Affordable Galaxy A18 smartphone rumoured to get much pricier, boast barely any updates

It appears that we now a lot to share about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy A18 4G budget smartphone, set to replace the 1-year-old A17. This is courtesy of Android Headlines, who have also recently leaked the rumoured wide foldable from Motorola.

According to AH, the new Galaxy A18 will be powered by the MediaTek Helio G99 SoC paired with 4 GB of RAM, typically found in plenty of entry-level smartphones and tablets (Galaxy Tab A11 curr. $150 on Amazon). In fact, this is the exact same SoC found in its predecessor, the A17 4G, indicating a lack of any performance upgrades this time around.

While the A17 4G was available in 8 GB RAM-equipped variants, Android Headlines makes no mention of whether or not the A18 will enjoy a similar luxury.

The SoC sports an 8-core setup, and promises multicore performance that is roughly in the same league as Snapdragon 765 SoC, and also a 9-year-old Apple A11 Bionic in multicore synthetic benchmarks. In simpler terms, the chip should be okay-ish for most daily workloads and basic tasks such as emails, cellular communications, web browsing, as well as content consumption.

Speaking of content consumption, the A18 is expected to feature a 6.7-inch 90 Hz AMOLED display. Once again, there appear to be no upgrades over the A17. That said, the A17's display was never a problem, and was actually pretty solid for a sub-$200 smartphone.

Other notable details of the A18 4G include a 5,000-mAh battery with 25-watt wired fast-charging, 128/256 GB of storage, microSD support (up to 2 TB), a triple-camera setup consisting of a 50 MP primary shooter, 5 MP ultrawide shooter, and a 2 MP macro shooter. The smartphone will measure in at 164.4 x 77.9 x 7.7 mm, and is expected to weigh around 193 grams or 6.8 ounces.

Of course, as we have come to expect from 2026, Samsung is indeed planning a price hike for the A18 4G. According to Android Headlines, the smartphone will start at a shocking €299, which is exactly €100 more than what its predecessor costed at launch. Clearly, skyrocketing DRAM and NAND prices spare no one.