Samsung promises new phones will deliver more for less money

SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Samsung’s next crop of smartphones will boast bigger screens, better cameras, and longer-lasting batteries at lower prices than last year's lineup that came out just before the pandemic toppled the economy.

The three Galaxy S21 phones unveiled Thursday at a virtual event will face some of the same challenges in an economy still hobbled by a crisis that has left millions of people unemployed and forced millions of others to do their jobs or attend school from their homes.

But this time Samsung has made some pricing adjustments that reflect the hard times.

All three phones will be less expensive than last year’s comparable models, with the reductions ranging from 7% to 20%. Part of the price drops stems from the falling cost for making devices compatible with faster 5G wireless networks, but Samsung also is trying to make its devices more affordable to consumers struggling to make ends meet, said Drew Blackard, the South Korean company’s vice president of product management.

“We are always looking at what is happening in the market and try to be responsive of that,” Blackard said.

Apple also has been offering cheaper versions of the iPhones in recent years, a trend that was amplified last year with the April release of a model selling for $400 and another scaled-down device released last fall that sells for $700 compared to $1,100 for its latest top-of-the-line model

Samsung quickly learned about how the pandemic might reshape the smartphone market when last year’s Galaxy S20 models hit the stores in the U.S. last March just as lockdowns were shutting down wide swaths of the economy and unemployment rates were soaring to their highest levels since the Great Depression nearly a century ago.

The downturn curtailed demand for the...