Samsung Galaxy A32 5G review

Galaxy A32 5G is part of Samsung’s latest lineup of affordable smartphones that cater to the needs of people who can’t afford flagship products. The device looks good, has a generous battery, an impressive number of cameras, and 5G connectivity. Plus, the Samsung brand that millions of people love. Are these characteristics enough to make the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G a great product that you should buy? Read our review and find out:

Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: Who is it good for?

This smartphone is a solid choice for:

• People who want a 5G smartphone at an affordable price
• Users who need a smartphone with a long battery life
• Fans who are invested in Samsung’s ecosystem

Pros and cons

There are a lot of good things to say about the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G:

• 5G mobile connectivity
• Excellent battery life
• Pleasant design and good looking colors
• Good performance for its price range
• The latest Android version with quarterly security updates for up to four years

There are some important downsides too:

• The display is worse than on the 4G variant of the same model
• No headset included in the box
• There’s no Wi-Fi 6 support

Verdict

If you are a Samsung fan and you want 5G connectivity, excellent battery life, good performance, and pleasant design without spending a lot of money, Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is a smartphone that you should consider buying. It performs well for most users, and its camera system does what you expect from a smartphone in its price range. However, the same smartphone without 5G has a better screen, and it costs a bit less, so you may want to take a look at the “standard” Samsung Galaxy A32 too.

Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G

Samsung Galaxy A32 5G comes in a beautiful cardboard box with a big picture of the device on the top cover. The box’s back has a sticker on it with more details about the exact model you bought and where it was manufactured. The packaging used for Samsung Galaxy A32 5G Inside the box, you first see another cardboard box that contains the quick start guide and the warranty. Beneath it, you find the smartphone, and beneath that, the charger, a USB cable, and the ejection pin for the SIM tray. Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G Here’s how everything looks after finishing the unboxing process. As you can see, Samsung Galaxy A32 5G doesn’t bundle a headset. But, Samsung does bundle a 15W adaptive faster charger, using an old technology that has been around for many years now. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: Everything found inside the box The packaging used for the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G looks good and is easy to unpack everything. However, some users may be disappointed by the lack of a bundled headset.

Design and build quality

Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is a large 6.5-inch smartphone with rounded corners and the following dimensions: 6.46 x 3.00 x 0.36 inches or 164.2 x 76.1 x 9.1 mm. It is also relatively heavy, weighing 7.23 oz or 205 grams. This smartphone is available in four color variants: Awesome Black, Awesome White, Awesome Blue, and Awesome Violet. That’s a lot of “Awesome,” and we would have appreciated some more creativity. 🙂 The colors available for Samsung Galaxy A32 5G We tested the violet color variant, which looks good and is more interesting than the classic black most people opt for. The back of the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is relatively elegant, even if it’s made entirely of plastic. The frame is also from plastic, even though it feels a lot tougher than the back. Another difference is that the frame has a high-gloss shine, which makes it look similar to the one used on more premium models. The four cameras and the flash on the back are impressive for such an affordable smartphone, and their design is unusual compared to other Samsung Galaxy devices. As you can see in the picture below, three separate camera modules stick out from the flat back panel. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: The cameras on the back Samsung Galaxy A32 comes in 5G and 4G variants, but the two are pretty different. It’s not just the 5G connectivity that’s different, but also the screen, the camera system, the card tray, the fingerprint sensor, and the hardware inside the two smartphones. If you are interested in the non-5G variant, you should look for specific reviews and skip reading this one. Getting back to Samsung Galaxy A32 5G, it has a TFT screen, with a maximum resolution of 720 x 1600 pixels and 270 ppi density. Also, it is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5, which helps the smartphone sustain falls and resist scratches. At the top of the screen, you notice a small circular hole that holds the selfie camera right in the middle. The front side of the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G On the bottom bezel of the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G, you find the USB-Type C port right in the middle, the headphone jack, the loudspeaker, and a microphone. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: The ports on the bottom bezel On the left side, you find the card slot that can hold both a microSD card and a nano-SIM. If you don’t use a microSD card, you can turn this phone into a Dual-SIM one. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: The card slot On the opposite side, you find the power button and the volume rocker, both made from plastic. The power button also acts as a fingerprint sensor. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: The buttons on the right side The top bezel holds just the second microphone. There’s no additional speaker, so there’s no stereo support because you need two speakers for that. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: The top bezel Samsung Galaxy A32 5G has a pleasant design, and it comes in several color variants that look good. The camera system has a unique design approach that you don’t see on other Samsung Galaxy smartphones. This being a relatively affordable model, it is made mainly from plastic materials, and its durability is not going to be comparable to that of more expensive models.

