It’s that time of the year where Samsung unveils their successor to the A Series which is the premium mid-tier offerings that doesn’t just look good on paper but in terms of longevity, they are pretty much on par with their flagship counterparts. Thanks to Samsung Malaysia, we had the chance to take a look at the all-new Samsung Galaxy A33 and the Samsung Galaxy A53 and here’s what we have to say about them.
Samsung Galaxy A33
Whole Lot Better than the A32
While the A52 and the A72 were pretty much the only two among the three that was getting the nice treatment, the A32 was left behind and it was sad in many ways. But this year, the Samsung Galaxy A33 has got to be the most appealing A Series phone of the year because not only it gets all the goodness of the A53 but it also goes as far as getting 3 years of major updates and 1 extra year of Security updates. It doesn’t end there as the phone also gets IP67 certification, making this year’s A Series lineup very well protected.
As for the specification, the Samsung Galaxy A33 gets the following:
- 6.4” FHD+ Super AMOLED 90Hz Infinity-U Display
- Corning Gorilla Glass 5 with IP67
- Samsung Exynos 1280 Processor
- 8GB RAM and 128GB Storage
- Expandable via SD Card upto 1TB
- Quad camera: 48MP Main with OIS + 8MP Ultrawide + 5MP Depth + 2MP Macro
- Front Facing: 13MP Camera
- 5000mAh Battery
Samsung Galaxy A53
The in-betweener
The only way to differentiate the Samsung Galaxy A53 from the A33 is the notch as the A33 comes with an Infinity U display, to put it simply, a teardrop notch whereas the A53 gets a Infinity-O cutout, again, to put it simply: a punch hole. Otherwise, we get the same slew of colors as the A32, now it comes in this pastel colors that definitely is going to attract a lot of people for its chic-ness. That said, the A53 carries forward the same philosophy as the A52 as the amazing phone it was and gets the similar specification to the A33 to a point that it is more or less identical.
The specification for the Samsung Galaxy A53 are as follows:
- 6.5” FHD+ Super AMOLED 120Hz Infinity-O Display
- Corning Gorilla Glass 5 with IP67
- Samsung Exynos 1280 Processor
- 8GB RAM and 256GB Storage
- Expandable via SD Card upto 1TB
- Quad camera: 64MP Main with OIS + 12MP Ultrawide + 5MP Depth + 5MP Macro
- Front Facing: 32MP Camera
- 5000mAh Battery
You’ll notice that the differences between both the phones are: the storage, display and the camera which is marginal in our opinion and it’s quite alright really. But it depends if you need this bump really. Oh and both the phones no longer have headphone jack.
Overall
The feel of the Samsung Galaxy A33 and A53 is quite alright with giving a rather Samsung Galaxy S20 FE vibes – specifically with the peach color, in fact, it’s the similar color we reviewed with the S0 FE here. That said, the phone also performs quite alright when we tried it, but unfortunately since we didn’t have more time with it, we couldn’t tell much either. Camera on the other hand seems to be improved and this is again, something we have to put it to the test in a real-world condition.
The bezels on these newer generation A Series are wee bit thicker than I remember from the A32 and A52. Another thing that irks me is the notch of the Samsung Galaxy A33 which they could have gone for a punch hole display since last year it already had that teardrop notch anyway.
Pricing on the other hand…
The Samsung Galaxy A33 and A53 only comes in one variant, which is the specification we mentioned above but the price on the other hand, well, its more expensive than you think.
Samsung Galaxy A33 5G goes for RM 1,499 (vs. RM 999 A32) whereas the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G on the other hand goes for RM 1,849 (vs. RM 1,499 non 5G and RM 1899 5G). Those are big price differences and honestly, I am concerned as to how well it would sell but you must stay tuned for that – you know what to do.
