Released last November 2021, the Samsung Galaxy M52 5G was positioned and designed for entrepreneurs to be prepared with the right tools, specs and technology to handle multiple tasks of their online business.
But Samsung’s latest mid-range smartphone can also be for any users who’s looking for an upgrade especially if you want a 5G-ready device. The GalaxyM52 5G is also the first M-series to get a higher refresh rate and currently equipped with a great Snapdragon processor.
The Samsung Galaxy M52 5G is available via online in Lazada, Shopee, Abenson.com, MemoXpress Online, and Samsung.com/PH for only PHP 22,990.
The Galaxy M52 5G has a lot to offer as we will share some of them to you so let’s get on with the review.
Build Quality and Display
The Galaxy M52 5G has three available color options in White, Black and our test unit in Light Blue.
The Galaxy M52 5G offers a nice refined curved design, weighs 173 grams and gets a super slim body at 7.4mm as it felt pleasant to hold in the hand.
The back panel cover is made of durable plastic material with the same pinstripe line pattern design which was used on some of their previous and existing M-series models. It seems the back panel gets a glossy type finish that can have some slight fingerprint smudges on it.
While the rectangular-shaped triple camera is placed on the top left with the LED flash beside it and a Samsung brand logo at the bottom.
To this point, I would say that the Galaxy M52 5G still gets a bit of a premium feel even if the back panel, frame and the buttons are all plastic.
At the front, you immediately spot its centered punch-hole notch design for the front camera. The top and side bezels are thin but the bottom chin gets a slightly thicker bezel.
Good thing that the glass display on the device has a tough Corning Gorilla Glass 5 raising its protection against damage from drops and improvement from scratches or deep cuts.
On the left you have the volume rockers, power/sleep button with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor on it and the SIM tray on the right side. You have a microphone on the top while a speaker grille, microphone and a USB Type-C port at the bottom.
It does not have a headphone jack so you should probably be using a USB-C or wireless headphones/earbuds to listen to your music.
The Galaxy M52 5G had a nice display thanks to its large 6.7-inch Super AMOLED Infinity with a 120Hz refresh rate. You can also choose to set the refresh rate to 60Hz or standard mode to get a longer battery life on your phone.
We liked the display as what we would expect in any Super AMOLED technology display from Samsung. It has vivid colors, good contrast, deep blacks, text are sharp and I have no problem viewing my display in bright daylight.
Hardware and Performance
Under the hood the Samsung Galaxy M52 5G is equipped with a 2.4GHz Snapdragon 778G octa-core processor using 6nm process technology with its eight core chipset divided into three clusters. It’s a powerful and efficient processor that lets you enjoy your multimedia, mobile gaming and work smarter backed by a ready-5G support.
You get 128GB storage expandable up to 1TB via a microSD, 8GB memory and Adreno 642L GPU which Qualcomm claims to offer up to 40% faster graphics rendering. On the memory, it offers RAM Plus that provides up to 4GB of extra virtual RAM to run apps smoothly and manage efficient multitasking on the device.
It took only around 21% usage or 27.05GB on the storage with all the installed apps and OS on the device which leaves you enough more room to store your photos, files etc.
Sound quality on the phone is decent with clean vocals, good treble and a little thump on the bass just to kick that low-end beat. You can set its equalizer under the sound quality and effects settings for your preferred type either in Normal, Pop, Classic, Jazz, Rock and Custom.
The device also supports Dolby Atmos feature accessible only when you connect your headphones or wireless earbuds to the phone for a better sound quality.
Here are our benchmarks score on the Samsung Galaxy M52 5G:
- Antutu v9.2.9 – 486789
- Geekbench 5 – 776 Single Core / 2851 Multi-Core Score
The device supports regular mobile networks for 2G, 3G, 4G and now offering a hyperfast 5G connectivity making you stream videos faster, make video calls clearly and play games with lag-free or fewer distruptions while you’re connected.
We bought a Globe 5G SIM to try on the device and run a benchmark speed test using Ookla and SpeedOf.me see our results below:
Cameras (Photo and Video Samples)
You get a triple camera setup on the Galaxy M52 5G with a 64MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide camera, and a 5MP macro camera at the back, while the front holds a 32MP camera for your selfies and video calls.
The Galaxy M52 5G is packed with a ton of shooting modes available on the camera app. You can choose to be more creative on your shots with Photo, Video, Single take, Fun, AR doodle, PRO, Panorama, Food, Night, Macro, Portrait, PRO Video, Super Slow-mo, Slow Motion and Hyperlapse. Plus, you also have Bixby Vision that allows you to get information when opening your camera and AR Zone an augmented reality feature that you can interact or have fun.
