Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G vs Nothing Phone (2a)

Here we compared two mid-range smartphones: the 6.5-inch Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G) that was released on August 17, 2021, against the Nothing Phone (2a), which is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro and came out 2 years and 7 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
  • Waterproof body (IP67 classification)
  • Slow-motion recording at 240FPS
  • Supports Dolby Atmos sound technology
  • Includes a 3.5 mm headphone audio jack port
  • The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
Reasons to consider the Nothing Phone (2a)
  • Shows 39% longer battery life (29:55 vs 21:34 hours)
  • Has 2x more RAM: 8GB versus 4GB
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • 30% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (985K versus 758K)
  • Delivers 22% higher peak brightness (974 against 799 nits)
  • More recent OS version: Android 15 versus 14
  • Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 25W)
  • The phone is 2 years and 7 months newer

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G and Nothing Phone (2a) crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
DeviceFacts Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate DeviceFacts Score
πŸ“± Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 67% Yes
Yes, we think most users will notice the upgrade.
Updating from Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G to Nothing Phone (2a) makes sense and should feel noticeably better in daily use.
Main improvements: battery life, camera, and gaming.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Super AMOLED AMOLED
Size 6.5 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2400 pixels 1080 x 2412 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 20:9
PPI 405 ppi 394 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No Yes (30-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 400 nits 700 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 800 nits 1300 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate - 240 Hz
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 5 Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Screen-to-body ratio 85% 87.8%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Display tests
RGB color space 138.1% 99.3%
PWM 231 Hz 90 Hz
Response time 9 ms 1 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
799 nits
Phone (2a) +22%
974 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 159.9 mm (6.3 inches) 161.7 mm (6.37 inches)
Width 75.1 mm (2.96 inches) 76.3 mm (3 inches)
Thickness 8.4 mm (0.33 inches) 8.6 mm (0.34 inches)
Weight 189 g (6.67 oz) 190 g (6.7 oz)
Waterproof IP67 IP54
Advanced cooling - Vapor chamber
Rear material Plastic Plastic
Frame material Plastic Plastic
Colors White, Black, Green, Purple White, Black
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio
87.8%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G and Nothing Phone (2a)
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro
Max clock 2400 MHz 2800 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 4) 8 (2 + 6)
Architecture - 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Kryo 670 Silver (Cortex-A55)
- 3 cores at 2.4 GHz: Kryo 670 Gold (Cortex-A78)
- 1 core at 2.4 GHz: Kryo 670 Prime (Cortex-A78)
- 6 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A715
L3 cache - 4 MB
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 6 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon 770 MediaTek APU 650
GPU
Graphics Adreno 642L Mali-G610 MC4
GPU shading units 512 256
GPU clock 550 MHz 1130 MHz
FLOPS ~563.2 GFLOPS ~578.6 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G and Nothing Phone (2a)
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Phone (2a) +11%
1133
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
2969
2581
Compute Score (GPU)
Phone (2a) +64%
4085
Compute Score (GPU) 2487 4085
Single-core score 1021 1133
Multi-core score 2969 2581
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
Phone (2a) +30%
985261
CPU 313434 363418
GPU 100484 172332
Memory 135397 158940
UX 209450 290571
Total score 758767 985261
Samples [17 tests] [16 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Phone (2a) +100%
449
Stability 98% 98%
Graphics test 2 FPS 3 FPS
Graphics score 225 449
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 99% 99%
Graphics test 4 FPS -
Graphics score 685 -
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 11369 -
Video editing 7181 -
Photo editing 25824 -
Data manipulation 9429 -
Writing score 13416 -

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-10-11 (RM_Phil)Geekbench 7 CPU808 / 3022
πŸ“˜ 2026-10-11 (RM_Phil)AnTuTu 12769103
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-27 (Andy Swas)AnTuTu 11725254
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-22 (bebequinhamota)AnTuTu 12805881
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-03 (Jaegerr)AnTuTu 11791396
Nothing Phone (2a)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-30 (Kaiser)AnTuTu 121001163
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-19 (Vedurijuht2425)AnTuTu 121045921
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-12 (note8techh)AnTuTu 11984744
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-06 (legusk)AnTuTu 111025139
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-13 (Divyanshu Raj)AnTuTu 111006410

Memory

RAM
RAM size 4 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR4X LPDDR4X
Memory clock 2133 MHz 2133 MHz
Channels 2 2
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 2.1 UFS 2.2
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 1024 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 11 (Can be upgraded to Android 14) Android 14 (Can be upgraded to Android 15)
ROM One UI 6.0 Nothing OS 3.0
OS size 26 GB 21 GB
OS updates 2 years 3 years
Security updates 4 years 4 years

Battery

Capacity 4500 mAh 5000 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 45 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No No
Reverse charging No No
Fast charging Yes (53% in 30 min) Yes (59% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:28 hr 1:03 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 07:27 hr 11:32 hr
Watching video 12:42 hr 18:30 hr
Gaming 04:56 hr 06:26 hr
Standby 116 hr 148 hr
General battery life
21:34 hr
Phone (2a) +39%
29:55 hr

Main camera

Matrix 64 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 9000 x 7000 8192 x 6144
Zoom Digital Digital
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 30FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (720p) 120 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 123Β° 114Β°
Lenses 1) Standard: 64 MP
2) Ultrawide: 12 MP
3) Macro: 5 MP
4) Depth: 5 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 50 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 64 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.9
Focal length 26 mm 24 mm
Sensor Sony IMX682 Samsung ISOCELL GN9
Sensor size 1/1.7" (β‰ˆ 0.59 inch) 1/1.56" (β‰ˆ 0.64 inch)
Pixel size 0.8 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm -
Sensor - Samsung S5KJN1
Sensor size - 1/2.76" (β‰ˆ 0.36 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 0.64 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital
Macro lens
Image resolution 5 MP -
Aperture f/2.4 -
Stabilization Digital -

Selfie camera

Megapixels 32 megapixels 32 megapixels
Image resolution 6528 x 4896 6528 x 4896
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm -
Sensor CMOS Sony IMX615
Sensor size 1/2.8" (β‰ˆ 0.36 inch) 1/2.74" (β‰ˆ 0.36 inch)
Pixel size 0.8 micron 0.8 micron
Autofocus No No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5 5.3
Bluetooth features LE, A2DP LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort - No
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Depends on the region Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* No No
Hybrid slot Yes No
LTE Cat* 18 -
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack Yes No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes No
Speakers test
Max loudness
83.6 dB
88.9 dB

Other

Category Mid-range Mid-range
Announced August 2021 March 2024
Release date September 2021 March 2024
Launch price (MSRP) $495 $329
Successor - - Nothing Phone (4a)
SAR (head) 0.88 W/kg -
SAR (body) 0.84 W/kg -
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger - Not included
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Nothing Phone (2a) is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
3 (21.4%)
11 (78.6%)
Total votes: 14

User opinions

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