As much as we love talking about Samsung's flagship offerings, including the Galaxy S and Z Fold/Flip lineups, it's hard not to look at what the company is doing in the mid-range segment. Samsung's been busy churning out a bunch of new devices as a part of its Galaxy A-series. It launched the Galaxy A52 in March last year and followed it up with the Galaxy A52s as a mid-cycle refresh a few months later. Fast-forward a few months later in 2022, the company has now launched the new Galaxy A53 5G, which honestly feels like just another S update. In this article, we're going to take a look at the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G vs Samsung Galaxy A52 models to find out which one's better to buy in 2022.

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Samsung Galaxy A53 vs Samsung Galaxy A52: Specifications

Looking at the specs sheet, it's safe to say that the Samsung Galaxy A53 isn't a big departure from the models that hit the shelves before that. As such, it retains the same design language and dimensions and shares many hardware similarities with the Galaxy A52 5G. The only difference you'll see is in the SoC and charging departments. Let's take a quick at the specifications of these phones to find out how they stack up against each other.

Specification

Samsung Galaxy A53 5G

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G /Samsung Galaxy A52s

Samsung Galaxy A52 4G

Build

  • Plastic back
  • Plastic frame
  • Plastic back
  • Plastic frame
  • Plastic back
  • Plastic frame

Dimensions & Weight

  • 74.8 x 159.6 x 8.1mm
  • 189 g
  • 75.1 x 159.9 x 8.4mm
  • 189g
  • 75.1 x 159.9 x 8.4mm
  • 189g

Display

  • 6.5-inch Super AMOLED
  • 120Hz refresh rate
  • Corning Gorilla Glass 5
  • 6.5-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED (1080 x 2400)
  • 407PPI
  • 120Hz refresh rate
  • Infinity-O display (centered hole-punch cutout)
  • 800nits peak brightness
  • Eye Care Display low blue light certification
  • 6.5-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED (1080 x 2400)
  • 407PPI
  • 90Hz refresh rate
  • Infinity-O display (centered hole-punch cutout)
  • 800nits peak brightness
  • Eye Care Display low blue light certification

SoC

Samsung Exynos 1280:

    • 2x Cortex-A78 @2.4Ghz + 6x Cortex-A55 @2.0GHz
    • Mali-G68
  • Galaxy A52 5G:
    • Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G
      • 2x cores @2.2GHz + 6x cores @1.8GHz
      • Adreno 619
  • Galaxy A52s 5G:
    • Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G
      • 4x cores @2.4GHz + 4x cores @1.9GHz
      • Adreno 642L
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G
    • 2x cores @2.3GHz + 6x cores @1.8GHz
    • Adreno 618 GPU

RAM & Storage

  • 6GB/8GB RAM
  • 128GB/256GB internal storage
  • microSD card slot (up to 1TB)
  • 6GB + 128GB
  • 8GB + 256GB
  • 4GB + 128GB
  • 6GB + 128GB
  • 8GB + 256GB

Battery & Charging

  • 5,000mAh battery
  • 25W Super Fast Charging
  • No charger in box
  • 4,500mAh
  • 25W fast wired charging
  • 15W charger included
  • 4,500mAh
  • 25W fast wired charging
  • 15W charger included

Security

In-display fingerprint scanner

In-display fingerprint scanner

In-display fingerprint scanner

Rear Camera(s)

  • 64MP f/1.8 Main (with OIS)
  • 12MP f/2.2 Ultra-wide
  • 5MP f/2.4 Depth sensor
  • 5MP f/2.4 Macro
  • Primary: 64MP IMX686 f/1.8, OIS, AF, tetra-binning
  • Secondary: 12MP f/2.2, ultra-wide, FF
  • Tertiary: 5MP f/2.4, macro, FF
  • Quaternary: 5MP f/2.4, depth sensor, FF
  • Primary: 64MP Sony IMX686 f/1.8, OIS, AF, tetra-binning
  • Secondary: 12MP f/2.2, ultra-wide, FF
  • Tertiary: 5MP f/2.4, macro, FF
  • Quaternary: 5MP f/2.4, depth sensor, FF

Front Camera(s)

32MP f/2.2

32MP f/2.2, FF

32MP f/2.2, FF

Port(s)

  • USB Type-C
  • No headphone jack
  • USB Type-C
  • 3.5mm headphone jack
  • USB Type-C
  • 3.5mm headphone jack

