Samsung’s A53 5G smartphone could be this year’s best midrange heavy-hitter

Samsung announced the Galaxy A53 5G smartphone on March 17, bringing more performance to its popular mid-range lineup.

The A53 5G is visually identical to the A52 5G. It still features a rounded all-glass design crafted from Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5. The phone is IP67 water and dust resistant, and comes in white, black, blue and pink colour options. Currently, only the black version is available on Samsung’s Canadian site.

There is lots to love on its spec sheet. The Galaxy A53 5G uses an eight-core Exynos 1280 system-on-chip (SoC), has up to 8GB of memory and up to 256GB of storage. Samsung says that the new SoC features a 6 per cent faster CPU and a 33 per cent faster GPU. The phone also treats users to a 6.5-inch, 120Hz Super AMOLED display capable of 800 nits of brightness. The display features a variable refresh rate to save battery when it’s displaying static content.

For rear cameras, the A53 5G sports a 12MP ultra-wide camera, a 64 MP main camera, a 5MP macro camera and a time-of-flight depth sensor. On the front is a 32MP pin-hole selfie cam. Samsung has always been big on enhancing its phones with advanced software, and the A53 5G is no exception. The phone is embedded with many of the same AI features as its flagship S series, including Object Eraser, background blur portrait mode, and image stacking night mode.

A welcome improvement is the battery capacity. The A52 5G released last year already had a generous 4500mAh battery, but the A53 5G raises that to 5000mAh. Samsung says the larger cell can last up to two days on a full charge. Additionally, it can be refilled quickly thanks to its 25W quick charge feature.

Samsung promised to give the A53 5G four years of Android version upgrades and five years of security upgrades. This is perhaps one of the most important and welcome updates for a mid-range phone. Given the device’s quality hardware, and the fact that users are waiting longer to upgrade their devices, this improvement extends the device’s lifespan. Enterprise users will undoubtedly appreciate the security upgrades as well.

Flagship smartphones may dominate the headlines with their bleeding-edge features, but low to mid-range smartphones also move massive volumes. The price point has always been attractive to consumers, but the demand surged to a new high in 2020, when low-to-mid-end smartphones accounted for 60 per cent of market share in Q2 2020. In Q2 2021, Counterpoint Research reported that global shipments of mid-tier 5G smartphones grew 193 per cent year over year.

The Samsung Galaxy A53 5G is launching at $590 in Canada, a touch cheaper than last year’s Galaxy A52 5G despite the improvements. With an affordable price, solid features and build, and extended software support, the A53 5G is shaping up to be a top-notch option as a daily driver and a reliable work phone.

The device is available for preorder now in Samsung’s online store and is expected to ship on April 1.