Samsung announces Galaxy A52, Galaxy A52 5G and Galaxy A72

2021-04-17

The new Galaxy A series started off with the entry level – the likes of the A32 and even A02 are already official, now it’s time to move up to the mid-range. Samsung unveiled the Galaxy A52 and A72 today, both focusing on fun but are also capable all-rounders.

The A52 comes in two flavors – 4G and 5G – while the A72 arrived only as a 4G phone. Let’s have a closer look at the new models.

Samsung Galaxy A52 and A52 5G

The Samsung Galaxy A52 is the smaller of the two phones. It has a flat 6.5” display and weighs in at 189grams with a battery that should last 2 days between charges.

The display is a Super AMOLED panel with 1080p+ resolution and a high refresh rate – 90Hz for the 4G model and 120Hz on the 5G version. In High Brightness Mode this panel can reach 800 nits of brightness for better visibility even in bright sunlight.

The display is protected by a sheet of Gorilla Glass 5, the rest of the phone has additional protection in place to earn it an IP67 rating (dust tight, submersion up to 1m of water for 30 minutes).

The phone’s heart is its camera. The main module features a 64MP sensor with an f/1.8 aperture. It has Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and Tetra-binning tech – Samsung’s name for Quad Bayer. With it enabled, four 0.8µm pixels are combined into one. In its default mode, the camera outputs 16MP binned photos, but you can take full resolution 64MP shots as well.

Night Mode shoots 12 frames and combines them into one bright image with little noise. The OIS helps keeps things stable while Night Mode is doing its thing. The main camera can record 4K videos at 30 fps.

Next up is the 12MP ultra-wide angle camera (123º field of view). It has an f/2.2 lens with a fixed focus. Rounding up the quartet are the 5MP macro camera and the 5MP depth sensor.

The Galaxy A52 has a 4,500mAh battery and comes with a 15W charger in the box (unlike the pricier S-series). The phone supports 25W charger too – if you have one, you can fill the battery from 0% to 50% in half an hour.

The 4G model is powered by a Snapdragon 720G chipset, the 5G one gets the Snapdragon 750G instead. The CPU cores in the 750G are one generation newer and the Adreno GPU is slightly beefier (plus the display driver supports 120Hz refresh rate). Both are 8 nm chips.

If you pick the 4G model, you will get 4GB of RAM as standard, but can go up to 6GB and 8GB. The 5G model drops the 4GB option, there you can choose between 6GB and 8GB. Either way, base storage is 128GB and you can go up to 256GB if you want, but keep in mind that there’s a microSD slot available if you don’t need fast storage.

The A52 runs One UI 3.1 built on top of Android 11 out of the box and packs the Knox suite of security features. The 32MP selfie camera can be used for face unlock or you can use the in-display fingerprint reader instead.

The phone has a decent set of multimedia features, starting with the basics – a 3.5mm headphone jack and stereo speakers. The speakers are backed by Dolby Atmos support, including a special “Dolby Atmos for gaming” mode.

The Samsung Galaxy A52 and A52 5G will be available soon in Black, Violet, White and Blue. The 4G version starts at €350, the 5G model can be yours for €430/£400. The A52 5G model is already on sale in the UK, you can find it on Samsung.com.

Samsung Galaxy A72

The Samsung Galaxy A72 is a tad larger with a 6.7” display and a 5,000mAh battery. However, the extra size doesn’t add much weight – the phone weighs 203g.

There’s no 5G version of the A72, at least not yet. This means you get hardware similar to the 4G version of the A52, including the Snapdragon 720G chipset.

The Super AMOLED display has a 1080p+ resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate. High Brightness Mode is available here too, for those situations that need 800 nits of brightness. There’s an in-display fingerprint reader as well as a 2MP front-facing camera.

The A72 gets an upgraded camera with a 3x telephoto lens. It has an 8 MP sensor, f/2.4 aperture and OIS. The remaining cameras are the same – 64MP main, 12MP ultrawide and 5MP macro (the depth sensor is gone, but we doubt many will miss its presence).

The phone has an IP67 rating, just like its smaller sibling. Both phones have advanced Bluetooth that allows you to connect two wireless headsets simultaneously, if you’re listening solo you can plug in headphones into the 3.5 mm jack. And don’t forget the Dolby Atmos-enabled stereo speakers.

The extra battery capacity on the A72 helps offset the extra power draw of the larger display. You’re still looking at 2-day battery life and 25W fast charging support.

The A52 and A72 are launching with One UI 3.1 and as with other Samsung phones they will receive security updates for 4 years and three major OS updates.

The Samsung Galaxy A72 will be available soon, starting at €450/£420. This is for the 6/128GB model, you can also go for the an 8/256GB option (as a reminder, there’s a microSD slot available). Check it out on Samsung.com.

Russia is getting only the 4G versions of the A52 and A72, both phones are already available through the official site. The Galaxy A52 starts at RUB 27,000, the Galaxy A72 at RUB 36,000.