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Samsung Galaxy A33 5G: In-depth analysis and opinion

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Don’t have time to read the full review? Go directly to the Conclusions section to know what I liked the most and what I liked the least about the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G.

As is well known, the Galaxy A series is Samsung’s most popular range and usually incorporates features that were previously reserved for the high-end Galaxy S.

This year, Samsung has introduced two new models of this family: Galaxy A53 5G and Galaxy A33 5G. We had the opportunity to analyze the Galaxy A53 5G a few weeks ago and now it is the turn of the most affordable of the family, the Galaxy A33 5G.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G arrives with a 6.4″ FullHD+ SuperAMOLED screen at 90 Hz, Exynos 1280 processor, 6/8 GB of RAM, 128/256GB of storage, 5G connectivity, 48MP f/1.8 (main) + 8MP f cameras. /2.2 (ultra wide angle) + 2MP f/2.4 (depth) + 5MP f/2.4 (macro), 13MP f/2.2 front camera and 5,000 mAh battery with 25W fast charge.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is officially available for €369 (128 GB), although you can already find something cheaper on Amazon Spain.

I have had the opportunity to test the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G for a few weeks, and here is my in-depth review.

Analysis Index

  • Design
  • Screen
  • Performance
  • Biometrics
  • Battery
  • Software
  • Multimedia
  • cameras
  • calls
  • Precio
  • Conclusions

design and construction

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G arrives with a large 6.4″ screen surrounded by not too narrow frames, although they are in line with what we can expect for its price. The thickness of the frames is fairly uniform, although the chin is thicker.

Samsung has opted for a front camera in a notch in the form of a drop of water, so it does not go as unnoticed as those that are in a hole in the screen.

In this sense, I like the look of the Galaxy A53 5G better with its hole-punch camera in the center.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G offers a screen-to-body ratio of 84% according to GSM Arena. It is a good value for a mid-range smartphone, although it is far from high-end devices, which make better use of space with thinner frames.

The screen is completely flat and is protected by Gorilla Glass 5, which, without being the most recent version of Corning’s coating (it is already in its seventh generation), should be enough to protect it from scratches and bumps.

The sides of the phone are plastic, as is the back cover. Samsung calls this material glasstic, which is glass-like plastic, but it doesn’t feel as good to the touch or look as sophisticated. In any case, it is a matter of taste, because it is also true that glass is delicate.

In the back, we find a camera module that has a considerable size — how could it be otherwise considering that it houses four cameras and the flash.

What makes this module different is that it is not an island placed on the back cover, but rather emerges from the surface without any fissures or sharp edges. This makes the camera module less of a “gummy” appearance but, on the other hand, makes the rear a bit of a “bland” uniformity.

The module protrudes from the surface and, being located in a corner, makes the phone dance when you touch the screen while resting on a table.

With a thickness of 8.1 mm and a weight of 186 grams, the Galaxy A33 5G is not a particularly bulky smartphone, at least by today’s standards.

Measurements (mm.)
Weight (gr.)
Screen
Screen to body ratio (*)

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 163 × 78 × 8,9 228 6,8″ 90%
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 165 × 76 × 8,9 227 6,8″ 90%
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra 164 × 75 × 8,4 234 6,8″ 91%
Xiaomi Mi 11 164 × 75 × 8,1 196 6,8″ 91%
Huawei Mate 40 Pro 163 × 76 × 9,1 212 6,8″ 94%
ASUS ROG Phone 5s 173 × 77 × 9,9 238 6,8″ 82%
iPhone 13 Pro Max 161 × 78 × 7,7 240 6,7″ 87%
Samsung Galaxy S21+ 162 × 76 × 7,8 200 6,7″ 88%
OPPO Find X3 Pro 164 × 74 × 8,3 193 6,7″ 90%
OnePlus 9T 163 x 74 x 8,7 197 6,7″ 90%
OnePlus 9 160 x 74 × 8,7 192 6,6″ 88%
Huawei P40 Pro+ 159 × 73 × 9,0 226 6,6″ 92%
Huawei P40 Pro 158 × 73 × 9,0 209 6,6″ 92%
I live X60 Pro 159 × 73 × 7,6 179 6,6″ 90%
Samsung Galaxy S22+ 155 × 76 × 7,6 195 6,6″ 88%
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G 160 × 75 × 8,1 189 6,5″ 85%
Sony Xperia 1 III 165 × 71 × 8.2 186 6,5″ 84%
⏩ Samsung Galaxy A33 5G 160 × 74 × 8,1 186 6,4″ 84%
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 156 × 75 × 7,9 177 6,4″ 85%
Samsung Galaxy S21 152 × 71 × 7,9 169 6,2″ 87%
Samsung Galaxy S22 146 × 71 × 7,6 167 6,1″ 87%
iPhone 13 Pro 147 × 72 × 7,7 204 6,1″ 86%
iPhone 13 147 × 72 × 7,7 174 6,1″ 86%
Sony Xperia 5 III 157 × 68 × 8,2 168 6,1″ 85%
Huawei P40 149 × 71 × 8,5 175 6,1″ 86%
Pixel 5 145 × 70 × 8,0 151 6,0″ 86%
iPhone 13 mini 132 × 64 × 7,7 141 5,4″ 85%

(*) Screen-to-body ratio data obtained from GSMArena

The new Galaxy A family is available in four colors with pastel shades — orange (Awesome Peach), blue (Awesome Blue), black (Awesome Black) and white (Awesome White) — and, in all cases, they are matte finishes. , which is good news to prevent fingerprints from being marked.

Next, we are going to review the four sides of the Galaxy A33 5G to see what elements we find.

On the right side we find an elongated volume button and the power button.

The left side is free of any buttons or slots.

At the top we only find the tray for a SIM card and a microSD card.

The bottom of the phone houses a USB-C connector and the speaker.

The large size of the screen and its elongated appearance makes it difficult to reach the top of the phone with one hand. Samsung improved the accessibility of the controls when it launched One UI and, as in the past, it incorporates a one-handed mode that allows the screen to be reduced in size and pushed to the side.

Samsung has given the Galaxy A33 5G IP67 resistance to dust and water, so there should be no problem if the smartphone accidentally gets wet.

Now, let’s not forget that water damage is not covered by warranty, so you shouldn’t use your phone to take underwater photos — I’ll confess, in the past, I’ve used a Samsung phone to take photos inside the swimming pool, but it is not a recommended practice since, with time and use, the protection against water degrades.

Screen

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G has a 6.4″ Super AMOLED panel with a 20:9 ratio and, as usual for Samsung, rounded corners. It is a fairly large screen size and, therefore, ideal for enjoying photos and videos, browsing web pages, spending hours looking at social networks or playing a game.

The resolution of the screen of the Galaxy A33 5G is Full HD + (2,400 x 1,080 pixels), a more than enough number of pixels, since the density turns out to be 411 dpi.

Although many high-end smartphones have Quad HD+ resolutions, in practice, Full HD+ resolution is more than enough for a screen of this size, as the pixels are indistinguishable to the naked eye. In addition, the lower the resolution, the greater the autonomy since the processor has to move fewer pixels.

The sub-pixel matrix of the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is of the PenTile type, as is usual in OLED panels.

