Decent phones on a budget: Samsung A22, A33 and A53 smartphones now available

If you are looking for a decent and solid smartphone that will do everything an average user needs but won’t break the bank, why not consider the Samsung Galaxy A22, A33 and A53 range?

Now available here starting at less than £200!

Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S range may be the ‘headline’ smartphone, but this particular segment of the A range series, launched in 2022 and all 5G compatible, still offers perfectly capable phones - and with a decent camera set up too.

Budget is important to many people, now more than ever, but although these phones are very reasonably priced, they punch above their weight and do not look out of place next to models three or four times the price.

Whether you need a cheaper phone, are looking to buy for a child or student, for business use or simply just don’t need the ultra-high specs of a top-of-the-line model, these could very well meet your needs – and exceed your expectations!  

‘Budget’ does NOT mean ‘bad’ and for many people these handsets will do everything they want from a smartphone.

Here, we take a look at these three models and if any of them seem right for you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch or pop into one of our stores in Barnstaple or Braunton and try one out for yourself – our expert team are always very happy to help and answer any questions.

Samsung Galaxy A22 5G: Affordable with great battery life

Design & screen: This is a good solid phone with a reassuring weight that follows the look of previous A series models, with a glass-effect backing in a matte finish, available in grey, white and violet colours.

It certainly looks the part and if you pull it out of a school bag or pocket, no one is going to think it looks ‘cheap’.

This is not a small phone, with a 6.6 inch TFT LCD screen that offers a full 1080 x 2400resolution, or FHD+. It refreshes at a solid 90hz too.

Cameras: The rear camera display is set in a rounded square formation and it provides a decent 48 mega-pixel (MP) main camera, a 5MP ultra-wide and an 8MP selfie camera.

The main camera is a strong camera for the price bracket and captures bright, sharp, well exposed images in decent lighting, picking out details well and giving good image backgrounds too.

If absolute top-notch photography is your main reason for having a smartphone, perhaps consider other models such as the A53, but the A22 set up is perfectly capable.

Performance: The A22 works quite fluidly and will satisfy the needs of most people, though its 64GB of memory is a little on the low side and one to consider if you want to store large videos and many pictures – but then most smartphone users these days would choose to have Google or other cloud service options set up in any case.

The software is very reliable and offers the expected wide range of customisation options that will be familiar to Samsung users.

The A22 supports Android 13 software and Samsung continues to support the device with security updates.

Battery: The 5,000MAh battery will charge to 58% in around an hour and the phone has excellent stamina – quite happily running for two days with moderate usage.

The Techout verdict

This is a solid and practical budget all-around smartphone that will perform well for the average user who isn’t looking for high-end needs, with a genuinely decent camera and very good battery life.

It is a good no frills and affordable phone – but if you are looking to shoot or stream high quality video, or want to use your phone for high quality graphics gaming, or need a high storage capacity beyond average use, then perhaps consider some of our other options.

Middle of the budget range lane with the A33

Launched almost exactly two years ago, the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is an affordable handset that stacks up well against the (then) flagship S22, for less than half the price.

With a long-lasting battery and pretty decent specs, it’s good for streaming movies and content on the go, as well as a decent phone for popular social media apps, with a social media-worthy camera for good pics.

Design & screen: This is a mid-sized phone with a 6.4 inch screen and a similar casing to the A22, available in black, white, peach or blue, with a USB-C port.

What’s more, it has an IP67 rating, meaning it is dustproof and water resistant and it also comes with a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 screen, giving a decent level of durability.

The screen is an AMOLED panel, the higher spec which means colours are bright and vibrant, so a good choice for anyone who likes to use their smartphone to stream TV or watch movies on long journeys.

It has an FHD+ resolution and 90Hz refresh rate - both improvements over the previous A325G model.

Cameras: There are four cameras arrayed in a row on the back of the phone - a 48MP one, an 8MP ultra-wide, 5MP macro and a 2MP depth-sensing lens.

The device also has optical image stabilisation to compensate for shaky hands – and while that’s a fairly common feature for smartphones these days, you don’t usually find it towards the budget end of the market.

