Samsung Galaxy A Series in the U.S.: Great Timing, Extremely Competitive, and Well Supported by Carriers

Summary

Last month, Samsung announced updated Galaxy A phones for Europe and Asia. At the time, we noted that U.S. variants were expected shortly, and we got those this week. In the meantime, LG announced it is shuttering its smartphone business, and our analysis showed that the one place LG remained competitive was in the U.S. prepaid market. Samsung could not have known that a major competitor would leave a Galaxy A series-sized hole in the market to fill, but it is certainly well positioned to do so.

The new phones start as low as $109 and bring 5G and fast-refresh rate displays down to new price points. In addition, T-Mobile unveiled its latest Uncarrier initiative, which is aimed at weaponizing its 5G spectrum advantage today before Verizon can deploy C band 5G next year (Techsponential will have a separate report on this). A big part of T-Mobile’s plan is to offer one of Samsung’s new A Series phones  for free. AT&T and Verizon are also offering price promotions on the Galaxy A32 5G and A42 5G, respectively, to drive subscribers onto their 5G networks faster.

Finally, the Galaxy A32 5G represents a big win for MediaTek, which has seen tremendous success with its Dimensity 5G chipset in China, but relatively low penetration in the U.S. The $179 4G-only Galaxy A12 is also based on MediaTek SoC, a Helio P35.

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