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Introduction
Samsung's Galaxy A mid-range lineup has undergone its yearly refresh, and it's looking really good. The new Galaxy A33 is probably one of the most interesting models this year as it has been significantly upgraded since the Galaxy A32 and makes for an excellent bang for the buck offer at the €300 mark.
The Galaxy A33 5G has been promoted to the waterproofed league, and it now features the same IP67-rated ingress protection treatment as the higher tier models. Until now, the A3x models weren't sealed against water. But that's not all, of course.
The Galaxy A33 is keeping the 90Hz Super AMOLED screen of the Galaxy A32, but it employs a much more powerful Exynos 1280 chipset with a newer processor and gaming-friendly graphics. And there is an integrated 5G modem, too, so now you won't have to choose between 4G and 5G versions.
The camera has been improved, too. Now the 48MP primary features optical stabilization and supports up to 4K video capturing. The 13MP selfie camera can do 4K videos, too.
The Galaxy A33 also brings stereo speakers, something that was reserved for the A5x and higher models in the previous generations. And finally, but not of least importance, the Galaxy A33 now supports faster 25W wired charging.
Let's go through the full specs sheet now.
Samsung Galaxy A33 5G specs at a glance:
- Body: 159.7x74.0x8.1mm, 186g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5), plastic frame, plastic back; IP67 dust/water resistant (up to 1m for 30 mins).
- Display: 6.40" Super AMOLED, 90Hz, 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 411ppi.
- Chipset: Exynos 1280 (5 nm): Octa-core (2x2.4 GHz Cortex-A78 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G68.
- Memory: 128GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM; microSDXC (uses shared SIM slot).
- OS/Software: Android 12, One UI 4.1.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 48 MP, f/1.8, 26mm, 1/2.0", 0.8µm, PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 123˚, 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Macro: 5 MP, f/2.4; Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4.
- Front camera: 13 MP, f/2.2, (wide), 1/3.1", 1.12µm.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/120fps; Front camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 5000mAh; Fast charging 25W.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); Stereo speakers; Virtual proximity sensing.
It's not all updates, though, as two things have changed for the worse since the Galaxy A32. The Galaxy A33 has no audio jack, and the microSD bed is now shared with the second SIM option.
Still, we have to say we are intrigued by the Galaxy A33 5G as it has been clearly promoted in rank and now can be considered as part of the premium mid-rangers like the Galaxy A53 and A73.
Unboxing the Galaxy A33 5G
The Galaxy A33 5G is packed into one of the thinnest retail boxes we've seen, and we thought we'd find the phone all alone in there.
Well, there is no charger in the retail bundled, but that was expected. And while we didn't see a cable at first, it turned out there is a USB-C cable inside the thin paper compartment.
The cable is compatible with 25W fast charging, so if you purchase Samsung's 25W Samsung USB-C charger or similar, you should be able to use that straight away.
Design, build quality, handling
We liked the Galaxy A33 5G at the very first moment we got it out of its box. It's one of those clean yet catchy designs that quickly grow on you. That's probably because of the matte rear panel with the smooth camera wrapping, or maybe the peach color and the no-nonsense shape. Or just, well, all of these.
One of the most notable improvements since the Galaxy A32 design-wise is the ingress protection. The new Galaxy A33 5G is now IP67-rated for dust and water resistance. This could be the reason behind the retired audio jack, as it is like the Achilles's heel of the waterproofing. The Galaxy A23, for example, has no water protection and gets to keep its audio jack for yet another cycle.
And one thing you cannot see, but you will most certainly hear is the stereo speaker setup - another improvement over the Galaxy A32.
The Galaxy A33 5G is available in Black, White, Blue and Peach. We had the Black and the Peach versions for this review, and while Black is pretty much a standard for smartphones, we loved the Peach, too.
The Galaxy A33 5G has the same build as the previous model - a Gorilla Glass 5 piece at the front, a slightly curved thick plastic frame and a seamless plastic back. Both the frame and the back are with matching matte finish and color.
Now, let's take a closer look at the Galaxy A33 5G.
Naturally, most of the front is occupied by the 6.4-inch Super AMOLED of 1080p resolution and 90Hz refresh rate. The glass above that screen is Gorilla 5, just as like on most of the recent Galaxy A models.
