Sunday, February 9, 2025

Gadgets + Tech

The simple gadget guide

Samsung brings out its cheapest 5G smartphone at $599

Samsung has introduced the Galaxy A42 5G Android phone to Australia at a price of $599, making it the company’s most affordable 5G model.

The smartphone has a four-lens camera, an Infinity-U display and a long-lasting battery as its main features.

It has a 6.6-inch HD+ (720 x 1600 resolution) Super AMOLED screen with 16 million colours. It’s an Infinity-U display, which is a virtually bezel-less screen with curved edges that was first introduced on the Galaxy S8 and S8+. The U denotes the shape of the top notch that curves around the 20MP selfie camera.

Turn the A42 5G over, and the back has a layered hatch pattern that has a textile look to it. It’s available in Prism Dot Black, Prism Dot White and Prism Dot Grey.

A Quad Camera setup on the back comprises a 48MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide (with a 123-degree angle of view), a 5MP macro and a 5MP depth camera, which lets you adjust the depth of field or background blur of your photos.

The Galaxy A42 5G has a fast-charging 5000mAh battery, which is about what you’d expect in a new phone. Samsung estimates that it will give you internet usage of up to 22 hours over Wi-Fi, talk time of up to 36 hours over 4G LTE (no true 4G or 5G estimates were given) and video and audio playback times of up to 34 and 130, respectively.

If you want to compare its size to your current phone, the A42 Measures 164.4mm x 75.9mm x 8.6mm, and weighs 193g.

The Samsung press release says it has 128GB of internal storage and 4GB of RAM, but the company website gives the figures as 106GB and 6GB of RAM. The storage is upgradable by up to 1TB via a MicroSD card.

The Galaxy A42 5G is available now.

Samsung Galaxy A42 5G price

RRP $599

www.samsung.com/au/