Samsung is among the most sought after smartphone brands in India, and for good reason. The company has several balls in the air and between the affordable M-series, the premium A-series and the flagship S and Z range of smartphones, the brand launches more phones than one can count on both hands every year. Unsurprisingly, the company has amassed a loyal fan base in India and the brand hopes to sway even more users to its doorsteps with the all-new Samsung Galaxy A73 5G, which offers an impressive camera stack, among other things. I managed to get my hands on a unit and here’s what I make of it.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy A73 5G is a fairly well-rounded phone. Provided you can look past the handset’s gaming chops, the device will not disappoint you.
The lowdown
There is no mistaking the Galaxy A73 5G for anything but a Samsung phone. The company has stuck with the “if it ain’t broke” philosophy and as a result, has stylised the smartphone in a similar fashion as its predecessor(s). Correspondingly, the Galaxy A73 5G also utilise a polycarbonate build which, during my stint with the phone, felt fairly robust and sturdy. And, although the design doesn’t feel as luxurious as competing glass-back devices like the iQOO 9 (review) or the OnePlus 9RT (review), the Galaxy A73 5G cuts a handsome package nonetheless.
To wit, the device is available in a slew of eye-catchy colours, including a pastel mint hue that looks riveting, to say the least. The brand has also revamped the camera module to make the Galaxy A73 5G stand out from other A-series phones. In fact, you’ll notice that, unlike the Galaxy A72’s camera array, the one on the Galaxy A73 5G sits more elegantly on the phone’s back. Add to that the handset’s colour-matched frame and the Galaxy A73 5G will undoubtedly get its fair share of compliments every time you take it out of your pocket.
I should add that the Samsung Galaxy A73 5G ships with IP67 certification, which is somewhat of a rarity on phones priced under Rs 50K. Furthermore, the handset’s display is layered with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5 too, which should keep scratches and scuffs at bay. And, while the phone towers over most devices in its price segment, the handset is reasonably sleek and lightweight at 181 grams. So much so, that I could comfortably use the device with just one hand after spending some time with it. Moving on, the phone ships with a speedy in-display fingerprint sensor, which works in tandem with the smartphone’s convenient albeit a tad finicky facial recognition tech.
Thankfully, the smartphone ships with a gorgeous screen that will greatly elevate your movie-watching experience. Spec-wise, the panel measures in at 6.7-inches, offers FHD+ resolution and is backed by Super AMOLED Plus technology. The display is of the flat variety too, so you won’t have to contend with colour distortion or accidental touches either. The icing on the cake is that the device offers a snappy refresh rate of 120Hz, meaning the phone doesn’t just render in-app animations smoothly, but it can also make the most of games like Alto’s Odyssey, which run at 120FPS.
That’s not all, as the panel gets plenty bright at 800 nits too, and you can even stream HDR content on the phone via OTT services like Netflix. All said and done, buyers eyeing the Samsung Galaxy A73 5G will not be disappointed with the phone’s screen.
GMI
Samsung Galaxy A73 5G CPU throttling test
Samsung Galaxy A73 5G disk read and write test
Samsung Galaxy A73 5G GeekB
Coming to the meat of the matter, the Samsung Galaxy A73 5G is backed by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 778G processor which works alongside LPDDR4x RAM and UFS 2.2 storage. Now, before you get your pitchforks out, allow me to clear the air around the smartphone’s performance chops. You see, the Samsung Galaxy A73 5G is not as snappy as competing SD888/888+ backed devices. Be that as it may, the smartphone is still a solid performer and you’ll only immediately benefit from an 8-series chip in the gaming department. To wit, the Samsung Galaxy A73 5G can run BGMI at HDR graphics and Ultra FPS preset, or Smooth graphics and Extreme FPS setting. On the flip side, the OnePlus 9RT, as well as the iQOO 9 — which cost the same albeit ship with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 and 888+ processors respectively — can relay the game at 60FPS with the graphics set to the HDR preset.
The scenery remains unchanged in other graphically-demanding titles like CoD Mobile and Genshin Impact too. Understandably, hardcore gamers might eschew Samsung’s latest, but that doesn’t take anything away from the fact that the device is a capable daily driver. In fact, I didn’t run into any major performance issues during my stint with the phone – apps opened swiftly, the handset could juggle between a handful of utilities simultaneously and there were no noticeable frame drops even after playing resource-hungry games like BGMI for around 45 minutes on the set. Clearly, the smartphone tackles sustained workloads admirably, which is further substantiated by the unit’s CPU throttling score wherein, the Galaxy A73 5G throttled to just 92 percent of its peak performance, which is mindboggling, to say the least. Unsurprisingly, the handset’s efficient processor contributes to the Galaxy A73 5G’s battery life too. In fact, I was able to get a full day’s use out of the phone and that’s with the display set to 120Hz. Now, you might drain the handset’s 5,000mAh quicker if you play a lot of games but, for the most part, most folks won’t get any battery anxiety with the A73 5G in their pockets.
