The era of premium-priced 5G phones may finally be behind us as Samsung is set to release a refreshed line of budget A-series phones, headlined by the Samsung A13 5G.
Samsung has announced the Galaxy A13 5G, an affordable 5G phone coming to U.S. markets. The $249 handset will feature a 6.5-inch 720 x 1600 display at 90Hz, a 50MP main camera, 64GB of storage, a 5,000 mAh battery and a headphone jack. Samsung also unveiled the $159 A03s, but did not offer much additional detail about that model.
Clearly, Samsung wants to focus our attention around the A13 5G. It's a follow-up to last year's Galaxy A12, which was a 4G phone that cost $179. The A13 5G will work on AT&T and T-Mobile's sub-6GHz band.
The MediaTek Dimensity 700 chip will power the A13 5G. That's the same chip found in many international budget phones, like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G, Realme 8 5G and the Honor X20 SE.
While the 64GB of storage available on the Galaxy A13 might not sound like a lot, the phone does include a microSD card slot which lets you add up to 1TB of external storage. Unfortunately, Samsung did not unveil how much RAM the device will have.
In terms of cost, while $249 is still a great price, it is a $70 bump up from last year's A12. That's likely due to the slew of improved specs across the board, which bring the A13 5G up to be roughly on par with the OnePlus Nord N200 5G. If Samsung is able to deliver a compelling device with the A13, it may land on our best cheap phones list, which features heavy hitters like the Google Pixel 4a and the iPhone SE.
We do wish Samsung gave more detail about what to expect from its $159 A03s phone. All we know is that it's set to land in January of next year, with a long-lasting battery and triple camera setup, and it will work with AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.
Even though the A13 is more expensive than the A12, it's still pointing to an overall trend of smartphones offering more for less.