The panel has a U-shaped cutout for the 13MP selfie camera, which is now capable of 4K video recording. Above the front camera is one thin and almost unnoticeable outlet for one of the speakers, which also acts as an earpiece.
The Galaxy A33 5G has an ambient light sensor, but it has no proximity sensor and instead relies on virtual proximity sensing algorithm. It's not great, there is no denying, but we found the one on A33 to be configured rather well, and it failed us only once while reviewing the phone.
There is an under-display optical fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy A33 5G, and it's up to par. The sensor is large enough, fast and reliable.
The screen bezels are nothing impressive, but it's a rather budget smartphone, and we can say we are perfectly fine with their thickness.
The back has the 5-hole camera island, which rises slowly above the rest of the rear panel and makes for one seamless shape. The first column contains the 48MP primary, the 8MP ultrawide and the 2MP depth sensor. The 5MP macro camera and the LED flash are to the right.
The plastic frame of the Galaxy A33 5G is slightly curved but far from the thinnest we've handled. And that's good as it provides more grip than the average from frames these days.
There is nothing on the left side of the Galaxy A33.
The volume and power/lock keys are on the right.
The top of the Galaxy A33 houses the hybrid SIM tray and one of the microphones.
The primary microphone/mouthpiece is at the bottom, together with the USB-C port and the second speaker.
The Galaxy A33 5G measures 159.7 x 74 x 8.1 mm and weighs 186 grams - that's on par with the Galaxy A32. It is quite reasonably sized and pocket-friendly, and we found it comfortable for both day-to-day operations and extensive photo shooting.
The A33 has a solid waterproofed build, and it provides a particularly good grip experience. Overall, we'd give it an Excellent mark for design and build as we don't have a single complaint, on the contrary, only positive experience across the board.
Display
The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G has the same display as the Galaxy A32 from last year - it's a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED of extended 1080p resolution and a refresh rate support up to 90Hz. There is a Gorilla Glass 5 protection on top of it.
The panel's actual resolution is 2,400 x 1,080 px, which makes 411ppi and 20:9 aspect ratio. It has a U-shaped notch to make way for the selfie camera.
We've completed our traditional measurements, and the AMOLED panel is quite bright on this budget-oriented Galaxy A33. The maximum brightness you can achieve when using manual adjustments is 407 nits, but the screen can be up to 728 nits bright when using the Adaptive Brightness mode.
The minimum brightness at point white we were able to capture is quite impressive - just 1.8 nit.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 407 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 728 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 393 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 814 | ∞ | |
| 0.286 | 426 | 1490:1 | |
| 0.338 | 497 | 1470:1 | |
| 0 | 423 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 635 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 383 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 800 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 427 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 830 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 470 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 746 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 479 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 760 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 433 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 613 | ∞ | |
| 0.288 | 461 | 1601:1 | |
| 0.385 | 567 | 1473:1 | |
| 0 | 514 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 846 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 683 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 477 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 754 | ∞ | |
Color accuracy
The Galaxy A33 offers the same color options as many other recent Galaxy smartphones - you get Vivid (default) and Natural color presets, which correspond to DCI-P3 and sRGB color spaces, respectively. You can also fine-tune the white balance when using the Vivid option.
We found both modes to be fairly accurate to the corresponding color gamut. When using Vivid, we find the white and gray hues just a little bit bluish, but everything else was great. The Natural mode has an outstanding accuracy to sRGB targets.
Refresh rate
The Galaxy A33 5G has two refresh rate options (called Motion Smoothness) - High (90Hz) and Standard (60Hz). Neither of these is dynamic - content is always shown at the chosen refresh rate.
When using 90Hz, static content and video playback always use 90Hz, as we mentioned, and the only exceptions are a few HRR-incompatible apps like Google Maps and the camera viewfinder.
HDR and streaming
Even though some hardware scanning apps read the Galaxy A33 display as HDR10-capable, it is not. There is not a single app out there that recognizes it as such, and Samsung has made no such claims either. The phone does come with Widevine L1 DRM support, and it can stream 1080p content across all popular apps.
Battery life
The Galaxy A33 5G is powered by a 5,000mAh battery - the same capacity as the one inside the Galaxy A53 and Galaxy A32, among other phones. The phone has been updated with a new chipset, and it now supports faster charging.
