Update: Samsung Galaxy A50 camera review: Feature-rich budget device

Remark:

In October 2020, we updated the DXOMARK camera test protocol. Version 4 now includes image preview tests and a wide range of new test scenes as part of our new Reliability Rating which measures the camera's ability to deliver consistent still image and video quality in all shooting scenarios. We retested this device using the new version 4 of the test protocol and produced this fully updated review. For more information, please see our

v4 preview, reliability and other updates article

of the DXOMARK Camera Test Protocol.

The Samsung Galaxy A50 was launched in early 2019 as a feature-rich budget smartphone that featured a large 6.4-inch AMOLED FHD+ display with a small teardrop notch and thin chin to ensure plenty of screen space. It was also one of the most powerful devices in this market segment, running Android 9.0 on an Exynos 9610 chipset and sporting no less than three camera modules. The standard wide camera has been built around a 25MP sensor that allows for up to 12.2MP output coupled with a 26mm f/1.7 lens, with an 8MP ultra-wide camera and sensor 5MP depth for

bokeh

shots.

Read on to find out how the Samsung Galaxy A50 performed under the brand new Version 4 of the DXOMARK Camera Test Protocol.

Summary update

Samsung Galaxy A50

76

camera

81

photo

27

zoom

67

video

Scoring an updated overall DXOMARK camera score of 76, the Samsung Galaxy A50 lags somewhat behind the latest devices for smartphone image quality. It's perhaps unsurprising that this older device struggled with our toughest version 4 test protocols. Its photo score of 76 is almost 50 points behind the leader and particularly low scores for night, bokeh and preview performance took a toll. Reaching a zoom score of 27, the A50 performed better in our ultra-wide analysis, but without a dedicated telephoto lens, results were weak in the tele category. A video score of 67 is also the lowest achieved in testing Version 4 to date and although results for exposure, color and

noise

were acceptable, poor autofocus performance and

the texture

had a global impact.

For an 18-month-old budget device, the Samsung A50 performed respectably under our demanding new testing regime. Noise is fairly well controlled in outdoor scenes, but the level of detail is overall poor in all conditions tested. Faces are well exposed in backlit conditions, and while target exposures are acceptable,

dynamic range

is limited. The strong white balance

green

in outdoor images is a weakness, however, and the quality of the zooms leaves a bit to be desired, with sparse detail and obvious color casts. In our exciting new test scenes that include more subject movement, we also observed

ghosts

artifacts

in some A50 frames, which affected the final score.

Accurate and good target exposures

color rendering

on well-balanced outdoor images.

Noise well controlled in low light images but the level of detail is low.

When capturing video, we found exposure to be generally accurate in stable lighting conditions both indoors and outdoors. However, exposure adaptation is slow as lighting conditions change and dynamic range is limited in videos. Face exposure is quite good, however, and skin tones are generally acceptable in indoor movies. White balance is a bit unstable though, so expect to see slight variation in color casts and strong color casts in outdoor videos in particular. Video detail is poor in most conditions and noise from

luminance

is visible both indoors and in low light conditions. AF tracking is also poor and the A50's stabilization system isn't very effective, with residual movement and image distortion often noticeable as the camera moves during recording. .

Samsung Galaxy A50, outdoor video

Insight

The A50 isn't great for preview image quality, with stark differences from capture in most situations, and while smooth zooming is good, the zoom range is very limited in using the pinch. Without Live HDR

, preview highlights are always overexposed in high contrast conditions. The "HDR ON" symbol on the screen gives an indication that HDR processing will be applied when capturing, which is helpful, but processing is not always applied when needed. Faces are also often exposed darker when capturing. So, for the most part, there are significant differences between previewing and capturing in outdoor and indoor conditions. Exposure representation is best in low light, but some loss of texture and additional noise is often visible in the preview in poor lighting.

Preview: Highlights are clipped in high contrast scenes, but the “HDR on” symbol indicates that additional processing will be applied.

Capture: High contrast exposures look better with HDR processing applied, but preview is not able to display this image.

Bokeh rendering is common also differs significantly between preview and capture. Depth estimation is poor in the preview, indicating severe subject segmentation errors and a terribly uneven blur gradient effect

on objects at different distances behind the portrait. Consistency could also be improved, as the bokeh effect is sometimes enabled in preview but not applied in capture. It's annoying, especially when the "effect ready" confirmation appears on the screen and the effect is still not applied.

Preview: Inaccurate depth estimation produces subject segmentation errors and uneven blurring gradient effect.< /p>

Capture: The resulting shots are often much more successful, but the bokeh effect is not always applied even when it is visible in the preview and the “effect ready” confirmation appears.

Using pinch-to-zoom, stable exposure, color, focus and

field of view

provide good performance, but the zoom range is very limited (between 1x and 4x magnification). It's necessary to use the on-screen buttons to switch between the A50's wide and main cameras, and the device is very slow to adapt, taking around a second to bring the image into focus.

