Samsung has refreshed its Galaxy A series smartphone lineup. The new Galaxy Ax5 devices that have already been unveiled globally are also now available for purchase in the country.
These included the Galaxy A05, A15 and A25 smartphones which are targeted at the lower rungs of the smartphone market when compared to what we also expect to see from the yet-to-be-released Galaxy A35, A55 and A75.
However, pricing for the devices reveals that buyers will have to dig deeper into their pockets to afford them.
Galaxy A25
The Galaxy A25, for instance, is going for a whopping Kshs 50,000 for the top-spec model with 8 GB RAM and 256GB storage, a far cry from the sub-Kshs 20,000 pricing of its great ancestor the Galaxy A20 when it launched in the country 5 years ago and almost the price of the Galaxy A34 from last year if one opts for the 6GB RAM variant with 128GB internal storage.
Of course, the Galaxy A25 and all the other Galaxy A series smartphones that Samsung has announced today that are available locally feature lots of advancements, compared to what was there in 2019 or even last year.
For instance, the Galaxy A25 has a camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), a feature that was, previously, a preserve for Samsung smartphones up the ladder and only cascaded to this level as recent as last year.
It also has a Super AMOLED display panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, something that was capped at 90Hz last year. Then there’s the inflation that has gone through the roof and the currency exchange rate is also something else so there are many factors to be considered if the pricing is to be looked at and dissected fairly.
The Galaxy A25’s expansive 6.5-inch Full HD+ display panel promises better clarity outdoors thanks to the “Vision Booster” feature. It has a 13-megapixel camera on the front and a tri-camera setup at the back comprising a hero 50-megapixel sensor, an 8-megapixel ultrawide (a minor bump from the 5MP unit on the A24 last year) and a 2-megapixel macro lens.
With the Galaxy Ax5 series, Samsung is bringing 5G network access to more devices, at least as far as those it makes available in the country goes since it has been doing this for a minute. For instance, both the Galaxy A15 and Galaxy A25 arrive with ready access to 5G networks, while the Galaxy A05 and its variant the A05s hold the LTE forte. That, and other factors like those mentioned above, are probably the reason why the Galaxy A15 is priced higher than its predecessor.
Galaxy A15
The Galaxy A15 gets lots of the features of the A25 like the 50-megapixel sensor and the Vision Booster while missing out on the specifics of those features in order to create the distinction needed between the two as well as the lower price point it needs to justify its existence.
For instance, while it keeps that tri-camera setup, the hero sensor misses out on the OIS, the ultrawide is stepped down to 5 megapixels and the display panel gets only a 90Hz refresh rate and its brightness doesn’t go all the way to 1,000 nits (800 nits max) like the A25. It also misses out on the Dolby Atmos immersive audio that users of the Galaxy A25 will experience when that mode is turned on.
Galaxy A05 and A05s
The Galaxy A05 and the Galaxy A05s may sound like they are cut from the same cloth (and they are) when you read out their names but they do have some marked differences. Some are visible to the naked eye and others are under the hood, to be experienced only.
For instance, one can visibly see that the Galaxy A05 has only two cameras at the back while the Galaxy A05s keeps the tri-camera setup that is on the Galaxy A25 and the Galaxy A15.
While they look similar on the front, with their expansive 6.7-inch Full HD+ displays (LCD panels, no Super AMOLED), the cutout at the top where the front-facing camera is located makes all the difference. It’s the same 13-megapixel sensor that we find on the other Galaxy smartphones announced today that goes on the Galaxy A05’s cutout but it’s a whole different matter on the Galaxy A05 which gets a stepped-down 8-megapixel unit.
It’s the same matter underneath where the Galaxy A05s is powered by a Snapdragon 680 4G from Qualcomm while the Galaxy A05 makes do with a Helio G85 chipset from Taiwan-based MediaTek.
All the devices come with side-mounted fingerprint sensors.
All the devices come with a 5,000mAh battery and can be juiced up faster using a 25W adaptor that buyers will have to buy from Samsung or other parties separately as it is not included in the box.
All the devices run on Android 13 with Samsung’s One UI on top of it. The Galaxy A25 and Galaxy A15 are guaranteed at least 4 years of software updates and an extra year of security patches.
Pricing for the devices is as follows:
- Samsung Galaxy A25 5G – (8GB RAM + 256GB onboard storage) Kshs 50,000 (6GB RAM + 128GB onboard storage) Kshs 43,000
- Samsung Galaxy A15 5G – (6GB RAM) Kshs 33,000 (4GB RAM) Kshs 30,000 – both have 128GB onboard storage
- Samsung Galaxy A15 LTE – (6GB RAM) Kshs 29,000 (4GB RAM) Kshs 27,000 – both have 128GB onboard storage
- Samsung Galaxy A05s – (6GB RAM + 128GB onboard storage) Kshs 26,000 (4GB RAM + 128GB onboard storage) Kshs 24,000 (4GB RAM + 64GB onboard storage) Kshs 21,000
- Samsung Galaxy A05 – (128GB onboard storage) Kshs 19,000 (64GB onboard storage) Kshs 17,000 – both have 4GB RAM
