Hands on: Samsung Galaxy A33 5G Review

First Impressions

Availability

Key Features

Introduction

Samsung has revealed two new mid-range phones that it hopes will rival affordable phones from the likes of Realme, Oppo and even Apple.

While the Galaxy A53 5G is the headline attraction here, the cheaper A33 5G still packs a number of features that aren’t always a given at this price.

Design and Screen

For a phone constructed mostly from plastic, the Galaxy A33 5G feels well built and durable. It looks good, too, especially in the tasteful peach colourway that I mostly used throughout the demo session.

Like the S22 and S22 Plus, the A33 5G has a camera module that blends well into the design. Colour-matching it to the rest of the device also helps it to fade into the background. I’m also pleased to see both an IP67 rating for splash protection and Gorilla Glass 5 on the front of the device – two additions that can often be ditched at this price.

The display isn’t quite as feature-rich as the one included with the A53 5G since it lacks the fast 120Hz refresh rate, but there’s still plenty to like.

The 90Hz refresh rate here is still smoother than the 60Hz panel on the iPhone SE 2022, and the use of a 6.4-inch OLED delivers colours with an extra pop, too. There’s a small notch at the top for the front camera and stereo speakers. For the price – and, admittedly, following only a short time with the phone – it seems like a very capable display.

Specs and Camera

It isn’t only the A33 5G’s display that impresses; the rest of the phone appears to follow on from the standard it sets. Inside, there’s an Exynos 1280, which is a 5G-capable chip built on the efficient 5nm architecture – just like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888.

Samsung talked up the skills of this chip during my briefing, and in my short time with the A33 5G, it felt like a super-quick and capable phone. However, I wasn’t able to test any games nor put it through any benchmarks. All this in-depth testing will come with our full review.

Supporting that chipset is a healthy 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. If that isn’t enough, you can expand it further (up to 1TB) with a microSD. Expandable storage – again, not something you’ll find on the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Also included is a hefty 5000mAh battery, which will no doubt deliver excellent battery life.

Note that the Exynos 1280 chipset doesn’t only help performance. A lot of the new features of this chip impact the camera, too. The upgraded neural processing unit (or NPU) powers much of the phone’s AI skills and these add extra features when it comes to photography. The benefits here should include an improved Night mode, Portrait mode and Portrait lighting – and, hopefully, even the processing of images.

In terms of the camera specs, you’ll find four sensors on the rear of the A33 5G along with a 13-megapixel unit on the front. That quad rear array comprises an 8-megapixel ultra wide, 48-megapixel main, 2-megapixel depth and 5-mepgapixel macro sensors.

I only had a short time with the cameras and so will save my final thoughts for our full review, but at first glance it does appear to be a capable setup, delivering those typical Samsung saturated colours.

Early Verdict

With a fast OLED screen, snappy chipset and an attractive design, the Galaxy A33 5G looks to be a very good mid-range phone at an even better price.

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Samsung Galaxy A33 5G specs

‹UK RRPManufacturerScreen SizeStorage CapacityRear CameraFront CameraVideo RecordingIP ratingBatteryFast ChargingSize (Dimensions)WeightOperating SystemRelease DateFirst Reviewed DateRefresh RatePortsChipsetRAMColoursSamsung Galaxy A33 5G£329Samsung6.4 inches128GB48MP + 8MP + 2MP + 5MP13MPYesIP675000 mAhYes74 x 8.1 x 159.7 INCHES186 GAndroid 12202116/03/202290 HzUSB-CExynos 12806GBPeach, Blue, Black, White›

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Peter Phelps15 hours agoMax Parker2 days agoMax Parker2 days agoPeter Phelps4 days agoPeter Phelps4 days agoJon Mundy1 week agoA 'hands on review' is our first impression of a product only - it is not a full test and verdict. Our writer must have spent some time with the product to describe an early sense of what it's like to use. We call these 'hands on reviews' to make them visible in search. However these are always unscored and don't give recommendations. Read more about our reviews policy.

Jargon buster

An abbreviation for milliampere-hour and a way to express the capacity of batteries, especially smaller ones in phones. In most cases the higher the mAh, the longer the battery will last but this isn’t always the case.Offering faster download and upload speeds when compared to 4G. Great for game streaming and HDR video playback. Not supported everywhere yet and speeds vary wildly.Types of displays that use self-lighting pixels to provide greater contrast and more vibrant colours than a typical LCD display, as well as sharper blacks.