Samsung Galaxy M33 5G Review: Good Budget Phone with Compromises

Samsung has now refreshed its Samsung M-series with numerous new phones. Not all of them have made it to Nepal but some of them like the Samsung M33 5G is already available.

Samsung M33 5G price in Nepal starts at Rs. 33,999 for the 6/128GB variant. It is available for purchase via authorized Samsung stores.

Samsung M33 5G is actually the successor of the Samsung M32 5G. However, the M32 5G was not launched in Nepal. Instead, the Samsung M32 4G was launched last year in Nepal.

So, how good is the Samsung M33 5G? Let me explain in brief in this review article.

Samsung Galaxy M33 5G Review

Design

• 165.4 x 76.9 x 9.4 mm
• 215 g

The Galaxy M33 5G looks like most other affordable Samsung phones like the M32 4G, A22, and the F22. It has the same rear design as the above-mentioned smartphones but it has better build quality. Although the rear panel and the frame are still plastic, the rear panel is less prone to smudges than the previous iteration. Likewise, the rear panel has a matte-like frosted finish on our green variant. And, I can confirm that it is not a fingerprint magnet.

Samsung M33 5G has an improved build quality compared to the Samsung M32.

Whilst it looks good from the rear, M33 5G looks outdated from the front. The 6.6-inch screen surrounded by big bezels ruins the viewing experience, add an ugly-looking drop notch, it looks worse. Samsung should know better, consumers want a more modern design with punch hole nowadays.

On the right side, there are volume and power buttons, with an embedded fingerprint sensor in the latter. The left side holds the SIM tray which accepts two SIM cards in addition to a microSD card. At the bottom, there’s a USB-C port, a speaker, a mic, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Talking about the in-hand feel, the M33 5G doesn’t feel premium. It is on the heavier side thanks to the 6000mAh battery inside, but some users might not mind that because of its impressive battery life. The same goes for the phone’s thickness. At 9.4mm, it is a thick boy but it’s a compromise Samsung had to make for a big battery.

Display

• 6.6 inches TFT
• 120Hz
• 1080 x 2408 pixels

Samsung is well known for offering AMOLED screens on a budget, but Samsung seems to have made a U-turn with the new phones. The Galaxy M33 5G has a 6.6 inches TFT display instead of an AMOLED panel. For context, last year’s Samsung M32 4G offered a 1080p AMOLED panel.

M33 5G gets a huge downgrade interms of the display panel.

The TFT screen isn’t horrible though. It is a Full HD+ panel, gets more than bright enough, and has decent color reproduction. But, it lacks deep blacks, a good viewing angle, and the eye-pleasing vivid color of an AMOLED panel. It has 120Hz refresh rate though, so animations and scrolling are smooth. The refresh rate is adaptive as well, it will drop to 60Hz for static contents and will shoot up to 120Hz when you start scrolling.

Camera

• Rear Camera: 50MP, f/1.8, OIS
  • 5MP, f/2.2, ultrawide
  • 2MP, f/2.4, macro
  • 2MP, f/2.4, depth

• Front Camera: 8MP, f/2.2

The Galaxy M33 5G comes with a  quad-camera setup including a 50MP main sensor, a 5MP ultrawide sensor, a 2MP macro sensor, and a 2MP depth sensor.

NORMAL PHOTOS

In daylight, the main camera captures fairly decent photos with decent color and average dynamic range. But, I’m not quite impressed with the details. You can use 50MP mode to get more detail but it is barely noticeable.

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ULTRAWIDE PHOTOS

The ultrawide camera has been downgraded to just 5MP. However, I found it not too bad, it has a wider FOV than Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G’s ultrawide sensor, good exposure balance, and a decent dynamic range. The only complaint I have is the significant loss in detail and increase in noise thanks to the downgraded 5MP sensor.

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LOW LIGHT PHOTOS

The low-light photos look okayish without Night mode. With Night mode, all you get is a brighter image with increased visible noise.

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MACRO PHOTOS

The macro sensor is nothing to boast about. The 2MP sensor captures soft photos with an unattractive cold color profile.

