Samsung’s budget Galaxy A27 isn’t much of an upgrade

Samsung today announced the latest iteration of its Galaxy A budget phone line, with a slightly faster processor and… nothing else. The Samsung Galaxy A27 will go on sale on July 14 in the US for $349 – a $50 increase over 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 punch-hole selfie camera. Samsung says the bezel is « reduced and more balanced », with a 7.8mm body (slightly thicker than the A26’s body). Other specs like 6GB RAM and 128GB storage plus 5000mAh 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 faster for everyday use. Like its predecessor, the A27 offers a toned-down version of Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite dubbed « Awesome Intelligence, » with features like Circle to Search with Google and Object Eraser for photo editing, along with some Bixby support.

But the A27’s camera array is actually inferior to the A26’s; that alone might make it hard to justify the $50 higher price. The A27 has a 12-megapixel front-facing camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera and a 5-megapixel ultra-wide camera – all with a slightly lower resolution than the A26’s.

These lower specs, along with a slightly lower IP64 rating (last year’s was IP67), also make the A27 less compelling. The price hike probably isn’t Samsung’s fault: Consumer tech prices have risen across the board, with companies like Apple raising prices across nearly their entire product line.

The A27 will face stiff competition in the budget phone market as well, with newer heavy hitters like Nothing’s upcoming Phone 4b offering strong alternatives.