The Galaxy A51, Samsung’s affordable midrange 5G phone, is now available at Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ). The new phone, which was launched in the last one year, retails for $550 compared to others in the UW series. It is $900 lower than the Galaxy Z Flip, $250 cheaper than the OnePlus 8 5G UW, and $100 lower than the Galaxy A71 5G UW.
The “Prism Bricks Blue,” Galaxy A51 5G UW is slightly pearlescent blue and has the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G processor and 128GB of storage. Like the Galaxy A71 5G UW, the A51 5G UW has 12-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 5-megapixel depth camera, and a 5-megapixel macro camera.
Compared to the Galaxy A71 5G UW, the A51 5G UW has a 6.5-inch OLED screen; hence it is a bit smaller.
The Galaxy A51 5G UW, was first announced in April and is made with Verizon’s ultra-wideband 5G network. The phone will be fitted with the low-band network when it is launched later this year.
Verizon takes commanding lead in 5G phone sales
Verizon is taking a commanding lead in 5G installations in the U.S according to recent market data. The company currently accounts for 54% of the 4.1 million 5G phones in the U.S.
Verizon had around 2.2 million 5G phones since the service was launched as of the middle of July. In the second position is AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), which has 629,000 5G phones while T-Mobile Us Inc (NASDAQ: TMUS) and Sprint are third and fourth with 501,000 and 483,000 5G phones respectively. T-Mobile acquired Sprint and indicated that over 85% of Sprint postpaid customers have phones compatible with 5G.
There are a few factors that have made Verizon take the lead in 5G network. First, the company has been selling commercial 5G phones since last year. It started earlier than AT&T and T-Mobile. With around 150 million customers, Verizon is the largest cellular provider in the US. There are mainly three operators that have made significant efforts towards selling 5G phones. These companies have invested millions is adverts. The release of the Samsung Galaxy S20 in late February helped boost sales of many 5G phone sales.
