Samsung Galaxy A50 (S506DL) Review: Good display and solid design

Read this thorough Samsung Galaxy A50 (S506DL) review to find out why this is one of the best mid-range Android phones in the market.

Samsung Galaxy A50 was released in 2019 as a mid-range smartphone. The mid-range category is getting more and more competitive every year. Chinese manufacturers battle against big names like Samsung to eat their market share.

Samsung itself is famous for releasing a bunch of mid-range smartphones in a year. The brand usually releases different types of phones which cater to various user behaviors. Some phones are marketed to selfie maniacs, some to power users, and many more.

Samsung Galaxy A50 (S506DL) kind of sits in the middle ground. The A-series is known for having some features we can find in Samsung’s flagship phones while still retaining the affordability. Samsung also sometimes makes the A-series as a guinea pig to test out their new technology.

If you are curious to find out what Samsung has more in store, read this following Samsung Galaxy A50 review.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Key Specs

Samsung Galaxy A50 (S506DL) specifications:

• Weight: 166g
• Dimensions: 159 x 75 x 7.7mm
• OS: Android 9.0
• Screen size: 6.4-inch
• Resolution: 1080 x 2340
• CPU: 2.3GHz Octa-core, Samsung Exynos 9610
• RAM: 4GB
• Storage: 64GB
• Battery: 4,000mAh, Non-removable
• Rear camera: 25MP + 8MP + 5MP
• Front camera: 25MP

Samsung Galaxy A50 Design

Our first impression of the Samsung Galaxy A50 was this phone is lighter compared to phones with similar price tags. The design is not one of a kind but it gives a fancy appearance. You may find this phone looks similar to other A and M series phones. You can get the solid color variants or the rainbow-like gradient styles, depending on your taste.

The body is made from plastic and probably that is why this phone weighs only 166 grams. The phone’s back cover is prone to scratches and fingerprints. You probably want to buy a hard case to protect the body. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy A50 is comfortable to hold.

On the front, there is a waterdrop notch which houses a selfie camera. While the bezels at the sides and top are thin, the chin area is far from being bezel-less. In fact, it is quite large. The phone has rounded edges and looks trendy. Its 84.9% screen-to-body ratio still gives a pleasant appearance.

You can find the volume rockers and a power button on the right side. On the left side, there is a SIM card tray that also has a dedicated microSD card slot. The bottom area of the phone houses a USB-C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a speaker.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Display

Samsung Galaxy A50 has a 6.4-inch display with 1080 x 2340 resolution. The screen ratio is 19.5:9 due to the notch. Samsung uses an AMOLED panel for this phone which is probably one of the best displays out there. Samsung is best known for producing superb mobile screens for its phone catalogs and other manufacturers, including Apple and Google.

The screen uses Gorilla Glass 3 to protect it from unwanted scratches and bumps. Samsung Galaxy A50’s display is vibrant and the colors pop out although some may find it oversaturated. There are options to modify the color temperature.

The display has 16M colors and the pixel density of 403 ppi. Unfortunately, the phone does not have HDR technology. Despite that, videos still look absolutely fantastic.

The media viewing experience is satisfying. High-definition videos look sharp and produce accurate colors. The AMOLED panel also provides deeper black colors and higher contrast levels. The phone’s display is still readable when you carry it around on a hot sunny day. Viewing angles are great as well.

The always-on display helps a lot as the phone does not have an LED notification light. You are allowed to disable it or customize it according to your liking.

Read also:

• Alcatel TCL A2X Review: Affordable and covering all the bases
• BLU View Mega (B110DL) Review: Big display phone for casual users

Samsung Galaxy A50 Camera

Samsung Galaxy A50 has three rear-facing cameras, which consist of a 25MP main camera, an 8MP ultrawide camera, and a 5MP depth sensor camera. The cameras are lined up vertically and there is a single LED flash below them.

The camera menu is exactly the same as on other Samsung’s mid-range phones. The viewfinder is relatively clean as well. You are allowed to choose which camera you want to use. To modify the settings, you only have to swipe and drag the sliders.

The results are above average, especially as social media posts. For a 25MP main camera, the photos tend to lack details. In order to compensate for that, the phone uses its algorithms to sharpen the images but it gets too aggressive sometimes.

The photos we took sometimes look artificial and have a watercolor effect. But when it takes photos properly, the colors are accurate and the dynamic range is excellent, especially when you turn on HDR mode.

