Samsung’s cheapest Galaxy A phones are highlighted in Unpacked

Samsung tends to use its flashy Unpacked events to showcase the latest cutting-edge gadgets on its Galaxy s, Galaxy Note and Galaxy Z phone families. But it’s the company’s medium-sized A series, which last year started at $ 110, which will take center stage at its next major product event.

At 7am PT Wednesday, Samsung is ready to host its second 2021 Unpacked virtual event. Samsung called Wednesday’s event “Galaxy Awesome Unpacked” and said it will explain how it is “taking Awesome to everyone”. (Yes, incredible capital “A”). Its first Unpacked, in mid-January, marked the launch of Samsung’s top phones for the year, the Galaxy S21, S21 Plus and S21 Ultra. All comes with 5G, and devices start at $ 800, which is $ 200 less than its predecessors.

The Galaxy S may be Samsung’s most visible flagship line, and the The foldable Galaxy Z is your future, but neither offers the most popular devices that the South Korean giant sells. That title goes to the Galaxy A, which represented more than three out of four Samsung phones sold around the world last year, according to Strategy Analytics. The line’s quiet growth as a major contributor to Samsung’s sales underscores the notion that while cutting-edge specifications and cutting-edge features are good for attention and excitement, people still worry about what they’re spending on phones – especially at this time.

Samsung will bring more attention to the lineup than ever when it makes the Galaxy A the focus of Wednesday’s Unpacked. 

When Samsung first jumped into the Android market in 2010, it was with its Galaxy S devices, which propelled the Korean company to the position of world’s biggest phone vendor, a title it’s held for most of the past decade. Similarly, the Galaxy Note ignited a trend for jumbo phones and the Galaxy Fold touched off a new wave of foldables.

Generating much less fanfare is the Galaxy A lineup. The phones have been viewed as devices for people who are more price-sensitive — if anyone thought about the A Series at all. They’ve been sold internationally for years but didn’t come to the US as a full lineup until 2020.

In the past, “every time [Samsung] launched the S series, even after operator subsidies disappeared, that’s what sold, “said Strategy Analytics analyst Ken Hyers.” Things like the A series or equivalent product, were for people who didn’t have the money to pay a phone premium. “

Last year’s Galaxy A lineup included four 4G LTE phones and two 5G models. They ranged from $ 110 for the Galaxy A10 to $ 650 for the Galaxy A71 5G on the Verizon network (is $ 600 on other carriers without super-fast 5G millimeter wave connectivity). All came with some cutting edge features, although they were not as premium as the specs found on the Galaxy S, Note and foldable. And none came close to the price of Samsung’s premium phones, which started at $ 1,000 for the Galaxy S20. While the Galaxy A line may not have the flash of Samsung’s next-generation phones, what it does have are many buyers around the world.

In the United States, where there is generally a larger market for expensive phones than in many other regions, Series A shipments have surpassed those for Series S, by 26% to 19%, according to Strategy Analytics. In the fourth quarter of the year, almost half of Samsung’s phone shipments in the United States came from Series A. This included models like the $ 180 Galaxy A11, the $ 250 Galaxy A21 and the $ 500 Galaxy A51 5G .

People are increasingly choosing cheaper phones, even though they can pay for more expensive models like the Galaxy S, said Hyers of Strategy Analytics.

Today’s phone market is very different from the industry a few years ago. In the past, many consumers bought the latest and greatest at a regular two-year cadence, and Apple and Samsung made $ 1,000 the standard starting price for high-end phones. Now, people in the U.S. are happy to keep their phones for another year, and when they upgrade, they usually look for cheaper phones. Today’s conventional devices come with many state-of-the-art features – such as fast processors, large screens and multiple camera lenses – that consumers consider to be good enough, especially for the price. Samsung even reduced the starting price of its Galaxy S line by $ 200 for this year’s S21 models.

“The price of premium products has gotten out of hand with what people think is justified for a smartphone,” said Hyers. “And intermediary phones like the A51 … I don’t feel like you’re making a deal.”

Samsung declined to comment before Wednesday’s event.

The new A series

This year, Samsung should introduce the Galaxy A52 and A72 phones, successors to last year’s A51 and A71. The devices are likely to come with 4G and 5G variants immediately (last year’s 5G models arrived after 4G versions) and several improvements over older models.

The A52 is rumored to boast a bigger battery, a better processor and more RAM, while maintaining the 6.5-inch Super AMOLED screen found on the A51. And the A72 is believed to feature a new camera design, with five rear lenses, an innovation in any Samsung device. It could also become the first midsize phone with optical image stabilization to optimize photos.

Upgrading the upper end of the A-Series could have a less boost in sales of Samsung units than introducing newer cheap models. It’s the company’s cheapest Galaxy A models that have proven to be the most popular with consumers, said Mark Bachman, chief technology and telecommunications analyst at M Science. Your company monitors how well the phone models sell.

Looking at the first 20 weeks of sales for each device, the data analytics provider found that budget models, like the $ 180 Galaxy A10e and A11 or the $ 250 A20 and A21, sold in higher numbers than than the $ 500 and $ 600 A51 5Gs. A71 5G (or $ 650 at Verizon). American consumers bought almost 2.5 million units of the A11 in the first five months of sales, while they bought only about 300,000 units of the Galaxy A51 5G.

“While the launch of the A52 / A72 series updates Samsung’s mid-range offerings, we believe that these phones will have less impact on Samsung’s sales in the United States when compared to the A-series budget and premium-priced S-series devices,” said Bachman.

Still, Samsung has not yet said how much its new A-Series devices will cost. This could reduce model prices, as it cut the price of the Galaxy S.

Reaching the ‘sweet spot’

Samsung’s prominence in its cheaper phones follows a trend found throughout the mobile industry. The first 5G devices on the market in 2019 cost significantly more than their 4G counterparts. Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G both sold for $ 1,300. This represents $ 400 and $ 200 more than 4G variants, respectively.

But the coronavirus pandemic forced companies to reassess its launch plans and reduce the prices of 5G phones much more quickly than expected. In September, Samsung introduced its Galaxy S20 FE for $ 300 less than his brother S20. Then, in January, Samsung said its new Galaxy S21 models would cost $ 200 less than the previous year’s Galaxy S20. In part, this is due to falling component costs, but also to the recognition that it is increasingly difficult to convince people to shell out $ 1,000 for a phone.

The Galaxy S21 line finds “sweet spots” on the market when it comes to pricing and features, said Drew Blackard, vice president of product management at Samsung Electronics America, in an interview ahead of the January Unpacked event. And he said the bottom starting point was probably here to stay.

Galaxy A devices are even more affordable, without having to sacrifice features like strong cameras.

A new smartphone that won’t drain your bank account may be worth the effort of all that Unpacked fanfare, after all.