Samsung’s new Galaxy A71 5G UW is launching on July 16th. At $649, it will be the most affordable way to access Verizon’s 5G millimeter-wave network. Preorders for Verizon’s edition of the phone, which was announced last month, will begin on July 9th.
The A71 5G UW has a 6.7-inch OLED display, 128GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, and a 4,500mAh battery. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G processor and features a quad-camera system — including a 64-megapixel main lens, 12-megapixel wide lens, 5-megapixel macro, and a 5-megapixel depth camera — as well as a 32-megapixel selfie shooter. Samsung’s Scene Optimizer, a feature of recent Galaxy phones, will try to detect what you’re photographing and automatically adjust settings (such as exposure and contrast) accordingly.
Tests have found that Verizon is the carrier to beat when it comes to pure 5G speeds, with downloads routinely exceeding 1Gbps if you’re right near one of the company’s mmW nodes. (Most recently, Verizon also switched on 5G speeds for uploads.) But spotty coverage remains the biggest issue with Verizon 5G; other carriers are able to blanket entire sections of cities with midband and low-band 5G signal.
Besides the Galaxy A71 5G UW, the next most affordable Verizon 5G smartphone is the OnePlus 8 5G UW, which sells for $799. Samsung’s higher-end Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra are all also compatible with Verizon’s millimeter-wave 5G network.