As for software, the device boots Android 12 with a skin of OneUI v4.1 layered on top. The interface is chockablock with interesting features and utilities, including a dedicated theme store, support for oodles of screen on and off gestures, a secure folder to keep your personal data away from prying eyes and much more. That said, I am not the biggest fan of the bloatware and duplicate apps that come bundled with most Samsung phones. On the bright side, most of the third-party apps can be uninstalled from the set, and the device will be eligible for four years of OS upgrades as well, which is great.
Samsung has pulled out all stops for the Galaxy A73 5G in the camera department. In fact, the smartphone is the first Galaxy A-series phone to ship with a 108MP primary camera. The auxiliary sensors include a 12MP ultrawide angle shooter, a 5MP depth camera, a 5MP macro camera and a 32MP selfie camera. I should also point out that the device supports OIS as well, meaning you should be able to shoot buttery-smooth videos via the A73 5G’s main sensor.
The handset’s ultrawide angle sensor, on the other hand, clicked excellent photos with a wide field of view. Now, it’s quite common for a phone’s assisting sensor to introduce noise in the frame, even during the day. While the Galaxy A73 5G is no exception to the rule, I am glad the device kept grainy-ness in the stills in check. And, you should know that the sensor reciprocates colours more authentically too. Moving on, the smartphone’s macro sensor can snap fantastic closeups with excellent details as well, however, I’d advise buyers with a knack for photomicrography to check out devices with a MicroLens too, as they allow users to edge much closer to the subject.
The Samsung Galaxy A73 5G doesn’t disappoint in the selfie department either. For one, the device can squeeze out a ton of information, thanks to its 32MP sensor. Furthermore, you can disable all the beautification and skin-softening features to snap a realistic photo too. Now, do note that the subject’s skin tone sways in favour of slightly warmer tones but the snaps are replete with excellent facial details. The scenery remains unchanged when clicking portrait selfies with the device too and be it the bokeh effect around a subject’s face, or the overall sharpness of the composition, you will find plenty to like about the photos snapped from the Galaxy A73 5G’s front camera.
Finally, let’s talk about the lowlight snaps shot from the phone. Now, much like most other devices, the Samsung Galaxy A73 5G also ships with a dedicated night mode that can bring out a tad more detail in any given shot. That said, I noticed that the sensor struggled with highlight clipping from bright sources of light, like a street lamp. On the other hand, the photos had minimal noise in the frame, and the images were reasonably sharp too.
Final verdict
The Samsung Galaxy A73 5G starts at Rs 41,999 and for the price, gets more than a few things right. For one, the device is among the rare breed of Android phones priced under Rs 50K to ship with an IP rating. Furthermore, the device looks good too and is relatively lightweight as well. More importantly, the handset ships with a capable processor that can not just tackle everyday tasks without breaking a sweat, but can also run games at respectable graphics settings.
Editor’s rating: 3.5 / 5
Pros:
- Stunning display
- IP67 rated
- Capable performer
- Good camera-phone
- Longevous software update roadmap
Cons:
- Slow charging speeds
- Expensive
- Not as fast as the competition
Where the phone falls behind is with charging speeds compared to other phones- it only supports 25 Watts charging and you’ll have to buy a charger separately as Samsung doesn't bundle one in the box.
Galaxy A73 5G - UAE pricing and availability
The Galaxy A73 5G is now available in the UAE in mint, grey and white colors for a price ranging from AED 1,515 to AED 1,600.
Considering the specs such as the 108 MP camera sensor and the Snapdragon 778 5G chipset with the excellent AMOLED 120Hz screen, the Galaxy A73 5G is prices exceptionally well. It’s easily a phone we would recommend to anyone.
Design
The Samsung Galaxy A73 5G is made entirely of plastic, as it’s the case with most Galaxy A series phones. The back of the phone comes in a matte plastic that prevents getting any fingerprints stuck on it. However, the sideband is made of shiny plastic that feels a little bit cheap.
With a thickness of only 7.6 mm, the Samsung Galaxy A73 5G is fairly impressive given the big battery it contains. Samsung has also done a really good job in hiding the camera bump that comes slightly thicker than the phone. With the smooth edges, the phone feels thinner in your hand than it actually is.
At just 180 grams, the Samsung Galaxy A73 5G is also easy on your hands even when used all day long.
The button layout on the Galaxy A73 5G is standard with what you’d find in most phones these days. The power and volume buttons are on the right-hand side of the phone and feel nice with a solid clicky feeling to them. The only thing we didn't like is that the back of the phone feels a little hollow when you press on it.