The Galaxy A33 5G scored a good endurance rating of 104 hours. It did great on the onscreen tests, as well as on the call test. The standby consumption was about the average - not too shy, but not overboard either.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.
And here you can compare the battery numbers with a few competitors.
Video test carried out in 60Hz refresh rate mode. Web browsing test done at the display's highest refresh rate whenever possible. Refer to the respective reviews for specifics. To adjust the endurance rating formula to match your own usage patterns check out our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.
Charging speed
The Galaxy A33 5G supports up to 25W fast charging, an upgrade over the 15W charging support on the Galaxy A32. Unfortunately, the A33 ships without a charger, so you will need to buy an extra charger. At least Samsung's own 25W power adapter is affordable.
We tested the Galaxy A33 with the said 25W USB-C Samsung charger, and it replenished 50% of the battery in half an hour.
30min charging test (from 0%)
Higher is better
- Realme 9 Pro+
77% - Poco X4 Pro 5G
75% - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
74% - Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
58% - OnePlus Nord N20 5G
57% - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
53% - Realme 9 Pro
52% - Samsung Galaxy A33 5G
50% - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
45% - Samsung Galaxy A31
30% - Sony Xperia 10 IV (65W PD)
26% - Samsung Galaxy A32
25% - Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
23%
A full charge took 1 hour and 15 minutes, and in fact, that was the cited expected time to full charge by the software as well.
Time to full charge (from 0%)
Lower is better
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
0:45h - Realme 9 Pro+
0:49h - Poco X4 Pro 5G
0:49h - Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
1:04h - OnePlus Nord N20 5G
1:08h - Realme 9 Pro
1:14h - Samsung Galaxy A33 5G
1:15h - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
1:24h - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
1:28h - Samsung Galaxy A32
2:19h - Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
2:24h - Sony Xperia 10 IV (65W PD)
2:35h - Samsung Galaxy A31
2:48h
There is no wireless charging support on the Galaxy A33 5G.
Speakers - loudness and quality
The Galaxy A33 5G has a stereo speakers setup, an improvement over the single speaker present on the Galaxy A32. There is one dedicated speaker at the bottom of the phone, while the earpiece acts as the second one.
The balance is great even if the loudness is theoretically uneven - the front-facing earpiece is quieter and not as bassy, but when working together, the multimedia experience is satisfying, regardless of the phone's orientation.
The Galaxy A33 5G speaker setup scored a Good mark for loudness. And we can also grade it Very Good when it comes to quality - the sound is rich and deep, and while the mid-tines could have been a bit more presented, the high notes are great, and we can hear the bass, too.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
One UI 4.1 on top of Android 12
The Galaxy A33 5G boots the latest Android 12 and One UI 4.1 combo. It omits the occasional feature here and there compared to the flagship Galaxy S22 line, but nothing that can be considered essential for most users.
One major selling point Samsung has for many of its mid-range devices is the promise of extended software support. This is the case with the A33 5G as well. You can expect 4 OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches. A sweet deal if you tend to keep your phones for a while.
One UI remains one of the best and most popular custom Android implementations. In recent years, most changes to the UX have been careful and incremental and have mostly amounted to extra polish and flair. Even users coming from older Galaxy devices should feel right at home, but some new additions to the mix are still worth mentioning. We'll just do a quick overview.
First, there is no Always On Display on the Galaxy A33 5G.
The lock screen looks the same as before with two monochrome shortcuts - dialer and camera. The under-display fingerprint reader will likely be the primary method of unlocking for most, but you can still use face unlock either instead of or alongside it. It can be more convenient in certain situations, but it generally is less secure since it's just using the selfie camera.
The lock screen is largely unchanged, as mentioned, and has a lot of customization options available.
Lockscreen and security options
One UI 4.1 looks even cleaner than v.3.x, but its logic remains the same - there are homescreen, widgets, notification centre, task switcher and an app drawer.
One UI 4.1
As we mentioned, the Galaxy A33 5G doesn't have all of the One UI 4.1 features. Samsung's new Smart Widgets are one of the weirder omissions. Perhaps these are on their way and simply haven't reached the A33 yet. They are really convenient since they allow joining data from a few widgets into a single one.
