Samsung has a long list of phones across budgets, not just the Galaxy Note and S belonging to the higher-end market. The A and J brand are designed to cater to those who are more conscious about how much they want to pay for a handset.

The Samsung Galaxy A50 is the South Korean phone maker’s effort to offer more value for money.

At this price range, the phone is a solid offer. Users will have a modern screen, a long battery life, and a decent camera. However, launching a handset at this price range means Samsung puts it in head-on competition with Google’s Pixel 3a.

Let’s see if Samsung handset can beat Google’s budget smartphone.

Display

The Galaxy A50’s Super AMOLED display has a resolution of 2,340 x 1,080, quite similar to the 2,280 x 1,080 of Pixel 3a. While the screen of the Galaxy A50 is bright and sharp enough, it can hardly beat the contrast ratio of Google’s phone.

The satisfaction level is definitely high on either phone. In fact, the Pixel 3a has a Samsung-made screen so this isn’t something hard to understand. However, the A50 has the edge over Google’s phone in its bezel-less design, which makes viewing games, movies, and videos more enjoyable.

The immersion might come from anything but the audio. The phone has only one bottom-firing speaker and while the loudness is decent, everything sounds muffled.

Users might find sounds difficult to hear if the surrounding environment is too noisy, even when you turn the volume to max.

With Pixel 3a, you will have better and richer sound quality but the volume level is similar.

The headphone jack is still there so if you have no wireless earbuds, you can still plug in a pair of wired headphones. Dolby Atmos is supported on this phone and if you want the best experience possible, pair the handset with a Samsung-made Galaxy Buds.

Samsung Galaxy A50 isn’t without any flaw. The in-display fingerprint sensor isn’t very reliable, much like any of counterpart nowadays.

Users can switch to face unlock but it takes the phone a while to sign you in. Plus, this isn’t the most reliable unlocking method.

Processor

Under the hood, Samsung Galaxy A50 is powered by an Exynos 9610, paired with 4GB of RAM. The phone also has 64GB of onboard storage with a MicroSD card slot for anyone who need a bigger storage.

While the A50’s performance can satisfy most users, for more raw power, you should go for the Pixel 3a, which is quicker with app opening and switching.

While users will find stutters sometimes on the Galaxy A50, Pixel 3a shows none and it also runs more smoothly. For example, with a simple task like moving around on Google Maps, the A50 will show lag bit the Pixel 3a won’t.

Benchmark scores back these claims up. On 3DMark and AnTuTu, Pixel 3a easily beats the Galaxy A50. However, on Geekbench, it’s the other way around.

While its performance cannot rival that of Pixel 3a, Samsung Galaxy A50 is still a capable phone. While it doesn’t offer the smoothest possible experience, opening apps isn’t a problem for it.

Gamers might want to take a look at this phone too. PUBG: Mobile can still run on the phone at the highest settings. Lags and stutter while gaming is non-existent but bear in mind that the phone does heat up a bit.

With Pako: Forever and Alto’s Odyssey, the performance is solid too.

RAM

The phone has 4GB of RAM, not so much but still enough for gaming and day-to-day tasks.

Battery

The Galaxy A50 is powered by a massive battery of 4,000mAh. And under heavy use, the phone can last for a whole day.

With a day of messaging, gaming, taking photos, and streaming music, the phone loses 85% of its power at the end of the day.

With moderate use, expect to have around 40% left when you get home from work. And if you don’t use the handset much, two-day battery life is possible. Overall, you don’t have to worry too much about the power cell with this handset.

In a test when we played a YouTube video at 1080p with Wi-Fi and maximum brightness, the Galaxy A50 can hold up for 10 hours and 56 minutes. Pixel 3a is two hours short from this performance while the Pixel 3a XL can last for only a few minutes more.

The more expensive Samsung Galaxy S10 offers a similar performance so what you have with the Galaxy A50 is more than impressive.

With the USB Type-C port, charging is fast. However, there is no wireless charging here, as with most other smartphones in this price range.

Camera

On the rear, the Samsung Galaxy A50 sports a triple-camera setup, including a 25MP primary lens with an aperture of f/1.7, a 5MP depth sensor with an aperture of f/2.2, and an 8MP wide-angle lens with an aperture of f/2.2.

While photo quality is good, the camera app is a bit slow at first when you open it. Even when it is in use and you hit the shutter button, expect to see lags at times.

The HDR works well and helps the phone better handle high-contrast scenes. Photos pack enough details and since you have a wide-angle lens, playing around with the camera setup is fun.

There’s no optical image stabilization so you might want to stand very still in order to take a decent shot. The phone struggles with fast-moving objects too.

In low light, Galaxy A50 works well but the performance is no match for Google Pixel 3a and its AI-powered Night Sight.

Now move on to the wide-angle lens. The shots produced by this camera are distorted but its presence does make the phone seems more versatile than a regular budget phone.

The third camera isn’t a telephoto lens but a depth camera and it is in use only when the phone is about to take a portrait, which Samsung calls Live Focus. The mode adds bokeh around the subjects and if you have good lighting, photos turn out excellent.