Audio

Stereo speakers

Stereo speakers

Stereo speakers

Connectivity

  • 5G
  • LTE
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4G+5GHz)
  • Bluetooth 5.1
  • 5G
  • Bluetooth 5.0
  • 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual-band WiFi
  • NFC
  • MST
  • GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo
  • LTE
  • Bluetooth 5.0
  • 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual-band WiFi
  • NFC
  • MST (Not available in India)
  • GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo

Software

One UI 4.1 (Android 12)

One UI 3.1 based on Android 11

One UI 3.1 based on Android 11

Other Features

  • Four years of major OS upgrades
  • Five years of security updates
  • IP 67 water and dust resistance
  • Samsung SmartThings Find
  • IP 67 water and dust resistance
  • Samsung SmartThings Find

As you can see, all three phones in this comparison are not significantly different from each other. Even the newer Galaxy A53 5G looks more or less the same on paper which means it's just a marginal upgrade, at best, and a side-grade and arguably a downgrade when looked at more practically. Let's dive deep into individual sections to see how they go head to head.

Design and build quality

Galaxy A53's all screen design.

There are only a few differences between the new Galaxy A53 5G and the older Galaxy A52 models, and it starts with the design. The design is also largely the same and you'll be hard-pressed to find the differences between these phones. But if you look closely, the new Galaxy A53 5G features a slightly tweaked camera housing. The camera bump, instead of protruding abruptly like on many phones, is eased into the back of the phone with a slight curvature. It's similar to how OPPO does it in the Find X3 Pro and the X5 Pro, but the Galaxy A53 5G's curvature isn't as pronounced.

Galaxy A53

The Galaxy A53 5G is also ever-so-slightly shorter and thinner, but that's about it in terms of the physical design differences. The Galaxy A53 5G measures 8.1mm in thickness while the A52 models measure 8.4mm. They all weigh the same, though. All phones in this comparison also have a plastic back and Gorilla Glass 5 on the front covering a 6.5-inch AMOLED panel. They're all available in some fun color options including black, white, and blue, but there are some exclusives like the 'Awesome Mint' in case of the Galaxy A52 5G and 'Awesome Orange' in case of the Galaxy A53 5G. You can check out our Galaxy A52 colors and Galaxy A53 5G colors articles to check out the available colorways of each of these devices.

Samsung Galaxy A52 4g in Awesome blue on blue sofa

All these phones also have an in-display fingerprint scanner, a punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera on the display, and IP67 certification. It is, however, worth pointing out that the new phone in this comparison misses out on the headphone jack while all the Galaxy A52 models had one. The lack of a headphone jack is still somewhat of a deal-breaker for many shopping for a mid-range phone, so this one might go in favor of the older Galaxy A52 phones.

All things considered, it's safe to say that all these phones follow a very similar design language. You'd probably have a hard time distinguishing between them if it wasn't for the slightly tweaked camera module. The fact that all these phones have the same design isn't necessarily a deal-breaker. In fact, it's better as it narrows down the points of differences, thereby making it somewhat easier to make a purchase decision.

Samsung Galaxy A53 vs Samsung Galaxy A52: Display

Galaxy A53 display.

The Samsung Galaxy A53 5G and A52 5G are virtually the same when it comes to the display too. We're looking at a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED FHD+ panel with support for up to 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ certification. It's also protected by Gorilla Glass 5, as we mentioned earlier. Samsung is using the same display for the Galaxy A52s too. Only the 4G variant of the Galaxy A52 features a lower 90Hz refresh rate panel instead of 120Hz. All of them, however, have the same peak brightness of up to 800 nits and a max resolution of 2400 x 1080. Samsung is known to offer good displays on its devices. As we mentioned in our Galaxy A53 5G hands-on piece, this panel looks good for the most part. The colors pop, and even the bezels surrounding the display are thin enough to make the phone look modern.

Samsung Galaxy A52 review Awesome blue 6GB 128GB super amoled 90Hz display

Internal hardware

One of the biggest differences between the new Galaxy A53 5G and the older Galaxy A52 models has to do with what lies inside these phones -- the chipset. Samsung is using the in-house Exynos 1280 processor for the Galaxy A53 5G. This is the company's mid-range octa-core chipset that's fabricated on the 5nm node. For those of you who are curious, it features two performance-oriented Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.4GHz and power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores running at 2GHz. It's paired with the Mali-G68 MP4 GPU to handle the graphics.

