Samsung’s recommended price is $269, but it is sold at a steady price of just under $200 in a large number of stores, so it qualifies into what we would call the lower middle class. For that you get a mobile with a nice amoled screen, reliable mid-range performance, 128 gigabytes of storage, 5g and a large battery.
The design and construction is almost identical to the more expensive Galaxy A53, flat back in matte plastic, the front has 2.5d Gorilla Glass with a wide frame in high quality plastic. It is available in black, blue, white and peach. The biggest difference is that the Galaxy A33 is a millimeter narrower in width and weighs less, and that the frame is matte instead of glossy.
These are two things that we welcome, as it makes the phone more comfortable to hold. In this lower price range, we are also less bothered by the plastic feel of the phone. Here it is more expected. Just like the Galaxy A53, the Galaxy A33 is ip67-rated, which means it can withstand being dropped in the sink, but maybe not diving with it.
The other visual difference is the screen, which has a larger bezel at the bottom and teardrop-shaped mini-flapper for the selfie camera instead of a separate hole in the screen. We have no preference for one or the other, both disturb the image about the same. Possibly a round hole looks more “modern”, but we can live with the fact that we don’t get that here. Because there are many other things that make the Galaxy A33 keep up with the times.
Big steps forward
We never tested the direct predecessor Galaxy A32 5G, but can state that the A33 offers a bunch of tangible upgrades. Firstly, it has significantly increased performance. Samsung’s Exynos 1280 chip delivers nearly twice as much computing power as the Mediatek Helios G80, which sits in the Galaxy A32. More RAM, six versus four gigabytes, also helps.
Here we get a fast and smooth experience in most situations, from web surfing to GPS navigation, and can even play many semi-demanding games on the mobile without it feeling tough. It’s actually the same chipset as the Galaxy A53, and has the same amount of memory and storage as its base model. Although a thousand launds cheaper.
Second, the Galaxy A33 has a significantly better screen than its predecessor. A 6.4 inch amoled display with 1080p resolution, a big lift from the 720p resolution TFT screen that the 5g version of the Galaxy A32 has. In addition, one with really nice color control, 90 Hz frame rate for a nicer and smoother picture. It doesn’t seem to have adaptive frame rate, so you may need to manually set it down to 60Hz every now and then, if you want to save battery.
Large battery with unclear charge
Even when we run the phone constantly in 90 Hz mode, the battery life is fully approved. Here sits a 5,000 mAh battery that delivers almost 20 hours in our video streaming test with the 60 Hz picture mode, and a scant 15 hours with 90 Hz. It is still well approved. During more sporadic use, we easily get two days out before we need to charge it.
But it is certainly possible to drain the battery faster. If you are a high-intensity user who takes photos and films, makes video calls and scrolls on TikTok for several hours a day, you will need to charge it during the night. Then we are met by one of the few disappointments with the phone, it supports charging with up to 25 watts. Not extremely fast, but passed.
Unfortunately, Samsung has decided to completely skip the included chargers in its mobiles, so you need to have one of the appropriate kind at home. Otherwise, you either have to buy one separately or make do with what you happen to have lying around, even if it’s a tough 5-watt charger. We understand the idea. Universal chargers are good for the environment and save both emissions and money in transport. But shouldn’t that at least be reflected in the price?
Many pluses, few minuses
Other things we like about the phone are nice, well-balanced and rich stereo sound with Dolby Atmos support, micro sd card slot for storage expansion and that it has the same nice Android update policy as the Galaxy A53: three years of promised system updates and four years of security updates.
Among less impressive details, we find a slow and sometimes patient-testing fingerprint reader located under the screen. It has a tendency to miss about every fourth unlock. Exactly what it depends on is hard to say, because the fingerprint reader in the Galaxy A53 is more reliable. It’s usually tied to performance, but the two phones are equally fast. Hopefully it can be tweaked with a software update.
The cameras in the Galaxy A33 are four in number and slightly simpler than those in the Galaxy A55. We can basically count two out, a micro camera which is not much to cheer about and a support sensor for depth vision, so you can get a better depth of field effect when taking portraits. However, the other two cameras maintain a good minimum level.
Easy to take good pictures
You get a 48-megapixel main camera, where the most interesting thing is that it has optical image stabilization, something that is not so common in the price range. It takes sharp pictures with fast and reliable focus, with the same color balance as in more expensive Samsung phones.
The dynamics of images is good with nuances appearing in both dark and light parts of a photo. The camera app has a quick shortcut to a 2x zoom mode, which is then purely digital, as the Galaxy A33 does not have optical zoom. We stay away from it, as it does nothing more than scale up with lost sharpness as a result.
In addition, you get a simple wide angle with a 123-degree field of view that takes nice pictures in broad daylight, although with a tendency to weaker sharpness in the periphery. What both cameras struggle with is noise levels when shooting at night. But they both continue to deliver acceptable dynamics and do not lose the color balance.
All in all, the Galaxy A33 delivers the most we could ask for in this price range. It is fast enough, has a nice screen, excellent sound both for media and during calls, a competent camera and good battery life. What bothered us about the Galaxy A53, we can be more indulgent with in the more price-pressured Galaxy A33, and it also does a couple of things a notch better – nicer grip and better sound in the speakers.
