Samsung today announced the latest iteration of its budget Galaxy A phone line, with a slightly faster processor and…not much else. The Samsung Galaxy A27 will go on sale on July 14 in the U.S. for $349—a $50 increase from last year’s Galaxy A26.
Like the A26, the Galaxy A27 features a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The screen itself gets a nice aesthetic update, with an Infinity-O design that minimizes the hole-punch selfie camera. Samsung says the bezel is “reduced and more balanced,” with a 7.8mm body (a bit thicker than the A26’s body). Other specs, like 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, plus a 5,000mAh battery, remain unchanged from last year’s model.
The only major upgrade here is the Galaxy A27’s Snapdragon Gen 3 chipset, a significant jump from the A26’s Exynos 1380. The A27 should certainly be snappier for everyday use. Like its predecessor, the A27 offers a watered-down version of Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite called “Awesome Intelligence,” with features like Circle to Search with Google and Object Eraser for photo editing, alongside some Bixby support.
But the A27’s camera array is actually a downgrade from the A26’s; that alone may make it difficult to justify the $50 higher price point. The A27 has a 12-megapixel front-facing camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 5-megapixel ultra-wide camera—all just a bit lower resolution than those on the A26.
These lower specs, along with a slightly lower IP64 rating (last year’s was IP67), also make the A27 less compelling. The price increase is likely by no fault of Samsung: consumer tech pricing has been up across the board, with companies like Apple hiking prices across nearly their entire product lineups.
The A27 will face steep competition in the budget phone market, too, with newer heavy hitters like Nothing’s upcoming Phone 4b offering strong alternatives.
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