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Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – Flagship-like Midranger
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Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – Flagship-like Midranger

by April 29, 2022
Overview
Highlights

The Samsung Galaxy A73 is one of three recent midrange smartphones launched in 2022, with features and performance that can put up a good fight against some flagship devices. Is it worth your money? Let's find out.

Warranty

1-year

Price

RM2,099

Positives

+ Guaranteed 4 major OS upgrades 5 years of security patches
+ Surprisingly solid overall performance
+ Lengthy battery life
+ No thermal issues
+ Punchy, colourful display with 120Hz refresh rate and Gorilla Glass 5
+ IP67
+ Fast and accurate under-display fingerprint scanner
+ Excellent value-for-money proposition
+ Expandable memory via Virtual RAM and microSD

Negatives

- Fast charging is only 25W, no charger included
- Full charge does take some time
- Display bezels could be smaller
- Subpar ultrawide and macro camera performance

Pokde Scoreboard
Pokde Rating
Appearance
8.5
Efficiency
8.0
Features
7.5
Materials
7.0
Performance
7.5
Portability
8.0
User Experience
8.0
Value
8.5
Bottom Line

The Samsung Galaxy A73 is an excellent midrange smartphone with strong overall performance, great for everyday use without breaking the bank.

7.9
Pokde Rating
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15%
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Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy A73

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – Box

The Samsung Galaxy A73 comes in your standard white box that looks pretty much the same as previous Galaxy A devices. The key difference here is that it’s noticeably thinner, and I’m sure you know what that means. If not, you will find out in just a bit.

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Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – Box content

Inside the box, you can find the following items:

  • Quick start guide
  • Warranty card
  • Samsung Pay leaflet
  • USB-C to USB-C cable
  • SIM ejector tool
  • The Samsung Galaxy A73 smartphone itself

Appearance

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Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – Front

The Samsung Galaxy A73 doesn’t look much different from previous iterations of the Galaxy A series. In fact, it looks very similar to its brethren, the Galaxy A53, that most people tend to confuse between the two. On the front, you have a sizable 6.7-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-O display with 120Hz refresh rate support. The bezels are on the thicker side given today’s standards but it’s still within acceptable levels. It’s worth noting that the selfie camera does look rather big here.

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – Sides

There’s nothing to be found on the left side but on the right, you can find the volume rockers and power button. Moving over to the top, you can find the SIM tray and microphone hole. Finally on the bottom, you have another microphone hole, the USB-C port, and a speaker grille. In case you’re wondering, it is a stereo speaker setup, with the earpiece acting as the secondary speaker.

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Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – Rear

Flipping it over to the rear and you can see that we received the Mint colour variant for our review unit. The rear here is essentially plastic, or “glasstic” as it’s often called, which merges into the metallic housing, giving it a light yet more premium feel. The quad-camera setup can be found on the top-left corner, all sitting in a single housing as opposed to sticking out individually like the Galaxy S22 series. The camera bump has a rounded finish, blending in with the device itself. I’m a bigger fan of the contour-cut housing but this one is decent at least.

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy A73 is certainly an attractive smartphone, especially a midrange one, but how well it appeals to you will be dependent on whether you like the colour. Subjectively, Mint looks the best for me but you may prefer it’s other options instead; Black, White, Blue, and Peach. It’s certainly built well, with an IP67 rating, and I’m sure no one would have any complaints about it.

Specifications

Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G
1 x Kryo 670 Prime @ 2.4GHz + 3 x Kryo 670 Gold @ 2.2GHz + 6 x Kryo 670 Silver @1.9GHz
6nm
GPU Adreno 642L
RAM 8GB
Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz and 5GHz)
Bluetooth 5.1
USB Type-C
GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo
NFC
5G
Storage 256GB UFS 2.1
Up to 1TB expandable storage (MicroSD)
Display 6.7″ FHD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-O Display
Up to 120Hz Refresh Rate
Rear Camera 108MP f/1.8 wide angle camera, OIS AF
12MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera
5MP f/2.4 macro, fixed focus
5MP f/2.4 depth
Selfie Camera 32MP f/2.2 wide-angle selfie cam, HDR
Battery 5000mAh
25W Fast Charging
OS One UI 4.1
Android 12
Ingress Protection IP67
Dimensions 163.7 x 76.1 x 7.6 mm, 181g
Colours Black, White, Blue, Peach, Mint

Performance

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – Antutu v9

Kicking off our benchmark suite with Antutu v9, the Samsung Galaxy A73 had a strong showing surpassing older flagship chips and not being too far off from last year’s one, the Snapdragon 888. The CPU power is certainly quite strong here.

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – Geekbench 5

As for Geekbench 5, it looks to be closing the gap with the Snapdragon 888, being marginally lesser in single core performance. It’s no surprise that multi-core performance has a more substantial difference, but it’s certainly not world’s apart.

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – 3DMark

When you take graphical performance into account, that’s when you know that the Snapdragon 778G powering the Samsung Galaxy A73 is a midrange device. It’s not bad but the flagships easily outclass it across all three tests within 3DMark. It’s certainly not bad, just a matter of how much power you need.

