Samsung Galaxy A73 5G Review — A good phone dwarfed by its own sibling

• Samsung Galaxy A73 5G runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset
• The smartphone promises 4 years of Android updates
• Samsung does not provide a charger in the box with Galaxy A73 5G

The Samsung Galaxy A73 5G was launched in India in late March. It’s the top-of-the-line device in Samsung’s A-series portfolio. It packs respectable specs for a mid-range smartphone and a design familiar to the brand’s flagship, making one curious. It lands in a very competitive market where Chinese counterparts offer more powerful internals and some additional features.

While the phone in itself is a good overall package in terms of performance, display and battery, it lacks in some critical areas. One of them is slow charging and no charging brick in the box. While in the same segment, the competitors are now offering 150W charing with charger in the box. So what makes it worthy for your attention? Let’s find out the details in the review.

Price
Samsung Galaxy A73 5G starts at a price of ₹41,999 for the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant. With an additional ₹3000, you can upgrade the storage to 256GB at ₹44,999.

Galaxy A73 5G Design & Build Quality -
Same old. Similar to other models under the A-series, Samsung brings the Galaxy A73 with a similar design and material. The only contrasting difference from its predecessor is the color of the unit. Pleasing to the eye, the mint on this one looks exquisite. The Galaxy A73 comes in 3 colors - mint, grey and white.

The build quality and material used are premium even though the phone comes with a more durable plastic body and aluminum framing. But some buyers who are into aesthetics might be disappointed with this. Considering the competition like the Mi 11X has a better-looking glass sandwich design in the same price range. Although beyond that, Galaxy A73 comes with IP67 water and dust resistant rating which adds more value.

The Galaxy A73 5G carries a 5000 mAh battery, still Samsung has done a commendable job at keep the weight at 181 grams. The weight distribution is also commendable on this one, and it’s easy to use even with just one hand.

Other design aspects are what you expect from a Samsung Galaxy. On the right side, we get to see volume rockers and a power lock & unlock button. The USB Type-C charging port and speaker grill are at the bottom.

The SIM card slot is a hybrid one that can support either 2 nano sims or a nano sim and a microSD card.

Galaxy A73 5G Display
The Galaxy A73 5G features a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display with 1080x2400 pixels resolution. With very thin bezels and a punch hole set-up, this is a repetition of sorts by the brand. I understand the “if not broken why fix it” mindset, but sometimes it’s important for differentiation. For example, the Galaxy A53 and A73 look identical in terms of design and even the display. A casual buyer going for a Samsung device might get confused in this situation. Even though the A73 has better specs than the A53.

Speaking in terms of the quality, the colors look realistic and don't seem to disappoint. There is no oversaturation and the skin tones are mostly accurate. This is across platforms, be it content on OTT apps or Youtube. The display is also well lit with a peak brightness of 800 Nits and it is easily visible under direct sunlight. The screen is also protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 5, which means it won’t get scratched as easily.

It also offers a screen refresh rate of 120Hz. Enriching the experience with smooth visuals while you're playing any media file or scrolling through a web page.

It has a stereo speaker setup that supports Dolby Atmos and it does justice to watching content without a pair of external audio devices. The audio output is sufficiently loud and you can count on it for binge-watching a show or a movie.

Galaxy A73 5G UI
Galaxy A73 5G runs on One UI from Samsung which is both efficient and stable. It only gets distressing with the clutter of bloatware packed in. Falling short of expectation, Samsung does include third party apps which disapprove of the price this device comes at. Apps like Byjus, Josh, Mx Takatak, Moj, and even share chat are pre-installed. As is the case with other devices they can be uninstalled.

Here the One UI skin is paired with Android 11. With familiar animation and app icon designs, you won’t really feel a difference if you are coming from a Samsung phone. Familiarity also means the convenience of generic Samsung features like a lift to wake, navigation gesture switch, and one-handed mode. Another important factor to consider is how Samsung has promised 4 years worth of Android updates on the Galaxy A73 5G.

One UI puts me in a tough spot, if you are a Samsung user who wants stability and no major changes then it will be fine for you. If you are a Samsung user who wants to experiment then it limits your endeavor. If you are using some other device and want to switch to Samsung, then you will be impressed.