As for the older Galaxy A52 models, there are a few different chipsets at play. The Galaxy A52s is powered by the Snapdragon 778G chipset whereas the Galaxy A52 5G is rocking the Snapdragon 750G. The 4G variant of the Galaxy A52 gets a Snapdragon 720G chip. The SD778G handily beats all the other chips mentioned in many resource-intensive tasks including gaming. We've also seen the Snapdragon 778G perform better than the Exynos 1280 across many benchmarking applications including Geekbench 5, Antutu, and more. The Exynos 1280 does have a slight advantage in the power-efficiency department against the SD778G, but we think you're better off getting the A52s if you like to frequently push your phone to its performance limits, simply because the Snapdragon 778G is a fantastic chip.

Going against the Snapdragon 750G, the Exynos 1280 once again misses out on the performance front. The performance difference may not be as significant as it is when compared with the SD778G, but the 750G outputs better multi-core results overall, thereby giving it a slight edge across many workloads including gaming. The Snapdragon chip once again takes a hit on the efficiency front as we're looking at 8nm versus 5nm transistors with the Exynos 1280 SoC. Even going against the Snapdragon 720G that's powering the 4G variant of the Galaxy A52, the Exynos 1280 barely manages to keep up. There's not a significant difference between the two when it comes to benchmark numbers including both single-core and multi-core tests. This means you shouldn't notice a significant difference between the two as long as you're not pushing these phones to their limits.

The chip situation on the Galaxy A5x series is quite interesting, and older devices start to make more sense at lower prices.

With all that being said,  it's safe to say that the Snapdragon 778G-powered Galaxy A52s is the better phone overall when it comes to performance. It packs the better performing chip out of all phones in this comparison, which is weird considering the Galaxy A53 5G is the newer device. The Snapdragon 750G-powered Galaxy A52 also beats the Galaxy A53 5G across many workloads, so we once again recommend picking up the older phone if you care about the raw performance. The Exynos 1280 is ever-so-slightly better than the Snapdragon 720G in terms of the overall performance and efficiency, but there's no denying that you might be able to buy the 4G variant of the Galaxy A52 so significantly less money compared to the Galaxy A53 5G -- and depending on how your 5G situation is looking in your region, it might make more sense to stick to 4G for another few years.

If you observe this comparison from a performance perspective, then the Galaxy A53 5G starts to look like a downgrade from the Galaxy A52s that launched before it. The Snapdragon 778G is a solid chipset in this space and you simply can't go wrong with that even in 2022.

The base variant of the Galaxy A53 5G, A52 5G, and the A52s 5G, all come with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The Galaxy A52 4G packs 4GB RAM instead of 6GB for the base variant but it keeps the 128GB storage. You can configure all these devices with a maximum of 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, so no differences there. It's also worth mentioning that all the Galaxy A-series devices in this comparison also support expandable storage via a microSD card. You can add as much as 1TB of storage, which is pretty good. This is true for the 4G variant too.

The Samsung Galaxy A53 5G also gets a sizable upgrade in the battery department. It touts a 5,000 mAh battery over the smaller 4,500 mAh unit found inside the Galaxy A52 phones. The additional capacity, coupled with Exynos 1280's power efficiency chops should easily allow the Galaxy A53 5G to last for an entire day, even with heavy use. The rest of the phones in this comparison have a 4,500 mAh battery. As you can see in the specifications sheet, all the Galaxy A-series phones in this list also support 25W fast charging.

That being said, none of them are bundled with the necessary 25W charger inside the box. Heck, the new Galaxy A53 5G doesn't even come with a slower 15W power adapter, which is yet another downgrade from the Galaxy A52 phones that launched before it. This is a bit of a bummer, especially in the mid-range segment as there aren't too many phones that ship without a charger in the box in this price range. So is this really an upgrade in favor of the Galaxy A53 5G? Not really if you don't have a spare charger since that's simply asking you to spend more money on top.

Samsung Galaxy A53 vs Samsung Galaxy A52: Cameras

Galaxy A53

Whether you buy the Galaxy A53 5G or the older Galaxy A52 devices, you're going to get the same camera setup. All these devices feature a quad-camera setup consisting of a 64MP f/1.8 shooter with OIS, a 12MP ultra-wide, and 5MP depth and macro cameras. Notably, you also get the same 32MP f/2.2 selfie shooter that rests on the center-aligned punch-hole cutout on the display. While we're not looking at a hardware-level improvement in the camera department, you can expect them to deliver a reliable camera experience overall. They may not be on par with flagship-grade optics, but Samsung's mid-range camera game is pretty commendable. You might want to take a look at our Google Pixel 5a review if you're on the lookout for some other reliable camera options in this price range.

