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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  • Alistair - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link

    Samsung finally comes out with their version of the Xiaomi 9T basically (lots of cameras and the Snapdragon 730), but that phone is just $290 USD on Amazon. Competition is fierce at this price point.
  • milkywayer - Tuesday, December 17, 2019 - link

    Samsung is getting kicked out of most territories by Xiaomi and Huawei at the medium tier price point. India is one example.
  • Alistair - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link

    So the Exynos 9611 is basically identical to last year's 9610 sadly. They really should have upped the A51 to the Snapdragon 730. Seems like I'll be buying a Xiaomi 10T or whatever it is called at this rate. My flagship phone has horrible battery life so I'd rather get a cheaper phone I can toss to a friend after a year and get my battery life back.
  • milkywayer - Tuesday, December 17, 2019 - link

    I'd get a Pixel4a when it's out. My wife's 3a is so light and good for the 350 we paid compared to my pixel 4 XL. Which is twice as heavy Caz some idiot exec at Google thought the back needs to be all glass to feel "premium* when 99 percent of these get put into a case on day 1.
  • Death666Angel - Tuesday, December 17, 2019 - link

    The Pixel line needs slimmer bezels to be considered for anything in my household.
  • chucky2 - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link

    A US version of the A40 would be much more useful. After slapping on the obligatory protective case that actually, protects, that is already a large phone to have in pocket. A Samsung version of the Pixel 3a...
  • Holliday75 - Tuesday, December 17, 2019 - link

    Phone sizes are getting ridiculous. That phone is larger than the girl. How are we supposed to carry this thing around?
  • GreenReaper - Tuesday, December 17, 2019 - link

    Maybe girls are just smaller in Korea?
  • yetanotherhuman - Wednesday, December 18, 2019 - link

    I agree
  • sayed - Sunday, December 22, 2019 - link

    you forgot tape in camera can be watching anyone stalk to me im scard for that time!

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