This means that the sub-pixels are arranged in a diamond shape with more green sub-pixels than red or blue. Therefore, the effective resolution of the panel is lower than the nominal resolution when the screen displays blue or red colors.

Unfortunately, the display doesn’t support HDR content, so you won’t be able to enjoy high dynamic range content.

Samsung has incorporated the possibility of choosing a refresh rate of 60 or 90 Hz. The higher rate translates into a more fluid viewing experience, especially when scrolling in applications such as Chrome, Twitter, Instagram or the photo gallery. It doesn’t look as smooth as other phones that hit 120Hz, but it’s a significant jump from the usual 60Hz.

Now, we must bear in mind that, since we do not have an LTPO panel, it is a fixed refresh rate that does not adjust to the type of content displayed.

This means that if you choose the 90 Hz rate, the impact on the battery will be higher than in other smartphones that adapt the refresh rate to the content displayed by the application — for example, if you are reading an electronic book, do not you need a refresh rate of 90 Hz but 1 Hz is enough.

Samsung has incorporated a feature called Vision Protector that automatically adjusts blue light levels, based on the time of day, to reduce eye discomfort and help you fall asleep at night.

It offers two modes of operation: adaptive and personal. Adaptive mode automatically adjusts colors based on the time of day, with slight variations during the day and much warmer colors at night. In the personal mode, you can choose the color temperature that you like the most and the time in which it is applied (always, from dusk to dawn or your own schedule).

Next, we are going to carry out a set of tests with the professional CalMAN Ultimate software and an X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter to check the quality of the screen of the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G.

Samsung offers two display modes: Natural and Vivid. Natural mode reflects colors more naturally in the standard sRGB gamut used by almost all apps, while Vivid mode is intended to produce more vibrant colors.

In Natural mode, fidelity is excellent, as the average error when displaying sRGB content turns out to be very low, 1.8 dE (a value below 4 dE is considered excellent and above 9 is considered unacceptable), although the error maximum is 3.8 dE, somewhat higher.

The color temperature of the screen in Natural mode is 6,350ºK, very close to the reference level of 6,500ºK, which implies a pure white color without any color cast.

 

Natural Mode: Color fidelity vs. sRGB

Natural Mode: Gamut versus sRGB

Natural Mode: Color Temperature

Natural mode: Gamma

Screen test result in Natural mode

Vivid mode takes advantage of the full color gamut of the OLED panel, offering an impressive breadth of colors, covering approximately 100% of the DCI P3 color space.

Now, if we activate this mode, we will notice that the colors are over-saturated since the vast majority of Android apps are created thinking that the screen has been calibrated for the sRGB gamut.

That’s why Samsung calls this mode Intense. Although the colors are unreal, many people prefer to see more vibrant colors, even if they are not true to reality, than duller real colors. This mode also has another important advantage and that is that it is very useful when we use the phone in broad daylight since, under the sun, the colors lose strength.

The drawback of seeing oversaturated colors is that you can buy an item on the web (clothes, furniture, accessories, etc.) thinking that it is one color and be surprised when it arrives at your home. Or retouch photos on your mobile only to discover later when you send them to another person that the colors are not as vivid as you thought.

Due to the excess saturation of the colors that I have mentioned, the color fidelity of the Intense mode with respect to the sRGB gamut is not good. The average error turns out to be 6.2 dE and the maximum error turns out to be also high, 16.1 dE (the greatest color disparity occurs in the color red).

However, compared to the DCI P3 gamut, the fidelity turns out to be somewhat better with a mean error of 3.9 dE and a maximum error of 11.2 dE. The problem is that, as I mentioned, most Android apps target the sRGB color space.

The color temperature is 6,815ºK, above the reference level of 6,500ºK, which implies a bluish tone that is noticeable in applications with a white background, such as the browser. There is a certain tendency for manufacturers to make their screens blue since, instinctively, warm colors are associated with old things (like old paper) and cold colors with modern things.

Luckily, Samsung has added a white color adjustment called Color Balance that allows you to alter the level of red, green, and blue on the screen. In this way we can reduce the level of blue and get quite close to the ideal value of 6,500ºK.

Intense mode: Color fidelity with respect to sRGB gamut

Vivid Mode: Color Gamut vs. DCI P3

Vivid Mode: Color Temperature

Intense Mode: Gamma

Display test result in Vivid mode

The maximum brightness of the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G with auto-brightness off is around 363 nits, but turning on auto-brightness mode gives you access to high-brightness mode, which has allowed me to measure 670-nit brightness under strong light like the sun.

It is not a very high brightness compared to other more expensive smartphones, but in general you should not have problems seeing the screen in bright environments, except if you are in direct sunlight.

In this comparative graph, I reflect the maximum brightness value with the screen illuminated at 100% in white, since it is the usual way to measure and compare the brightness of a screen.

The black color is very deep, to the point that the colorimeter has been unable to measure any level of brightness. This means that the blacks are really black and the contrast is theoretically infinite. One advantage of such a deep black color is that when watching a movie, the black bands around the image appear completely black. Also, black pixels don’t drain battery power, so Android’s dark mode makes a lot of sense on OLED screens.

OLED screens have a peculiar behavior when viewed from an angle. On the one hand, the light emitters are closer to the surface, and this makes the contrast and brightness vary less when moving from the center, but on the other hand, the Pentile matrix causes the colors to be distorted.

In the case of the Galaxy A33 5G, the viewing angles are wide and the colors are hardly altered when looking at the screen from an angle.

Samsung has not included the Always On Display feature that causes the phone to display the time (with various clock layouts available) and date when the phone is locked.

It is a pity that Samsung has not included this functionality, which is present in the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G.

hardware and performance

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G arrives with Samsung’s Exynos 1280 mid-range chip, which debuts with this new family of smartphones. This chip has 2 high-performance Cortex-A78 cores at 2.4 GHz and 6 efficient Cortex-A55 cores, and is accompanied by a Mali-G68 GPU.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G comes with 6 GB of LPDDR4x RAM, which should be enough to offer a good multitasking experience, although other smartphones offer higher amounts.

With One UI 4, Samsung added RAM Plus functionality that allocates storage to be used as extra RAM, and with One UI 4.1, you can choose how much virtual RAM you want to use up to 6GB.

I’ve put the Galaxy A33 5G through some performance tests to see how it fares against other high-end phones, and I’ve included the results for each test below.

In the AnTuTu v9 benchmark, it has achieved a result of 392,767 points, a score that is not too high.

In the Geekbench 5 benchmark focused on processor performance, it has achieved 533/1822 points in the single/multi-core tests, which are again rather modest results.

In the PCMark 3.0 general performance test, it has obtained a good score of 10,942 points.

On the storage side, the phone performs quite poorly in AndroBench speed tests, especially in sequential read/write tests.

Next, we are going to see the results of the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G in various graphic tests to check the expected performance in games.

In the GFXBench test with traditional APIs, the phone has not achieved adequate results, without particularly standing out.

In GFXBench tests based on modern low-level, high-efficiency APIs (Metal/OpenGL and Vulkan), it also achieves tight results.

In the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited test, the phone has achieved a result that is not high at all.

To check the graphics performance on a daily basis, I have tested several demanding 3D games: Real Racing 3, Asphalt 9 and Call of Duty Mobile. Using GameBench software, I have been able to measure various performance parameters on these games in actual play.

Do you know GameBench Pro? GameBench Pro is the industry’s leading tool for measuring game performance on Android and iOS smartphones. If you want to know more, you can visit their website.

Somewhat irregular FPS rates are obtained in all three games, with significant variations throughout the game. In general, the three titles are perfectly playable, but the experience is not the best and, therefore, it is not a smartphone that I would recommend to those who spend time playing with the mobile.

GameplayFPS (medium)Stability FPSMin. FPS Min.-Max.%CPU

Asphalt 9 28 96% 21-31 15%
Real Racing 3 48 70% 29-68 13%
Call of Duty 45 85% 29-60 23%

(*) Game quality settings:

Asphalt 9: Graphics quality set to “default”
Real Racing 3: Default graphics quality.
Call of Duty Mobile: “Low” graphics quality and “Very High” frames per second by default.

In addition to punctual performance, it is important to know if the phone is capable of sustaining this performance over time or if it is reduced by the increase in processor temperature.

In the CPU Throttling test that measures the drop in CPU performance after 15 minutes of sustained load, the phone has obtained an improvable result since the performance is reduced by up to 84% in said period. This means that performance when running very demanding apps can suffer after long periods of use.

The 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test measures the change in graphics performance after 20 test runs.

In this test, the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G has obtained reasonably good results as the performance remains at 90% after 20 executions of the graphics test. This means that in graphics-intensive apps, such as games, you should not see a performance drop after long games.

In conclusion, the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G offers unremarkable results in performance tests. In fact, in all CPU and GPU tests, it falls behind the realme GT Master Edition, which sports the same Snapdragon 778G chip as the Samsung Galaxy A52s ( €310).

On a day-to-day basis, this means that, on occasion, a certain lag is perceived when moving through the apps, especially between pressing a button and the action taking place. This is noticeable, for example, in the Camera app, where switching between shooting or lens modes is not instantaneous.

There is also a certain delay when exiting an app by pressing the home button, switching from one app to another, clicking on a text field to bring up the keyboard, searching for an app, etc. It is not that it is a serious problem, but it lacks some power (or optimization) to perform well.

Luckily, I haven’t had any problems with multi-tasking, as the 6 GB of RAM has been able to keep several applications open in memory without them closing unexpectedly. Perhaps the RAM Plus virtual memory has helped at this point.

High-end smartphones tend to get quite warm under high load situations, such as when playing demanding 3D titles. In the case of the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G, I have measured temperatures on the surface of the phone of about 35ºC in the rear central area, which is not annoying at all.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is marketed in Spain in a single 128 GB storage variant. This storage is of the UFS 2.2 type, so it is not as fast as the one included in high-end smartphones.

In case you want to expand the storage, you can use the second SIM card tray to insert a micro-SD card up to 1TB.

The USB-C port is a USB 2.0 type and supports OTG, so you can plug in a USB-C key and access it like external storage. However, it does not support video output.

Regarding connectivity, the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is compatible with WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, but not with Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax).

The Galaxy A33 5G also supports Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity, NFC, various positioning systems (GPS, Galileo, Glonass, BeiDou), but does not have an FM radio.

In terms of cellular connectivity, the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is compatible with 5G networks, as its name suggests, although only in the Sub-6 band below 6 GHz.

Info: Difference between 5G connectivity type Sub-6 vs. mmWave

The spectrum used for 5G is divided into two bands: below 6 GHz (Sub-6) and above 24 GHz (mmWave).

The main difference between the two is speed and coverage. The Sub-6 band provides better coverage but top speeds are only 20 percent faster than 4G LTE, so it’s not that impressive.

The mmWave band offers a very high download speed (up to 10 Gbps) but the coverage is much worse, about 200 meters, so it may happen that your phone spends more time connected to 4G than to 5G, especially when you are inside a building.

This type of technology is designed for open spaces or areas with a high density of users where many antennas are installed. The lesser coverage of mmWave is the reason why operators want to fill cities with 5G antennas, so that there is always one with which you have direct line of sight.

In Spain, the only band that is available for 5G is sub-6GHz, so having a smartphone with 5G mmWave connectivity is useless today — at least until the corresponding frequency band is put out to tender.

In the United States, however, some operators have deployed these networks, and this is the reason why some smartphones offer access to 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) networks.

In the tests that I have carried out, the network speed both by cellular network and, especially, by WiFi, have left me wanting more.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G has reached a WiFi download / upload speed of 175 / 164 Mbps with a symmetrical fiber connection of 300 Mbps. Other smartphones manage to reach 300 Mbps without problems.

In the cellular connectivity test, I have measured speeds of around 59 Mbps download and 61 Mbps upload with Movistar’s 5G connection, although we already know that it is not the fastest.

Biometrics

Samsung has incorporated a fingerprint reader under the screen of the Galaxy A33 5G that allows you to unlock the phone comfortably by resting your finger on an area of ​​the screen.

To unlock the phone, simply place your finger on the area of ​​the screen where the reader is located even with the screen off. Since the Galaxy A33 5G doesn’t offer Always On Display, you have to memorize where the fingerprint reader is if you want to unlock it with the screen off.

Samsung has placed the fingerprint reading area in a comfortable place to reach with the finger, although it would not have been bad if it was placed a little higher.

In the tests that I have carried out, the unlocking is reliable, although it is not the fastest. It is important to hit the reading area with your finger, otherwise the fingerprint will not be recognized. It is also important that the finger is dry, since, with a wet finger, it takes longer or, directly, it does not work.

Samsung has also included a facial recognition system that uses a 2D image, so it’s not as secure as the 3D recognition on the iPhone or certain Android smartphones, nor does it work in the dark.

In any case, in my tests I have not been able to fool the system with a photograph of my face even in the fastest recognition mode that reduces security. It is also possible to choose whether the eyes must be open to unlock, if you want to prevent them from accessing your phone while you sleep.

Samsung allows fingerprint and face recognition to be active at the same time, so we can use the one that suits us best at any time.

Battery

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G with its large 6.4″ screen comes with a 5,000 mAh battery, which should be more than enough for this screen size.

To check the autonomy, I have carried out the battery autonomy test of the well-known PCMark test: Work 3.0.

A reflection on autonomy tests

Given the importance of the screen in battery consumption, it is important to calibrate the screens with a colorimeter (or a similar instrument) at the same absolute level of brightness (it is not enough to set it to 50%) if you want to obtain autonomy results. comparable between devices.

Otherwise, the results may be greatly affected by the brightness level of each smartphone’s screen and are therefore not comparable. I mention this here because not all analyzes take this into account and in this test you sometimes see absurd values.

In the case of PCMark: Work 3.0, the test itself indicates that the test must be performed with the screen calibrated at 200 nits for the results to be comparable. This is how we carry out the autonomy tests on smartphones.

PCMark Work 3.0 tests the autonomy of the terminal when performing a mixture of daily and demanding tasks, since the test simulates browsing web pages, writing texts and inserting images, applying filters to photographs, editing videos and data manipulation.

Given the impact that the refresh rate has on the autonomy of smartphones, I have carried out this test twice: once with the screen at 60 Hz and once at 90 Hz.

In the test with the screen configured at a rate of 60 Hz I have obtained a result of 12 hours and 33 minutes, which is one of the best values ​​I have seen in a smartphone.

If we adjust the refresh rate to a rate of 90 Hz, the autonomy is reduced to 11 hours and 10 minutes, which represents a drop of around 20 percent. Even with everything, it is a fairly high value compared to other smartphones.

In practice, the autonomy of the Galaxy A33 5G is very good and you should have no problem reaching the end of the day with battery remaining.

If you want to extend the autonomy of your device, you will be happy to know that, in addition to setting the screen to 60 Hz, you can make use of the energy saving mode.

Power saving mode limits maximum CPU performance to 70%, reduces brightness by 10%, restricts network and location usage in the background, and switches connectivity from 5G to 4G/LTE.

In addition, it is possible to activate an even more demanding energy saving mode by activating the Limit apps and Start screen option that limits the number of applications that we can use, activates the Dark mode and restricts the use of biometric functionalities.

Samsung also offers a feature called Adaptive Battery, which limits battery usage by apps you don’t normally use. However, we do not know how this option works since the explanation about this mode is very scarce.

Samsung also allows you to individually select those applications that we do not want to consume battery when they are not being used.

 

Battery and power saving options

Samsung has incorporated an option that allows you to sleep apps that have not been used for a while. These apps don’t run in the background, so they may not receive updates or send notifications. We can manually choose those apps that are never inactive, as well as those that must always be in inactive mode.

The Galaxy A33 5G offers fast wired charging at 25W. Although Samsung decided to include a charger in the box of last year’s model, this year the company has thought that you should already have a charger at home and has omitted it.

In my tests, with a 15W charger, the complete charging process of the Galaxy A33 5G has taken me a total of 1 hour and 44 minutes. As we can see in the graph, the load is quite linear. In 30 minutes, a little more than 30 percent of the battery is charged.

Samsung Galaxy A33 5G charging process at 15W

Unfortunately, the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is not compatible with wireless charging, which is a shame since this type of charging is becoming more and more interesting due to the convenience of being able to charge the phone just by resting it on the base.

Software

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G runs Android 12 and, above the operating system, incorporates the Samsung One UI 4.1 customization layer.

Samsung guarantees four generations of One UI and Android OS updates, and up to five years of security updates. This means that the Galaxy A33 5G will receive Android 16 in four years.

By default, Samsung One UI has the application drawer active, although it offers the option of deactivating it if we prefer to have all the icons on the desktop.

To access the drawer, simply drag the screen up slightly while on the desktop. It is also possible to activate a button that gives access to the application drawer.

In the Settings we can configure that, when dragging the screen down, the drawer does not open, but the notification panel, something that is useful since the notification and quick access area is somewhat far from the finger due to the length of the screen .

By default, the icon grid is 4×5, which makes the icons look too big, so my advice is to change it to 4×6, 5×5 or 5×6. Similarly, we can also change the size of the app drawer grid.

Samsung allows you to navigate the interface using the three traditional navigation buttons or through full-screen navigation gestures.

Samsung offers two types of navigation gestures: swipe gestures from each bottom area (left, center, and right) and swipe gestures from the sides and bottom like Android.

One of the novelties that One UI 4 introduced is the renewed design of the widgets, with a flatter appearance and rounded corners. Some widgets, like the dual clock widget, change their appearance between light and dark depending on the time of day.

If we press and hold an icon, we can access various options such as Select, Delete and Uninstall, as well as options specific to that application. For example, on Twitter we can choose Search, New tweet, New message, Capture and Scan QR code; and in the Camera app we can choose between Photo or Video.

Another change that Samsung One UI 4 brought has to do with dark mode, as icons, wallpapers, and certain text fields dim slightly when dark mode is activated.

The notification panel at the top shows the time/date and a shortcut to Settings. Next, we find a row of buttons that give quick access to six settings, without any text. Some of these icons — such as WiFi, Sound, Bluetooth, etc. — open various options when held down.

Next, there are two buttons called Control and Media Room that allow us to control SmartThings devices and scenes, and the playback of media content on our phone and other Samsung devices.

Below we find the notifications, although it is possible to display many more quick settings and access the brightness control by dragging the first row down again or using the gesture of dragging the notification panel with two fingers. If we click on the three points next to the brightness control, we can deactivate/activate the automatic brightness.

 

Notification panel and quick access

The lock screen may display a different image each time you unlock your phone. Samsung offers a rich set of high-quality images in 10 different categories: Landscape, Plants, Life, Dogs, Cats, Animals, Art, Food, Desserts, and Special.

Samsung offers a few widgets that can be used on the lock screen. These widgets give access to music playback controls, weather, today’s schedule, upcoming alarm information, voice recorder, digital health, and Bixby routines. To see the widgets from the lock screen, just tap on the time.

From the lock screen itself, we can quickly access two configurable applications through direct access icons that are located in the corners of the lower part of the screen. By default, we have access to the phone and the camera, but we can add any phone app or tool (calculator, voice recorder, flashlight and do not disturb mode).

Samsung incorporates a functionality called Quick Share, which is Samsung’s version of Apple’s AirDrop, as well as Share with Nearby, which is Google’s version. Both functionalities allow you to quickly share files with people who are close to you, but Quick Share only works with Samsung terminals.

Samsung has added an option to add our favorite applications to the Share panel, in addition to the most frequent ones appearing.

The Samsung A33 incorporates the Multi Window function to run two applications in a split screen, open an app in a floating window with a selectable degree of transparency, or minimize an open app to a floating icon on the desktop.

The keyboard of the Galaxy A33 is comfortable to use thanks to the large size of the screen. It incorporates predictive text functionality, which works quite well, and the ability to write by dragging your finger over the keys, automatically punctuate, automatically capitalize the first letter of each sentence, modify the width and height of the keyboard, etc. Recently, Samsung has added some shortcuts to emojis and new stickers.

If you’re one of those people who doesn’t like someone else using their smartphone in case they pry, you’ll be happy to know that Samsung includes a feature called Secure Folder that allows you to easily protect access to images, notes, emails and applications.

Secure Folder access can be protected by pattern, PIN, password, or fingerprint. We can configure a different fingerprint to unlock the secure folder, which can be useful if we want to give access to our phone by fingerprint to a close person, for example a child, but we do not want them to be able to access the secure folder.

Another option available is to change the Secure Folder icon to something less recognizable.

secure folder

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G includes a feature called Dual Messaging that allows you to use two separate accounts for the same app.

Those apps that are compatible with Dual Messaging, for example WhatsApp, Facebook or Telegram, allow you to configure two independent accounts. It is even possible to limit the contacts that will be visible to the second instance of the app.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G incorporates control through movements and gestures:

  • Pick up to wake, which turns on the screen when you pick up the phone from the table.
  • Double tap turns on screen, which turns on the screen when you tap it twice.
  • Double tap turns screen off, which turns the screen off if you double-tap on an empty space on the Home or Lock screens
  • Keep screen on, which detects if you are looking at the screen and keeps the screen on while you look at it.
  • Alert when picking up the phone, which makes the device vibrate when you pick it up after receiving a missed call or message
  • Mute with gestures, which allows you to silence incoming calls and alarms by covering the screen with your hand or turning the device over.
  • Palm swipe to capture, which allows you to take a screenshot by sliding the side of your hand across the screen.

