The Galaxy A series has a new junior member – a sequel to the A03s from last year and an upgrade to the recent A04.

The Samsung Galaxy A04 is very much an entry-level phone, but it is a capable one. It arrives with Android 12 and One UI Core 4.1, a parred back version of Samsung’s custom UI.

The company is mum on the chipset, but we believe it is the Exynos 850. With eight Cortex-A55 cores it is faster than the Helio P35 of the A03s from last year and it is an 8nm chip, so it should be significantly more efficient than the 28nm Unisoc chip inside the current Galaxy A04. There are versions with 3 and 4GB of RAM and 32, 64 or 128GB of built-in storage. The phone has a microSD slot, so you can easily add more.

Another upgrade on the “s” model is the display – still a fairly basic 6.5” PLS LCD with 720 x 1,600px resolution (20:9), but it now boasts a smoother 90Hz refresh rate (up from the standard 60Hz). Notched into the display is the usual 5MP selfie camera.

There is a triple setup on the back, but with only one stand-out module – the 50MP main camera. Like on the A04 it can record 1080p video at 30fps. Also here is a 2MP depth sensor and an extra 2MP module, a macro camera.

The battery has 5,000mAh capacity, like the other A0x models. It is enough for up to 90 hours of music playback or browsing the web (over Wi-Fi) for 21 hours. One much-needed improvement here is that the charging is done over USB-C. It’s still lacks fast charging, but we’re glad that the microUSB port is gone.

We have to mention a few other goodies before we wrap up. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack with Dolby Atmos support. This is a dual-SIM phone (with a dedicated microSD slot) and 4G connectivity, plus Wi-Fi 5 (ac) and Bluetooth 5.0. Finally, there is a fingerprint reader on the side.

The new Samsung Galaxy A04s in Black, Green, White and Copper

There’s no word on the pricing of the Samsung Galaxy A04. There are four colorways available: Black, Green, White and Copper, although only the White and Green are listed on Samsung’s online store.

• 6.5 inches
• Android 12, One UI Core 4
• 4GB RAM+64GB storage
• Back: 50MP + 2MP + 2MP
• Front:5MP
• Li-Po 5000 mAh