Samsung Galaxy A73 5G

Samsung Galaxy A73 5G: One-minute review 

The Samsung Galaxy A73 5G is one of the best mid-range phones we've looked at and has the best camera phone you can find in the mid-range segment with its impressive 108MP camera sensor.

When it comes to performance, you’ll get a capable Snapdragon 778 5G processor that’s more than capable of handling gaming and other heavy tasks. Samsung’s efforts in de-bloating One UI also have a hand as well in keeping the phone as fast as possible.

In addition to the high-performing chipset, you will also get a fantastic screen with good color reproduction and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate that will give you a pleasant experience in gaming and scrolling through web pages.

With a 108 MP main camera and 50 MP ultra-wide, you’ll be able to capture great shots in different lighting conditions, the camera’s prowess in this phone is really fantastic.

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. 

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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.

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• 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?

Buy it if ...

Don't buy it if ...