Samsung Galaxy A50, zoom preview

Samsung Galaxy A50 Camera Review (Originally posted July 4, 2019)

Launched in February 2019, the Galaxy A50 is a feature-rich budget smartphone that features a large 6.4 -inch AMOLED FHD+ display with a small teardrop notch and a thin chin, providing plenty of space for your phone. 'screen. With an Exynos 9610 chipset running Android 9.0, the Galaxy A50 is one of the most powerful devices at this end of the market. The photographic proposal offers not one, but three cameras on the back of the device: a 25Mp sensor coupled with a 26mm f/1.7 lens for the main camera, an 8Mp ultra-wide camera and a 5Mp depth sensor for bokeh shots. . Read on to find out how the Samsung Galaxy A50 camera performs against the competition in our in-depth review.

Key camera specs:

Three-camera setup

Primary: 25Mp sensor with f/1.7 lens equivalent to 26mm

Ultra-wide: 8Mp sensor with f/2.2 lens equivalent to 13mm

5Mp depth-sensing sensor with f/2.2 lens

PDF

auto focus

LED flash

1080p/30fps video

About DxOMark Mobile tests p>

: For the scoring and analysis of our smartphone camera reviews, DxOMark engineers capture and evaluate over 1500 test images and over 2 hours of video in both controlled lab environments and natural scenes indoor and outdoor, using the default camera settings. This article is designed to highlight the most important results of our testing. For more information on the DxOMark Mobile test protocol,

Click here.

More details on how we rate smartphone cameras are available

here

.

Summary of the test

With an overall DxOMark Mobile score of 83 points, the Samsung Galaxy A50 does not rank at the very top of our smartphone image quality database, but is only 3 points behind last year's Galaxy A9. The A50's performance is also on par with much older flagship devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (82 points) and Apple iPhone 7 (85 points).

Scoring a photo score of 85 points, the L'A50 does well for photos, especially in sunny conditions, with good exposures, good color rendition and generally accurate white balance ensuring pleasing images.

In bright outdoor lighting conditions, the Samsung Galaxy A50 captures very pleasing images with precise exposure and vibrant colors.

Shooting in challenging high-contrast conditions, the A50 delivers wide dynamic range, with effective HDR rendering ensuring well-preserved detail in highlights and shadows in our "below deck" test scene In fact, shadow recovery in some of the A50's HDR shots offered a slight improvement over the more expensive competition.

alarm

and

aliasing

edge be visible on close inspection, the A50 does a good job of HDR shots overall.

Samsung Galaxy A50, high contrast scene

LG G8, high contrast scene

Apple iPhone 8 Plus, high contrast scene

Portrait mode is another plus point of the A50, thanks to the dedicated depth sensor's reasonably accurate depth estimation and subject masking when applying.

from the background

blurring of portraits. It's not perfect, with some edge artifacts and abrupt transitions in the blur gradient visible when examining large-scale images. However, these are less obvious when viewing images on the device's screen, and the A50 did better at isolating intricate details such as bezels in our test portrait compared to the Samsung Galaxy. A9 or LG G8. The A50 applies a nice circular shape to the background spotlights too, and while bokeh shots can lack a bit of contrast, with colors slightly washed out, the overall effect is still generally pleasing.

Samsung Galaxy A50, bokeh simulation

Samsung Galaxy A50, crop

LG G8, simulated bokeh

LG G8, crop

Samsung Galaxy A9, bokeh simulation p>

Samsung Galaxy A9, crop

The main areas for improvement are the low levels of detail preservation in all conditions and especially with zoom shots, as well as disappointing results in cloudy outdoor scenes and generally low light conditions. We observed several failures in overcast outdoor conditions, including a fairly strong greenish color cast and greater buildup of luminance noise in flat areas, with lower levels of detail in complex areas than we expected to see in exterior images. In fact, detail preservation is one of the A50's main weaknesses, with fine localized detail rarely rendered well in all lighting conditions.

Samsung Galaxy A50, cloudy outdoor conditions

Samsung Galaxy A50, crop

LG G8, cloudy outdoor conditions

LG G8, crop

Apple iPhone 8 Plus, cloudy outdoor conditions

Apple iPhone 8 Plus crop

Opting for a second ultra-wide-angle camera on the A50 may prove popular with photographers looking to slip more into the

frame

, but that also means there's no telephoto lens for enhanced zoom shots. Therefore, while the A50 offers a digital zoom solution up to a maximum of 4x magnification, the results fall far short of what you might expect from good performers. Even at close range (approximately 2x magnification), a significant loss of detail is visible, with unnatural rendering often evident in complex areas. At medium range (about 4x magnification), other issues such as ringing and denoising artifacts, heavy noise buildup, and poor color rendering further reduce the quality of the A50's zoom shots .