Hardware specifications

Samsung Galaxy A32 5G features a mid-range eight-core MediaTek MT6853 Dimensity 720 5G System on a Chip (SoC), with two powerful ARM Cortex-A76 cores operating at a speed of up to 2 GHz, and another six lower-performance ARM Cortex-A55 cores also working at 2 GHz. The SoC found inside the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G This smartphone can be equipped with 4GB of RAM and 64 GB or 128 GB of storage space, or 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage space, or 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage space. We received in testing the variant with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage space. As you expect, Android uses a lot of space on each smartphone, and we were left with 106 GB of free storage for pictures, videos, apps, and games. The graphics chip is an ARM Mali G57 MC3, and the screen has a resolution of only 720 x 1600 pixels (720p), which is a bit underwhelming. The display refresh rate is 60 Hz, and the smartphone has an 81.6% screen-to-body ratio. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: Details about the screen The camera system seems impressive for a smartphone in its price range. On the back, you find four cameras:

• A wide 48 MP camera, with an f/1.8 aperture
• An ultrawide 8 MP camera that uses a 1/4" sensor with 1.0µm pixels and an f/2.2 aperture lens that covers a 123-degree field of view
• A 5 MP camera for macros with an aperture of f/2.4
• A 2 MP “depth” camera with an aperture of f/2.4

There’s also a LED flash for taking photos in low-light conditions. For selfies, you have a 13MP wide camera in the notch of the display, with an f/2.2 aperture. The camera system available on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G Samsung Galaxy A32 5G works with 5G mobile networks, but it doesn’t offer Wi-Fi 6. It can use only the older Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 4 standards. There’s also Bluetooth 5.0 available, GPS, NFC, Wi-Fi Direct, and USB Type-C support. In terms of sensors, it includes the following: accelerometer, fingerprint sensor, gyro sensor, geomagnetic sensor, Hall sensor, virtual light sensing, and virtual proximity sensing. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is powered by a non-removable Li-ion battery with a capacity of 5000 mAh. It supports fast charging at 15W, but there’s no support for wireless charging built-in. Details about the battery on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G If you want more details about all the features and hardware specs, visit this page: Samsung Samsung Galaxy A32 5G Specs. Read the second page of this review for details about the smartphone experience offered by the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G, its cameras, operating system, and bundled apps, as well as its performance in benchmarks.

The smartphone experience on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G

The OneUI user interface and the Android operating system run well on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G. As long as you don’t install tons of apps and keep many Google Chrome tabs open, its general performance should be satisfactory for most users. Gaming works too, but it is not a great experience, as our benchmarks show later in this review. Browsing the web on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G For casual games, Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is more than adequate, but you will notice performance issues in more demanding games. Also, the frame rates are going to be on the lower side. Gaming on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G The display is the main weakness of the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G. It is large (6.5 inches) but only has a resolution of 720p, meaning that pixels are more visible than on other types of displays. The screen uses a TFT LCD panel instead of Super AMOLED (as on the non-5G variant of Galaxy A32). This phone doesn’t come with a screen protector, and the protection is provided only by the Gorilla Glass 5 used for the display. Its brightness is good indoors, but the smartphone is not pleasant to use outdoors, especially not in direct sunlight. Also, the screen’s response time is not suitable for gaming, making this a device aimed at casual users that may play some casual games from time to time. If all you do on your smartphone is browse the web, take pictures, use social media, and a couple of productivity apps, the screen is just fine. However, we would have preferred for Samsung to keep the same AMOLED screen on both Galaxy A32 models. The display used for Samsung Galaxy A32 5G Samsung Galaxy A32 5G has just one mono speaker on its bottom edge. However, it performs surprisingly well, especially for listening to music, as long as you don’t set its volume to the maximum. The high-frequency sounds are a bit too loud, though, and the bass is barely audible. However, this is to be expected from a mono smartphone speaker. Unlocking the phone can be done both using facial recognition and the fingerprint sensor that also acts as the power button. Both solutions work well without being the most reliable of the bunch. Face recognition is available on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G The battery life is one of this smartphone’s best features. In our week-long testing, Samsung Galaxy A32 5G lasted two days without problems, as long as we didn’t do lots of gaming or other power-intensive activities like lengthy GPS tracking. The battery recharged in about two hours and 20-25 minutes, and the 50%-mark was reached after approximately one hour. Fast charging is available on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G We also made a couple of phone calls on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G. The people we spoke to heard us clearly, and the suppression of ambient noise worked well. However, sometimes it had problems filtering out very loud noises, but that is expected from a smartphone in its price range. Voice calls work well using the built-in speaker, but don’t expect high-quality audio or hearing the other person when you are far from your smartphone. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G works well for casual users that don’t need high performance or are not into mobile gaming. Except for the display, there are no evident weaknesses for this device, and many users will appreciate its battery life.

