Samsung’s first 2021 smartphones come with big batteries and low prices

After all, the entry-level Galaxy A01 was formally announced all the way back in December 2019 alongside the far more impressive (4G LTE-only) Galaxy A51 and A71. While the presumably 5G-enabled Galaxy A52 and A72 are not yet ready for primetime, the Galaxy A12 and A02s have just been officially slated for commercial releases in January and February 2021 respectively.

Remember when single rear-facing shooters were still the norm in the mid-range segment and a $400 or so phone with two cameras on its back seemed like an amazing thing? Well, the Galaxy A12 comes with a grand total of no less than five cameras, including four rear-facing imaging sensors, at a recommended price of €179 and up.

That makes us hopeful of a US MSRP around the $180 mark, which would be perfectly in line with the Galaxy A11 released roughly six months ago. Technically, the Galaxy A12 hasn’t been confirmed for a commercial debut stateside as of now, but we’re pretty sure that’s only a matter of time.

Of course, when the 6.5-inch handset does end up hitting European and North American stores, you shouldn’t expect the world from its main 48MP snapper, 5MP ultra-wide-angle lens, 2MP macro cam, or 2MP depth sensor in terms of real-life capabilities and still clarity. But at least on paper, those imaging specs look much better than what the Moto E7 Plus, for instance, has going for it at a similar price point.

The Samsung Galaxy A12 also sounds like it will be able to hold its own against Motorola’s low to mid-end army in the battery life department, packing a hefty 5,000mAh cell equipped with 15W fast charging technology. Curiously enough, the octa-core processor powering the A12 is as-yet unnamed, but at least we know it will be paired with up to a very generous 6 gigs of RAM, as well as 128 gigs of internal storage space in a top-of-the-line configuration.

Granted, the aforementioned €179 will only buy you 64 gigs of local digital hoarding room (presumably paired with a 4GB memory count) starting in January, while the 128GB storage variant is set to cost €199 on the old continent, which may or may not convert to 200 bucks in the US at some point down the line.

The rest of the phone’s specs are fairly unimpressive, including a single 8MP selfie shooter, a TFT “Infinity-V” display with a resolution of 1560 x 720 pixels, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, microSD card slot, headphone jack, and 4G LTE connectivity only.

In many ways, the Galaxy A02s is similar to the A12. But as the name suggests, this thing is slightly humbler, following in the footsteps of a modest Galaxy A01 typically priced at $150 in the US.

Compared to that old thing, the Samsung Galaxy A02s gains a whopping 2,000mAh battery capacity to match the 5,000mAh cell size of the Galaxy A12 while also sporting a significantly larger 6.5-inch screen than the 5.7-inch A01.

Unsurprisingly, the A02s doesn’t rise up to the imaging standards of its costlier cousin, settling for a triple lens system on its back composed of a 13MP primary snapper, 2MP macro camera, and 2MP depth sensor. That’s not bad for a device priced at €150 in Europe with the same trendy Infinity-V design as the A12, not to mention the same 15W fast charging support, microSD card slot, and headphone jack.

Something tells us this phone will also be officially released in the US… eventually at an identical starting price to its humbler predecessor.