While Samsung draws most of its smartphone reputation from its high-end phones, the bulk of the phones that the company sells are are not the $700+ Galaxy S series, but rather the cheaper phones that fill out the lower parts of its product stack. To that end, Samsung has unveiled its new mid-range Galaxy A51 and Galaxy A71 smartphones, which are designed to strike a better balance between features and the handset's cost.

As their model numbers suggest, Samsung’s Galaxy A51 and Galaxy A71 smartphones are designed for different price points, yet they have many similarities. Both handsets come in a plastic body, which depending on the model houses either a massive 6.5-inch (A51) or a 6.7-inch (A71) Infinity-O Super AMOLED. Both models get similar panels, each sporting a 2400:1080 resolution as well as an ultrawide 20:9 aspect ratio. The display in turn is protected with Corning's Gorilla Glass 3, which although not the latest and greatest there, is not particularly surprising (nor a bad choice) since, unlike the S-series, these smartphones are not water-tight.

Meanwhile, with cameras being one of the big selling points for flagship phones this past year, Samsung has tried to bring as much of this down to their mid-range phones as possible. Both smartphones feature a quad-module rear camera setup, consisting of a 48 MP or a 64 MP main module, a 12 MP ultrawide module, a 5 MP depth sensor, and a 5 MP dedicated macro module. As always, we'll have to see how well these camera modules actually work once the phones are shipping, but it's a surprisingly aggressive number of modules to ship a cheaper phone with. Finally, rounding out the camera collection for both phones is a 32 MP punch-hole selfie camera.

As for internal hardware, the Galaxy A51 is powered by the Exynos 9611 SoC, which offers 4 Cortex-A73 cores plus 4 Cortex-A53 cores. This is paired with paired with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of NAND flash storage. Meanwhile the Galaxy A71 is based on the Snapdragon 730 – a 2x Cortex-A76 plus 6x Cortex-A55 SoC – accompanied by 6 GB or 8 GB of memory, as well as 128 GB of NAND. The new smartphones obviously support 4G/LTE, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1, navigation, a USB 2.0 Type-C port, an under-screen fingerprint reader, and integrate a 4,000 or 4,500 mAh battery respectively.

Samsung's Galaxy A51 & Galaxy A71 Smartphones
Brief Specifications
  Galaxy A51 Galaxy A71
Display SAMOLED
6.5"
2400x1080
20:9
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
SAMOLED
6.7"
2400x1080
20:9
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
SoC Samsung Exynos 9611

4 x Arm Cortex-A73 @ 2.3 GHz
4 x Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.7 GHz
Arm Mali-G72 MP3
Qualcomm Snapdragon 730

2 x Kryo 470 Gold (CA76)
@ 2.2 GHz
6 x Kryo 470 Silver (CA55)
@ 1.8 GHz
Adreno 618
RAM 6 GB 6 GB or 8 GB
Storage 128 GB of NAND flash
microSD
128 GB of NAND flash
microSD
Local Connectivity Wi-Fi  802.11ac Wi-Fi
Bluetooth Bluetooth 5.0
Data/Charging USB 2.0 Type-C
Audio 3.5-mm jack
stereo speakers
active noice cancellation
NFC depending on the market
4G/LTE Yes
Navigation  A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
Rear Camera Main 48 MP, f/2.0, 1/2", 0.8µm
PDAF
64 MP, f/1.8, 1/1.7", 0.8µm, 26 mm
PDAF
Ultrawide 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm
Depth 5 MP, f/2.2
Macro 5 MP, f/2.4
Main Lense Assembly ? ?
Front Camera 32 MP, 1.28", f/2.2, 0.8µm
Battery Capacity 4000 mAh
15 W fast charging
4500 mAh
25 W fast charging
Expected Life ? ?
SIM Size Nano SIM, single or dual
Sensors accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Biometric Security Fingerprint Under display
Facial Recognition - -
Dimensions Height 158.5 mm | 6.24 inches 163.6 mm | 6.44 inches
Width 73.6 mm | 2.90 inches 76 mm | 2.99 inches
Thickness 7.9 mm | 0.31 inches 7.7 mm | 0.3 inches
Weight 172 grams 179 grams
Colors Prism, Crush Black, White, Blue, Pink
Protection Drop ? ?
Splashes - -
OS Google Android 9.0 with One UI
Launch Countries Vietnam, Poland Poland
Price ~€310 ?

So far, Samsung has introduced its Galaxy A51 and Galaxy 71 in Poland and Vietnam and while other markets have not yet been announced, it's only a matter of time (and presumably after the new year). The A51 will be available in Vietnam in late December, so expect the A71 to hit the market a bit after that.

Related Reading:

Sources: Samsung Poland, Samsung Vietnam, GSMArena, GSMArena, Liliputing

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  • Nozuka - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link

    Sounds pretty good. Just wish it had more cameras...
  • shabby - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link

    Its actually missing a zoom camera lol
  • nandnandnand - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link

    The camera module looks like it takes up 1/3 of the horizontal space at the top. If they stretched it across the entire top of the phone, offering ~16-17 cameras, I would be fine with that.

    No amount of cameras is too many if the implementation is done right.
  • milkywayer - Tuesday, December 17, 2019 - link

    I'm not upgrading until the next year's model with 7 cameras is out.
  • Holliday75 - Tuesday, December 17, 2019 - link

    Me to. And on a side note do not forget to put tape over the web camera on your laptop. They could be watching!
  • sayed - Sunday, December 22, 2019 - link

    you forgoy tp zoom you are new on this phone loly pedida
  • QChronoD - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link

    I'd be interested to see how this performs compared to today's flagships, and a selection of the popular models from 2-3 years ago.
  • nandnandnand - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link

    "USB 2.0 Type-C"
    "active noice cancellation"

    I would use the A51, sounds great.
  • Aloonatic - Tuesday, December 17, 2019 - link

    Is that "noice" as in the Jake Peralta/slang way of sating "nice"?

    If so, I'm not sure that I "want active nice cancellation" on my phone.
  • Death666Angel - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link

    The A50 was on my list as a device for my wife. She doesn't want/need a 600€+ flagship and doesn't like Chinese brand phones, but loves Samsung. Those A devices this year were pretty good for the price they ended up at, I thought. I'm a bit disappointed that the SoC seems to be the same (9610 vs 9611 with no discernible differences?). And those A73 really should be A76 now I think. Hexcore 2xA76 and 4xA55 would be golden for this sort of phone I think.
    I'll have to see if the fingerprint sensor and the cameras are an actual plus or if the price of the A50 drops by a bit more I might just snag that up.

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