Samsung Galaxy A5

The Galaxy Alpha came out as a high end smartphone last year promising much but delivering little. The part-metal build was a tactile joy but the middling hardware and poor battery life meant it was doomed to be a might-have-been like Lindsay Lohan's acting career. This year, Samsung learned the lessons from Alpha and introduced a brand new line of phones: 'The A Series'. The flag-bearer of A series is A5 which we reviewed.  

BUILD
The design was gold so they stuck with it and reworked the rest to become an interesting contender for the mid range segment. It's now deliciously thin at a crispy, diet biscuit measurement of 6.7mm. It follows the typical safe yet dull Samsung design of rounded edges. But this time the shape is a lot sharper similar to the stellar S2. We got the pearl white unit and it is a massive change from the typical cheap creaking plastic or rubbery texture. It's also a non removable back so for a change carrying extra battery packs is a no-go area. At first glance and feel, it is a well built and sharply designed phone. Some would complain why Samsung still goes for that button in the bottom center of has a speaker at the back. The latter is a problem since the sound is abysmally poor when placed on a flat surface to view movies or listen to music. Samsung, it's time you brought the speaker up front or at the base. 

SOFTWARE
As usual the touchwiz is there. The phone doesn't run Android 5.0 which is sad. But it will be getting the Android L update soon, which is great. The app ecosystem is from android, so it needs no introduction. 

BATTERY
The 2300mAh battery lasted me over a day for regular usage. And that's not bad considering the test unit was a DUOS version and I used it to its full capacity. If you just stick to Wi-Fi instead of 3G, the battery will last even longer. 

DISPLAY
That respectable processor shows off all its magic via a 5.0-inch 720p Super AMOLED display. While the 720p isn't a range topping resolution, this is perfect for such a mid range phone. And 720p is more than adequate for rendering imagery and text sharp and clear. The plus side is that the less power hungry display means better battery life.

HARDWARE
The features stand out with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 SoC. This is the first time we got our hands on a 64-bit dual-core device. The GPU is an Adreno 306 which while not a range topper, does brilliantly at rendering 720p applications. So far none of the graphics intensive games I threw at it lagged or stuttered. The A5 showed consistent result on all our benchmarking tests with scores well above the older S4 flagship. Although there were a few surprising numbers in comparison, overall the device fared very well.

CAMERA
Along with the design, another highlight of this device is the stellar camera. The A5 boasts a 13.1-megapixel Sony Exmor RS IMX135 CMOS sensor. The f/2.0 28mm lens means the shots are bright, sharp and shutter lag is minimal. The front has a selfie friendly 5.0-megapixel unit with a 23mm f/2.2 lens. 

VERDICT
Everyone who saw the device liked how it looked and commented how Samsung looks good again. And my friend and his wife and her friends loved the camera. And that's the crux of the whole A5 experience. It's great to hold in your hand, it serves up good specs for not a wallet bending amount of cash and has a camera that will please many a budding photographer.

 

SPECS
Display: 
5.0 inches 720 x 1280 pixels (~294 ppi)
Camera: 
13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus,s, 5MP secondary
OS: Android OS, v4.4.4
CPU: 
Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU: Adreno 306
Sensors: 
Accelerometer, proximity, G-Sensor
ROM: 16GB, 
RAM: 2GB
Battery: 2300 mAh