Samsung’s best-selling phone for 2024 was the Galaxy A15 5G, and now they’ve released its successor, the Galaxy A16 5G. This lineup has always offered reliability and practicality at an affordable price point in the smartphone market. But does it still hold the same old promise without compromise? Here’s what you get with the new A16 5G:
Design and Build
The Galaxy A16 5G comes with a glass front, a glossy plastic frame, and a plastic back, weighing in at 200g. It boasts a flatter design, a trend adopted by many manufacturers. Samsung has also eliminated the 3.5mm headphone jack, bringing the device’s thickness to 7.9mm.
The phone features an IP54 certification for dust and water resistance, an outdated Infinity-U notch design at the front, and a key island design for the volume and power buttons, similar to previous higher-end A series devices. At the rear, it has a triple camera setup.
The A16 5G will be available in four color options: Blue Black, Light Gray, Gold, and Light Green.
Display and Performance
The Samsung Galaxy A16 5G comes with a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display, featuring a 90Hz refresh rate and an 86.0% screen-to-body ratio, reaching up to 800 nits of brightness.
Under the hood, it runs on either the Exynos 1330 or the Dimensity 6300, depending on regional availability. In Kenya, we may get the Exynos variant.
Storage options include 4GB/128GB or 8GB/256GB configurations, which can be expanded via a microSD card. However, this uses a shared SIM slot, so you’ll have to choose between using two SIM cards or one SIM card and an SD card.
My only wish is that it came with 6GB of RAM as a base, as One UI can be demanding when storage runs low.
Cameras
The Galaxy A16 5G offers a similar camera setup to last year’s A15 5G, with a 50MP wide main lens, a 5MP ultra-wide lens, and a 2MP macro lens. It can shoot video at 1080p 30fps, but no higher. The selfie camera remains unchanged with a 13MP sensor, also capable of recording at 1080p 30fps. Will it deliver decent photos in well-lit conditions? Maybe. Stay tuned for a potential review.
Battery and Charging
The Galaxy A16 5G doesn’t include a charger in the box, but it comes with a robust 5000mAh battery. As with previous A series models, you can expect a full day of use on a single charge. If you need to top up, Samsung’s 25W “Fast Charging” brick will take about two and a half hours to charge the phone from 0% to 100%.
Connectivity
With the Galaxy A16 5G, you get Bluetooth 5.3, a USB-C 2.0 connection, and NFC in select regions. It also features a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, as well as an accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass.
Software Support
This will be the first Galaxy budget smartphone to come with a 6-year OS support guarantee from Samsung. It ships with One UI 6.1, based on Android 14, and will be supported until Android 20, lasting until 2030. This is a significant improvement over previous models like the A15 5G, which only offered 3 years of software and security updates.
Pricing and Availability
The Galaxy A16 5G is not yet available in Kenya, as it was first launched in Europe. However, once it arrives, the retail price is expected to start at €250 (approximately $273), which converts to around KES 35,500 before taxes.
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