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – PCMark

Moving on to PCMark, the Samsung Galaxy A73 had a surprisingly high score, easily surpassing the 10,000 milestone and some flagship devices. This is where its practical value shines as it indicates how well the device can perform for day-to-day use.

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review

Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – Battery endurance test

For those of you who are wondering about battery life, the Samsung Galaxy A73 managed to last 767 minutes in the PCMark Work 3.0 endurance test at 60Hz refresh rate. At 120Hz, it gets noticeably lower, at just 598 minutes. As for daily use, it’s actually pretty good as I can easily get a day and a half to 2 days of light to medium use. If you are constantly gaming or doing video calls, it will drop considerably so your experience may vary here.

As for charging speed, the Samsung Galaxy A73 has support for 25W charging speed. From 1% battery, I get the following results:

  • 15 minutes = 21%
  • 30 minutes = 39%
  • 45 minutes = 59%
  • 1 hour = 74%
  • Full charge = 1 hour 28 minutes

User Experience

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Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – Display

The Samsung Galaxy A73 uses a 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-O display with 120Hz refresh rate support. It has the biggest screen among its brethren, the Galaxy A53 and A33. You get punchy, vibrant colours with adequate brightness, up to 800 nits. You would certainly have no problems using this outdoors under sunlight, and it’s pleasing to the eyes as well. It doesn’t have adaptive refresh rate, so the 120Hz setting will give you buttery smooth visuals at a hefty cost of battery life. For protection, it uses Gorilla Glass 5, which offers good scratch resistance, but if you’re clumsy, do get a tempered glass screen protector.

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Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – SIM tray

As you might know by now, the Samsung Galaxy A73’s glasstic body has a more matte finish, making it less susceptible to fingerprints. For the most part, it’s relatively unchanged from last year’s Galaxy A72 (aside from the slight camera bump redesign), but it feels a little more solid when held. Still, it doesn’t feel as premium as their flagships but it certainly doesn’t feel cheap.

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Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – One UI 4.1

The Samsung Galaxy A73 is running One UI 4.1 based on Android 12. For the most part, it doesn’t look different from the previous version but it does introduce a slew of new updates. This includes an improved RAM Plus that lets you go past the 4GB limit up to 8GB, adding virtual RAM using your internal storage and improved integration with Microsoft apps. Generally, you can expect a better, richer experience compared to before while still retaining its smooth, user-friendly experience.

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Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – Under-display fingerprint scanner

If you’re worried that Samsung might cut corners in the biometrics department, allow me to alleviate that. The under-display fingerprint scanner is certainly comparable with their flagship devices in terms of accuracy and speed. It’s a fraction of a second slower compared to the Galaxy S22 Plus and Ultra but the difference is negligible and far from being slow, unlike the much older Galaxy Note20 Ultra.

As for thermals, the Samsung Galaxy A73 can run perfectly fine for the most part. From gaming, lengthy camera use and extensive setup processes, it only got lukewarm at best. This is likely due to the polycarbonate back making it feel less hot but also that the Snapdragon 778G can run well. The flagship Snapdragon 888 and 8 Gen 1 is more powerful, but it heats up significantly over use.

Camera

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Samsung Galaxy A73 Review – Camera UI

The native camera UI on the Samsung Galaxy A73 is basically your standard issue Samsung experience, and it doesn’t differ from the flagship devices. It’s simple to use but it still has all the Pro features to make full use of the camera system. The app will also automatically optimize the shots you’re about to take based on what the AI understands the subject in frame.

As for camera performance, the Samsung Galaxy A73 is a surprisingly capable shooter. Sure, it’s not as good as the Galaxy S21 series, let alone the S22 series, but you do easily get clear shots with good dynamic range. Details captured by the new 108MP camera isn’t as sharp as flagship devices but it’s certainly great given the price. Low-light shots aren’t too shabby either, especially with Night Mode, but just keep in mind that colours and details will suffer as a result.

The ultrawide and macro cameras are, while a step down from the primary camera, it still work pretty well. The biggest difference with the main camera is the colour as it looks more washed out. The selfie camera is decent, and is helped out quite a bit by the AI optimization, though it does often lead to a bit more softening effect than I would usually like.

Samsung Galaxy A73 Verdict

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Samsung Galaxy A73 Review

The Samsung Galaxy A73 is an excellent midrange smartphone with strong overall performance. It can’t match flagship devices but if you don’t need the luxury of a high-end camera system or blazing fast speeds, this will certainly be able to satisfy you, especially with a price tag of RM2,099. The 4 years of OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches just sweetens the deal even more.

At the end of our Samsung Galaxy A73 review, I award this smartphone with our coveted Gold Pokdeward.

Pokdeward-Gold

Big thanks to Samsung Malaysia for sending us this smartphone for the purpose of this review.

About The Author
Aiman Maulana
Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one. YouTuber, video editor, tech head, and a wizard of gaming. What's up? :)

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