Samsung is bringing the $200 Galaxy A16 phone and the $60 Galaxy Fit 3 fitness tracker to the US, with the A16 getting six years of updates. This makes the Galaxy A16 one of the cheapest phones to come with a software update and security commitment of more than five years, which could be a plus for someone looking to buy a simple phone which will be updated.
Samsung’s Galaxy A16 has already been released in other territories, but it will begin sales in the United States on January 9, according to to the company’s announcement Thursday. The phone costs £129 in the UK and AU$349 in Australia. This year’s phone gets a slight refresh over last year’s A15, including a larger 6.7-inch screen (compared to the A15’s 6.5-inch screen) with a refresh rate of 90Hz. It will also use Samsung’s Exynos 1330 processor, instead of a Mediatek processor like the one included in the Galaxy A15.
The Galaxy A16 appears to have a similar camera system to the A15, including a 50-megapixel wide-angle lens, a 5-megapixel ultra-wide, a 2-megapixel macro lens, and a 13-megapixel front-facing camera. Last year will also carry over from last year a 25W wired charging speed, 5,000mAh battery and 128GB of storage along with 4GB of RAM. A microSD card slot allows storage expansion up to 1.5TB.
The Galaxy A16 continues Samsung’s line of entry-level handsets, which are among the most popular phones sold in the United States. Last year’s Galaxy A15 ranks as the fifth best-selling smartphone in the United States in September 2024, according to a research firm. Search for counterpointbehind four of Apple’s iPhone models. In my Galaxy A15 reviewI was particularly impressed by the promise of four years of software updates and five years of security updates, but I found the phone to perform slowly. We’ll have to test the Galaxy A16 to see if its new Exynos 1330 processor can speed things up, but the promise of a longer software and security update window sets a new standard for support among phones in the price bracket of $200.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy Fit 3 fitness tracker is touted as a cheaper and simpler way to track fitness and health than the $300 Galaxy Watch 7 or $650 Galaxy Watch Ultra. Samsung said the Fit 3 offers 13 days of battery life and includes exercise and sleep tracking, as well as an always-on display option and 100 digital watch faces.