No Smart Widgets yet
One of the new One UI 4 features is Color Palettes. This is the implementation of the vanilla Android 12's Wallpaper colors. There are usually four Color Palette suggestions in addition to the default One UI Blue/Black one. Those are picked automatically by the software, depending on your current wallpaper. The color you choose will become the main one in the newly created theme (think Windows' "accent color").
These accent colors are applied on the dialer, the quick toggles, and other tiny UI bits. You can choose to apply them to the app icons as well.
Color palettes
One UI has always offered great customization. You can use one of a few wallpaper services to automatically change your lockscreen or homescreen. The powerful Theme engine is here as well.
Wallpaper services • Galaxy Themes
The dialer allows you to pick between two layouts for the in-call screen. You can also set up a background image or video for that screen, though it's going to be all the same for all of your calls - you can't have a different one on a per-person basis.
Dialer customization
Navigation is highly-customizable as well. You can go with gestures and tweak them to your liking or revert back to old-school buttons and even swap the home and back buttons for a truly retro navigation scheme.
Navigation settings
The Settings menu contains a new Privacy Dashboard. Here, you can easily see which apps use some of the most important permissions (for privacy). You can control the camera and control access across apps, opt for clipboard access alerts (useful if you copy passwords, social security numbers, IBANs, among others), and a full-blown permission manager if you like to dig deeper.
Privacy Dashboard
You get a whole bunch of options for using your Galaxy with other devices to enable various use cases. Wireless display is the most obvious one. You can just mirror your display this way though, since the Galaxy A33 5G lacks Samsung DeX. It is still reserved for Samsung's flagship devices and hasn't made its way down the chain. Plus, the A33 5G can't do video out from its USB Type-C port, which is kind of the primary way to use DeX.
The Link to Windows feature provides you with an interface to your phone from your computer so you can exchange images, manage notifications on your PC or even make calls from it.
Another option along those lines but with more limited potential is Continue apps on other devices. This requires you to be logged in to your Samsung account on both devices, hook them up to the same Wi-Fi network with Bluetooth enabled and use the Samsung Internet browser or Samsung Notes. You'll then be able to copy and paste text and images across and open the same tabs in the browser.
No DeX • Continue apps on other devices • Link to Windows • Android Auto
Other staples of proprietary Samsung software include the Edge panels - the panes that show up when you swipe in from the side and provide tools and shortcuts to apps and contacts. Game launcher, the hub for all your games, which also provides options for limiting distraction when gaming is here to stay as well.
Otherwise, the software package is similar to other Samsung phones, with an in-house Gallery app, the Game Launcher app, and a proprietary file manager. Naturally, Samsung's Internet web browser is also available.
Gallery • Game Launcher • File manager • Edge panel
The Gallery is where you'd find the new Object Eraser feature. Once you enter photo edit mode, you can opt for object eraser from More options. This is a fancier way of saying smart delete - you either paint over an object or tap on it for automatic selection. And then you hope for the best - if the object's surroundings aren't too complex, you will get a good outcome. Otherwise - it's a mixed bag. Samsung's fancy experimental shadow and reflection erasers are not present for now, though.
Object Eraser
Beyond all of this, the Galaxy A33 5G comes loaded with a standard set of apps from Samsung, Microsoft and Google.
Pre-installed apps
Granted, the list has gotten a bit extensive, but there is nothing here that we would consider bloat in the traditional sense. Anything you don't personally like or appreciate having on your device can be easily uninstalled or, failing that - disabled.
As always, One UI runs incredibly smooth and provides a truly industry-leading custom Android experience, chock-full of extra features and customizability.
Performance and benchmarks
The Galaxy A33 5G runs on the new Samsung's new Exynos 1280 chipset - the same one that premiered on the new Galaxy A53 5G model. It replaces the Helio G80 if you are coming from the Galaxy A32, or the Dimensity 720 if you have the Galaxy A32 5G. And it is a huge step forward as it offers a much more powerful processor and graphics.
The Exynos 1280 is made on Samsung's 5nm manufacturing process. Its octa-core processor packs two "big" Cortex-A78 cores, clocked at up to 2.4GHz and six "small" Cortex-A55 ones, working at up to 2.0GHz. The A78 are newer cores than the A75 and A76 used as part of Helio G80 and Dimensity 720.