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FRONT CAMERA

On the front, there is an 8MP selfie camera. In daylight, the photos have a good dynamic range with a neutral color profile and good face tone. The detail is quite average though.

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VIDEOS

For videos, it can capture up to 4k 30fps from the main camera. The 4k video looks decent with fair detail but it looks a bit oversharpened. Likewise, the 1080p footage looks noisy and flat, but you get good stabilization at 1080p.

Performance

• Exynos 1280 (6 nm)
• Octa-core (2×2.4 GHz Cortex-A78 & 6×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55)
• Mali-G68
• 128GB 6/8GB RAM

Interestingly, Samsung M33 5G has a good chipset for the price. It comes with the same Exynos 1280 chipset used on a more expensive model, the Samsung A53 5G.

Exynos 1280 is a powerful chipset that features 2X Cortex A78 cores and 6X Cortex A55 cores. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 695 also uses the same CPU configuration with modified Kryo cores.

ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy M53 5G with 108MP Camera Expected to Launch in Nepal Soon

In benchmark tests, the Samsung M33 5G is slightly ahead of the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G in Antutu, GeekBench, and 3D Mark Wild Life. Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G comes ahead only in GeekBench’s Multi-core test.

Samsung M33 5G Benchmark Scores

Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G Benchmark Scores

In my experience, the M33 5G felt smooth in daily usage. It is not buttery smooth and I did notice minor stutters while switching apps and turning on the screen, but its general performance is pretty good.

GAMING

For gaming, we tested COD Mobile and Genshin Impact on the M33 5G. COD Mobile can be played at ‘Max’ fps with a ‘Low’ graphics setting. Likewise, you can play at ‘High’ Graphics at the ‘Very High’ fps setting.

At Max fps, COD Mobile runs smoothly with average fps of 58.9 without any issues. There were no frame drops and stutters as well.

For Genshin Impact, I tested it on default ‘Medium’ settings. Genshin Impact doesn’t run smoothly on the M33 5G. I was getting average fps of 20 with frequent frame drops and occasional stutters.

Overall, Exynos 1280 is a powerful chipset for the price but the games have not been optimized for this chipset.

Battery

• Non-removable Li-Po 6000mAh battery
• 25W Fast Charging Support

The Galaxy M33 5G has extremely good battery life thanks to the 6000mAh battery and 5nm Exynos processor. With moderate usage, I was getting around 9-10 hours of screen-on time.

You can expect the M33 5G to last at least a day and a half with moderate usage. While its battery life is great, the same cannot be said about its charging. You will need to buy the charger separately and the 25W charger will take 1.5 hours for a full charge.

OS & Others

• Android 12
• One UI 4.1
• Single Speaker

Samsung M33 5G runs on Android 12 with One UI 4.1 out of the box.

You get all the latest features of One UI 4 including the ability to change the color palette of icons and menus based on wallpapers. Along with that, it also gets the updated camera UI that is seen on the likes of the Samsung S22 lineup.

Unlike the new A-series phones, M33 5G will only get 2 years of Android upgrades and 4 years of Security updates.

Moving on to the speaker, it is a loud one but it lacks clarity. It lacks clarity in highs and there’s no low end as well. Likewise, the side-mounted fingerprint sensor is a decent one, it is accurate and fast enough.

Should You Buy Samsung Galaxy M33 5G?

Samsung Galaxy M33 5G is not exactly a great phone for the price. It has got amazing battery life, and a powerful processor, although it is held back by optimization. Plus it comes with full 5G and 4K video support.

Except for these, it is pretty boring with an outdated design, inferior TFT panel, and a downgraded 5MP ultrawide camera.

Even with the flaws, you might be happy picking up the Galaxy M33 5G but there are better options in this segment. I will skip it just because of the TFT display.

READ NEXT: Xiaomi 12 Pro Review: An Ultra Fast Flagship Phone

What do you think about the Samsung M33 5G? If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments!

Also, watch our impressions video of the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G in Nepali.