Samsung today announced the Galaxy A42, another 5G phone to join its slate. This one is priced lower than most of its efforts at £349 ($450). and will sit below the A51 5G and the A71 5G. It’ll fo on sale from November 6 in the UK.
As far as specs go, the 5G is enabled by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 750G, a SOC that’s more powerful than the 730 but below the 765G found in phones like the Pixel 5. It’s backed by 4GB of RAM with 128GB of storage (Samsung offers microSD support.) It’s a fairly large screened phone with a 6.6-inch FHD+ Infinity-U display, and it has a 5,000 mAh battery with fast-charging. It comes in three colors, Prism Dot Black, Prism Dot White, and Prism Dot Grey.
The rear is presumably what Samsung used to call “glasstic” but is merely described as a premium finish. It also has a quad-camera setup, with a 48MP main camera, an 8MP ultrawide, and two other cameras you should ignore. Round the front, you’ll find a 20MP camera for video calls and selfies.
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James Kitto, Vice President of Sales, Samsung UK and Ireland said:
We’re excited to bring to market our latest 5G smartphone within the A-Series line-up. The Galaxy A42 5G delivers premium features and innovation, powered ready for super-fast 5G network connectivity; it is part of our ongoing commitment to deliver next-generation connectivity to more people.
The A42 may be one of the cheapest 5G phones sold in the UK so far. It’ll compete with the OnePlus Nord and Pixel 4a 5G, both of which have much higher prices and more powerful processors. It is undercut by the Moto G 5G Plus, however, although it offers a more complete hardware experience. Samsung phones are also routinely subject to price cuts, so that £349 price point may never be what reaches consumers at the end of the day.