The chipset comes with Mali-G68 GPU, a nice upgrade over the previous Mali-G52 and Mali-G57.
And finally, the Exynos 1280 has an integrated 5G modem.
The Galaxy A33 5G processor is noticeably faster than the one inside the A32 and A32 5G. The Galaxy A52s has a more powerful Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset with both superior CPU and GPU, and until the A52s is discounted, it will keep popping as the chart topper in the mid-range performance sections.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
2801 - Realme 9 Pro+
2335 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
2225 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
2063 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
2063 - Realme 9 Pro
2020 - Sony Xperia 10 IV
1908 - Samsung Galaxy A33 5G
1900 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
1891 - Realme 9 5G
1823 - Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
1673 - Samsung Galaxy A32
1277
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Realme 9 Pro+
814 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
771 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
743 - Samsung Galaxy A33 5G
742 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
736 - Realme 9 Pro
694 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
688 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
687 - Sony Xperia 10 IV
662 - Realme 9 5G
610 - Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
505 - Samsung Galaxy A32
361
The GPU performance has seen a massive and welcome upgrade over the Galaxy A32, and it is among the best performers in this mid-range segment (up to €400 or so).
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
28 - Realme 9 Pro+
23 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
22 - Samsung Galaxy A33 5G
20 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
19 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
17 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
17 - Sony Xperia 10 IV
16 - Realme 9 Pro
16 - Realme 9 5G
14 - Samsung Galaxy A32
8.1
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
49 - Realme 9 Pro+
41 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
38 - Samsung Galaxy A33 5G
35 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
35 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
30 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
30 - Realme 9 Pro
29 - Sony Xperia 10 IV
28 - Realme 9 5G
25 - Samsung Galaxy A32
13
3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
2491 - Realme 9 Pro+
2296 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
2292 - Samsung Galaxy A33 5G
2260 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
2014 - Realme 9 5G
1228 - Sony Xperia 10 IV
1213 - Realme 9 Pro
1211 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
1211 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
1204 - Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
1185 - Samsung Galaxy A32
686
The AnTuTu tests also put the Galaxy A33 5G on par with its segment peers, with the only exception being the Galaxy A52s which is now cheaper and yet faster.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Realme 9 Pro+
495096 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
429675 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
375528 - Samsung Galaxy A33 5G
354420 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
335353 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
329802 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
288914 - Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
226561 - Samsung Galaxy A32
174332
AnTuTu 9
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
506432 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
437872 - Realme 9 Pro+
416031 - Realme 9 Pro
401894 - Sony Xperia 10 IV
396008 - Samsung Galaxy A33 5G
394918 - Poco X4 Pro 5G
384646 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
382902 - Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
379313 - Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
222125
The Galaxy A33 5G has an excellent choice of chipset, powerful enough to handle everything well, including gaming.
We also tested its sustained performance, and it turned out great. The Galaxy A33 5G scored 75% on the CPU throttle test and 99% on the GPU stress test.
CPU test • GPU test
Even better, the Galaxy A33 5G never gets hot or overheats, it may become warm, but that's about it.
Overall, as far as performance goes, the Galaxy A33 5G provides an excellent one for its class and price.
Main camera gets OIS, front camera gets 4K videos
The Galaxy A33 5G has the same cameras as seen on the Galaxy A32 5G but with a couple of improvements - the main camera gets OIS, while both the primary and the front camera now support 4K video capturing.
So, the Galaxy A33 5G has a 48MP OIS primary, an 8MP ultrawide, a 5MP macro, and a 2MP depth cameras on its back. There is a 13MP front camera for selfies.
The primary camera uses a 48MP Sony IMX 582 1/2" sensor with 0.8µm pixels and 26mm f/1.8 optically stabilized lens. It is quite rare to see OIS in this mid-range class, and we appreciate it. The camera has a Quad Bayer color filter, which means this camera normally does 12MP photos with 4-in-1 binning, though a high-res 48MP shooting mode is available (within the aspect ratio options, go figure). Phase-detect autofocus is supported.
The ultrawide camera uses an 8MP Sony IMX 355 imager with 1.12µm pixel pitch. The sensor is behind a 13mm f/2.2 lens, and the focus is fixed.
