At a brief virtual event on Thursday, Samsung showed off its new Galaxy A53 5G smartphone, which packs much of its higher-end flagship line into a more budget-friendly device. The Galaxy A53 comes with a new quad-camera system, a powerful processor, a sleek design and 5G capabilities.
But the phone’s price is perhaps its biggest selling point. The A53 costs $449 for a 128 GB model, $50 less than the prior year’s model and, it just so happens, $30 less than Apple charges for an iPhone SE with the same amount of storage. (Apple also offers a 64GB version that starts at $429. The A53 does not come in that storage option.)
Samsung’s Galaxy and Note flagship smartphones have long overshadowed its A Series devices. But amid the economic uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, the more price-friendly line made up a majority of the company’s total smartphone shipments last year, according to IDC Research.
The reason, according to Ramon Llamas, a director at IDC, is “because Samsung cleverly positions it as an upper mid-range smartphone device masquerading as an entry level device.”
Beyond price, the latest version of the 6.5-inch smartphone runs on Samsung’s new Exynos 5 nm processor, which helps support enhanced AI-capabilities that power, for example, improved Night mode and the ability to remove some unwanted objects in photos. The latest model also gets a significant battery bump, with the promise of two-day battery life on a single charge.
The Galaxy A53 also features a quad-camera system with an improved 64 MP main camera and high-resolution 32 MP front camera.
Last month, Samsung unveiled the latest smartphones in its flagship Galaxy S22 line and noted in a recent press release that pre-orders more than doubled those of the Galaxy S21 series.