For the Fun camera mode, it puts Snapchat filters right into Samsung’s camera apps which is cool. Unfortunately, our review unit has a slight problem uploading the filters so we were not able to do some sample shots.
Here are our sample photos:
Ultrawide
Ultrawide
Ultrawide
1X Zoom
2X Zoom
10X Zoom
Food Mode
Macro Mode
Main Camera
Capture with a Wide-angle Selfie Shot
(L-R) Portrait Mode and Night Mode Selfie
Night Mode (1X)
Night Mode (Ultrawide)
For video the Galaxy M52 5G can capture up to 4K resolution at 30fps on its main camera and ultrawide camera as well as its front facing camera. You can record in either Full HD at 30fps or 60fps plus HD at 30fps only.
You also get video stabilization available only on the Full HD and HD at 30fps only but not in 4K. However, the 4K footage on the main camera is very good with low noise and still the details are fairly snappy.
Here’s a sample video:
User Interface and Security
The Galaxy M52 5G runs on Android 11 with the One UI 3.1 version out of the box. You get some pre-installed apps like Facebook, Spotify, Netflix, TikTok, and Microsoft apps (Office, One Drive, LinkedIn and Outlook).
For security, an array of biometrics features are accessible on the Galaxy M52 5G to unlock, secure personal files or verify your identity during app purchases for ease and safety. There’s the Face Recognition, Fingerprint Scan, Google Play Protect, Samsung Pass and Secure Folder.
To ensure your data are safe it has the Samsung Knox 3.7 version providing an additional security against malware or remote attacks on your device.
Battery Life
The Galaxy M52 5G has a large 5,000-mAh battery which can last you all day long especially if you’re a heavy user or a day and a half for light use.
This galaxy device doesn’t have a wireless charging feature but it does support Super Fast Charging up to 25-watt to easily juice up the massive battery letting you get back to full power swiftly. With the said feature charging the device took us around an hour and 28 minutes to have it fully charged. We got 46% increase on the phone’s battery after a 30-minute charge.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy M52 5G is a well-rounded and capable device with a good set of features.
We love the quality of the AMOLED display coupled with the 120Hz refresh rate making it a properly better display. Capture photos with a triple camera setup built with an array of shooting modes for more creative shots plus record videos at 4K quality. A powerful hardware for multi-tasking equipped with a 2.4Ghz Octa-core Snapdragon 778G, 128GB storage expandable via a MicroSD, and an 8GB memory.
The large 5,000 mAh battery capacity on the Galaxy M52 5G is enough to get you the whole day and juice up quickly thanks to the 25W Super Fast Charging feature. You have a hyperfast 5G connection with lag-free experience at your disposal.
Overall, our experience with the Samsung Galaxy M52 5G gave us a good impression and certainly one of the best model under their M-series. If you’re not too keen about the specs or small shortcomings of the device then the Samsung Galaxy M52 5G is the right phone for you.
What We Like
- Super AMOLED Display
- 5,000 mAh Battery
- Super Fast Charging Feature
- Samsung Knox 3.7, Facial and Fingerprint Scanner for Security
- 4K Video
- Hyperfast 5G Connectivity
- 128GB storage and 8GB Memory with extra Virtual RAM
- Software User Interface – One UI
- Light and Thin
- Assortment of Shooting Modes
What We Want
- 5mm Headphone Jack
- Video stabilization available at 4K
- Enhance Sound Quality
- Dedicated MicroSD Slot
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G Full Specifications
- Price: PHP22,990
- Color: White, Black and Light Blue
- Display: 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-O display
- Resolution: 1080x2400pixels
- Refresh Rate: 120hz
- Processor: Snapdragon 778G Octa-core 2.4GHz
- Storage: 128GB (expandable to 1TB via MicroSD)
- Memory: 8GB
- OS: One UI 3.1 based on Android 11
- Rear Camera: 64MP Main + 12MP Ultra Wide + 5MP Macro
- Front Camera: 32MP
- Video: UHD 4K (3840×2160) @ 30fps
- Battery: 5,000mAh with 25W Super Fast Charging Technology
- Sensors: Accelerometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Grip Sensor, Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor
- Connectivity: USB Type-C, GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC
- Network: Dual-Nano SIM, 2G GSM, 3G UMTS, 4G FDD LTE, 4G TDD LTE
- Security: Samsung Knox
- Audio: Dolby Atmos
- Wi-Fi: 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac / ax 2.4G+ 5GHz, HE80, SISO, 1024-QAM
- Weight: 173g
- Dimensions: 164.2×76.4×7.4mm