The macro camera uses a 5MP GalaxyCore GC5035 sensor with f/2.4 aperture and focus fixed at about 4cm.
The depth sensor uses a 2MP GalaxyCore module with f/2.4 aperture and focus fixed at infinity.
The selfie camera relies on a 13MP Sony IMX 258 1/3.06" sensor with 1.12µm pixels. It sits behind a 26mm f/2.2 lens, and the focus is fixed.
The camera app is the same you'd find on every Samsung phone these days. Swiping left and right will switch between all available modes, and there's an option to re-arrange or remove some of the modes from the viewfinder. Vertical swipes in either direction will switch between front and rear cameras.
The settings icon is located in the upper left corner of the screen and gives you fine control over the cameras. You don't get separate setting screens for photos and videos since the options aren't that many in total. Like grid lines, location data, etc., the usual stuff can be found there. You can also turn on and off the Scene Optimizer. Once on, you still have to toggle it on a second time from the main UI, though. Keep that in mind.
Camera app
The primary, the ultrawide, and the selfie cameras support Night Mode.
There's a Pro mode, too. You get granular exposure controls and manual focus with peaking, up to 10s shutter speed control, but no live histogram or the option to operate anything but the main cam.
Camera app
The full resolution mode on the primary is triggered from the aspect options, which is a rather unintuitive bit.
Photo quality
We chose to capture photos with both Scene Optimizer, and Auto HDR turned on as intended by Samsung. The Scene Optimizer option rarely makes a difference, though the HDR does help in certain scenes, and the tonal extremes are usually well developed.
So, the default 12MP photos from the primary camera are superb for the mid-range class. They are sharp and offer more than enough resolved detail, good contrast and pleasant dynamic. There is no noise either.
You can't but notice the usual Samsung processing - all the photos show eye-popping colors, and the foliage presentation, while okay, is not ideal, especially across the grass.
We know many people like the saturated colors, and they will be more than happy to post these overprocessed photos on social networks. But if these over-saturated images are not your cup of tea, turning off the Scene Optimizer and the Auto HDR might help. This way you will reduce the image processing involvement, though it still may not get you the natural look you were hoping for.
Main camera, 12MP
There is a 2x zoom toggle on the viewfinder, and it does provide digital zoom of high quality, something we like to call 'lossless'. Basically, the camera app seems to be shooting in 48MP and cropping the center of the images. Per-pixel sharpness isn't on par with the default images, but it is noticeably higher than what regular digital zoom would have offered.
The rest is pretty much the same as on the regular photos - popping colors, satisfying dynamic and high contrast.
Main camera 2x zoom, 12MP
There is a 48MP mode available within the aspect ratio settings. It shoots high-res photos, which offer good levels of resolved detail for such (un-binned) photos, and they look a bit less processed. These photos don't make sense if you are going to keep them in the original 48MP resolution and about 20MB file size. But we do recommend using this mode if you have the means to downsize those to 12MP - doing so will offer you more per-pixel detail than the standard output and allow for a more natural-looking photo with higher sharpness and previously unavailable intricacy across some images.
Main camera, 48MP
We are quite happy with the 8MP ultrawide photos we took with the dedicated camera. This camera has an f/2.2 13mm lens and provides a pretty wide field of view even with the automatic distortion correction applied.
This ultrawide offers good detail levels and incredibly low noise. The contrast is good, and so is the dynamic range, while the colors are handled the Samsung's way - punchy and likable, though we can see why they won't be everyone's favorite.
Ultrawide camera, 8MP
The 5MP macro camera has a fixed focus at 4cm away, and it takes a while to get the handle of it. Once you get used to the fixed focus and hit the focus sweet spot, you will get good closeups - detailed, with high contrast and popping colors. There is a lot of visible noise, but as it turns out, it doesn't get that much in the way.
Macro camera, 5MP
The Galaxy A33 5G has a dedicated 2MP depth sensor that assists the main camera when taking portrait photos. And those turned out unexpectedly good considering the phone's low-end mid-range position.
The subjects were always detailed and well exposed with likable colors. The blur turned out rather convincing, too.
The subject separation is what surprised us, as it is quite good on the Galaxy A33 5G. It is not as proficient as on flagships, and the transitions are masked with a different kind of a blur, but overall - everything looks good even when you pixel peep at those photos. Not a professional job, obviously, but a more than enough for sharing with your friends.
