The Galaxy A71 model that was released last year turned out to be one of Samsung’s successful mid-range offerings. Although a mere couple of steps shy from being flagship-worthy, the phone actually exhibited decent performance in aspects such as gaming, multi-tasking and even imaging.

Now that the Galaxy A72 had recently been announced, it’s only natural that our expectations for it are very high – considering the success of its predecessor. With the phone in hand, let’s take a look at what the newer model has to offer.

The first thing everyone will notice is the design approach that Samsung has introduced for the entire Galaxy A series. Most notably the rear panel which now sports a new minimalist design – ditching the typical glass island for a seamless bump to house the rear cameras. A much needed refresh if you ask me, given how painfully generic glass camera housings have become in the previous generation of smartphones.

When viewed in front, the Galaxy A72 is almost a spitting image of its predecessor, but with one noticeable difference: its display now features a significantly smaller punch-hole cutout for its front-facing 32MP camera. This makes the module appear less jarring than last year’s model, while at the same time adding the whole minimalist aesthetic that the new A series is going for.

As for the display itself, the new model comes with a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1080 x 2400px and an aspect ratio of 20:9. If that sounds all too familiar, that’s because it’s almost the same display featured on the Galaxy A71. I say almost, because this time around Samsung has included a higher refresh rate of 90Hz. It’s not as crazy as the 120Hz or 144Hz found in higher-end smartphones, but it’s still eye-pleasing nonetheless.

Thanks to the onboard Snapdragon 720G chipset and 8GB of RAM, you can expect the Galaxy A72 to run most of your typical day-to-day apps and multi-tasking activities with no problem. As for gaming and other heavier workloads, I’ll leave that evaluation for a full-on review.

Much like other recent smartphone offerings from Samsung, this model also comes with the brand’s Android 11-based One UI 3.1 platform. Storage-wise, the Galaxy A72 features a capacity of 256GB – a generous size for storing your apps, media and so on. Should that not be enough for you, it also comes with external storage support at up to a whopping 1TB via microSD.

Imaging-wise, the smartphone features the same 64MP main camera as its predecessor but now with optical image stabilisation (OIS), which greatly helps with framing for zoomed shots and video recording. Also new to the Galaxy A72 is the 8MP telephoto camera which is capable of 3x optical and 30x digital zooming. Other than that, there’s the same 12MP ultra-wide and 5MP macro from the Galaxy A71. Like the phone’s overall performance, I’ll save the in-depth evaluation of the phone’s camera setup for the review.

As for the rest of the available features, the Galaxy A72 comes with an under-display fingerprint sensor, dual AKG-tuned stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support, 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC functions, as well as a larger 5,000mAh battery with 25W fast charging support. Another notable improvement that sets this model apart from its predecessor is the inclusion of water and dust resistance capability, which is rated at IP67 – a feature that is rarely found in previous mid-range offerings from the Korean tech giant.

Sporting a new design and substantial improvements in hardware as well as features, the newly announced Galaxy A72 potentially has the makings of yet another Samsung mid-range fan favourite. Whether it is actually capable of recapturing the same magic as its predecessor remains to be seen, however. That being said, do look forward to our review in the days to come.