Samsung is starting off 2023 with a budget phone refresh, making some smart upgrades with the Galaxy A14 5G — at least on paper. The A14 will cost $199, which is $50 lower than the A13 5G’s list price. Compared to its predecessor, it comes with a higher-res display and selfie cam while leaving many other core specs alone. Samsung will also offer up to four years of security updates and two OS version upgrades, which is a significant step up from the two or three years of security updates that are much more common at this price.
Samsung’s $200 Galaxy A14 5G comes with an upgraded display
The refreshed budget phone is backed by a healthy software update policy of up to four years of security updates — practically unheard of at this price.
The refreshed budget phone is backed by a healthy software update policy of up to four years of security updates — practically unheard of at this price.
is a senior reviewer with over a decade of experience writing about consumer tech. She has a special interest in mobile photography and telecom. Previously, she worked at DPReview.
The A14 5G has a MediaTek 700 chipset and 4GB of RAM, just like the A13. That’s fine — the A13 delivered good performance with that combination, so Samsung isn’t trying to fix something that wasn’t broken. There’s still only 64GB of storage, but as before, microSD expansion is an option. The screen is a little bigger at 6.6 inches, and resolution has been boosted from 720p to 1080p. It’s still a 90Hz screen, which makes scrolling a little smoother than the standard 60Hz, but the extra pixels on such a big display should be the real difference-maker.
The rear camera array includes a 50-megapixel main camera with low-res macro and depth sensors in tow, and the selfie camera has been upgraded from 5 megapixels to 13 megapixels. There’s a big 5,000mAh battery on board as well as sub-6GHz 5G, both carried over from the last generation. It ships with Android 13, so it’s up to date with the latest software OS version. Overall, it’s a respectable set of specs for a $200 phone — even if it’s only available in black. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for more fun colors next time.
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Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Victoria Song