The camera experience on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G

On paper, Samsung Galaxy A32 5G seems to have a great camera system for a smartphone in its price range. However, the reality is a bit different, as not all the cameras are useful. If you use the main two cameras (wide 48 MP and ultrawide 8 MP), the photos shot in natural daylight, without zooming in, are very pleasant, with good detail, vivid colors, sharp contrast, and no unwanted noise. But, the other two rear cameras are disappointing. For example, the 5 MP camera for macros suffers from focus problems. Also, the lack of details because of the low resolution is another problem. The camera for macros has focus problems Samsung’s Camera app is easy to use, but it doesn’t offer many options and features like on the more expensive Galaxy models. There’s a Pro mode too, but a basic one that only lets you pick the ISO, the white balance, and the exposure compensation. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: The Pro mode is rather basic Unfortunately, there’s no manual focus available, and the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G doesn’t offer optical zoom, only digital magnification. This means that zooming in leads to many visual distortions in your pictures. To exemplify this, browse through our picture gallery, and you will see the same picture zoomed in at different levels: On the other hand, photos taken during the night or low light conditions are below average. They look soft and with a lot of noise, and details fade away in the darker areas. The selfie camera is decent but doesn't impress as it either tends to lose details in low light or increases the contrast and exposure too much in bright light. It's good for the occasional selfie on social media, but that's pretty much it. For video recording, Samsung Galaxy A32 5G offers decent results. The videos look sharp, and the electronic image stabilization helps, even though it doesn’t have the best implementation. We feel that the contrast is a bit too much and that the colors are a bit too punchy compared to real life, but that’s a “trademark” of Samsung smartphones. Here is a first video sample, filmed in 1080p and 30 frames per second, with plenty of cars moving around: And here’s a video recorded in the middle of the forest. You can see how the image stabilization algorithms deserve some improvement: In theory, the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G can take pictures at a resolution of 48 Megapixels and film video in UltraHD resolutions, but the electronic image stabilization is not available in both cases. Also, saving your pictures and videos takes a long time and plenty of storage space, and we don’t recommend using these modes, as they are primarily marketing gimmicks. When reading the specs of the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G, you may have the impression that this smartphone delivers a great picture-taking/video recording experience when compared to other devices in its price range. However, that is not the case. It is not bad either, but it doesn’t beat the competition.