There are a variety of useful shooting modes; the Portrait Mode is quite good, with options such as Colour Point, which turns the background monochrome, plus a Food mode, an easyalternative to Pro mode for tweaking the focus point of close-up snaps. Then there’s Single Take, which lets you record a video of an object or subject and the phone will pull the best images from it.

Don’t expect photography to professional standards, but for social media and daily use it will do what you need.

Performance: The device comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage – a decent amount of space for a relatively budget phone, plus there’s a micro SD card slot that can get you up to 1TB extra space.

It also offers a RAM extension mode, which temporarily turns storage space into RAM, which can help if you are doing more intensive tasks.

The phone comes with Android 12 and is Android 13 compatible.

Samsung says the A33 5G is 19% faster in single-core processing than its predecessor and up to 50% faster in graphics processing.

Battery: The 5,000mAh battery is on a par with the A22, with higher wattage wired chargingat 25W going to 50% in 30 minutes, according to Samsung.

Again, you can reasonably expect two days of moderate usage, though of course if you are doing a lot of streaming, this is likely to eat into that.

The Techout verdict

This is another good solid phone that is a little more upmarket than the A22 but still available at a very low price and will suit the needs of most modern users, with reasonable storage and punching above its weight for streaming and social media use.

The A53 5G: Brings a lot to the table for far less money than top models

With many of the features of the flagship Samsung Galaxy S22, the A53 performs very well with an impressive camera for a mid-range phone – and at not much more money than an A33.

Design & screen: This is a medium-sized phone that looks pretty good for a ‘budget’ model and it is available in peach, white, black and blue.

It has an IP67 rating, which means it’s totally dustproof and water resistant at a depth of up to a metre for 30 minutes (we don’t recommend you drown any phone for that long though!)

The screen is 6.5 inches, with FHD+ resolution and a refresh rate of 120hz, plus, as with the A33, it comes with a superior AMOLED display to give bright and popping colours – good for streaming as well as photography.

In fact, TechRadar says it ‘boasts one of the best-looking screens you’ll see on a phone for this price’.

Cameras: For a mid-range phone, the A53 has a stand-out camera array that won’t come as a disappointment.

In an upgrade from the A33, it offers a 64MP f/1.8 main camera with a wide-angle lens and a 12MP camera with an f/2.2 123-degree ultra-wide lens, plus a 5MP macro and a 5MP depth sensor. On the front is a 32MP selfie camera that also performs very well for the price range.

Images are bright, colourful and sharp, with a pretty decent night photography option too.

It also offers the various photography options to be found on the A33, with Single Take allowing you to pick the best image from a video and the Food mode giving the ability to select a particular area of focus to create dramatic images of your culinary delights.

You can also shoot 4K video at 30fps or 1080p at 60fps on the rear cameras AND on the front cameras. As most of us know, ‘selfie’ video tends to be poorer quality, but not here.

The phone also comes with Samsung’s Pro Video mode, which gives you all the options of Pro photo, including ISO and white balance, but for video.

Performance: The A53 5G also comes with 6GB of RAM, with 128GB of storage space that can be expanded by up to 1TB by adding a micro SD card. This phone also gives the option to boost RAM for more data hungry tasks.

The device again has Android 12 software installed from the box but will run Android 13.

Battery: This is a more powerful phone in several ways compared to the other A series we have looked at and depending on your usage, you may find the 5,000mAh battery runs for something more like a day than two days. This does though compare with many other phones already on the market and you are getting quite a bit of phone for your money.

The Techout verdict

This is an attractive phone with several of the Samsung top spec features that you will also find in the flagship S series, but for quite a bit less money!

The cameras and photography are very good for a mid-range phone and compare well to far more expensive rivals, plus if you like to watch a lot of videos and stream content, the decent display will work very well for you.

If high-end mobile gaming is your thing, you may need to look at faster performance models,but we think most people will be quite happy with this phone for the price.

Want a Galaxy at a crazy low price but still unsure?

If you’re still not quite sure what will work the best for you, please do drop into our stores in Barnstaple’s Queens Street or on the Square in Braunton and take a look at a few of these different models for yourself.

Our highly trained staff will be very happy to chat and help you find the phone that is right for you – and we don’t push for a sale. If we think a smartphone or device won’t suit your needs, we will say so.

Why not come and see us?