Last year, we made bold claims that the Samsung Galaxy A72 is the smartphone we’d get if we had no budget for a flagship smartphone and in fact, we loved it very much. Then we tried the A52s which was priced as the A72 and concerned us about the increase in price and made me worried about the upcoming series. The good news though is that, the Samsung Galaxy A33 finally gets a better treatment from its predecessor but it cant be said the same for the Samsung Galaxy A73.
Samsung Galaxy A73 Hands On
Getting the Specification out of the way…
It’s not possible to spot the differences immediately with the Samsung Galaxy A73 at one glance, that’s because it lies within and here’s the specification:
- 6.7” FHD+ Super AMOLED 120Hz Display
- Corning Gorilla Glass 5 with IP67
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G Processor
- 8GB RAM and 256GB Storage
- Expandable via SD Card upto 1TB
- Quad camera: 108MP Main with OIS + 12MP Ultrawide + 5MP Depth + 5MP Macro
- Front Facing: 32MP Camera
- 5000mAh Battery
That odd-asymmetrical Infinity-O Cut out
Before we tell you the differences in its specification, the Samsung Galaxy A73 looks good in all the shades of colors the brand showcases and its nice that they have taken a pastel color route this time. But there’s an odd difference which is not something you’ll notice when you see the phone on its own, but when it’s side-by-side with the Galaxy A53.
The Samsung Galaxy A53 has a wee bit bigger camera cutout and it extends beyond the notification bar which is a but unsettling. Now I could say that the units we had out hands on with are “engineering samples” but I doubt it, given that the other A73’s in the room too had the same cut out and layout. It is a bit obstructive and I wished it wasn’t in the face of sorts and more subtle like the A53 instead.
Telephoto is replaced for a Depth Sensor
Samsung ups the game with the Camera and takes a step behind at the same time. The primary shooter now gets a proper OIS camera with a MP count of 108. The ultrawide is pretty much present but what’s missing is the Telephoto camera which was present with the A72 and it now gets a 5MP Depth and 5MP Macro. Samsung says that it comes with a Hybrid focus but hybrid works just the way how Digital Zoom work anyway, so it’s a bit skeptical and I am a bit bummed out to see that they traded a functional camera for something “gimmicky”.
Uses the Same processor as the Galaxy A52s
While the Samsung Galaxy A33 and A53 gets the Samsung Exynos 1280 which claims to perform very well, the A73 gets the same processor as the Galaxy A52s, which we review and that’s the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G. Sure, it’s a good processor and all that, but given that it is a little dated as it launched last year, it’s unclear as to why Samsung took this route when they could have equipped with the same Exynos, making the whole lineup an all-Exynos A series. It could be due to the fact that the Exynos processor might be in short supply, but we can only guess.
Pricing and Availability
The Samsung Galaxy A73 takes a leap in pricing as well, now priced at RM 2,099 which is far more expensive than last year’s A72 which was priced at RM 1899 and given it shares so many similarities with the A52s of last year, it was also priced at RM 1899. To be honest, it’s a bit questionable as to how far it has strayed away from the predecessor and doesn’t offer any sort of significant upgrades to the table, although it does support some new software trick which was also a part of the predecessor. A little too early to comment but we will see how it goes when we get to review it.
The phone that intrigued us is the A33, which you can click here to read.
