How Samsung’s $499 Galaxy A50 Compares To The S10, S10+ And S10e

Samsung recently released the Galaxy A50: a more affordable alternative to Samsung’s flagship S10-series devices, like the S10, S10+ and S10e. With so many Galaxy smartphone models available, each with its own set of specs and features, we decided to put together a quick guide to help you see the differences between everything you can buy.

The A50 Versus the S10, S10+, and S10e

The A50 is to the S10 lineup as the Pixel 3a is to the Pixel 3 and 3XL — it’s a more affordable version of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy models with slightly different specs and sizing. While some of the S10’s features have been stripped out of the A50, the upshot is that there’s more space for a larger battery (and the device costs less). Here’s how the A50’s specs stack up to its older S10 siblings:

Performance

The A50 will look and feel identical to the S10 out of the box, since each of these handsets run on Android Pie with Samsung’s proprietary One UI overlaid on top. The S10 series has the edge when it comes to specs, however. While the A50 uses an Exynos 9610 chip, the S10 family runs on a more powerful Snapdragon 855 chip. Similarly, the S10 and S10+’s 8GB of RAM is double the A50’s 4GB. (Even the S10e beats the A50 with 6GB.)

The A50 also has half as much internal storage (64GB) as the three S10 handsets, though you can at least expand this with a microSD card. All together, this means that you’ll experience slightly longer app-loading times and potentially worse performance in demanding mobile games on an A50 versus an S10, but this is also the kind of thing that you wouldn’t probably think about unless you were comparing the two side-by-side.

One area where the A50 shines is its battery. At 4000mAh, its battery is a bit beefier than the S10’s 3400 mAh and the S10e’s 3100mAh batteries, and it nearly matches the 4100 mAh battery in the S10+. What you lose in a little performance, you’ll gain in some extra uptime.

Display

As for the display, the A50 has a 15cm 2340-by-1080 pixel super AMOLED display. That’s the same size as the screen on the Galaxy S10+, and larger than the S10’s 13cm screen, but the A50’s resolution is lower than both smartphones’ 3040-by-1440 pixel displays. The A50’s display is more like the S10e’s than anything else, though that model has the smallest screen of the bunch at just 15cm.

Additionally, the A50 uses an “Infinity-U” display, which is Samsung’s way of saying it uses a small notch for the front-facing camera. It’s much smaller than the notch on an iPhone or Pixel 3XL, and its placement — directly in the top-center of the display — gives Samsung a little more flexibility to squeeze out more display space (and tinier bezels). Still, it’s a little jarring compared to the S10’s punch-hole design.

Camera

When it comes to cameras, the A50 is no slouch. It definitely puts the pressure on the Pixel 3a for a great camera setup in a mid-range device. The A50 doesn’t have quite as many camera features on paper as the S10 trio — such as optical image stabilisation — but it includes an impressive 25MP primary rear-facing camera, plus a 8MP wide-angle lens and a 5MP depth lens, as well as an 25MP front-facing “selfie” camera.

By comparison, the S10 has 12MP primary camera, a 12MP telephoto lens and a 16MP ultra-wide lens, as well as a 10MP front-facing “selfie” camera. The S10+ adds an extra 8MP depth camera on the front. The S10e only has two cameras, a rear-facing 12MP and a front-facing 16MP, which doesn’t give you quite as much flexibility as the A50’s triple-lens setup.

The biggest trade-off with the A50’s camera is that its aperture is locked to f/1.7, while all the devices in the S10 line have variable f/1.4 and f/2.4 apertures. Still, f/1.7 isn’t shabby, and you probably wouldn’t notice a difference between that and f/1.4 for most shots. With that said, the A50 is a lot cheaper and you’d be hard-pressed to find similarly priced smartphones with such a good camera setup that aren’t called the “Pixel 3a.”

Galaxy A50, S10, S10+, and S10e specs breakdown

Galaxy A50

  • Price: $499

  • Display: 15cm FHD+ (2340 x 1080) AMOLED ‘Infinity-U’ display

  • Camera: 25MP, 8MP, 5MP (rear); 25MP (front)

  • Processor: Exynos 9610

  • RAM: 4GB

  • Internal Storage: 64GB (expandable with microSD cards up to 512GB)

  • Battery: 4000 mAh

  • OS: Android Pie with One UI

  • Headphone Jack: Yes

  • Fast Charging: Yes

  • Fingerprint sensor: Yes

  • Availability: June 13

Galaxy S10

  • Display: 6.1 Dynamic AMOLED, 3040 x 1440 pixels

  • Camera: 12MP, 12MP, 16MP (rear); 10MP (front)

  • Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855

  • RAM: 8GB

  • Internal Storage: starting at 128GB

  • Battery: 3400 mAh

  • OS: Android Pie with One UI

  • Headphone Jack: Yes

  • Fast Charging: Yes

  • Fingerprint sensor: Yes

  • Availability: Available now

Galaxy S10+

  • Price: From $1499
  • Display: 6.4 Dynamic AMOLED, 3040 x 1440 pixels

  • Camera: 12MP, 12MP, 16MP (rear); 10MP, 8MP (front)

  • Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855

  • RAM: starting at 8GB

  • Internal Storage: starting at 128 GB

  • Battery: 4100 mAh

  • OS: Android Pie with One UI

  • Headphone Jack: Yes

  • Fast Charging: Yes

  • Fingerprint sensor: Yes

Galaxy S10e

  • Price: $1149
  • Display: 5.8 Dynamic AMOLED, 2280 x 1080 pixels

  • Camera: 12 MP, 12 MP, 16 MP (rear); 10MP (front)

  • Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855

  • RAM: 6GB

  • Internal Storage: 256 GB (expandable with microSD cards up to 512GB)

  • Battery: 3100 mAh

  • OS: Android Pie with One UI

  • Headphone Jack: Yes

  • Fast Charging: Yes

  • Fingerprint sensor: Yes

As you can see, the A50’s specs compare pretty favourably to the S10 family – especially when you consider the price differentiation. If you can’t afford a flagship smartphone, Samsung’s Galaxy A50 is the next best thing. Of course, there’s also the Samsung Galaxy A70 to consider, which will set you back $200 extra and comes with a better camera. Look out for a review of that phone, coming soon.

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