Galaxy A52 And A72 Availability Delayed Due To Chip Shortage

The entire tech world has been plunged into another crisis while still wallowing in the COVID-19 pandemic. A global shortage in semiconductor components, specifically microchips and processors, are rocking companies from carmakers to, of course, consumer electronics manufacturers. Smartphone OEMs seem to be taking things in stride but the shortage may have finally caught up with Samsung whose newest mid-range phones are now reportedly delayed because of that.

Samsung announced the Galaxy A72 and two versions of the Galaxy A52, including a 5G model, just last March. The latter, in particular, is being heavily marketed in the US where the phone is touted to be one of the more affordable 5G options there. Both phones are supposed to become available for purchase last month but that never happened.

A report from South Korea's The Elec reveals the reason for that delay. Apparently, Samsung has had difficulty in getting a hold of APs or application processors, a.k.a. the smartphone processors we often about in specs, for the Galaxy A52 and Galaxy A72. These would be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G and the 5G-capable Snapdragon 750G, both of which are reportedly in short supply.

Ironically, that shortage is partly also due to Samsung's major problem earlier this year. The harsh winter storm in the US a few months back forced Samsung to shut down its Austin, Texas plant that manufacturers chips. Coincidentally, Samsung is one of the manufacturers of those impacted Snapdragon APs.

Samsung isn't the only one affected by a shortage in the Snapdragon 720G and 750G chips, of course, as Xiaomi also depends on those mid-range chips for its Mi Note and Redmi lines. There is still no estimate on when shipments of the Galaxy A72, Galaxy A52, and Galaxy A52 5G will actually start but it is perhaps an indicator that upcoming phones will likewise start getting affected by this global issue.