Galaxy A33 5G hands-on preview

March 17, 2022 1

Galaxy A33 5G Design and Display

Galaxy A33 5G Design

The design of the Galaxy A33 is about what you would expect from a Samsung mid-range phone nowadays, although there are some interesting choices that have been made.

First of all, the back panel is made of matte plastic. It does a pretty good job at avoiding fingerprints, so if you are brave enough to hold it without a case, the new blue and peach colors pop beautifully.

Going around the sides, you will find the power button and volume rocker, the SIM card tray/expandable storage combo and microphone hole on the top. On the bottom of the Galaxy A33 are the speaker grill, USB-C port, and a second microphone.

If you feel like there is something missing here, your gut is correct — there is no 3.5mm headphone jack anymore. A moment of silence, for yet another one bites the dust…

On a more serious note, however, this left me a bit baffled and disappointed. In contrast, the Galaxy A32 had a 3.5mm headphone jack. It seems Samsung has decided that excluding this feature would be the better way to go, likely to make way for new components.

There will be no other dust biting going on, though, as Samsung has brought the IP67 rating to the Galaxy A33, making it dust and water resistant, and an even more appealing choice for potential buyers. Another thing that is borrowed from the higher-priced A53 is the Gorilla Glass 5 protecting the display.

Galaxy A33 5G Display

Just like its predecessor, the Galaxy A33 5G is keeping its tear-drop shaped display, or as Samsung calls it — Infinity-U. This time around, however, it has an FHD+ resolution and it measures 6.4 inches.

Last year Samsung launched two versions of the A32 — a regular A32 and an A32 5G. The latter was equipped with a 90Hz refresh rate display while the former had only 60Hz. This year, the Galaxy A33 is announced with a 90Hz refresh rate and it is unclear whether another version will come down the line.The display itself had good viewing angles, the colors looked vibrant, and Samsung claims as much as 800 nits of maximum brightness.

In terms of biometrics, there is an optical fingerprint reader below the above-mentioned screen. Yes, having an ultrasonic sensor on such a device would have been quite the treat, but it is not that surprising that Samsung has opted for the more affordable option.

If you are more of a “face-unlock” kind of person, then you can do that too with the Galaxy A33 5G, which should be better thanks to the new chip inside.

Performance and Software

Much of the improvements in the Galaxy A33 5G stem from its new chipset — the Exynos 1280, which is the first SoC built on the 5nm process to be placed in a Galaxy A3x series. The processor inside features eight cores: 2 x 2.4 GHz and 6 x 2.0 GHz.

The new GPU, on the other hand, shows 50% increase in performance compared to the A32, while Samsung claims that the APU is a whopping 400% better, making AI performance significantly improved over the previous generation.

In terms of storage, the Galaxy A33 5G comes in one simple configuration — 128GB with 6GB of RAM. Thankfully, there is also the option to expand that storage via a microSD card up to 1TB.

As for the software, the Galaxy A33 will launch with Samsung’s latest software — One UI 4.1, straight out of the box.

Camera

Now, at a first glance the camera system on the Galaxy A33 5G does not seem that much different, or at all even, from that of its predecessor. Look in a bit closer, however, and you will find some key differences.

First and foremost, optical image stabilization (OIS) makes an entrance in the A3x series. The main snapper on the A33 5G’s back is the one equipped with this feature.

It allows for the Galaxy A33 to utilize Samsung’s night mode, since the main camera can now shoot long-exposure images and gather more light.

Additionally, the Exynos 1280 inside and the better AI performance it brings result in improved camera features such as portrait mode on both the back and front-facing cameras. The blur is adjustable and there is portrait lighting as well.

The new chipset also helps out while you are digitally zooming in on the shot, with Samsung calling this AI zooming. During our brief hands-on testing of the phone we saw noticeable improvement in the form of better detail. That said, it cannot serve as a replacement for a dedicated telephoto camera, which the A33 5G lacks.

Galaxy A33 5G Audio Quality

As mentioned earlier, sadly, the Galaxy A33 5G does not come with a 3.5mm audio jack, or any other kind of jack for that matter. No, Samsung has decided to opt it out of its two mid-range phones this year.

Thankfully, there are stereo speakers to maybe, possibly compensate for that tragic loss. They are now louder than before, although the quality of the sound itself is still to be determined, so stay tuned for our full review to learn about that.

Battery Life and Charging

Just like the Galaxy A32, the Galaxy A33 has a maximum wired charging speed of 25W, with no support for wireless charging. Unlike the predecessor, though, it comes with no included charging brick in the box, so you would have to get that yourself. The battery itself is 5000mAh in capacity.You can check our article on the best fast chargers for Android you can get.