When Samsung refreshed the Galaxy A series, we have the Galaxy A73 5G too. The new Galaxy A73 5G is obviously the successor to one of my favorite smartphones of 2021, the Galaxy A72. So what’s new and what’s good? Let’s find out in today’s review.
Design
One of the best things that I like about the Galaxy A73 5G is the design. While it sure looks like last year’s design, there are a lot of design refinements that make it look and feel more inviting. I really like the return of some of my favorite colors from the past – and this Mint color is exclusively only for the Galaxy A73 – and I truly love this color.
The camera bump is once again made into a slope that gradually rises from the back panel of the phone – and I just think it looks very elegant.
Cameras
And comes the cameras. The Galaxy A73 5G comes with a total of 4 cameras, but only two of them are usable to take pictures since the depth sensor and the 2MP macro cameras just shouldn’t exist. The main highlight here though, is that 108MP sensor for the main camera.
To have a look at all the pictures taken with the Samsung Galaxy A73 5G, watch our video at the top of this review. For all I can summarize for you, the 108MP sensor on main camera actually shows good result. Good job there, Samsung.
However, Samsung removed the telephoto camera. You see, the Galaxy A72 from last year had a 3x optical zoom camera. For some reason, they removed it on the Galaxy A73, and touted that the 108MP main camera is good enough to do hybrid zooming. And yea… by doing a quick comparison, nothing beats the real 3x optical zoom.
Display
The Galaxy A73 5G is using a flat 6.8-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen which is definitely better for screen protector – and it has a resolution of 2400×1080 pixels with refresh rate of up to 120Hz. Rather huge, IMO. Also, there is no factory-applied screen protector, so be careful with the device when you unbox it.
The display looks truly nice but don’t take our word for it – we took out our colorimeter and did the color accuracy test too. At 100 nits of brightness, this display can cover 99.70% or sRGB and 98.50% of DCI-P3 color gamuts, while retaining a low Delta E number – and that just means this display is really good.
But for the maximum brightness though, it’s not exactly the best. It can only reach bout 400 nits of average brightness at max and that means you’ll need to be under the shade during an extremely sunny day to see the screen.
Before we proceed…
Now though, I want to change the script a little and reel in another Samsung smartphone has a very similar spec configuration – and that is the Samsung Galaxy A52s which also has a 120Hz screen.
Performance & specs
The similarities start from the specs. Both the phones come with the same, excellent Snapdragon 778G with 8GB RAM and also 256GB of storage. In our gaming test video for the Galaxy A73 5G, the Snapdragon 778G performs magnificently well in all the games when we turned on the “alternate gaming performance mode” option.
Games like Genshin Impact at the highest graphical settings at about 30fps, and even Mobile Legends has the option to enable 120fps, and can run at 120fps consistently too.
Also, the phone doesn’t get hot as the surface temperature only got up to around 42°C. The phone is just slightly warm to the touch.
I would presume that the Galaxy A52s will also be able to perform the same when the update for the “alternate game performance management” option is available.
Battery life
Then, the battery life. They both will have more or less the same battery life. We also tested the battery life of the Galaxy A73 5G here at 100 nits of brightness running PC Mark 10, and it can reach somewhere above 10 hours only – which is not the best for a 5,000mAh battery.
I guess the power of the Snapdragon 778G is really power-hungry.
Charging speed
Now, the charging speed. The Galaxy A73 5G doesn’t come with a charger in the box, but it supports up to 25W of fast charging – just like the Galaxy A52s. With that said, the charging time is about 90 minutes to get from 15% to 100% when we used the Ugreen 100W GaN charger.
It’s more or less identical to the Galaxy A52s. However, the Galaxy A52s still comes with a 15W charger in the box – which might be a big boon for some people.
Software
And finally – the software It’s using the same Android 12 with One UI 4.1 and I do not have any complaints at all.
It’s still very good overall even though some more advanced settings are nested quite deep into some menus, like the “alternate game performance management” and also GPU Watch.
But, now I want to bring the Galaxy A52s into the conversation again. If there are so many similarities between these two phones, then why should we pick the Galaxy A73 5G? Well, that is because the software support of the Galaxy A73 5G is much better. It gets 4 generations of Android upgrades and 5 years of security patches – and that is superior to the Galaxy A52s’s policy. And that is the strength of the Galaxy A73 5G.
Conclusion
Should you buy the Galaxy A73 5G? Yes. I think the Galaxy A73 5G is still one of the best mid-range smartphones that you can buy right now. The overall experience that the Galaxy A73 5G offers is magnificent – though the price is just… kinda high at RM2,099.
I mean, you can get the Galaxy A52s at about RM1.5k from retailers at Shopee or Lazada now, but you won’t get the same software support as the Galaxy A73 5G, and I think that is one of the important factors that many people do not care about until it is too late.
Few more things before we end…
The Samsung Galaxy A73 5G still comes with IP67-rating.
This phone still has a microSD card slot, albeit a combo slot. I personally don’t use microSD card slots since a few years ago – but it’s still here if you need it.
There is no more audio jack for this generation of Galaxy A series of smartphones.
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Other reviews claim A73 5G has 800 nits of brightness.
800 nits is a lot and no way the A-series is getting that