The privacy aspect-
The Galaxy A73 is protected with Samsung's Knox security which protects your phone against unfortunate intrusions by enabling you to shift your essential files and apps to a secure folder.

Samsung provides you with an in-screen fingerprint sensor and face unlock feature on the Galaxy A73 5G. The fingerprint sensor is snappy and unlocks the phone in a snap, but the case is not favorable for the face unlock. Since the phone relies just on the front camera to apply this safety net, it fails in dark environments and gives up completely if you are wearing a mask.

Galaxy A73 5G Performance
Samsung Galaxy A73 5G is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset, which breezes through any task thrown at it.

Performance-wise, the Galaxy A73 5G provides a consistent result across activities. From binge-watching content or basic everyday tasks like web surfing, using multiple apps are carried out smoothly.

Moving to the gaming performance, this chipset is a beast. Booting up speeds were fiery, this is despite opening multiple games one after the other without clearing the memory. I ran the tests with BGMI and Genshin Impact. Running BGMI with extreme FPS, I faced no lags whatsoever. The game ran smoothly and the overall performance was enjoyable. Yes, the phone does warm up after about half an hour of usage, but nothing that will bother you enough to keep it aside.

The memory management is passable, as I witnessed it booting games after a few hours from where I left them. Multiple apps running in the background do not affect the speed or hinder the performance. The variant with me comes with 8GB RAM which I found sufficient. As for storage, the 128GB internal capacity will be enough for most of the users, but in case you still want more, you can upgrade to 256GB variant or pop in a microSD card.

In the battery department, the 5000 mAh cell lasts well over a day for a light user. This involves mostly calling messaging and casual social media.

For a heavy user like me, mileage does take a dip. After a long day of testing, the phone would stand at a solid 10%.

Since we don’t get a charger in the box, finding the right brick is important. The Galaxy A73 supports 25W fast charging, so the usual Samsung wall adapter worked for me. I used the 20W Samsung brick and the phone charged from 10-100% in about 1 hour 20 minutes.

Galaxy A73 5G Camera.
The Galaxy A73 5G has a quad camera set-up at the back featuring a 108MP primary sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide sensor, a 5MP macro sensor and a 5MP depth sensor.

The primary sensor performs fairly well in bright outdoor environments with crisp images and commendable color reproduction. The image quality is clean and does not look burnt out even in extreme situations.

With a dedicated depth sensor onboard, the portrait shots look clean and easily worthy for your social media feed. The edge detection is impressive and the results should make you happy.

The Optical image stabilization feature on the camera helps to create a stable frame and catch the action without losing details.

The ultra-wide sensor performs its job well and creates more room for you to capture great landscapes. With 10X digital zoom, you can also close up on your subject however you will be compromising on details. The pictures do get grainy but that’s what you can expect when dealing with a digital zoom set-up.

The macro sensor is surprisingly good as well. The pictures taken in landscape mode worked better for me, since the edge detection was better.

Camera performance in low light conditions falters a bit. Without turning on the night mode, the camera performance dips significantly. The images while being well exposed, lacked sharpness. Night mode does improve the results by managing the shadows well, but the overall performance is still underwhelming.

The front camera is an 8MP shooter and gives you an option to go wide as well. The image results are decent.

Video performance is just about okay for casual shooting, but if you are a content creator then this is not the device for you. Especially if you are a vlogger. You can’t rely on the microphone to record clear audio especially outdoors with background noise.

Samsung is playing big on the fun mode with Galaxy A73 5G. The fun mode integrates Snapchat’s filters into the camera itself. This does add a fun element to the user experience but you need internet access for it to work. While I am not a big fan of this feature, I am sure it will appeal to a large set of users.

Verdict
Samsung Galaxy A73 5G finds itself on a tough wicket. Even with every possible feature that you look for in a device in 2022, it’s the price that holds me back from recommending it. Yes, there are options like Xiaomi 11X, and Realme GT Neo 3 which you can consider. But in this case, Samsung itself is undercutting the device with its portfolio. If you want the standard Samsung experience, you can consider Galaxy A53 5G which delivers practically the same performance at a lower price point.

If you want to go high-end you can also consider the S20 FE 5G currently offered at a starting price of ₹34,999. A semi-flagship smartphone from 2020 with better specs and A CHARGER.
See also -
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Sony PS5 will be up for pre-booking in India on May 13: Where, how to buy