Samsung Galaxy A50, close zoom

Samsung Galaxy A50, crop

LG G8, close zoom

LG G8, crop

Samsung A9, short range zoom

Samsung A9, crop

Flash performance is a plus for the A50, and while the target exposures are a bit high for flash-only and mixed-light shooting, they're still acceptable and ensure nice, bright results. Corner shading is also reasonably well controlled, but there is a strong difference in noise level between the center and corners of the frame in flash shots that have had their edges brightened by

image processing

. Some luminance noise is also visible on faces in the center of the frame, but is handled better there than in the corners. White balance is also fairly neutral for flash shots, and while some slight desaturation is evident in flash-only shots, overall color rendition is still acceptable.

Flash photography, 0 lux

Flash shot, 5 lux

Our testers also found image artifacts. Most problematic is ghosting, where subjects with even moderate movement often appear with a double image. We also found ringtones,

flare

, noisy edges, and geometric shifts where lines and patterns don't quite line up in some of our sample images.

Samsung Galaxy A50, crop

Samsung Galaxy A50, geometric shift artifact

Samsung Galaxy A50, cropping< /p>

Tested under controlled lab conditions, the A50's PDAF autofocus system performed well, consistently delivering sharp images. It's not the fastest we've tested, but its response times of around 100ms in our outdoor (1000 lux) and indoor (300 lux) shots are well within acceptable limits. It was slower in low light (20 lux), often taking around 500ms (0.5 seconds) for focus to lock in, which will make it a bit more difficult to take a well-focused photo quickly when the light is low. p>

Samsung Galaxy A50, autofocus performance in bright light (1000 lux)

The A50 achieves a video score of 79 points. Its main strengths for movies are pleasing colors with generally accurate white balance and well-controlled noise in outdoor and indoor lighting conditions, although color and noise control deteriorate noticeably in very low light. Noise is particularly well controlled in flat areas of uniform color, where a visible buildup of luminance noise is often distracting in smartphone videos. On the A50, coarse noise only becomes visible in low-light videos.

Samsung A50, color rendering analysis by lighting condition

Target exposures are generally accurate and pleasing in videos from the A50, too, so again it's only in low-light conditions between 1 and 20 lux where serious underexposure becomes evident. However, we observed exposure instabilities in all conditions and dynamic range is very limited, so you're better off looking for more balanced lighting conditions when shooting video.

Samsung A50 video target exposure analysis by lighting condition

The main areas of improvement regarding video relate to autofocus, detail and stabilization. Autofocus instabilities are common, with frequent and unnecessary refocusing easily triggered by small changes in the scene, and autofocus tracking is relatively poor in all lighting conditions. The A50's stabilization system is quite effective for static handheld video and moderate panning, but recording while walking results in strong jerkiness and high-frequency residual movement with every step. Detail is also generally poor, with visible differences in the

sharpness

between pictures; and obvious artifacts affect video integrity, especially indoors and in low light.

Samsung Galaxy A50 exterior video

Conclusion

Packing a large 6.4-inch AMOLED display, the Exynos 9610 chipset, and a triple-camera setup, the Samsung Galaxy A50 has plenty to delight budget-conscious smartphone enthusiasts. Under the rigors of our rear camera tests, however, the A50 can't match the performance of some of the best mid-range devices and certainly not the image quality of the latest flagship offerings. It's best in sunny conditions, where exposure, dynamic range and color are good, and bokeh shots are very acceptable. In cloudy or low-light conditions, however, it's not as effective with photos or video, and we found the zooms to be a particular weakness.

Advantages

Bright and pleasing color in sunny conditions

Fairly wide dynamic range

Generally fast and repeatable autofocus

Well exposed faces in backlit conditions

Good color and accurate white balance using flash

Pleasant color outside and inside (Video)

Well-controlled noise outside and inside (Video)

Quite effective stabilization of static electricity handheld videos (video)

Disadvantages

Low level of detail

Autofocus fails in low light

Low level of detail and color casts in zoom shots

The green and pink color is dominant outside and inside

Geometric shift artifacts and localized low detail artifacts are often visible

Slightly high target exposure using flash

Autofocus instabilities with frequent refocusing and overshoot (video)

Strong residual high frequency motio n visible with walking motion (Video)

Low level of detail (Video)

Visible exposure instabilities in all conditions (Video)

Coarse Noise-in-Light Artifacts (Video)

Scene Integrity Artifacts in Indoor and Low Light Conditions (Video)

In the press

SAMSUNG GALAXY A50 REVIEW

Samsung Galaxy A50 review (Portuguese)

July 20, 2019

Summary of the update

Preview p>

Samsung Galaxy A50 Camera Review

Summary of the test

Conclusion