Samsung's 'new' Galaxy A18 goes official as an overpriced blast from the past with no 5G (yet)
The latest addition to Samsung's popular budget-friendly Galaxy A handset family doesn't look affordable, pretty, or sophisticated enough to make much of an impact.
The Galaxy A18 comes in three relatively stylish colorways with a decidedly unappealing notch in tow. | Image by Samsung
If you were expecting the Galaxy A18 to leave the outdated notch behind at last or at least bring... some sort of notable upgrades over the Galaxy A17 to the low-cost Android scene, Samsung's rather discreet European announcement of the new 6.7-inch handset today will come as a bitter disappointment on multiple fronts.
The 4G LTE-only A18 is not just infuriatingly similar to its non-5G-capable predecessor from last year in terms of both the external design and internal components, also going up in price without justifying its hike in any way (but rather the complete opposite).
Yes, these specs are very familiar
- 6.7-inch Super AMOLED screen with 2340 x 1080 pixel resolution and 90Hz refresh rate technology;
- Octa-core Exynos 1610 processor;
- Android 17 with One UI 9.0;
- 4GB RAM;
- 128GB internal storage space;
- microSD card slot for up to 2TB external storage expansion;
- 50MP primary rear-facing camera with f/1.8 aperture;
- 5MP secondary ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture;
- 2MP tertiary macro sensor with f/2.4 aperture;
- 13MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture;
- 5,000mAh battery;
- 25W charging support;
- Bluetooth 5.3;
- NFC;
- USB Type-C 2.0 port;
- IP64 water and dust resistance;
- 164.4 x 77.9 x 7.7mm dimensions;
- 196 grams weight;
- Black, Grey, and Light Blue color options.
No, the Galaxy A18 4G is not completely identical to the Galaxy A17 4G
But basically all the differences can be summed up in this one short phrase - the newest member of the Galaxy A family packs a faster processor into a slightly thicker and heavier body made to withstand contact with dust better than the older handset.
The Light Blue paint job is undeniably pretty, but everything else looks... bad. | Image by Samsung
Naturally, the Galaxy A18 also runs a newer version of Android out the box, but everything else appears to have gone totally unchanged, from the screen size, resolution, and refresh rate capabilities to all the cameras, the battery capacity, charging speeds, overall device height, and width.
Worst of all, of course, the ugly screen cutout (aka notch) is here to stay for at least another year, and the problem with that is not its strong resemblance with last year's Galaxy A17. The real issue is that it makes the A18 look similar to budget-friendly devices from several years back, and what's worse is that virtually all Samsung rivals (except for Apple, of course) have long ditched the notch.
The price point is somehow even worse than the notch
At least in France, the Galaxy A18 looks like a terrible investment at a recommended price of €279 in a single 128GB storage configuration also packing 4 gigs of memory.
Will you consider the Galaxy A18?
6 Votes
In contrast, the Galaxy A17 was originally available for only €200 in multiple European countries with the same amount of internal storage space, and incredibly enough, a 6GB RAM count.
Now, we all know component costs across the mobile industry have gone crazy over the last nine months or so, but that can't explain both a substantial product price increase and a memory downgrade. Then again, it's worth pointing out that the Exynos 1610 chipset inside the Galaxy A18 sounds like a potentially huge upgrade over the A17's MediaTek Helio G99, so perhaps part of the price hike can actually be attributed to this exciting new processor... Samsung has weirdly not detailed or announced prior to today's product launch.
Any news on US availability?
Not yet, and if history is any indication, the Galaxy A18 4G will never be officially released stateside. But I do expect a separate (and likely, extremely similar) Galaxy A18 5G to also get a global announcement soon and (eventually) reach the US market.
The Galaxy A18 5G is likely to look pretty much identical to the Galaxy A18 4G. | Image by Samsung
This type of schedule would be different from Samsung's Galaxy A17 launch strategy last year, as that device was initially released in a 5G-enabled variant and then in a 4G LTE-only flavor.
Hopefully, the Galaxy A18 5G will not keep its prospective US buyers waiting until January 2027, and although it seems unlikely now, I still want to believe the handset will be able to retain its predecessor's current $249.99 list price in a 128GB storage/4GB memory configuration.
Here are more news stories about new and upcoming Samsung phones:
Popular stories
Latest News
Things that are NOT allowed:
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts: