Review of Samsung Galaxy A33 5G after 6 months
Galaxy A33Hello guys!
So after a long and using Galaxy A33 as my primary device after leaving the old Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro now, it's a perfect time to do a review!
First of all, the switching experience from Xiaomi to Samsung was very smooth, thanks to the Samsung Smart Switch which made it possible to switch without losing a single piece of data or even a single pic missing or at the wrong date or time!
Next up,
Now after switching comes setup and UI, I would say that after Stock Android, Pixel Experience, and Moto's MyUI Samsung OneUI is the cleanest Android skin loaded with features, customizations, and a lot more fun! MIUI at least MIUI Indian on Redmi phones is not as good as Samsung OneUI on midrange phones plus OneUI is so clean that it didn't come with a single bloatware or stupid ads, recommendations, etc. I know the MIUI on flagships especially the China version is absolute heaven but the midrange Indian MIUI !
So, all setups are done and now let’s take a moment to admire the design and hardware specifications of Galaxy A33.
It has a compact 6.4-inch I guess size, and a beautiful and comfortable body design the Samsung A series DNA. It has a Quad camera setup with a 48MP main, Wide + 8MP Ultra-Wide + 5MP Macro + 2MP Depth. It supports 2x lossless digital zoom (got up to 10x digital though). The colors are natural and as everyone knows Samsung cameras are really good, Apple and Google are the other two guys with great cameras by the way, and as expected excellent image quality at Day time and night is fine. It supports up to 4K 30FPS videos with OIS for the rear camera and up to 4K 30FPS for the front camera with no OIS.
Shot on Galaxy A33Talking of the performance, it got the Samsung Exynos 1280 (5nm) chipset with 128/256GB UFS2.2 and LPDDR4X 6/8GB RAM. Now Exynos 1280 doesn't heat like older Exynos and has an ANTUTU score of 500K+ so it's fine, although I don't game much I did try BGMI which runs great but I'm not into much gaming so I really can't judge anything, but I expect maybe it does moderate gaming with no issues. I do shoot and edit videos in 4K 30/60FPS with no issues and not much heating.
And now our boy got a vivid and impressive 90Hz FHD+ sAMOLED HDR10 Display with 780 nits of brightness and is visible under direct sun easily so it's enough. An infinity-o punch hold would have been better than the water drop cut out, to be honest. Yes, the display is 100% sRGB so the colors are really good.
Galaxy A33 under sunFor OTT lovers it's Widevine L1 FHD Certified for Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, etc. It does not support HDR on Netflix. In YouTube max supported is 1080P 60FPS SDR.
The only downside of Galaxy A33’s display is that it doesn't have AOD despite having an AMOLED display.
The phone has a 4860mAh battery which lasts about 2 days on normal use and 1 day on mid-use and 18 hours on heavy-mid use and 8 hours on screen on time with heavy use. So it's a good battery life overall.
To talk about network reception it's great, I tried Jio 5G (SA) worked great with up to 1Gbps max speed which is great. The device has a Dual band (2.4/5Ghz) Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1 so ist great connectivity but Wi-Fi 6 or 6E would have been better.
For Audiophiles, it doesn’t have a 3.5mm audio jack although has Type-C Audio support and has no DAC so don't expect Hi-Res Audio but it does support Sony LDAC or Samsung Scalable Codec for lossless wireless audio (not Hi-Res Audio).
Now let's jump into software entirely, starting with OneUI's look and feel. It feels clean and minimal. I appreciate Samsung making it very easy to use with one hand by optimizing apps with a bottom navigation layout comfortable for one-handed thumb use. The design language of OneUI is consistent throughout all the apps and even all Samsung devices running OneUI, ex Samsung Phones, Samsung Tablets, Samsung Galaxy Books, Galaxy Watch, etc. I really would like to point out that Samsung has optimized its app well for a small Galaxy watch’s display to Samsung’s Tablets and Foldables with a consistent design, making it easy to use and feel familiar with it.
The phone comes loaded with all the essential apps, so you can use the device out of the box right after setup without much need to install basic apps and services.
The device was shipped with OneUI 4 based on Android 12 and currently runs OneUI 5.1 based on Android 13. It has got 4 generations of Android and 5 years of security updates promised quarterly by Samsung.
Now talking of an Android phone means customization! So behold! Samsung offers an insane level of customization to make every single element of the UI your own! OneUI #YouMake!
You can customize stuff ranging from a single icon to a whole UI! From thousands of themes on the Themes store to the insane level of customization offered by Samsung via its Good Lock set of modules for its Galaxy Series of devices is just epic! You can customize or design and make your very own theme by choosing your favorite wallpaper, color palette, icon pack, quick panel (and its range of stuff!), and volume panel it is just overwhelming. To give full justice to all the stuff and features offered a separate post would be required.
Last, in conclusion, I would say that Galaxy A33 is a great mid-range device from Samsung. It has a really good combo of great display, cameras, and performance making it a great choice for a buyer under 35K($399 (USD))!
And as Samsung says!
Galaxy A| Awesome is for Everyone
