Samsung's Galaxy A53 5G is a rerun in every way except one

It ditched the headphone jack

We’ve come a long way from the days when budget and mid-range phones were things to be avoided. Samsung’s A-series handsets have proven time and time again that you don’t need to spend upwards of a grand to get a really good phone that will last at least long enough to get through a carrier contract, if not much longer. Today, Samsung announced the Galaxy A53 5G, a generational upgrade to last year’s popular A52 5G.

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As recent leaks revealed, the A53 5G is almost visually indistinguishable from its predecessor, save for quietly dropping the headphone jack. Even the dimensions are close to matching, so it’s possible cases will fit the newer model, albeit a bit loosely.

Like the A52 5G, it’s packing a 6.5-inch FHD+ (2220x1080) Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 800 nits maximum brightness. The body is rated IP67 water and dust-resistant, and the display is covered in Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

Of course, most of the changes were made to the internals. Samsung is still being coy about the SoC (system-on-chip), but the announcement specifies an octa-core (2x2.4GHz + 6x2GHz) 5nm processor, which aligns with previous rumors that point to the new Exynos 1280. The A53 5G is shipping with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of built-in storage, and supporting a microSD up to 1TB. However, Samsung notes that the RAM and storage may vary by market and carrier, so variants are a possibility. And it’s quite obvious from the name that this is a 5G phone.

Battery life should be slightly improved over the A52 thanks to a bump up to 5,000mAh, and it still supports 25W Super Fast Charging adapters (sold separately).

Samsung isn’t making any changes to the camera package from the A52 5G. The main shooter is a 64MP f/1.8 camera with OIS, and it’s sitting alongside the same fixed-focus 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide and 5MP f/2.4 cameras, plus the 5MP depth sensor. There’s also a 32MP f/2.2 selfie camera hiding within the punch hole in the display.

As you would expect, the A53 5G ships with the most current software: Android 12 w/ One UI 4.1. Samsung is naturally sticking with its standard commitment to ship 4 generations of One UI and Android OS upgrades, and 5 years of security updates.

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Samsung also has a new set of strapped cases to go with the Galaxy A53 5G available in two colors: White with green strap, and navy with an orange strap.

The Galaxy A53 5G is launching at $449.99 with preorders opening today (March 17) on Samsung.com, and running through March 31. T-Mobile and Verizon will begin selling the A53 directly on March 31, followed the next day by AT&T, Samsung.com, and other retailers.

Cody Toombs (1449 Articles Published)

Cody makes software, writes words, photographs things, slings bottles, and does some odd assortment of other unrelated things. If he’s away from the computer for any length of time, he might be talking movies, concocting drink recipes, delivering unprepared speeches at weddings, or just doing something small for the world.

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