The Samsung A53 5G is a decent 5G smartphone for $699. It will appeal to those with the cash and who want a well-known brand with a long Android update policy.
We use the term ‘decent’ because while there is nothing wrong with the phone (put positively – everything is right), in some respects, the Samsung A53 5G is not quite as good as the 2021 A52 it replaces. And at the price, it is pretty well the only 2022 phone in the $600-699 bracket.
That begs the question of whether you may get better value in its $599 A33 5G or its $799 A73 5G. Looking at the specs alone, the A33 seems mighty tempting. The A73 has stronger competition with the OPPO Find X5 Lite with 256GB storage (OPPO Find X5 Lite – $799 uber-value (review). Or, for that matter, find the extra and go for the $999 Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, Fan Edition (review).
We issue a strong warning that you must buy a genuine model with Australian firmware if you want to use 5G. Read Don’t buy a grey market phone to ensure you get the Australian model.
It is easy to identify the Australian version – usually, under Settings, About Phone, Legal Information, and Regulatory compliance, you will see the Australian RCM C-tick mark.
You can see the Samsung A53 5G models and those not to buy in the table at the end.
It is now in two parts – a five-minute overview for most readers and a separate 300+ line database-driven spec including over 70 tests to back up the summary. It also helps us compare different phones and features.
I don’t mind plastic backs (or glastic or polycarbonate – whatever you call it), but this matte Awesome Blue is more like a light sky-blue, and it looks inexpensive. It is not so much a fingerprint magnet as a greasy finger magnet.
The chrome-like plastic frame houses the power and volume rocker buttons on the right side. It makes it look thicker than belies the 8.1mm thickness.
The Samsung A53 5G has a 6.5” bright sAMOLED display with accurate colour gamut coverage of the 8-bit, 16.7m colour spectrum. It is daylight readable and flat.
The screen is 60Hz or 120Hz – it is not adaptive. The 120Hz knocks about 30% from battery life in typical use and closer to 50% in streaming video. For 99% of the time, leave it at 60Hz.
While Samsung claims (on paper) that it is 2.1x faster and has more AI than the Qualcomm it replaced in the A52 5G, we just don’t see it in the tests. If anything, it feels slower. We suspect this is more about Samsung trying to achieve better battery life.
Storage is slower at 468/88Mbps – the A52 scored 513/267, but it is fast enough to record 4K@30fps. As usual for Samsung, you can use OTG to access an external SSD, but it won’t run the speed test.
With the caveat that we are not gamers – it is only capable of 1080p games at medium or less frame rates.
It drops 16% over 15 minutes – reasonable thermal management.
This has Wi-Fi 5 AC HE80, which means it maxes out at 433Mbps. Signal strength on the 5GHz band was good to 10m.
It has USB-C 2.0 and a maximum data transfer rate of 480Mbps which means <30MBps speeds.
GPS is accurate to about 3m, which is fine for in-car navigation.
It supports all Australian 4G and 5G sub-6Ghz and low bands. The antenna signal strength is good, but it only finds one tower, which seems standard for Exynos modems. The antenna is at the bottom of the device, and your hand can interfere with the signal.
It is only for city and suburbs where you have good tower coverage.
Overall, we expect it will require daily charging (at 60Hz screen refresh).
First, 120Hz shortens the battery life by 20-50%, depending on the app and use. Leave it on 60Hz. The most typical indicative test is PC Mar 3 Battery, and it gives 13 hours and 52 minutes of screen on time.
Second, it does not come with a charger inbox. If you buy a Samsung 25W charger (read Do you want a charger with that? The demise of inbox accessories (opinion) it will take about 1.5 hours to charge. The trick here is that it charges at 9V/2.77A/24.93W, which the genuine charger supports – many third-party ones do not. A standard 5V/3A charger takes nearly 4 hours as it only charges at 10W.
If you buy any other charger, ensure that it supports PD 3.0 and that you buy a 3W (preferably 5W) cable.
It has no low/mid-bass and a gradual building of high bass. It has strong mid and treble but weak high-treble. That means it misses the most critical bass where you get all the musically important bass and a sense of sound direction – a reality as though the music were there. The soundstage is narrow and not helped by a perceptible imbalance to the bottom speaker.
Bluetooth supports SBC, AAC, LDAC and Samsung scalable (for Samsung buds) codecs but not Qualcomm aptX. It gives good volume and left/right separation.
Some readers have suggested we are too picky, but we know good sound How to tell if you have good music (sound signature is the key – guide.
Nothing! There is even a video about it.
Samsung’s policy makes owning one better and more secure for longer. That means Android 12 may reach Android 15!
One UI 4l1 is a light touch over Android and allows for its Samsung customisations. But we are growing more concerned at the need to sign up for a Samsung Account to access anything in its Theme or Galaxy App store – it is bad enough that Google knows all about us.
Our advice is not to use Samsung apps where they substitute for Google ones, especially if you brand swap and want seamless changeovers.
It is the same camera setup as the 2021 A52 – 64+12+5+5 and a 32MP selfie. Due to the COVID related parts shortage, the sensors can come from Samsung or Sony (our unit).
We can see an improvement over the A52 mainly due to the increased Exynos A1 post-processing power.
Daylight: It would be hard to take a better picture – good detail and slightly saturated colour
Zoom: Excellent results with 1, 2, 5 and 10x zoom with good HDR
Ultrawide: I dislike seeing different colours from the primary lens, but overall, it is not a bad image
Office light: Excellent detail and colour
Bokeh: Try as we may, both the foreground and background were blurred (bokeh), and the mid area was in focus. This is an issue with firmware and the AI looking for a face.
Low-light – <40 lumens: The image was detailed and the colours quite good, but it obviously struggled, causing a lot of noise. The Night mode improved detail and reduced noise at the expense of colours.
Video: With OIS and EIS, 4k@30fps is stable and sharp. The colours are good. Sound recording was adequate to about 5 metres.
The A-series is Samsung’s bread, and butter as only a small percentage of the world can afford its S-series. The 2021 A52 came of age, and it is a shame that the Samsung A53 5G is, in several ways, not quite as good. But hey, it is a crazy COVID influenced world and the move to Samsung Exynos over Qualcomm was probably more about assuring supply.
So, it is a safe, solid, slightly bland option if you have $699, but its real competition is from its 2021 A52, A33 and A73 because there is not enough user experience difference to count.
Given it is virtually alone in the $600-699 segment, it is the class leader there. It also meets or exceeds every test (except GFX Bench Manhattan, which usually happens with Exynos chips). And Samsung’s OS upgrade and security update policy and its 24-month warranty – it rates well.
The only slight blemish – the Exynos chip is not a great performer, Wi-Fi 5 (not 6), its phone signal strength is for city/suburbs where you have good tower coverage and np charger.
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