Portraits, 12MP
Like on many other Samsung phones, the selfie on the A33 5G has a toggle to determine how wide the frame will be. This setting annoyingly defaults to the narrower option and hence - about an 8MP crop. When shooting in the wider aspect, selfies come out in 13MP.
So, the full-size 13MP selfies with took with the Galaxy A33 5G are among the better ones you can get from a selfie camera these days. They have enough detail, though the noise reduction and the heavy Samsung processing smears some of it and are responsible for the overall oil painting look.
The contrast is high, while the dynamic range is good, but not over the board.
Selfies, 13MP
The portraits we took with the selfie camera and nice - the subject separation is good, and we liked the background blur. The detail is less than on the regular selfies, though, probably hurt by the even more intense processing.
Portrait selfies, 13MP
Now, let's move to some low-light photos.
The main camera saves some great photos at night that don't need Night Mode as there is already involved some multi-frame stacking. The images we took are detailed and sharp, with satisfyingly low noise levels, and excellent color saturation and contrast.
The exposure and dynamic range deserve praise, as well.
Just as on some previous mid-range Galaxy A models, the optical image stabilization allowed for slower shutter speeds and blur-free photos, while the Auto HDR helped where necessary to restore some blown highlights.
Main camera, 12MP
Using the Night Mode on the main camera saves sharper, cleaner and less noisy photos, and for these improvements, we can recommend it. It will expose more detail in the shadows, too. But you should also know that it will also boost the exposure and make for some even brighter photos (especially the skies) that may not look as realistic as you might have hoped for.
Main cam Night Mode, 12MP
The 2x zoomed photos have their resolved detail noticeably reduced, and everything looks like an oil painting, but the processing managed to keep them usable, and if you need a zoomed photo at night, you should use the zoom toggle even if it won't provide as lossless zoom as when shooting in broad daylight.
Standard 2x • Standard 2x • Night Mode 2x • Night Mode 2x
The 8MP ultrawide photos we took at night were okay. They are usable as they have just enough detail for that, the colors are mostly preserved, and the exposure is not that bad. Some of the photos are overrun by noise, and they are still okay, so if you must use this camera, it will get the job done in an acceptable manner.
Ultrawide cam, 8MP
The Night Mode does help a lot - just like on the main camera, it saves more detailed and sharper photos, clean of noise and with better exposure and a brighter look. We recommend using the Night Mode here.
Ultrawide Night Mode, 8MP
And here are photos of our usual posters taken with the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G. You can see how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.
Galaxy A33 5G against Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G and the Realme 9 Pro+ in our Photo compare tool
Video recording
The Galaxy A33 5G captures 4K@30fps videos with its primary and selfie cameras. The mainstream 1080p mode at 30fps is available across all cameras, while 1080p at 60fps works only on the main camera.
Electronic stabilization is available for the primary, ultrawide and selfie cameras, but it can be used only at 1080p resolution. Of course, the optical stabilization on the primary camera is always active.
The video bitrate is generous at 48-49Mbps in 4K and 17Mbps in 1080p. Audio is captured stereo with a 256Kbps bitrate, and the sound is good across all videos.
So, the 4K videos from the main camera are superb - there is plenty of resolved detail and good sharpness, and there is absolutely no noise. The dynamic range is noticeably wide, but it didn't hurt the contrast, and we are happy with what we saw. The colors are a bit punchier than they should have been, as usual.
You can shoot 4K 2x zoomed video, and it's as nice as the regular one even if the resolved detail and overall sharpness aren't on par. There is some good processing involved as the video isn't just a simple digital zoom with crop and upscale and halved detail. So, we'd consider this footage good enough to make sense using it when an occasion presents itself.
The 4K low-light videos from the main camera offer realistic exposure, good enough detail and preserved colors. They are quite noisy, but it doesn't exactly ruin them. Thus, here comes another Usable mark - nothing special, but we've seen a ton of worse samples.
And, finally, we liked the 1080p clips from the ultrawide camera. They are sharper than we expected, with excellent resolved detail and an accurate white balance with realistic colors (how about that?!). The contrast could have been a bit higher, though now we have an outstanding dynamic range. The noise is kept incredibly low for such an ultrawide camera and, overall, these are among the best 1080p clips we've seen UW cameras do lately.
