As 5G networks continue to go live in more and more countries over the last year or so, Samsung has been making sure that consumers have the chance to pick up a 5G-enabled phone in pretty much all budget segments. However, getting 5G access on an affordable Galaxy phone has also meant giving up on some good features seen on the LTE variant of the same phone.
Take the Galaxy A13 5G and Galaxy A13 LTE, for example. The former has 5G connectivity and a faster processor, but it also has a lower-resolution display and one less rear camera. Not every Galaxy phone has such disparity in specs between its LTE and 5G variants, but there are a few other devices you can point to.
For example, the regular Galaxy A32 comes with a higher-resolution display and a better selfie camera, while the Galaxy A32 5G's claim to fame is a faster processor under the hood. And frankly, this is one practice that I'm hoping Samsung will get rid of as we move towards 2023; it will start making 5G either a default feature or keeping specs on both LTE and 5G variants the same except for the type of cellular connectivity.
Sacrificing important features in exchange for 5G support is far from ideal
Taking either of those steps will mean that the 5G variant of every budget Galaxy smartphone will be costlier to purchase. But that would be a lot less frustrating than Samsung reducing, say, the display resolution on the 5G variant, especially since its affordable 5G smartphones have faster processors compared to their LTE counterparts.
Still, the company should change its practice of making 5G budget phones less impressive specs-wise going forward. I know Samsung makes those changes to make sure 5G connectivity becomes as accessible as possible, but I don't exactly see the point of faster download/streaming speeds when you're going to compromise on features such as the display resolution of a phone.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Samsung is going to change the formula all that much in 2023. But hopefully the Korean giant is making its way up towards making 5G a standard feature no matter which budget you're shopping in. Not sacrificing features like the display resolution and number of cameras on 5G models of budget phones would be a great start in the meantime, as I'm sure many others will agree.