| Pros | Cons |
| Super affordable 5G | Low screen resolution |
| Great battery life | Mediocre cameras |
| Decent chipset | Plain design |
The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is an excellent way to get 5G on a low budget - especially if you also want good battery life and decent performance. If you're after a great screen or camera though you should look elsewhere.
The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is among the very cheapest 5G handsets, which isn’t necessarily something you’d expect from a big name like Samsung.
As well as being exceedingly affordable it also has a quad-lens camera, a big battery, a sizeable screen, and some other decent specs and features. In fact, on paper it’s a prime example of just how much you can now pack into an affordable handset.
But of course being affordable the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G doesn’t have everything, and its specs are far from the best in most areas, so the question is, are they good enough? And is it good value for money? Read on for the answers.
You get a sizeable 6.5-inch 720 x 1600 screen on the Samsung Galaxy A32, with a pixel density of 270 pixels per inch. That’s a fairly basic spec but still reasonably sharp. The refresh rate is a standard 60Hz, and there aren’t any fancy extras like HDR10.
Also, while most pricier Samsung phones have AMOLED screens, this uses TFT LCD, which doesn’t typically offer as good contrast.
So this isn’t an exciting screen, but brightness and viewing angles are reasonable, and the resolution is just about acceptable for the price – though we’d have liked to see a 1080p screen. Ultimately the screen isn’t a reason to buy this phone over another, but it’s not a significant negative point either.
The design of the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is fairly conventional and won’t turn many heads, but that’s okay, especially at this price.
It has a plastic back and frame with the choice of a black, blue or lavender finish. The edges look slightly metallic, but the rear makes no real attempt to look like glass.
There’s a teardrop notch above the screen on the front, housing the selfie camera, and a fairly large bezel below the display. These are all hallmarks of cheap phones.
The back looks fairly plain but despite having a lot of camera lenses they’re not housed in a distinct block. Instead each lens rises individually out of the back. This is slightly different to the design found on most phones – not necessarily any better or worse, but notable.
The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is 164.2 x 76.1 x 9.1mm, so it’s not overly slim, and at 205g it’s heavier than you might expect too, though not enough to weigh you down. And of course, there’s no water resistance on this phone. All in all we’re not massive fans of the design, but it’s good enough.
The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G has an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 720 5G chipset, which is a mid-range offering, broadly in line with a Snapdragon 700-series chipset, such as the Snapdragon 750G found in the slightly more expensive Samsung Galaxy A52 5G.
So if anything performance here is a bit better than you might expect for the money – a feat that was presumably achieved because MediaTek chipsets are likely cheaper than Snapdragon ones.
That said, it’s paired here with just 4GB of RAM, which is 2GB less than the Galaxy A52 5G has, and is more in line with the price of this phone. Still, performance is very solid for this end of the market. Don’t expect silky smooth frame rates paired with ultra graphics settings in demanding games, but most things should run quite comfortably.
If you need more power you could consider the aforementioned A52 5G with its RAM boost, or for even more there’s the OnePlus Nord. But neither are quite as cheap as the Galaxy A32 5G.
Quad-lens cameras are quickly becoming common on cheap handsets, so the presence of them here isn’t super notable, especially as two of those lenses – the 5MP macro and 2MP depth ones – are definitely taking on filler roles, rather than being anything overly useful.
Still, that leaves you with a 48MP f/1.8 main camera and an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide one (with a 123-degree field of view) and these two are much more useful.
They’re still hardly remarkable – this is unmistakeably a budget camera setup, and we’d have rather seen one or two better lenses than the four forgettable ones here, but performance is respectable in decent lighting conditions, and there’s also scope to record 4K video at 30fps.
There’s also a 13MP camera on the front, which is a fairly basic but adequate one. As with so many things about the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G then, the cameras are fine for the price, but no better than that.
The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G runs Android 11, so its software is up to date, and it has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. While our preference is generally in-screen ones, the side is the second best place for it in our opinion, as it’s easy to reach no matter how your phone is positioned, and it doesn’t take up space on the front.
There’s also a 3.5mm headphone port in the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G, so if you haven’t made the move to wireless audio, this phone has you covered.
You get a 5,000mAh battery in the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G, which is a good size. While not quite as massive as the 6,000mAh juice packs we’re seeing in a few phones (such as the Moto G9 Power), it’s about the largest common smartphone battery size you’ll find, and even has a lot of flagships beat – the OnePlus 9 for example has just a 4,500mAh battery.
Coupled with its fairly low screen resolution, this means the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G has good staying power. It’s among those rare phones that it’s just about realistic to get two days of life from – though heavy users will still be stuck on one. There’s no wireless charging, but it powers up at 15W, which is acceptable if not exactly speedy.
Memory comes in at 64GB, which isn’t loads, but there’s also a microSD card slot, so there’s plenty of expansion potential.
Connectivity options include 5G of course, which really is the single biggest selling point of this phone, as it’s one of the cheapest handsets to offer 5G, which is all the more impressive as it comes from a name as big and trusted as Samsung. Beyond that, there’s also Bluetooth 5.0.
The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is ultimately a phone that most people will be buying as a cheap way to get 5G. That’s its most notable aspect, and a significant selling point, but it’s not the only thing the Galaxy A32 5G has going for it.
Battery life also impresses, and it’s more powerful than you might expect. Elsewhere, it’s less impressive, but generally ‘good enough’ for the money. That’s true of the design, screen, and cameras.
But with 5G, a speedy chipset, and a battery that’s big enough to keep up, the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G definitely seems to put performance – and price – ahead of everything else. So if that’s the balance you’re looking for then it won’t disappoint.