Finally, here is the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G in our video tool so you can make your own comparisons.
Galaxy A33 5G against Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G and the Realme 9 Pro+ in our Video compare tool
The competition
The Galaxy A33 5G turned out to be not only an excellent upgrade over the previous A32 model but also one thoughtful all-round mid-ranger with many attractive treats and one nicely low pricing. Indeed, there is a lot to like about the A33 5G - its water-resistent design and seamless shape, the good 90Hz OLED, the powerful hardware, the larger battery, and even all cameras on both sides as they provide some notably good photo and video quality.
The Galaxy A33 5G costs €290 for the 4GB/128GB model, and we'd say this is quite reasonable, all things considered (war, pandemic, chip shortages, production delays, inflation).
Of course, 2021 was a better year for smartphones as the overall state of the economy was not as bad. The Galaxy A52s is still available, and it costs exactly as much as the Galaxy A33 5G. The A52s has a 120Hz AMOLED, a more powerful Snapdragon 778G chipset, and a higher-res primary camera, but it's also larger. We would recommend getting the A52s instead of the A33 if the size doesn't bother you.
The Realme 9 Pro+ is about €40 to €80 over the Galaxy A33 5G, depending on the retailer. It offers a similar screen and performance, and even camera experience, but we had some issues with its ultrawide camera, and the Realme has no ingress protection whatsoever.
The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G is about €50-€60 over the Galaxy A33 5G. It offers a faster 120Hz AMOLED screen with HDR10 support, a similar performance, and an overall good camera experience. This Redmi offers a speedy 120W charging, there is an audio jack on it, and together with the better display - we'd say this is a deal you may want to consider. You will trade the IP67 resistance for a basic IP53 splash-proofing, and there is no OIS on the main camera, though.
And, finally, you may want to consider the Poco X3 GT, which is still widely available and priced at €290. This Poco has a more traditional 120Hz LCD display, but it offers flagship-grade performance courtesy of the Dimensity 1100 5G chipset. The X3 GT offers a similar camera experience (even if there is no OIS); the stereo speakers and the battery life match the A33's, while its charging is much faster at 67W (and there is a charger inside its box, mind you). The Poco X3 GT is an excellent choice for gaming on the go if you are on a budget, so it's worthy of your consideration.
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G • Realme 9 Pro+ • Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G • Xiaomi Poco X3 GT
Our verdict
The Galaxy A33 5G turned out to be a well-executed sequel to the Galaxy A32, one that leveled up the A3x models by putting an IP rating and OIS. This means the Galaxy A33 is where the premium part of the A series begins now.
So, to sum up, the Galaxy A33 has a really attractive design. The 90Hz OLED display is bright and fast, and we are happy with its color accuracy and the overall experience. The same goes for the battery life and the charging speed, though you will need to buy a 25W charger if you don't own one already.
The Galaxy A33 did not only upgrade the design and the camera but the speakers, too. It now offers stereo speakers with good loudness and sound quality. Oh, and its performance has improved significantly since the A32, and there is now 5G by default. Nice!
Finally, we were also impressed with the photo and video quality across all cameras, even if the colors often go a bit overboard with the saturation. This often happens with Samsung phones, so it's not entirely surprising, though.
Maybe the best part about the Galaxy A33 5G is the thoughtful pricing that starts at just under €300. Which makes it easy to forgive the missing charger and audio jack. In fact, these are probably our only beefs with this phone, which says a lot.
So, if your budget is around the €300 mark, and you can't get a faster recent Galaxy smartphone (like the A52s), the Galaxy A33 5G will be an excellent choice, and we do recommend it for its all-round feature set.
Pros
- IP67-rated design, attractive and seamless form.
- 90Hz AMOLED for smooth browsing.
- Dependable battery life.
- Stereo speakers with good quality.
- Latest Android and One UI.
- Excellent performance for this price range.
- Great photo and video quality, lossless 2x zoom.
- 5G, NFC, microSD.
Cons
- Last year's Galaxy A52s is cheaper and better.
- No charger in the box.
- 3.5 mm audio jack is gone this year, too.
- Video stabilization only available in 1080p.
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