Samsung allows you to customize the action that occurs when you double-tap the home button: quick camera launch or opening an app. It is also possible to customize what happens when you press and hold the button: activate Bixby or show the power off menu.

After taking a screenshot, Samsung may display a toolbar with additional options to scroll to capture more of the screen, crop or draw on the screenshot, add labels to the screenshot, or share the screenshot. An interesting option is to delete the captures after being shared through the toolbar.

Another functionality that Samsung incorporates is the ability to send an SOS message to emergency contacts by pressing the Power button three or four times quickly. The message may include images captured by the cameras and an audio recording.

The Galaxy A33 5G has the Samsung Pay mobile payment system, which combines the use of NFC with the fingerprint reader to be able to pay in stores using the mobile as a credit card.

There are already a large number of financial entities attached to this system such as Abanca, Bankia, Bankinter, BBVA, Caixabank, Caja Rural, Cajasur, Carrefour, Cecabank, Cetelem, Deutsche Bank, El Corte Inglés, Ibercaja, Openbank, Orangebank, Banc Sabadell, Santander, Unicaja, Wizink and others.

The Do Not Disturb function allows you to disable notifications — incoming calls, multimedia content, alerts or notifications — at certain times, being able to set some contacts as allowed so that your calls and messages do arrive. Unfortunately, it does not allow you to choose different schedules depending on the day of the week, something that seems basic and easy to implement.

Samsung includes a feature called Notification Reminders to get reminders about notifications from certain apps and missed calls or messages. We can choose the frequency of the reminders (3, 5, 10 or 15 minutes), if we want it to vibrate and for which applications they will occur.

Of course, the Galaxy A33 5G also supports Smart Lock, a feature that means you don’t have to unlock your device with a fingerprint, PIN, or password if a trusted Bluetooth device is nearby (for example, a smart bracelet, a Bluetooth headset, etc.) , etc.), if you are carrying the device with you, or if you are in a location you trust.

In the Device Maintenance section, we can manage various aspects of the phone’s performance from a single point: battery, storage, RAM and device protection.

The main functions it offers are:

  • Battery: Allows you to know data about battery use, activate different saving modes, manage the energy use of applications, activate fast wired / wireless charging, wireless charge sharing and protect battery health so that do not charge above 85%.
  • Storage: Lets you know your storage usage, delete unnecessary data, and find out which files are the largest.
  • Memory: Allows you to know the use of memory and stop applications with high consumption.
  • Device Protection: Allows you to scan your device for threats using McAfee anti-malware.

Maintenance

Samsung has added the functionality of Google Digital Health that shows statistics about the use of the smartphone — number of notifications received, unlock number, time spent on each app, etc. — and allows you to set controls.

It also adds Parental Controls to add content restrictions and set other limits to help little ones regulate their screen time.

Samsung has incorporated Game Launcher, which organizes all games in one place automatically. Enable Priority mode to block all notifications except alarms, and close apps to devote more of your network connection and processor power to gaming.

Another useful option is to block automatic brightness, Bixby, Edge content or navigation gestures so that they do not interfere with our games. And it is also possible to add floating access to touch protection, navigation button lock, screenshot, pop-up panel or recording.

It also allows you to mute the game sound, but keep the phone volume. It is also possible to set one of three performance modes: Performance, Battery Saver, and Standard.

For each game we can see total and daily playtime stats, as well as stats on how many Galaxy users are playing each title on a daily basis. If you link a Discord account, you can see what your friends are playing and chat/talk with them.

Game Launcher

Game Launcher

Game Launcher

Game Launcher

Game Launcher

 

 

During the game itself, the Game Tools offer interesting features such as: blocking navigation buttons, screen touch, notifications and calls, full screen gestures, automatic brightness, Bixby or Edge content.

Game Booster learns the usage patterns of each game and optimizes them for the best balance between battery life, performance, and temperature. Another interesting option is performance monitoring. Game Tools limits brightness and volume if the phone gets hot, and monitors memory usage.

Game Tools adds useful features when it comes to enjoying games

Samsung has integrated a theme manager that allows us to change the appearance of our phone. In addition to downloading full themes, you can download wallpapers, icon packs, and Always On Display layouts.

Some themes are free, but others are paid. The theme search engine allows you to search by color tones, in case you are looking for a theme with a particular color tone.

 

Galaxy Themes

Samsung also incorporates the Samsung Pass functionality, which allows users to remember users and passwords in applications, and protect their access through biometric authentication. It is also possible to save personal data to fill in forms automatically.

The Samsung A33 5G offers the Edge screen, which shows a panel with shortcuts to frequently used apps, which can be customized.

In my opinion, the Edge screen is more of a curiosity than a useful feature. At least I have not found it very useful and I have rarely remembered that I could access certain information or app through the corresponding panel. 

edge screen

Samsung has included its Bixby assistant on board the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G. In addition to being able to respond to our queries and requests by voice, it incorporates a functionality called Routines that allows certain actions to be automated if certain conditions are met (time, place, device connection, event or button pressed).

 

Bixby Routines

Samsung incorporates Google Discover to the left of the home screen, with personalized news and articles according to our interests.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G does not have the DeX functionality, which in other brand smartphones allows the phone to be connected to a monitor, keyboard and mouse to use it as if it were a computer. The USB-C port also does not support video output, so we cannot connect it to a TV or monitor to view photos, videos or play games.

What it does include is the Connect to Windows functionality, which allows you to reply to messages, answer calls and more from your computer. It is also possible to transfer content such as images, text and files from the phone to the computer without using a cable.

In line with Android 12’s new privacy features, One UI 4 now displays an improved privacy dashboard with the ability to see which apps are using which permissions in the last seven days.

There is an option to show clipboard, microphone, and camera access for all apps, rather than one at a time. Additionally, the camera and microphone indicators will now appear in the status bar when they have been accessed by a specific app. If you click on it, you can see more information about when and which application has used them.

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privacy panel

Samsung comes with some pre-installed apps of its own, but offers more through its own Galaxy Apps store and, of course, Google’s Play Store. The Samsung apps that come pre-installed are:

  • Bixby
  • Galaxy Shop
  • Galaxy Store
  • Galaxy Wearable
  • Voice recorder
  • Internet
  • Posts
  • My files
  • Samsung Free
  • Samsung Health
  • Samsung Members
  • Samsung Notes
  • Samsung Pay
  • Samsung Global Goals
  • Samsung TV Plus
  • SmartThings
  • Zone AR

As for third-party apps, the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G comes with pre-installed bloatware, since apps like Facebook, Spotify, Netflix, Microsoft Office, OneDrive, LinkedIn, Outlook and, of course, Google apps come on the phone. .

Multimedia

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G has two speakers that offer stereo sound. One of the speakers is located at the bottom of the device, next to the USB-C connector, while the second speaker is at the top edge.

The sound of the speakers of the Galaxy A33 5G is pleasant, with a good reproduction of medium and high tones.

At maximum volume, the sound is heard without distortion and the sound power is more than enough to watch videos or listen to podcasts in an environment that is not too noisy.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is compatible with Dolby Atmos surround sound, which you can enjoy both with headphones and with the phone’s own speakers. It supports 24-bit UHQ audio, and also supports PCM up to 24-bit.