Low-light images are often disappointing. It is almost guaranteed that you will encounter a lot of noise. Photos tend to look dark too even when you enable the LED flash and the phone does not have a night mode.

The front-facing camera is decent and the photos are worth posting on social media. Then again, the photos tend to have fewer details compared to phones at this price range.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Storage

The Galaxy A50 has two variants of storage, 64GB, and 128GB. These variants are common in every recent phone regardless of the price range. Both variants are also expandable since the phone has a dedicated microSD slot. Another positive thing is this phone uses Universal Flash Storage (UFS), which has 2x faster data transfer speed than eMMC.

If you are the type of person who likes to hoard files in a phone, uploading your files to the cloud may be a good option. There are a lot of good cloud services these days which offer various benefits depending on your plan.

Read also: Samsung Galaxy A50 User Manual (TracFone)

Samsung Galaxy A50 Performance

Samsung Galaxy A50 employs 2.3GHz Exynos 9610 with eight cores. The chip is comparable to Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 and 675. Furthermore, the chip is supported by 4 or 6GB of RAM depending on the variant. This Samsung Galaxy A50 review finds that this phone is truly a mid-range phone.

The Exynos 9610 allows you to use the phone as a daily driver smoothly. It can run basic tasks and some demanding apps easily. This phone is pretty fast for its price tag. Animations and transitions between screens are steady.

We almost never noticed any lag or hiccup except when opening a few apps at the same time. Multitasking is seamless although sometimes the apps in the background need to reload when you revisit them.

The Galaxy A50 comes with One UI 2.0 based on Android 9.0 (Pie). The operating system is upgradable to Android 10. The One UI receives rave reviews from critics and users.

People find it easy to navigate through the menus despite it not being a stock Android. Some even think it is better than unmodified Android software. The interface is clean and minimalistic. It is easy to use for people of all ages.

This phone is secured by an in-display optical fingerprint scanner. Sadly, the scanner takes seconds to unlock the phone and the accuracy is disappointing. The response time is a lot slower than a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner.

The Galaxy A50 has an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a proximity sensor, and a compass. The phone does not have either an IP67 or IP68 rating so you have to be careful of splashes and dust.

Aside from Google Assistant, the phone also has Bixby. Bixby is a virtual assistant developed by Samsung. You can interact with it using your voice, texts, and taps to carry out different tasks. Although it is not as intelligent as Google Assistant, Bixby is worth checking out. You can simply set your power button to launch Bixby.

What does Bixby do? The virtual assistant can provide you with information about the weather and take notes for the upcoming meeting. It also can help you pair your phone with other devices or play the next song just by saying it out loud. Lastly, Bixby has a feature called ‘Routines’ which is helpful to automate your daily phone usage.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Connectivity

This phone supports 4G LTE for its connectivity. As long as you are in your carrier’s network coverage, you can browse the internet easily. The phone does not have 5G bands but it is understandable due to its price tag.

This phone employs Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and it can act as a mobile hotspot. If you want to transfer files or pair your phone to a wireless headphone, there is Bluetooth 5.0 available.

Luckily, the Tracfone version of this device also has NFC. As a mid-ranger, the Galaxy A50 has everything a phone needs in terms of connectivity.

By the way, for an ultimate experience, you can pair this phone with one of Tracfone new Unlimited Plans.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Battery

Samsung Galaxy A50 is powered by a 4,000 mAh battery, which is the standard for a mid-range phone nowadays. On paper, the battery can last through the day or even more, depending on your usage pattern.

The phone supports fast charging and Samsung provides an adaptive fast charger. It took about 2 hours to charge our unit from 20% to 100%. It is actually not that fast compared to other phones with Quick Charge 3.0.

In order to conserve power, you can close applications to prevent it from running in the background. Sadly, the phone does not support wireless charging and it is probably due to its plastic body.

Is Samsung Galaxy A50 a good phone?

You can get Samsung Galaxy A50 for around $250 depending on the stores. Is the phone worth the price? This Samsung Galaxy A50 review believes that the phone has everything that a mid-range phone should. The phone has a solid body and looks expensive despite being made from plastic. The display quality is splendid and the media viewing experience is satisfying.

Although it is not consistent, its cameras still produce above-average photos. There is no night mode available but you can tweak your shots using an image processing software. Plus, the phone can run any game really well although there are some noticeable hiccups here and there.

After reading this review, also check out our guide on Tracfone Wireless. Tracfone is known to be a hassle-free no-contract mobile provider. It can be a perfect pair for Samsung Galaxy A50.