Samsung Galaxy A52 review Awesome blue 6GB 128GB camera

We're adding some camera samples captured using the Galaxy A53 5G below, so be sure to take a look at them. Overall, we'd say it takes some decent photos for a phone in this price range. The main camera produces some Instagram-ready pictures, while the ultra-wide camera is pretty decent too. In terms of video, the Galaxy A53 can shoot video up to 4k/30However, it is worth noting that there's no stabilization, so you might want to invest in a tripod.

Samsung Galaxy A53 5G camera samples

Samsung Galaxy A53 vs Samsung Galaxy A52: Which one should you buy?

Samsung's Galaxy A-series has a ton of devices in the mid-range segment, but it's safe to say that they're all closely related to each other. However, there are a couple of reasons why we think you should one device over the other. You're not going to notice much of a difference when it comes to the design and the build quality of these phones. You'll probably have a hard time distinguishing between them which goes to show how similar these phones look. But if you're looking at these phones from a performance perspective, then we think the Galaxy A52s is a better pick overall thanks to the Snapdragon 778G chipset.

The Galaxy A52s is the better phone to purchase out of the lot

Not only does the A52s beat the older Galaxy A52 devices that came before it, but it also trumps the Exynos 1280-powered Galaxy A53 5G in this comparison. The A52s may not last as long as the Galaxy A53 5G would on a single charge due to a slightly bigger battery, but the A52s makes up for it with a charger inside the box. Samsung's new Galaxy A53 5G misses out on that and the 3.5mm headphone jack too, which is yet another downgrade compared to the older phones

The only real advantage of buying the Galaxy A53 5G would be the software. The Galaxy A53 5G launched with One UI 4.1 out of the box that's based on Android 12. The Galaxy A52, being a year old, launched with One UI 3.1 based on Android 11 out of the box. Samsung is promising an additional year of OS updates and security patches for the Galaxy A53 5G, which means it's guaranteed to receive more updates than the Galaxy A52s. So if you are someone who prioritizes software support while making a purchase decision, then the A53 5G makes a very good case here.

The pricing, as we've mentioned in all of our comparisons, also plays a huge role in deciding which phone to buy. Samsung is offering the Galaxy A53 5G for $450 right now in the US. That's lower than Galaxy A52 5G's launch price of $500. You can easily buy the A52 5G for $450 or slightly less, even though Samsung is no longer selling it officially on its web store. The Galaxy A52s 5G, on the other hand, can be had for around $350 right now in the US, making it the most lucrative option in this comparison. It may not be the newest Galaxy A-series phone on the market, but it makes more sense to pick it up over the Galaxy A53 5G for many reasons. With the Galaxy A52s, you get a more powerful chipset with support for 5G, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a standard charger inside the box. It's a no-brainer.

All that for a considerably smaller price tag makes the Galaxy A52s 5G the better pick. The Galaxy A52 4G is also a good option to consider for those who don't want 5G connectivity on their phone. It comes close to matching the general performance of the Galaxy A53 5G and it also keeps the headphone jack and comes with a standard charger inside the box.

Picking the right Galaxy A-series phone might be a little overwhelming given the sheer amount of options that are available right now. But we hope this comparison makes it a little less jarring now. The new Galaxy A53 5G isn't exactly an upgrade over the older phones, so we think you're better off buying the Galaxy A52s 5G or even the Galaxy A52 5G/4G, especially considering the fact that you're likely to stumble upon an unmissable deal for those older phones. You're probably not going to find as many deals on the newer phone on the market now, but you can always check out our best Galaxy A53 5G deals to see if you can save some money. And depending on the one you buy, you can stop by our collection of the best Galaxy A53 cases and the best Galaxy A52 cases to buy from protective gear for your new phone.

The Galaxy A53 is one of the best mid-range phones, delivering high-quality smartphone experience at a great price.
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G

The Galaxy A53 offers a modern design, large screen and battery at an affordable price

The Galaxy A52 5G is one of the best budget Android phones you can buy right now, packing a 120Hz screen and 5G connectivity
Samsung Galaxy A52

The Galaxy A52 5G is one of the best budget Android phones you can buy right now, packing a 120Hz screen and 5G connectivity

The Galaxy A52s is one of the budget offerings in the A series from Samsung that improves on the A52 5G.
Samsung Galaxy A52s

The Galaxy A52s is one of the budget offerings in the A series from Samsung that improves on the A52 5G.

So which Samsung Galaxy A-series smartphone are you planning to buy? Let us know by dropping a line in the comments below.