Samsung Galaxy A90 5G hands-on review

Introduction

The Galaxy A-series have grown so much in the last couple of years and Samsung is keeping the family afloat with a couple of successful models despite the fierce Chinese competition in the mid-range. Well, it appears that the Galaxy A lineup is mature enough to introduce a flagship smartphone of its own - the Galaxy A90.

What makes a flagship device flagship-worthy? Good screen, performance, cameras and features are all integral part of a true flagship device and the Galaxy A90 appears to have most of them in its checklist. So in a sense, it's a flagship Galaxy A smartphone by mid-range standards.

Of course, Samsung isn't trying to sell you a flagship phone with the Galaxy A90 but instead, it's trying to bring 5G to the masses. As of now, not many SoCs support 5G and all of them are high-end chips so the best way to do it is to put one of them in a ready and somewhat successful mid-range formula - in this case the Snapdragon 855 in a Galaxy A70.

As you go across the specs sheet real quick, you will see that the Galaxy A70 is an almost identical device to the Galaxy A90 5G. The only difference is in the chipset and the main camera - the Galaxy A90 gets the popular 48MP sensor while the A70 settles for the 32MP one.

Samsung Galaxy A90 specs

• Body: Gorilla Glass 6 front and back panel, aluminum side frame
• Screen: 6.7" Super AMOLED, 1080x2400px resolution, 393 ppi.
• Camera: Primary: 48 MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide), 1/2", 0.8µm, PDAF; Secondary: 8MP, f/2.2, 12mm ultra-wide, fixed focus; Depth camera: 5MP f/2.2; LED flash; 2160p@30fps video recording.
• Selfie cam: 8MP (1/4" sensor), f/2.0 fixed-focus.
• Chipset: Snapdragon 855 chipset, octa-core processor (1x2.84 GHz Kryo 485 & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 485 & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 485), Adreno 640 GPU.
• Memory: 6/8GB RAM, 128GB built-in storage; microSD slot.
• OS: Android 9.0 Pie, Samsung One UI.
• Battery: 4,500mAh, 25W USB Power Delivery 2.0 charging support.
• Connectivity: Dual SIM; USB-C (USB 2.0), Wi-Fi, Buetooth 5.0, GPS, NFC.; 5G support
• Misc: Under-display fingerprint reader.

But we can't shake off the feeling that the it's a bit early for this phone. The 5G adoption is too small for now and anyone looking to be an early adopter will be aiming for the premium segment anyway. And besides, the Galaxy S10 is selling for roughly the same price, which is a true flagship phone, minus the 5G.