Samsung Galaxy A53 5G (128GB, Awesome Blue)

I bought this A53 in early April, and already it has come out with several software updates. I am extremely pleased with Samsung adopting a longevity policy for continued updates, which will make this phone very practical well into 2026.The A53 is only around three inches across, so very comfortable in smaller hands like mine.I bought the A53, my first Samsung mid-range device, instead of flagships, and will never go back to a Samsung flagship, after eight years of having used them, unless they reincorporate the SD card slot. This is a must-have for all my media.The dual speakers on this smaller and cheaper device are better than those on the flagship. You get a resonance that is wonderful to hear when streaming.It is very handy on this device, as with later ... MoreI bought this A53 in early April, and already it has come out with several software updates. I am extremely pleased with Samsung adopting a longevity policy for continued updates, which will make this phone very practical well into 2026.The A53 is only around three inches across, so very comfortable in smaller hands like mine.I bought the A53, my first Samsung mid-range device, instead of flagships, and will never go back to a Samsung flagship, after eight years of having used them, unless they reincorporate the SD card slot. This is a must-have for all my media.The dual speakers on this smaller and cheaper device are better than those on the flagship. You get a resonance that is wonderful to hear when streaming.It is very handy on this device, as with later Samsung devices, to have all the hard buttons on the right side of the device. This prevents one from accidentally invoking another feature, such as Bixby, when grasping the phone.You will see lots of reviews discussing the camera features, which I use, but I am going to talk about accessibility features, since hardly any review features these.I use the TalkBack screen reader with the device, and Samsung's TalkBack has come a long way since its troubling debut early last year. They have already come out with an updated TalkBack version on the heels of Google's latest iteration, and now, I find no difference in performance, although Google's version 12.2 has a couple extra features, such as an image recognition feature and eliminating volume buttons slider control, substituting with an up or down scroll finger swipe.As of a couple days ago, the Samsung TTS version is on a parr with the flagships, a request I first put in when I got my A53. I learned that these updates come sllightly later to mid-range phones, such as the A53.The only other change I would make to the phone is to increase the haptic intensity, but certainly not a deal breaker, just a preference. To a sighted person, tactile haptic feedback is like visual screen intensity.The phone functions quickly and efficiently, and is a great work horse. I like a phone to do what I want it to do, when I want it to. I have over 100 apps on my phone and operate out of the apps tray, as I have it organized alphabetically, and don't allow app additions to my home screen. I use the home screen as a landing page for my time and weather widget, and let the phone do the organizing for me which has saved me countless hours deciding about and organizing home screens.In summary, unless you have to have a flagship, or prefer the bigger screen, you will be pleasantly surprised with the A53 and glad of the purchase. Should Samsung take away any more features, other than the SD card slot from their mid-ranger or budget phones, Samsung and I will part company after eight years.But for now, I am a "happy camper."

