Samsung Galaxy M53 goes official: a budget A73 that keeps the 108MP camera

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy M53 5G, which is equipped with a 108 MP main camera and a large 6.7” 120 Hz Super AMOLED Plus display. If those specs sound familiar, it’s because the M53 is basically a budget version of the Galaxy A73 5G (rather than the A53, despite the similar names).

The one important thing that separates the Galaxy M53 and A73 is the chipset – the M53 is probably powered by a Dimensity 900 instead of the Snapdragon 778G of the A-series phones (“probably” because Samsung rarely list chipset details and we have to confirm those for ourselves). Both are 6 nm chips (TSMC), but the Snapdragon has a better CPU makeup (4x Cortex-A78 based cores vs. 2x A78) and a more powerful GPU.

Also, there is only one memory configuration, 6/128 GB, with no options for RAM or storage upgrades. The microSD slot does make the storage situation less of a worry, however.

Samsung Galaxy M53 5G in Blue, Green and Brown

A few cuts were made to the camera department as well. The aforementioned 108 MP main camera that sits behind an f/1.8 lens, but it has lost the Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). The ultra wide camera got a lower resolution 8 MP sensor (down from 12 MP). The remaining two modules on the back are a 2 MP macro and a 2 MP depth sensor. The 32 MP selfie camera survived the budget cut unscathed.

It is punch holed into Galaxy M53’s 6.7” display, a Super AMOLED Plus panel with FHD+ resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate. There’s no word on strengthened glass, but the A73 doesn’t have Gorilla Glass (or similar) either. The fingerprint reader did move to the side (Power button), though not everyone will miss the in-display reader.

The phone is powered by a 5,000 mAh battery with 25W fast charging, matching the A73 and A53. One downside of switching to the Dimensity chip is that Wi-Fi connectivity is limited to Wi-Fi 5 (ac) instead of 6. On the flip side, Bluetooth 5.2 is supported (vs. 5.0).

This was a quiet launch so we’re still waiting on pricing info for the Samsung Galaxy M53 5G, along with a list of launch regions. It this follows the pattern of the A-series launch, it may be a couple of weeks before we find these things out.

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