Samsung is refreshing its Galaxy A-series midrange phones for 2020. The lineup consists of a whopping six phones, all of which are aimed at people who want high-end features without paying an exorbitant amount of money.
First to launch on April 9th are the A01 and A51, costing $110 and $400, respectively. The A01’s specs seem serviceable for the cost, with an octa-core processor, a 5MP selfie camera on the front, and a 13MP rear camera with 2MP depth on the back. The display is 5.7 inches, and it has HD+ resolution with Samsung’s “Infinity-V” v-shaped notch at the top to house the selfie cam. The phone contains a 3,000mAh battery, and its 16GB of onboard storage can be expanded via microSD. The A01 will arrive first via Verizon, with support at other carriers coming in a few weeks.
Then there’s the Galaxy A51 5G. It comes with a 6.5-inch Full HD+ display, 48-megapixel main camera, 4,500mAh battery and 6GB of RAM. It will ship with 128GB of internal storage, which you’ll be able to increase by up to 512GB with a microSD card. It will cost an even $500.
Both the A71 and A51 5G will arrive in the US this summer provided there aren’t any coronavirus-related delays.
Coming in between the A01 and A51 in terms of pricing and capabilities are the A11 and A21, which will cost $180 and $250, respectively. These will launch at some point in the summer. Both will have octa-core processors. The A11 will offer a 6.4-inch HD+ display with a hole-punch selfie cam. The rear camera has three lenses (wide-angle, ultrawide-angle, and depth). The phone also includes a 4,000mAh battery, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage.
The A21 is just a little bigger with a 6.5-inch screen. The main difference is that it has a quad-lens rear camera array, with a macro lens added to the three included on the A11. Additionally, the A21 comes with a 4,000mAh battery and 3GB of RAM, and it supports 15W wired fast charging.
Also coming later this summer is a 5G-ready version of the A51 which will cost $500. There are other differences between this and the $400 model: the 5G version will have 6GB of RAM (compared to 4GB), support 15W wired fast charging, include a 4,500mAh battery (compared to 4,000mAh), and will support up to 1TB of additional microSD card storage. This phone will support mmWave and sub-600MHz spectrum 5G support.
The Samsung A71 5G, top-end midrange phone that’s on the verge of flagship pricing. It will also be released this summer. It will have a 6.7-inch FHD+ OLED Infinity-O display with a hole-punch camera. It will also have a quad-camera system on the back, though Samsung has only said that its main lens is 64 megapixels. Other features worth highlighting include 25W wired fast charging, 128GB of storage (with 1TB of microSD expandable storage support), 6GB of RAM, and a 4,500mAh battery. The A71 5G will also support mmWave and sub-600MHz spectrum 5G support.
Samsung’s big message with these phones is that it’s trying to make 5G more accessible for people who don’t want to spend hundreds more on a Galaxy S20. I’m particularly curious to see how the A71 5G performs because, at $600, it comes within $200 of the cost of a 5G-ready Galaxy S20
