mr_norris
Expert Member
I figured I would create a post about this phone as it seems to fly a bit under the radar. From what I've seen, the marketing seems to favour the lower A series phones, and possibly the older ones too.
I had planned to upgrade my phone around November as my aging Nokia 7 Plus was getting on in life. It has developed some quirks which made day to day usage a tiny bit frustrating. I went on a journey to see what's out there with the best bang for buck in mind.
I initially wanted another Nokia as I have been quite happy with the phone. However, their higher end ones under 10K are far from amazing. I didn't want a contract and I also didn't want to fork out flagship money. My main criteria was:
* Big battery
* Long term updates (this was a biggie)
* OLED (this came late to the party after the A73 was suggested)
* Reliability
* As little bloat as possible
* OIS camera - my hands are not steady at all
The A73 is an absolute winner in all categories I think:
* 5000mAh battery
* 4 OS updates and 5 years of security updates
* OLED screen
* It's a Samsung, pretty much everyone I know has a Samsung, so I am sure reliability is top notch
* If I had to nitpick, yeah, there is some bloat which you can't remove, but they have come a long way with One UI. All in all I am happy with how things are here.
* It has OIS on the main sensor. I have taken a few test pics and it appears to work. But honestly I don't know if it's OIS or my hands being very still.
The fact that they market the new A series as getting 4 OS updates and 5 years of security updates is huge to me. That's one more OS update than the Pixel 6 and all its variants, security updates are on par though. It's not an Apple sort of commitment but I don't think any other Android phone comes close to that. Back in the day, the promised 2 years support with my Nokia is what swung me that way. Being in an Android world my whole smartphone life, it's near unimaginable to still be getting updates on a phone that'll be on its last legs in 4 or 5 years time.
Some notable things worth mentioning:
* The 120Hz OLED display is amazing. Everything is so fluid. My only gripe is that it's not dynamic like some other phones, but otherwise I think you may be able to get around it with Bixby Routines.
* The under screen fingerprint reader is a bit of step back in my books. I feel like it was added so they could punt an extra feature, but it absolutely isn't better than a reader on the back or power button. It is considerably slower.
* The phone is pretty much near flagship spec, but the plastic casing reminds you that you don't have an S22. This is not bad I suppose. I think I'd rather have plastic and not worry about glass breaking.
* No charger included. I guess this is the norm now.
* It's super light, and it's a bit of a long boi. A very tall phone.
* It has 5g, but it just feels like a fast 4g. The difference is imperceptible to me unless I do a speedtest.
* They market it as a 2 day battery phone and they are not wrong. I suspect I could push it to 3.
* It's my first phone since HTC M8 to have stereo speakers. The only downside is the right speaker being a downfiring one. But it's still better than the mono down firing speaker on my old Nokia.
We seem to only get the bottom variant of the A73 here. The 8GB RAM/256GB storage one would have been a nice to have.
I had considered a few other options such as:
* Pixel 6: I was on the fence with this as it had one less OS update advertised and from all the reviews I have seen, still have some teething issues. The last thing I want to do is ship a phone back to Amazon for a replacement. The Pixel almost won, but alas, it just wasn't good enough.
* Nokia XR20 / G50 / 8.3: High end prices with mid range specs. My research stopped there.
* Poco phones: I watched a few reviews, came down to support and MIUI. I have always hated MIUI and I tried to look past it, but the software support is a dealbreaker
* Hauwei: Didn't even consider them. Not a fan of the two plate stove on the back of the P50 and I am in no mood to sideload google services onto a phone.
* Oppo / Xiaomi / Any other fongkong brands: A lot of these are mixed bags - there is always a feature or something that made it a hard no. Xiaomi seems to have the highest spec for the best price, but then you are lumped with MIUI and no long term updates. Oppo had mid range phones at considerably higher pricing. I am sure there is a market out there for them and people who love them, but I am neither of those.