The Samsung Galaxy A73 5G comes with a trusty IP67 dust/water resistant rating which means you’re safe to use it around water as it can withstand a dip in the water. You don't see IP ratings on mid-range phones and we really like that Samsung is pushing this segment with the Galaxy A73 5G.
- Design Score - 4/5
Display
With an AMOLED display that Samsung has perfected over the years, the Galaxy A73 5G gives you a very pleasant viewing experience. With a pixel density of 393 and a screen size of 6.7 inches, the phone is a joy to consume media, play games and surf social media.
The display’s design is nice and flat with nearly symmetrical bezels, The selfie camera’s punch hole is a bit wider than usual, however you get used to it easily.
Even though the display doesn’t support the higher 144Hz refresh rate that has made its way to some other mid-rangers such as Motorola Edge 30 and the Poco X4 GT 5G, we found the 120Hz refresh rate to be very smooth. The Snapdragon processor equipped on the Galaxy A73 5G coped up perfectly with no signs of sluggish performance or low frame rates.
The color reproduction in this display is nice buy a little bit oversaturated as is usual with all Samsung phones. The extra saturation makes the color pop and feel more punchy.
Outdoor viewability is great with this phone as it reaches up to 800 nits in HBM (High brightness mode) and we didn’t have any problem using the phone in direct sunlight.
- Display Score - 4/5
Camera
Samsung went all out with the quad-camera setup on the Galaxy A73 5G that's highlighted up with the 108MP flagship sensor and accompanied by a 12 MP ultrawide lens as well as a pair of 2 MP lenses that are used for zooming and macro.
The phone is capable of producing beautiful shots in well-lit environments as well as night shots. The phone uses pixel binning to take 9MP shots as standard, however you have access to a 108MP mode which is useful in zooming in and capturing more details.
Shutter lag on this phone is barely noticeable and we found it quite snappy to capture shots right away in well-lit scenes. It does took a little longer in night time or dimly lit scenes as the shutter needed to capture more light to the camera.
Thanks to both optical and electrical image stabilization, this phone produced some of the best night shots we’ve seen that blow all of the other mid-range phones out of the water. Even the video quality in low light was pretty good and usable.
Using the ultrawide lens was also a pleasant experience with the high fidelity camera that produces well-balanced pictures with good sharpness and colour reproduction.
With a 32 MP selfie snapper, the selfie shots come out with really good details and quality that approaches flagship cameras.
The TLDR of the camera’s on the Galaxy A73 5G is the best camera phone in any mid-range phones we’ve got our hands-on.
- Camera Score - 5/5
Performance and software
Using the Snapdragon 778 SoC paired with an 8GB of RAM, the Samsung Galaxy A73 5G is smooth. Samsung has done a good job optimizing One UI 4.1 that now gives you the option to opt out of installing third-party apps and not force them on you.
Even though the screen isn't the fastest we've seen on a mid-range, the 120Hz display here is good enough for gaming and other tasks. The Qualcomm SoC keeps up in providing the phone with a stable supply of frames to make the most out of the 120Hz display.
Using the phone in multitasking, gaming and other heavy demanding scenarios we didn't notice any signs of slowing down or sluggishness with the phone.
There are a lot of customization options available through the system to tweak the phone to your liking. The Always-on-display on Samsung’s phones, is one of the best experiences with many customizations and useful info you can find glancing on the phone.
- Performance Score - 4/5
Battery life and charging
Samsung has decided on ditching the bundled chargers which is good for the environment and makes sense on higher-end phones where its customers can easily afford buying an additional charger.
We're not sure if that idea works on mid-range on budget phones as the target for these phones are consumers looking to save money. Inside the box, you only get documentation, a sim card remover tool, and a charging cable only.
On the bright side, the phone has an excellent 5,000 mAh battery that has an impressive life. We didn’t hold back on turning the high refresh rate along with the always-on-display and we still couldn't drain the battery after a full day of usage. Dialing down the screen refresh rate and with moderate usage, you should easily get two days of battery life out of this phone.
While that large battery sounds great, it's not all rainbows and unicorns as you’d be surprised on how much time it takes to fully charge this phone. The Galaxy A73 5G has a maximum charging speed of 25 watts which takes a while to juice the phone up. It took the phone close to an hour and half to fully charge which is not the worst thing but it could be much better.
Samsung has lagged behind when it comes to fast charging since the infamous Note 7 incident and has been really conservative to use fast chargers. The Korean giant really needs to step up their game with faster chargers as we see other companies are now supporting charging speeds upwards of 100 watts.
Needless to say that this phone doesn’t support wireless charging and you’ll have to settle for wired charging only to charge it.
- Battery and charging Score - 3/5
Should I buy a Galaxy A73 5G?
