improvements in actual photo and video quality on the A53 5G.
We will be updating this section with actual camera samples once we have the phone.
Performance and Software
The A53 is barely faster than the A52 5G
Leaks show tha the Galaxy A53 5G will get a Samsung Exynos 1200 processor under the hood, an octa-core chip with two high-performance cores running at 2.4GHz and six more frugal cores. Models with 6GB and 8GB of RAM will be available.
We have already seen performance benchmark leaked from a 6GB model of the Galaxy A53 5G, and these are the scores:
| GeekBench 5 | Single-core | Multi-core |
|---|---|---|
| Galaxy A53 5G | 686 | 1874 |
| Galaxy A52 5G | 639 | 1887 |
| Galaxy A52s 5G | 763 | 2647 |
| Galaxy S21 FE | 908 | 2775 |
As you can see, there is a very tiny improvement in single-core performance over the Galaxy A52 5G model, but surprisingly, performance was lower even compared to the mid-cycle Galaxy A52s model and also significantly lower than the often discounted Galaxy S21 FE.
The two also come with 128GB of storage. Some markets may also get a 256GB version, but we expect the 128GB to be the one available in the US and most Western countries. Good news is that the microSD card slot is still available on the A53, and remains a staple of the Galaxy A series.
Software
In terms of software, being the newer phone, the Galaxy A53 5G ships with the latest Android 12 and One UI 4 combo, while the previous model launched with Android 11 and was only updated to Android 12 in late January 2022. Good news is that Samsung has committed to 3 years of major software updates for the Galaxy A series.
Just keep in mind that we have seen that after the first major update, Samsung is not in much of a rush to push those updates and they usually arrive with quite the delay, compared to something like a Google Pixel, which gets those updates on day one.
Galaxy A53 vs A52: Specs Comparison
And here is a detailed specs comparison between the Galaxy A53 5G and the previous A52 5G model:
| Galaxy A53 5G | Galaxy A52 5G | |
|---|---|---|
| Size and Weight | 8.1mm thick 190g weight |
159.9 x 75.1 x 8.4 mm, 189g |
| Colors & Materials | Unknown colors, plastic | “Awesome Black”, plastic |
| Display | 6.5″ AMOLED, 1080p, 120Hz | 6.5″ AMOLED, 1080p, 120Hz |
| Processor | Exynos 1200 | Snapdragon 750G |
| RAM | 6GB / 8GB | 6GB / 8GB |
| Storage | 128GB or 256GB microSD card slot |
128GB or 256GB microSD card slot |
| Cameras | 64MP wide camera, f/1.8 12MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2 5MP macro camera 5MP depth camera |
64MP wide camera, f/1.8 12MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2 5MP macro camera 5MP depth camera |
| Battery size | 4,860 mAh | 4,500 mAh |
| Charging speeds | 15W wired no wireless charging |
25W wired no wireless charging |
| Prices | starting from $500 | starting price was $500 in 2021, expected to drop in 2022 |
Samsung is gearing up to announce the Galaxy A53 5G in the beginning of 2022, a year after it launched the Galaxy A52 5G model.
Don’t forget that last year, international markets also got a Galaxy A52 model with LTE only that was cheaper and had a slower, Snapdragon 720G processor. Also, midway between the A53 and A52, Samsung released a Galaxy A52S 5G model outside the US, which had a faster Snapdragon 778G inside.
At the end of the day, this new Galaxy A53 5G model is certainly a minor upgrade to an already excellent mid-ranger. The bigger battery and slight tweaks to the camera, as well as the slight increase in performance are all the highlights, and yes, the keyword here seems to “slight” when it comes to these improvements.
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