I switch from a LG G7 maybe 3 month ago and I'm not totally satisfied.Good point : - The battery is good and I was suprised. A good upgrade from my previous phone.-The size is overall good. My hand are pretty short, yet I have no problem using it with one hand and it's still big.-More choice of cover to protect it (but the LG G7 had almost nothing, so it might not be the most accurate opinion)-The brightness is good (min. dosen't blind you at night and you see pretty well in bright sunlight too) but I must say, sometimes the brightness sensor is quite slow/I must adjut the brightness by myself since it don't change (mostly while I need to check something at night, like I forgot to set my alarm for the next day, the brightness (in auto mode) is pretty low, ... MoreI switch from a LG G7 maybe 3 month ago and I'm not totally satisfied.Good point : - The battery is good and I was suprised. A good upgrade from my previous phone.-The size is overall good. My hand are pretty short, yet I have no problem using it with one hand and it's still big.-More choice of cover to protect it (but the LG G7 had almost nothing, so it might not be the most accurate opinion)-The brightness is good (min. dosen't blind you at night and you see pretty well in bright sunlight too) but I must say, sometimes the brightness sensor is quite slow/I must adjut the brightness by myself since it don't change (mostly while I need to check something at night, like I forgot to set my alarm for the next day, the brightness (in auto mode) is pretty low, but it seems to stop at maybe 1/4 (too bright in the dark) and I need to adjust it at minimum by myself).-The camera is ok, but I was expecting a better upgrade from my nearly 5 years old phone.-The antenna are better than my previous cell, I have a cottage in the wood and while I had no signal at all (and sometimes 1 bars), I usually have 1 or 2 (and sometimes none, but not quite often).-It was fairly cheap, I bought it on discount for 300$can.Bad point : -I love the "always on display" feature and I prefer a lot the LG's one.-You are limited to 3 finger print to unlock your phone, so if you want to register your two thumbs, you only have one slot left and it's not the best fingerprint's reader I used either.-Even if they both work on Android laucher, my Lg was much easier to set as I wanted and I could custom it way more. Maybe I just didn't find how to change some preference in my cellphone yet, but it comes back to my point, not as easy than my previous phone.-I don't like the touchscreen that much, I don't know if it lacks precision, but do a lot of mistakes while typing. You could say I'm not used to it yet, but after three month of use, I think I should be used to it by now.-The major downgrade I had was from the speed and performance while "gaming". I used to play the mobile games "Injustice : God's among us" and "Bloon TD 5" on my LG G7 and I had no problem, but with this brand new phone, it kept lagging, freezing and crashing. I know it's not the best phone if you intend to play, but from the specs, it was supposed to be better than my LG G7 and apparently, it is not...Sometimes, I have problems during some phonecalls where the other person can't hear me, but I can't say if it's a microphone problem since it's almost always with the same 2/3 persons, I have no problem with other people...I haven't really test the water and dust proof. I can't say if it's a good long term cellphone either at the moment.In conclusion, I believe it is far from being the best/my favorite cellphone. I was really shock by the lack of "power" of this cellphone, especially since it's brand new, I had a Galaxy S3 a while ago and at the end of its "life" (3-4 years), it seems like it lost a little bit of power/became slower, which I belive is normal, almost all my phone had something like this, but this one is brand new and can't outperform my 5 years old phone? Other than this, the cellphone is ok, my other "bad points" aren't major issues. For the price I paid (300$ canadian, almost 55% discount while I bought it), I believe that it's pretty good, but I think that the brand new price (650$ I belive) might be a bit too expensive for what it's really worth.

The best aspects of this phone are 1) the shockingly gorgeous AMOLED screen; 2) the fact that it picks up weak signals, 3) its amazing Dolby stereo sound that doesn't become distorted even when cranked all the way up, 4) its 120 Hz display, 5) its customizability, and 5) that you can set it to only charge the battery to 85% in order to preserve battery life. 128 GB of internal storage is plenty. The in-screen fingerprint reader can be a little slow. The quality of the cameras photos is generally very good. The sound quality is so good that I can even listen to music in my car on the phone speakers instead of playing the music through my car's speakers through Bluetooth. The battery life is great. One small nitpick is that with the included Samsung One UI, when you ... MoreThe best aspects of this phone are 1) the shockingly gorgeous AMOLED screen; 2) the fact that it picks up weak signals, 3) its amazing Dolby stereo sound that doesn't become distorted even when cranked all the way up, 4) its 120 Hz display, 5) its customizability, and 5) that you can set it to only charge the battery to 85% in order to preserve battery life. 128 GB of internal storage is plenty. The in-screen fingerprint reader can be a little slow. The quality of the cameras photos is generally very good. The sound quality is so good that I can even listen to music in my car on the phone speakers instead of playing the music through my car's speakers through Bluetooth. The battery life is great. One small nitpick is that with the included Samsung One UI, when you go to the app switcher, it will focus on the previous app instead of the current app. However, you can easily correct this behavior by downloading the free Good Lock app from the Samsung app store and using the included Home Up module. The other nitpick is that you sometimes need to tap the screen a couple of times in order to get it to respond, even when you use the setting to increase touchscreen sensitivity. However, Samsung seems to have fixed this with a software update, and this is no longer an issue. I recommend picking this phone up locked to the carrier you use anyway to shave a few dollars off the price. All in all, this is a wonderful and recommended phone, especially because of its gorgeous display.