For about a week we’ve been seeing glimpses of a new, high-end variant in Samsung’s Galaxy A series. This morning South Korean carrier SK Telecom made it official: the Galaxy Quantum2 is up for pre-order now. At the time of writing, the phone hasn’t been announced for any other market, either under the “Quantum2” name or its alternative, leaked Galaxy A82 moniker.
SK Telecom is marketing this as an upgrade to the Galaxy A Quantum (a modified version of the Galaxy A71), another SKT exclusive from last year. The Quantum2 features the same built-in dedicated chip for quantum number generation, a handy component for several tools that rely on cryptographic security keys. This QRNG chip is not included on any other Samsung hardware, and is likely to remain exclusive to the South Korean market.
The specs of the device are more interesting, as they’re indicative of what might come to the rest of the world in a more general Galaxy A phone. It’s packing a huge 6.7-inch screen with a 1440p AMOLED panel and 120Hz refresh rate and an under-screen fingerprint reader. Inside is a Snapdragon 855+ processor — no longer the latest available, but plenty powerful, and much beefier than the 700-series chips in the A52 and A72. It has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage space, plus a MicroSD card reader.
Cameras are 64MP on the rear main sensor with optical image stabilization, plus a 12MP ultrawide and 5MP macro, with a 10MP centered front-facing shooter. Despite being freakin’ huge in physical dimensions, the battery could be bigger at 4500mAh. There’s no mention of wireless charging or water resistance. The carrier is selling the Quantum2 for 699,600 won, approximately $620 USD. For the sake of comparison, a Galaxy S21 costs 999,999 KRW in Korea, so a proportional price for the Quantum 2 in the US market would be $560.
The Quantum2’s model number is SM-A826S, which indicates that a similar design may come to other markets as the Galaxy A82. There was no Galaxy A81, but the A8o was a unique Samsung phone with a twisting rear camera that didn’t need a hole punch selfie cam. Compared to that phone from 2019, the A82 uses the same screen size and a similar camera level (with allowances made for time), a much smaller battery, the same storage, but an extra 2GB of RAM. It also had a more mid-range processor, the Snapdragon 730.
The Galaxy A80 launched at a little more than $600, but there’s no telling what an international A82 might go for with its reshuffled specifications and the dropped rotating camera module. We’ll keep an eye out for it.
