Samsung is bringing the $200 Galaxy A16 phone and the $60 Galaxy Fit 3 fitness tracker to the United States, with the A16 getting six years of updates. This makes the Galaxy A16 one of the cheapest phones to get a commitment to software and security updates for more than five years, which could be a boon for someone looking to buy a simple phone that will be updated.
Samsung's Galaxy A16 is already on sale in other territories, but will go on sale in the US on January 9, according to at the company's announcement Thursday. The phone costs £129 in the UK and AU$349 in Australia. The phone gets a slight refresh this year over last year's A15, including a larger 6.7-inch display (compared to the A15's 6.5-inch display) with a 90Hz refresh rate. It will also switch to using Samsung's own Exynos 1330 processor, rather than a Mediatek processor like the one that powers the Galaxy A15.
The Galaxy A16 appears to have a similar camera system to the A15, including a 50-megapixel wide lens, a 5-megapixel ultra-wide lens, a 2-megapixel macro lens, and a 13-megapixel front-facing camera. It will also feature 25W wired charging speed, a 5,000mAh battery and 128GB of storage, along with 4GB of RAM, from last year. A microSD card slot allows storage expansion up to 1.5 TB.
The Galaxy A16 continues Samsung's line of entry-level phones that are among the most popular phones sold in the states. Last year's Galaxy A15 ranks as the fifth best-selling smartphone in the US as of September 2024, according to the research firm Counterpoint Researchbehind four of Apple's iPhone models. In mine 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 be sluggish. 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 $200 range.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy Fit 3 fitness tracker is being touted as a cheaper and simpler way to track fitness and health than The $300 Galaxy Watch 7 or the $650 Galaxy Watch Ultra. Samsung said the Fit 3 is rated for 13 days of battery life and includes exercise and sleep tracking, along with an always-on display option and 100 digital watch faces.