Samsung Updates Galaxy A Series to Stay on Top of Increasingly Competitive Mid-range Smartphone Market
Summary
Samsung announced three new mid-tier A-series phones for global markets featuring an attractive new curved frosted plastic-that-looks-like-glass design, fast-refresh displays, updated cameras, and large batteries. Samsung is facing increased competition in the mid-tier from Chinese brands seeking to fill the vacuum left by Huawei. While Samsung won’t win every price/feature battle, the new phones are aggressively priced, spec’d well, look great, and benefit from Samsung’s brand, distribution, and ecosystem advantages. U.S. variants will be announced separately, where carriers will likely insist on 5G in all models.
Galaxy A52, A52 5G, and A72: Getting the Basics Right
Samsung is focusing the new Galaxy A-series on design, display, camera, and battery – the top features that actually drive consumer purchase decisions. These are important products for Samsung, as the Galaxy A was "the most popular family of devices in 2020," and that volume still comes at price points that can be profitable.
Design – the rounded, frosted plastic comes in four colors, including black, white, and a soft blue and lilac. Samsung appends “Awesome” to each color name, continuing with an unapologetically bold marketing campaign started with last year’s A51. The camera bump is subtle, and the design and colors are just distinctive enough to be pleasing. Samsung’s use of plastic instead of glass is a cost-cutting move, but this is really nicely finished plastic, and the material also adds durability.
Display – we are starting to see high refresh rate panels – typically from Samsung Display – come to Chinese mid-tier smartphones, and Samsung is not about to let competitors beat it with its own components. The new A series features extremely bright 6.5” or 6.7” 90Hz refresh rate displays with blue light protection. The
Camera – The main 64 MP camera gains optical image stabilization (OIS) on all three models, while the A72 also gets a telephoto lens with OIS and 3x optical zoom. OIS also should help Night Mode photography. Rather than try to recreate Snapchat-style AR filters in the camera, Samsung went right to Snapchat itself on the Galaxy A52 and A72 for "Fun mode." This may be a gimmick, but it is a crowd-pleasing gimmick that younger buyers appreciate.
Battery – The Galaxy A52 and A52 5G get a large 4500 mAh battery, while the physically larger A72 packs 5000mAh. Samsung is wisely focusing on benefits rather than capacity, calling these “two-day battery life.”
Beyond the Basics
While the new A series provide updated specs in core areas, these are not bare-bones devices. Samsung has added louder stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos, Snapchat filters in the camera, and Knox security. Why would Samsung highlight Knox security in the Galaxy A series youth-oriented marketing? Because it could be a key differentiator against Chinese brands if marketed correctly at retail. It is also a way of claiming parity with Apple on privacy, one of its key marketing themes. Another way Samsung is setting itself apart from budget alternatives is by promising three generations of Android updates and at least four years of security updates. Finally, Samsung nods to backwards compatibility and value with a charger in the box, a minimum of 128GB storage, microSD expansion, and an actual 3.5mm headphone jack.
The Galaxy A Unpacked launch event spent significant time on software, services, and ecosystem intangibles: OneUI improvements, the transfer process from existing phones to this one, media sharing, privacy, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Duo, Samsung trackers, wearables, and multi-user fitness challenges.
Samsung has a complete line of 5G phones, but in many parts of the world, 5G simply isn’t relevant yet, especially in the price-sensitive and highly competitive mid-tier market. Therefore, for global markets, Samsung is launching two versions of the Galaxy A52 – one with 5G, and one without – and the 4G-only Galaxy A72. It is not entirely clear why Samsung is not offering a Galaxy A72 with 5G, though it may be that the price would start approaching the Galaxy S20 FE (or potentially, a Galaxy S21 FE this fall, should Samsung continue that sub-brand).
Pricing
Samsung is quite aggressive with this year’s Galaxy A pricing, with base storage (128GB) versions of the Galaxy A52 selling for €349, the Galaxy A52 5G at €429, and the Galaxy A72 €449.
Competitive Response
Apple generally competes at the top of the market and leaves older phones on the market to attract price-sensitive buyers. The tightening of the mid-tier market makes this strategy more challenging, but Apple’s software and ecosystem buffers against too much direct competition. The only phone within €50 of the Galaxy A72 is the €499 iPhone SE (2020). Compared to the Galaxy A series, the iPhone SE has a faster processor, but a significantly smaller 60 Hz display, smaller battery, and just a single camera. Apple is unlikely to respond to Samsung directly, but it does need to start offering high refresh rate displays later this year on as many phones as possible. It’s not like Apple does not see the value – the iPad Pro has had a variable refresh rate display (“120Hz Promotion”) for years.
Samsung’s various Android rivals have competitive points that they can highlight – processors, materials, charging speeds – but there isn’t any single knockout issue. The Galaxy A phones are made of plastic rather than glass, but it’s nice plastic, and more durable than glass. The A phones skip wireless charging, and wired charging maxes out at 25W – which is not as fast as some Chinese phones, but much faster than what mid-tier buyers are coming from. The phones lack the latest WiFi 6 standard and the global versions don’t have mmWave, but that does not matter practically in most of the places where these phones will be sold. The base RAM configuration for the Galaxy A52 is an underwhelming 4GB, though there are 6GB and 8GB options available.
In the U.S., the competitive dynamics are slightly different: Samsung has less competition – mostly TCL, Google, and OnePlus sold at full price, and LG phones selling at steep discounts – but the category makes up a smaller portion of smartphone sales overall. Samsung is expected to make U.S.-specific announcements in the coming weeks, and Techsponential will cover that separately.
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