Samsung quietly brings flagship camera tech to mid-range A series smartphones

Yesterday, Samsung announced a new A series smartphone for the US market that crammed in a lot of top tech for the ticket price. The company also quietly revealed that an even more impressive mid-range handset was on the way, which borrows the main rear camera from the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Though not mentioned at all in the US press materials, the Galaxy A73 5G smartphone was added as a footnote on the global release, noting that it will go on sale in selected markets from April 22. That probably means that the US won't be getting this handset initially, or at all.

Set to be the A series range topper, the new phone is lighter than the A53 5G at 181 g (6.38 oz) and thinner at 7.6 mm (0.29 in). It also comes with a bigger AMOLED display – 6.7 inches compared to 6.5 – though the FHD+ resolution remains the same, as does the 120-Hz refresh rate.

It features octacore processing brains supported by either 6 or 8 GB of RAM and 128 or 256 GB of storage, with microSD expansion up to 1 TB, and boasts a 5,000-mAh battery with support for 25-W fast charging (though there won't be a charger in the box).

The biggest surprise though is in the rear camera array, where the successor to the A72 rocks a 108-megapixel main camera with a F1.8 aperture and optical image stabilization and a 12-MP ultra-wide. Those are the same numbers as the mighty Galaxy S22 Ultra sports and quite a step up from its predecessor's 64-MP main shooter.

The other two camera modules in the new A series phone do take a hit though, losing the A72's 8-MP telephoto module in favor of the same 5-MP macro and 5-MP depth cameras as the A53. The selfiecam is also a familiar 32-MP F2.2 flavor.

Elsewhere, there's 5G mobile internet, 802.11ax Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, Samsung Knox security, IP67 water resistance and One UI 4.1 on top of Android 12 – with presumably the same four years of OS upgrades and five years of security updates as the A53.

Samsung is yet to reveal exactly where in the world the black, mint or white A73 5G will be launched next month, or at what price. One to watch for hi-res mobile photographers though.

Source: Samsung