Samsung has announced a 2017 update to the Galaxy A series of handsets, which includes the A3, A5 and A7.
The A range sits comfortably in the mid-range, going against competitor devices such as the Huawei Nova. The handsets all have fairly robust hardware and carry across some of the features we saw in last years Galaxy S7, such as IP68 water resistance and an always-on display.
The A3 sits at the bottom of the range but still packs in an octa-core Exynos chipset and 2GB RAM. Screen size is 4.7-inches and resolution is HD – the same as last years, while the battery has increased slightly to 2,350mAh. The handset includes 16GB of internal storage with further expandibility possible via microSD. Keeping with the times, the electronics giant has decided to include USB-C across the entire range. We expect this to be a familiar thing in 2017. The rear camera is 13 megapixels, while the front camera is an impressive 8 megapixels.
Moving up the range and we have the A5, which is a bit bigger and carries further improved hardware. On this model you’ll get a 5.2-inch FullHD panel, 3GB RAM and the Exynos 7880. The chipset is only one class below the Samsung Galaxy S7, which is still one of the fastest handsets currently on the market. You’ll also find USB-C and a higher spec 16 megapixel rear camera with f/1.9 aperture for improved low-light photography. Perhaps more impressive is the front camera, which carries the same megapixel count and aperture size as the dedicated rear shooter. While the sensor size will likely be much smaller, this should go a great way to improving those selfies. There’s also a larger 3,000mAh battery, which is about we expect from premium devices of this size.
Moving up to the A7 and this is where things start to get a little confusing, as we have a handset which seems to creep into phablet territory yet is less powerful than the smaller A5. Shipping with the same 3GB RAM but a slower Exynos 7870, it carries a much bigger 5.7-inch panel. Aside from the huge 3,600mAh battery, all other hardware specs mirror the A5, so we can’t see why the company didn’t just ship the same chipset as the smaller A5. We can only assume that the demand for phablets is lesser than traditionally sized handsets, so Samsung has decided to push the latter as it’s primary mid-range device.
All of the Galaxy A range ships with the latest Corning Gorilla Glass and Android 6.0.1, with the latest version of Samsung TouchWiz. Pricing for the Samsung Galaxy A3 starts at 329 euros, while the Galaxy A5 is a bit higher at 429 euro. The Galaxy A7 is yet to be revealed. Colour options available will be Black Sky, Blue Mist and Gold Sand.
Both the Samsung Galaxy A3 and A5 will be available to preorder from January 20th.
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