In addition, it has Bluetooth Dual Audio functionality that allows you to play music on two Bluetooth devices at the same time, which can be useful if you have more than one Bluetooth speaker or headphones.

Now, the speakers don’t necessarily sound in perfect sync, so it’s best suited for situations where the speakers are separate — say, one in each room — or headphones are used.

Samsung has incorporated some interesting sound functions such as Adapt Sound to calibrate the sound emitted through the headphones to the frequency response of our ears. Samsung incorporates an equalizer and a function called UHQ Optimizer that improves the sound resolution of music and videos.

Another interesting option is standalone application sound, which allows you to play the sound of an application on another audio device. In this way we can make an app like Spotify play the sound through a Bluetooth speaker while the rest of the sounds continue to play on the phone.

Samsung has added a feature called Music Sharing that allows your friends to play music on your Bluetooth speaker just by connecting to your smartphone via Bluetooth. This way, you don’t have to disconnect from the speaker for your friend to connect.

Samsung hasn’t included a 3.5mm headphone jack. This means that you will have to resort to Bluetooth or USB-C headphones to enjoy music.

Samsung has chosen not to pre-install its own music player, so you can choose to use YT Music, Google’s player, or Samsung’s Samsung Music app, which you can download from the Galaxy Apps store.

The Gallery app is used to view the photos and videos stored on the phone, as well as to edit the images using various built-in features. The app has three tabs at the bottom: Pictures, Albums, and Stories.

One of the cool features this app offers is that when you save an edited image, it replaces the original image, but you can always hit Revert to undo everything and go back to the original image — no matter how many times you’ve saved it.

Within the editing options, there is the possibility of adding filters. Although a good number of filters come pre-installed, it is possible to download new filters from the Galaxy store.

The Gallery app groups similar photos of the same object (up to 100 shots in the same day) in the gallery for greater cleanliness. This way you won’t see as many duplicate photos if you’ve taken more than one photo of the same object.

It is also possible to edit videos from the app itself: change the aspect ratio, cut out the parts you don’t want and even adjust the perspective.

 

The reproduction of videos stored on the phone is good thanks to its excellent screen that, as we have mentioned, offers deep blacks and high brightness. I have tried playing 4K videos encoded with both H.264 and the newer HEVC codec, and the phone was able to play them without issue.

Of course, we can also enjoy video from streaming services such as Netflix, HBO or Amazon Prime Video. In addition, the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G has the Widevine L1 library, so it is possible to view content from these streaming services in HD without problems.

Photography and video

Samsung has incorporated four cameras on the back of the Galaxy A33 5G:

  • 8MP (1.12μm) ultra wide angle camera (123º) with f/2.2 aperture
  • 48MP (0.8μm) wide-angle camera with autofocus, f/1.8 aperture and optical stabilization (OIS)
  • 5MP macro camera with f/2.4 aperture
  • 2MP depth camera with f/2.4 aperture

You probably miss a telephoto camera, but it is a fairly common absence in this price range, since these types of cameras are usually quite expensive. The Camera app allows you to take screenshots at a 2X zoom level, but that’s obviously software magnification.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G has four cameras on the back

The Camera app is not limited to taking photos, but it suggests you to modify the frame in certain captures. However, if you’re an experienced photographer, you’ll probably want to disable these tips as they can be a bit annoying.

Other times, the Camera app suggests that you use a particular camera. This happens, for example, when photographing landscapes, since a message often appears encouraging you to use the ultra wide angle camera.

The Camera app displays four main shooting modes — Fun, Portrait, Photo, and Video — but offers additional modes: Pro, Pro Video, Single Shot, Night, Food, Panorama, Macro, Super Slow, Slow Motion, and Fast Motion.

If you are an expert user, you will be happy to know that Samsung includes a Pro mode that allows you to manually adjust parameters such as ISO sensitivity, focus point, white balance, exposure time and more.

wide angle camera

The main camera (wide angle) uses a 48MP sensor that, by default, takes pictures at 12MP using the pixel binning functionality that combines 4 pixels into 1 to reduce noise. In addition, it has an f / 1.8 lens with optical stabilization.

Samsung offers the ability to capture photos at the original 48MP resolution if you want a sharper shot.

Next, we can see an example of the same image captured at 48 and 12 MP and, although at first glance there is no difference, just zoom in to notice that the 48 MP image retains much more detail, although it occupies almost three times the size of the image. space.

 

12MP

48MP

12MP photo crop

48MP photo crop

Photos taken with the main camera at 12MP and 48MP

Below, we can see some photos taken with the main wide-angle camera at the standard resolution of 12 MP.

Overall, the camera does an excellent job of preserving detail and offering a wide dynamic range, although sometimes colors tend to look a bit oversaturated, especially when the phone detects vegetation, flowers, food, etc.

Pictures taken with the main camera

Samsung offers a Night mode on both the main and ultra-wide cameras that increases light in dark scenes by capturing and then merging multiple images with different exposures.

This mode takes a little longer to register the image, but the result is quite good as it reduces noise and improves sharpness in dark scenes, as well as increasing brightness to make visible elements that would otherwise be black spots. .

Here are some examples of Night mode in action:

no night mode

with night mode

no night mode

with night mode

no night mode

with night mode

Samsung has also added a Food mode that tends to saturate the colors (even more) and blur the dish to make it look more attractive.

Here are some examples of photos taken with Food mode off and on.

 

regular mode

food mode

regular mode

food mode

ultra wide angle camera

The ultra wide angle camera allows you to take very spectacular photos thanks to the fact that it captures many more elements than those that normally fit in a photograph.

Although ultra-wide-angle cameras distort at the extremes, Samsung has done a good job of reducing this distortion so that straight lines don’t look curved. In good light conditions, this camera is capable of capturing very good snapshots.

Pictures taken with the ultra wide angle camera during the day

The main limitation of this camera is that it does not have optical stabilization and its aperture is somewhat limited, so it is not suitable for taking pictures at night or even in dimly lit interiors.

Below, we can see some photos taken at night with the ultra-wide camera, and the result is not very good since the images have a lot of noise.

Pictures taken with the ultra wide angle camera at night

Fortunately, Samsung also incorporates the Night mode in the ultra wide-angle camera, which produces slightly brighter images.

No night mode

With night mode

No night mode

With night mode

macro camera

Samsung has incorporated a Macro camera that allows you to take images from a few centimeters away, in case you want to capture details. It is not a camera that I see as especially useful, but you can get some benefit from it.

The main drawback of this camera is that its resolution is lower (5 MP), so the level of detail that is achieved is not as high as we would like, and the focus is fixed, so you can only get details at a certain distance.

Below are some sample photos taken with the macro camera.

Photographs taken with the Macro camera

Depth camera (portrait)

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G incorporates a depth camera that improves the capture of photos in Portrait mode out of focus the background through software.

Since it does not have a telephoto camera, portraits are taken with the main camera, which is not ideal for taking a portrait due to its wide angle lens. This means that if we want to take a close-up of the face, we have to get very close and the face looks distorted.

One aspect that I like about Samsung’s Portrait mode is that it allows you to adjust the depth of field both during the capture and afterwards in the Gallery, which gives you the possibility to adjust the blur to your liking or even discard the blur if the detection of the contour has not been made correctly.