Android 11 and bundled apps

Samsung Galaxy A32 5G comes with Android 11 and One UI 3.1 by default. This phone is on the list of devices that are going to receive quarterly security updates for up to four years since its international launch. In comparison, more expensive models receive monthly security updates for a similar amount of time. Samsung’s One UI enhances the default stock Android experience and comes with quite a few additional features and optimizations. If you’re switching from another Samsung smartphone, the transition to the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is straightforward. However, if you’ve previously used an Android smartphone from another manufacturer, it might take a few hours for you to accommodate. When you set up your phone, Samsung recommends you to install many apps. However, you can skip installing some of them. In the end, Samsung will force upon you the following apps: Samsung apps installed on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G

• Galaxy Shop - Samsung’s mobile shop for your respective country/market. Luckily, you can uninstall this app.
• SmartThings - a helpful app that allows you to do many things, like locate missing Samsung devices or remote-control your smart home.
• Voice Recorder - a simple voice recording app that does what you expect it to do.
• My Files - a helpful file manager for your Samsung Galaxy device.
• Samsung Internet - we would have liked for Samsung to stop pushing their web browser and let us use Chrome or any other browser we prefer.
• Samsung Health - a health & fitness app that works only with a Samsung account and Samsung wearables.
• Galaxy Wearable - helps you pair and configure Samsung wearable devices with your smartphone.
• AR Zone - allows you to play with augmented reality emoji, doodles, and other items.
• Radio - if you have your own headphones, you can listen to FM radio using this app.
• Messages - Samsung’s take on the Google’s Messages app for SMS and MMS.
• Samsung Members - helps you connect with other Samsung Galaxy device owners and get help when running into problems.
• Galaxy Store - Samsung’s app store that aims to compete with Google Play.
• Gallery - Samsung’s alternative to Google Photos.
• Samsung Notes - a good and easy-to-use app for note-taking. Many users might enjoy using it.
• Samsung Global Goals - an app that enables users to donate money to charity by viewing ads or donating directly. Unfortunately, this app also tends to annoy you with ads quite often, especially when charging your smartphone. Luckily, you can uninstall this app if it becomes annoying.
• Samsung Free - Samsung’s alternative to Google Discover.
• Game Launcher - a game store that competes with Google Play, which also contains a set of tools that may be useful while gaming on your smartphone.

There are also some Microsoft apps included, alongside the Google apps that come with any Android device. These are Office, OneDrive, LinkedIn, and Outlook. There’s also Netflix, Spotify, and Facebook preinstalled by default, apps that are going to be popular with most users. All the apps available on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G Samsung Galaxy A32 5G comes with the latest version of Android and quarterly security updates. The list of preinstalled apps is quite long and filled with many clones of Google’s apps, but most of them can be uninstalled with ease to save some storage space.

Performance in benchmarks

To see how powerful the processor on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is, we first ran Geekbench. It got 473 points in the Single-Core tests and 1538 in the Multi-Core test. These scores are similar to those of Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro and slightly higher than what you get from an older Samsung Galaxy S8 (Samsung’s flagship from 2017). Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: Geekbench score We then used PCMark for Android to measure how well Samsung Galaxy A32 5G fares in productivity tasks. It had a score of 6353 points, similar to that of a Motorola G7 Power. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: PCMark score Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is not a smartphone made for gaming, and the 3DMark benchmark app confirmed this. In the Sling Shot Extreme – OpenGL ES 3.1 test, this smartphone rendered a maximum of 15.50 frames per second, which is not a lot, and not enough for a good quality gaming experiences. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: 3DMark score Samsung Galaxy A32 5G rendered a low number of frames in the GFXBench Car Chace and 1080p Care Chace Offscreen tests. Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: GFXBench scores To evaluate the autonomy offered by Samsung Galaxy A32 5G, we used PCMark’s Work 2.0 battery life test with the display brightness set to auto. The battery lasted 16 hours and 11 minutes, which is excellent. In regular everyday use that doesn’t involve gaming, this smartphone’s battery should not have any problems lasting for two days.

Samsung Galaxy A32 5G: Battery test Unfortunately, we don’t have 5G connectivity in our area, and we couldn’t test the mobile data speed you get with Samsung Galaxy A32 5G on 5G networks. Benchmarks have confirmed that Samsung Galaxy A32 5G offers good performance for general productivity tasks and excellent battery life. However, this smartphone is not a good choice for gaming.

Do you like the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G Android smartphone?

Now you know what’s good and what’s not about the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G. You also know that it is a different smartphone than its non-5G variant. Before closing this review, tell us your opinion about this model, and whether you prefer the 5G variant of Samsung Galaxy A32 or the standard one, and why. Comment below, and let’s discuss.