I got mine from a little shop in Durban for 8k. Great phone for a great price. I highly recommend one if you have the budget and looking for something like this.
I had planned to upgrade my phone around November as my aging Nokia 7 Plus was getting on in life. It has developed some quirks which made day to day usage a tiny bit frustrating. I went on a journey to see what's out there with the best bang for buck in mind.
I initially wanted another Nokia as I have been quite happy with the phone. However, their higher end ones under 10K are far from amazing. I didn't want a contract and I also didn't want to fork out flagship money. My main criteria was:
* Big battery
* Long term updates (this was a biggie)
* OLED (this came late to the party after the A73 was suggested)
* Reliability
* As little bloat as possible
* OIS camera - my hands are not steady at all
The A73 is an absolute winner in all categories I think:
* 5000mAh battery
* 4 OS updates and 5 years of security updates
* OLED screen
* It's a Samsung, pretty much everyone I know has a Samsung, so I am sure reliability is top notch
* If I had to nitpick, yeah, there is some bloat which you can't remove, but they have come a long way with One UI. All in all I am happy with how things are here.
* It has OIS on the main sensor. I have taken a few test pics and it appears to work. But honestly I don't know if it's OIS or my hands being very still.
The fact that they market the new A series as getting 4 OS updates and 5 years of security updates is huge to me. That's one more OS update than the Pixel 6 and all its variants, security updates are on par though. It's not an Apple sort of commitment but I don't think any other Android phone comes close to that. Back in the day, the promised 2 years support with my Nokia is what swung me that way. Being in an Android world my whole smartphone life, it's near unimaginable to still be getting updates on a phone that'll be on its last legs in 4 or 5 years time.
Some notable things worth mentioning:
* The 120Hz OLED display is amazing. Everything is so fluid. My only gripe is that it's not dynamic like some other phones, but otherwise I think you may be able to get around it with Bixby Routines.
* The under screen fingerprint reader is a bit of step back in my books. I feel like it was added so they could punt an extra feature, but it absolutely isn't better than a reader on the back or power button. It is considerably slower.
* The phone is pretty much near flagship spec, but the plastic casing reminds you that you don't have an S22. This is not bad I suppose. I think I'd rather have plastic and not worry about glass breaking.
* No charger included. I guess this is the norm now.
* It's super light, and it's a bit of a long boi. A very tall phone.
* It has 5g, but it just feels like a fast 4g. The difference is imperceptible to me unless I do a speedtest.
* They market it as a 2 day battery phone and they are not wrong. I suspect I could push it to 3.
* It's my first phone since HTC M8 to have stereo speakers. The only downside is the right speaker being a downfiring one. But it's still better than the mono down firing speaker on my old Nokia.
We seem to only get the bottom variant of the A73 here. The 8GB RAM/256GB storage one would have been a nice to have.
I had considered a few other options such as:
* Pixel 6: I was on the fence with this as it had one less OS update advertised and from all the reviews I have seen, still have some teething issues. The last thing I want to do is ship a phone back to Amazon for a replacement. The Pixel almost won, but alas, it just wasn't good enough.
* Nokia XR20 / G50 / 8.3: High end prices with mid range specs. My research stopped there.
* Poco phones: I watched a few reviews, came down to support and MIUI. I have always hated MIUI and I tried to look past it, but the software support is a dealbreaker
* Hauwei: Didn't even consider them. Not a fan of the two plate stove on the back of the P50 and I am in no mood to sideload google services onto a phone.
* Oppo / Xiaomi / Any other fongkong brands: A lot of these are mixed bags - there is always a feature or something that made it a hard no. Xiaomi seems to have the highest spec for the best price, but then you are lumped with MIUI and no long term updates. Oppo had mid range phones at considerably higher pricing. I am sure there is a market out there for them and people who love them, but I am neither of those.
I got mine from a little shop in Durban for 8k. Great phone for a great price. I highly recommend one if you have the budget and looking for something like this.