Portraits have good image quality and, in general, the phone does a good job of making out the outline of the person. Sometimes the hair blends into the background of the image, but this happens even on the most expensive devices.

Below, we can see some images taken with Portrait mode, all at a certain distance to minimize distortion from the wide-angle camera at close range.

Photos taken in Portrait mode

Video recording

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is capable of recording video in UHD/4K (3840×2160) at 30fps, Full HD/1080p (1920×1080) at 30/60fps and HD/720p (1280×720) at 30fps with the cameras. rear wide angle and ultra wide angle. It is possible to switch between the different cameras without stopping the recording.

In the interface, we find a recording mode called Professional Video that offers manual controls to choose the ISO level, shutter speed, focus point, color temperature and exposure.

In order to reduce the space occupied by the videos, Samsung allows to use the high efficiency HEVC (H.265) format which reduces the space occupied by the video but you may have compatibility issues when playing it on another device.

Next, we can see some examples of videos recorded in [email protected] and [email protected] resolution In both cases, the image quality is very good.

Videos recorded for the day at [email protected] and [email protected]

Here we can see some videos recorded at night, in low light conditions, at resolutions [email protected] and [email protected]

In both cases, the image quality is quite good, although the phone seems to be constantly looking for focus and, at the 60fps rate, the image looks darker than desired.

Videos recorded for the day at [email protected] and [email protected]

When it comes to recording video, the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G offers a Super Stabilization mode that is available in 1080p resolution at 30 fps. This mode produces a very stable image at the cost of using the ultra wide-angle camera, which offers lower quality than the main camera.

An interesting feature is 4K Snap, which allows you to extract a high-quality image (3840 x 2160 pixels, 8MP) from a video captured in 4K resolution. In my tests, the result is quite good, as you can see in this example.

Capture taken from a 4K video

Samsung includes the One Shot functionality with AI features. With this functionality, you just have to point the phone at a subject, press the shutter and wait between 5 and 15 seconds.

The camera will capture a short movie, some GIFs, and several photos with all cameras. It then presents them all in a collage where you can choose your favorites. In my opinion, it is more of a curiosity than something useful.

Frontal camera

The front camera of the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G consists of a 13MP camera and f/2.2 aperture. It does not have autofocus, so it focuses at a fixed distance.

Samsung has included a wide-angle front-facing camera that by default takes individual selfies at about 10MP, but offers a group shot mode where you take a 13MP shot with a larger angle of view.

Below are some selfies taken with the Galaxy A33 5G camera, which offer good image quality without overexposing the background even in high contrast situations.

Selfies taken with the front camera

The front camera offers a Portrait mode that can blur the background to produce the bokeh effect.

Next, we can see some examples of selfies taken with this functionality where we can see that Samsung has done a good job when implementing this processing.

Selfies taken in Portrait mode with the front camera

Samsung has included a Fun mode that allows you to apply Snapchat Augmented Reality lenses to photos and videos through the native camera app. In my opinion, it’s just a curiosity that I don’t think I’ll ever use, but maybe the younger audience finds it interesting.

The front camera can record videos in UHD/4K at 30fps, Full HD/1080p at 30/60fps, and HD/720p at 30fps. It is not very common for the front camera of a mid-range smartphone to record 4K video, so it is a very welcome feature.

voice calls

In the tests that I have carried out, the quality of the voice is correct and I have been able to hold conversations perfectly in moderately noisy environments without difficulties.

Samsung’s Contacts app and the Phone app do their job well. If we open the details of a contact, all the possible ways to contact him are displayed, even through third-party applications such as WhatsApp.

An interesting feature is that you can quickly make a call by dragging your finger from left to right on a contact’s name. If you drag him in the opposite direction you send him a text message.

As a curiosity, Samsung allows you to select an image or a video to be displayed when you make or receive a call.

Price

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is officially available for €369 (128 GB), although you can already find something cheaper on Amazon Spain.

Within the new Galaxy A family, you can also find the Galaxy 53 (€449) with a 6.5″ FullHD+ SuperAMOLED screen at 120 Hz, Exynos 1280 processor, 6/8 GB of RAM, 128/256GB of storage, 5G connectivity, 64MP f/1.8 (main) + 12MP f/2.2 (ultra wide angle) + 5MP f/2.4 (depth) + 5MP f/2.4 (macro) cameras, 32MP f/2.2 front camera and 5,000 mAh battery with charging fast at 25W.

Another model in the same family is the Galaxy A73 with a 6.7″ FullHD+ 120Hz SuperAMOLED screen, Snapdragon 778G processor, 6/8GB of RAM, 128/256GB of expandable storage via microSD, wide-angle cameras (108MP f/1.8) + ultra wide angle (12MP f/2.2) + depth (5MP f/2.4) + macro (5MP f/2.4), front camera (32MP f/2.2) and 5,000 mAh battery with 25W fast charge.

A model to keep in mind is the Galaxy A52s (€310), which offers superior performance thanks to the Snapdragon 778G chip. The rest of its features are a 6.5″ FullHD+ 120 Hz SuperAMOLED screen, 4/6/8 GB of RAM, 128/256GB of expandable storage via microSD, wide angle cameras (64MP f/1.8) + ultra wide angle (12MP f/2.2) + macro (5MP f/2.4) + depth (5MP f/2.4), front camera (32MP f/2.2) and 4,500 mAh battery with 25W fast charge.

Conclusions

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G has a large 6.4″ screen surrounded by frames that, without being exactly narrow, are acceptable for a smartphone of this price. As a result, it offers a front end utilization of 84% according to GSMArena.

Samsung has gone with the old camera formula in a teardrop notch. At this point, the phone’s design looks a bit more dated than the punch-hole camera in the center that the Galaxy A53 5G boasts.

The Galaxy A33 5G’s screen is completely flat, and it’s protected by Gorilla Glass 5. Not the most recent generation of this coating, it should keep it protected from occasional bumps and scratches.

Both the sides and the back cover of the Galaxy A33 5G are made of plastic, so its look and feel is not as premium as other smartphones that use metal and glass.

The back features a smooth finish, with a camera module emerging from the surface without any material change. Personally, I miss a color that breaks the monotony, but obviously it’s a matter of taste.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is available in orange, blue, black and white colors. In all cases it is a matte finish, which is good news for those who flee from marked traces. Even so, the black model that I have tested attracts fingerprints to a certain extent.

An interesting aspect is that Samsung has provided the Galaxy A33 5G with IP67 protection, so you will not have to worry if you accidentally drop the phone in water. This doesn’t mean you have to submerge it to take underwater pictures, but it does give you peace of mind.

Samsung has incorporated a fingerprint reader under the screen that works reliably, although it is not the fastest. One aspect that I like is that the phone can be unlocked even with the screen off, although the absence of a screen that is always active makes it more difficult to hit the exact spot since the fingerprint icon is not marked.

It also has a facial recognition system that, despite not being 3D, I have not been able to deceive and, in practice, it is the way to access the phone that I have used the most.

As usual for Samsung smartphones, the screen of the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G offers good image quality. It has a Super AMOLED panel with Full HD + resolution and two color modes called Natural and Intense that target the sRGB and DCI P3 color spaces respectively.

In Natural color mode, color fidelity is excellent, while Vivid mode produces oversaturated colors in most apps, which are intended for the sRGB color space. However, many users prefer more vivid colors, even if they are less realistic. Unfortunately, the screen does not support content recorded with high dynamic range (HDR).

