Samsung’s Galaxy A71 5G lands at Verizon
Verizon last week announced that it will join rivals AT&T and T-Mobile to offer Samsung’s new mid-tier 5G smartphone, the Galaxy A71 5G. The phone, which was initially introduced back in April (alongside five other Galaxy A models that range in price from $110 to $600), is Samsung’s response to Tier-2 OEMs that are getting ready to flood the market with affordable 5G models. Verizon customers can now pre-order the new Galaxy A71 5G, while retail availability will begin on July 16. The mmWave 5G-powered phone will be offered with an MSRP of $650. Notably, rivals AT&T and T-Mobile have been offering their A71 variants since mid-June for $50 less.
The NPD Take:
- Samsung’s Galaxy A71 offers high-end features at a relatively affordable price point (compared to the Galaxy S flagship), and we expect it to be a strong option for those customers who typically purchase the N-1 or N-2 generation models as they cannot afford to buy the $1000+ superphones. The phone’s 5G support and relatively better specs make it a better option than an N-1 flagship such as the Galaxy S10 variants that carry a similar price tag.
- Verizon’s MSRP premium is likely caused by the mmWave 5G support, which requires additional antennas compared to the regular 5G version offered by rivals. While AT&T and T-Mobile have a $600 price tag on A71 5G, both rivals offer the phone with a 50% discount for new customers. Verizon is offering a similar new line activation discount, which brings the price of the phone to $360 ($15 payments for $24 months).
OnePlus confirms the launch date for its first mid-tier phone
There has been a lot of commotion around the topic of OnePlus and its intention to join the mid-tier smartphone game, and last week OnePlus has officially said it’s getting ready to launch its first mid-tier smartphone, the OnePlus Nord. The new OnePlus Nord will run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765 chipset, which powers many of the upper mid-tier smartphones such as the Motorola Edge or LG Velvet, and will host dual selfie camera lenses one of which is ultra-wide. The phone will be officially unveiled at an online AR event on July 21. OnePlus said the phone will initially be shipping to Europe and India; there is no word on U.S. availability. Incidentally, OnePlus has also confirmed that the phone will carry a sub-$500 price tag.
The NPD Take:
- OnePlus’ decision to have the Nord (initially) skip the U.S. market is likely to do with its price point as well as its relatively low awareness/adoption rates. U.S. carriers’ eagerness in subsidizing 5G smartphones (such as the $600-$650 Samsung Galaxy A71 5G being sold for $300) would make the OnePlus Nord at a tough sell considering that only 11% of U.S. smartphone owners are aware of the brand.
Qualcomm upgrades the Snapdragon 865 silicon
Qualcomm last week announced the upcoming availability of the Snapdragon 865+ chipset, which is an upgrade over the Snapdragon 865, the industry’s top silicon solution for flagship smartphones. The new chipset provides a 10% incremental improvement on CPU (processing) and GPU (graphics), thus making it an ideal solution for gaming-specific phones. In fact, ASUS, the maker of ROG gaming PCs and Smartphones, and Lenovo (which is rumored to launch a new gaming phone dubbed the Legion) have already committed to building new smartphones running on the 865+ platform.
The NPD Take:
- Carriers are actively seeking ways of marketing their 5G networks, and enhanced gaming experience (thanks to low latency) has so far been one of the few tangible marketing areas. Qualcomm’s continued push on the gaming-specific solutions including the new 865+ and previously announced 765G will foster OEMs build new gaming phone models to attract carriers.