Samsung Galaxy A53 5G

Style and camera quality both punch well above the price, but the stuttery interface drags it down

- TOM BEDFORD

Samsung’s Galaxy A-series phones generally emulate the style and features of its high-end models at a lower price. The A53 is a case in point: it might as well be called the S22 Light.

It’s certainly cheaper. You can pick it up for £399 with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, versus £769 for the regular S22. It looks good, in a choice of tasteful white, black, blue and peach finishes (Samsung prefixes each colour name with the word “Awesome”, but we’d feel embarrassed to write that more than once).

The phone is large but not ungainly, measuring 160 x 75 x 8.1mm and weighing 189g. The rear camera bump isn’t too obtrusive, partly thanks to a curved surround that rises to meet it – an elegant design that’s marred only slightly by all the certifications and other details printed on the back. There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack, but there is an in-display fingerprint scanner, and an IP67 rating means the phone is highly resistant to dust and water.

The screen is one of the best you’ll see on a phone at this price. At 6.5in it’s a little larger than the display on the Galaxy S22 Plus, and it uses Super AMOLED technology with an impeccably smooth 120Hz refresh rate. The maximum brightness of 800cd/m2 doesn’t quite match the extremely bright 1,100cd/m2 of the S22 Plus, but overall it’s an impactful, rich display. The punch-hole cut-out for the front camera at the top doesn’t impinge much on your viewing space, and I quickly stopped noticing it.