“The Galaxy A50 loads up on high-end features such as triple rear cameras, and an in-screen fingerprint reader”

If there’s any doubt that the Korean giant Samsung is taking the Indian smartphone market lightly, then the brand’s Galaxy M10 and M20 smartphones change that. And if that seemed like a one-time affair, then the brand’s newly-announced smartphones in the A series quash all those suspicions. Both the Galaxy A30 and A50 are set to launch in the subcontinent soon, but we managed to get our hands on them before that itself at the ongoing MWC Barcelona. So without further ado, read on to find out why I came away impressed with the bigger sibling of the two, the Samsung Galaxy A50.

Just like the Samsung Galaxy A30 (first impressions), the A50 features a stunning design with display dominating the fascia and an attractive glass finish at the rear. While my demo unit was in classy white, you can also opt the phone in interesting colour options of red and blue. Interestingly, the rear panel actually is a polycarbonate, but features a glass-like finish that bounces off the light falling on it, which surely is a head-turner.

Other design attributes are largely similar to other Samsung offerings… dual-curved edges for good ergonomics, and the usual placement for the ports and controls.

While the M series duo featured an Infinity-V display, the new Galaxy A50 comes with a slightly smaller notch which Samsung has dubbed as the Infinity-U display. The panel measures 6.4-inches diagonally, and bears a full HD+ resolution with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. Thanks to impressive screen-to-body ratio, the handset doesn’t seem too large to handle and can be operated (relatively) easily even with a single hand.

The Galaxy A50 also comes with an under-display fingerprint scanner, which is quite impressive considering it still remains a novelty. Of course, you can unlock the smartphone with your face as well.

Under the hood, the Samsung Galaxy A50 ships with the in-house Exynos 9610 chipset. The octa-core SoC comprises two quad-core clusters running at 2.3GHz and 1.7GHz. Taking care of graphics requirements is Mali – GPU, while multitasking is handled by 4GB or 6GB RAM. The hardware is quite capable – and that shows. During my brief stint, the phone literally flew with anything thrown at it… navigation is smooth, apps open quickly and switching between them is instaneous too. The storage on the phone stands at 64GB, which can be increased further with the use of a microSD card.

Part of the reason for the smooth performance is the fact that the A50 comes with the brand’s new One UI, which runs atop Android 9.0 Pie. The interface is vastly different from the Experience UI, and not only looks good, but seems lighter on resources as well.

Another highlight of the Galaxy A50 is the fact that it offers a triple-camera setup on the back. Just like the Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 (review), the brand’s latest features a standard 25-megapixel f/1.7 shooter, coupled with a 5MP depth snapper and an 8MP telephoto camera. Considering that most smartphones in mid- to upper mid-tier are still shipping with dual rear cameras, the imaging capabilities of the A50 could act as a good differentiating factor. For selfies, the handset gets a high-res 25MP sensor hiding inside the notch.

Fuelling the Galaxy A50 is a 4,000mAh battery which comes with Fast Charging support.

If rumours are to be believed, then the new Samsung Galaxy A30 and A50 will be going on sale as soon as February 28th. While we have to wait and watch, it’s evident that the Chaebol has a robust roadmap for the Indian market to keep all its bases covered… the online-exclusive M series in the budget and mid-tier segment, the offline-only A range for catering to the budget and going up to the upper mid-range category and of course, the freshly-launched S10 series in the super-premium segment. Sadly, we don’t know the pricing of the A50, but if we’ve to guess then it should be priced between Rs 20,000 to 25,000, and for that price, it does seem like a loaded offering, especially for the offline buyer. We’ll be surely bringing you our review as and when the handset becomes available in India, so keep an eye for that.