The Samsung Galaxy A73 also got a sneaky announcement today
Samsung launched the 2022 revamp of its A series today, and while the focus was mainly on the Galaxy A53 and somewhat the Galaxy A33, the biggest sibling — the Galaxy A73 only silently appeared on the company’s website. However, it’s not a model to ignore, so let’s see what it’s got going for it!
The A series are pretty decent phones at an aggressive price — they shave off some bells and whistles, but still offer good cameras, great screens with high refresh rate, and satisfactory battery life. They are split in three tiers — the A3- is low-midrange, the A5- is middle of the road, and the A7- is in the upper midrange. However, at this point, official info says that only the Galaxy A53 will be sold in the States, with the A33 and A73 headed for various international market.
OK, what’s the A73 about?
Samsung Galaxy A73 display and design
By all accounts, the Galaxy A73 looks like a Galaxy A53, only slightly bigger. So, the A73 has a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED screen with a 1080 x 2400 pixel resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate. In comparison, the A53 has the same specs, only the screen is 6.5 inches. There’s a single punch hole for a selfie camera in the top center — what Samsung calls the Infinity-O display.
As for the phone’s body — it appears to be made out of plastic, with the frame simulating the glossy shine of a metal one, while the back being finished in soft matte. The Galaxy A73 is shown in three colors — a minty green, white, and dark gray.
The Galaxy A73 is rated IP 67 for dust- and water-resistance.
Samsung Galaxy A73 specs
The processor listed for the Galaxy A73 seems to be different — it’s listed as an octa-core processor with 2.4 GHz and 1.8 GHz cores, now revealed to be the Snapdragon 778G.
The Galaxy A73 comes in storage tiers of 128 GB or 256 GB, each paired with 6 GB or 8 GB of RAM respectively. It also has a microSD card slot that can expand your storage up to an additional 1 TB.
The lights are kept on by a 5,000 mAh battery, which is still respectably huge. Though it does have to power a 6.7-inch, 120 Hz screen, so the jury is still out on battery life.
Samsung Galaxy A73 software updates
With the release of the new A series, Samsung reaffirmed its dedication to 4 years of major Android updates and 5 years of security patches. This is huge for Android midranger phones — they will stop being the punchline of an Android update joke and actually be seen as… a worthwhile investment.
The Galaxy A73 will come with Android 12 out of the box, which means that it will get Android 16 four years from now and still not be at its end-of-life for another year after that.
Of course, the operating system is adorned all over by Samsung’s proprietary OneUI interface — a very fleshed out experience, which provides a very solid alternative to those users who do not really enjoy what Google has done with Android 12 and the Material You philosophy.
Samsung Galaxy A73 camera
In the camera department, we have a similar setup to the A53, but with a bump in the main snapper.
So, we are looking at a 108 MP main camera with an aperture of F1.8, an ultra-wide camera with 12 MP and F2.2, and then a 5 MP macro camera and 5 MP depth camera for portrait effects. On the front, there’s a 32 MP selfie — same high resolution as on the A52 and A72 series from last year.
We expect the cameras on the A series to be quite good — we had fun with the Galaxy A52 and Galaxy A72 cameras last year. While they would fall just short of being as good as Galaxy S cameras, they were quite impressive with great control over dynamics, colors, and details.
The camera is basically one of the big selling points of the A series — they are fun phones at more affordable prices for young people who love to spend hours in that viewfinder. So expect all of the fun features from Galaxy S — Portrait Mode, Single Take, Hyperlapse, Food Mode, and so on. Will the Galaxy A73 have Portrait Video? Probably not, but we are opening ourselves up for a pleasant surprise here.
Samsung Galaxy A73 price and release
Since it was a very silent announcement, we really have nothing on pricing or availability for the Galaxy A73. Last year’s Galaxy A72 wasn’t official in the states, probably so it wouldn’t step on the toes of the Galaxy S20 FE, but sold worldwide for the equivalent of $540-ish. Well, the A73 is also probably going to stay away from the Galaxy S21 FE’s turf as well. But, for what it’s worth, it will probably also stay in that $500-ish price tier.
Also, yes, we’ve no news on release date right now.
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