The screen of the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G offers pure blacks and wide viewing angles, and the brightness of the screen reaches 670 nits with a 100% white screen. This is a high enough value to use the phone outdoors without problems, although you might have trouble seeing the screen clearly in direct sunlight.

A feature of the Galaxy A33 5G screen is that it offers a refresh rate of 90 Hz for greater fluidity when scrolling or playing, just like the most advanced smartphones — although many of these reach 120 Hz.

Now, it is a fixed (non-adaptive) refresh rate, so the impact on battery consumption is higher than those phones that can adjust the rate to content.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G incorporates a chip from the house, Exynos 1280, which does not impress much in the benchmarks, since, for example, its CPU and GPU performance is below the realme GT Master Edition, which has the same Snapdragon chip. 778G than the Galaxy A52s.

In my daily use experience, the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G offers improvable performance, since, with some frequency, some stoppages are noticed and some slowness when reacting to button presses, returning to the home screen when pressing the button, switch to other apps, switch between Camera app modes/lenses, display the on-screen keyboard when tapping a text field, search for an app, etc.

Demanding 3D games I’ve tried — like Call of Duty, Asphalt 9, or Real Racing 3 — have run smoothly, though the titles auto-set themselves to low graphics quality.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G arrives with 6 GB of LPDDR4x RAM, which offer a good multitasking experience, as well as 128 GB of eUFS 2.2 storage, which can be expanded via a micro-SD card up to 1 TB if we are willing to do without the second. SIM card.

Regarding connectivity, the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G supports WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, but it is not compatible with WiFi 6 or WiFi 6E. In my tests, it has not achieved WiFi speeds as fast as other smartphones. It incorporates Bluetooth 5.1 and NFC, but no FM radio.

As its name suggests, it is compatible with 5G networks (in the sub-6 band below 6 GHz), so you can enjoy the most advanced connectivity if your operator allows it.

Samsung has provided the Galaxy A33 5G with a 5,000 mAh battery, a fairly generous capacity. In my tests, the Galaxy A33 5G has obtained very good autonomy results. Now, with the refresh rate at 90 Hz, the autonomy suffers and the battery life in the test has fallen by 20 percent.

Samsung has built in 25W wired fast charging, but no wireless charging. Although last year the charger was included in the box, this year Samsung has not included a charger in the box.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G has stereo speakers, one of them located on the top edge of the screen and the other next to the USB-C connector.

These speakers emit a sound with enough power and good quality. They offer Dolby Atmos surround sound, which can be enjoyed both with headphones and with the phone’s own speakers.

It also incorporates dual Bluetooth to send sound to two speakers at the same time. However, this year it does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G arrives with Android 12 and, above it, the Samsung One UI 4.1 customization layer.

This layer offers a lot of software features on top of Android such as gesture control, power saving modes, secure folder, dual messaging, Game Tools, Edge panels, Samsung Pass, Samsung Pay, Quick Share , Music Share or the Bixby virtual assistant.

One good news is that Samsung guarantees software updates for five years, which includes four years for the operating system and one additional year for patches.

Samsung has incorporated four cameras on the back of the Galaxy A33 5G that allow you to take ultra wide angle (8MP, f / 2.2), wide angle (48MP, f / 1.8), macro (5MP, f / 2.4) and depth shots to portrait (2MP, f/2.4).

The main camera (wide angle) makes use of pixel binning functionality to group 4 pixels into a super pixel and capture images at 12 MP, although it is also possible to take captures at 48 MP.

In my tests, the main camera has been able to take good pictures in both good light conditions, although the quality suffers when the light is poor. Fortunately, Samsung has included a Night mode that significantly improves brightness and sharpness at the cost of longer capture time.

The ultra-wide camera offers good image quality in good lighting conditions, but it’s tricky to get usable shots at night.

Samsung has added a Macro camera that allows you to take pictures from a few centimeters away and offers a good result, although limited by the fixed focus and the limited 5MP resolution of this camera.

Portrait mode is also present, which allows you to blur the background of a photograph (even after the fact) using the depth camera. The result is quite good, although the absence of a telephoto camera makes it necessary to get quite close to the subject to take close-ups and the face is deformed.

The front camera of the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G has a 13MP sensor and f/2.2 aperture, and allows you to take individual selfies or group selfies with a wider viewing angle. The image quality is good and it is even possible to take selfies with a blurred background.

There is also a Fun mode that applies Augmented Reality filters to our photos and videos without leaving the native camera app. In my opinion, it is nothing more than a curiosity, but some users may take advantage of it.

The rear cameras are capable of recording video in UHD/4K (3840×2160) at 30fps and Full HD/1080p (1920×1080) at 30/60fp. Electronic video stabilization is only available at [email protected]

In the videos I’ve shot, image quality has been good in all modes, although in low-light conditions the phone seems to be continually searching for focus.

As for the front camera, it can record video in UHD/4K at 30fps, Full HD/1080p at 30/60fps and HD/720p at 30fps. It is not very common for the front camera of a mid-range to record 4K video, so it is a very welcome feature.

Samsung offers a Super Stabilization mode that uses the ultra wide-angle camera and is available at 1080p at 30fps.

In conclusion, the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is a good option if you are after a mid-range phone with a large screen, long battery life and a solid camera for its price range.

However, the phone requires an optimization for the Exynos 1280 chip, which does not perform as expected.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is officially available for €369 (128 GB), although something cheaper can already be found at Amazon Spain.

The best:

  • 6.4″ screen with Super AMOLED panel that offers good sharpness, high contrast, great color fidelity and wide viewing angles. Refresh at 60 or 90 Hz.
  • Fingerprint reader integrated in the screen with good performance.
  • Rear cameras with good image quality in bright light conditions and, if you activate Night mode, also in low light conditions.
  • Good Portrait effect with natural bokeh on both front and rear cameras
  • Front camera with individual / group selfie modes and good image quality.
  • Samsung One UI interface with interesting improvements over Android such as Game Tools, Secure Folder, Dual Messaging, Energy Saving modes, Samsung Pass, Samsung Pay, gesture control, Quick Share, Music Share, etc.
  • Software updates guaranteed for five years (four years of operating system and one additional year of security patches)
  • 5G connectivity in the band below 6 GHz (sub-6). Dual SIM support if you’re willing to forgo storage expansion via micro-SD card.
  • Excellent autonomy thanks to its large 5,000 mAh battery. Fast cable charging at 25W (although the charger no longer comes in the box).
  • Stereo speakers that offer good sound quality. Dolby Atmos support and sending sound to two devices at the same time (Dual Bluetooth).
  • Dust and water resistance IP67

Worst:

  • Plastic body that feels less premium than other glass and metal smartphones. Notch on the front, which looks more dated than the hole-punch camera.
  • Screen with fixed refresh rate at 60 or 90 Hz, without adapting to the content to improve autonomy. Always On Display screen not available, nor playback of HDR content.
  • Small stops and delays when using applications, moving around the interface or playing demanding 3D games.
  • Lack of telephoto camera, which would be more useful than macro and depth cameras.
  • No headphone jack.
  • No wireless charging.

Note: The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G has been kindly provided by Samsung Spain for this analysis.

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