First Impressions Of Samsung Galaxy A5 And A7 (2016)

Samsung has announced the Galaxy A5 and A7 models for the year 2016. The company announced the mid-range smartphones at its developers forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The two brand new additions to the company’s Galaxy smartphone range are priced at Rs 29,400 (Galaxy A5) and Rs 33,400 (Galaxy A7).

Both the devices will be available on Snapdeal as well as on offline stores starting February 15, 2016. The smartphones come with features like full-HD (1080x1920p) Super AMOLED display, a 13MP primary camera along with 5MP selfie camera and microSD support of up to 128GB. We spent some time with the two smartphones at the event and here are our first impression of the new Samsung ‘Galaxies’.

Design                                                                                                       Samsung has incorporated metal and glass design in these smartphones, similar to what we have previously seen in their Galaxy S series and Note 5. Both the Samsung Galaxy A5 and A7 2016 variants come in white, black and gold colours and look identical, the only difference being the screen size with the A5 having a 5.2-inch screen and the A7 sporting a 5.5-inch screen.

The smartphones have three-sided metal frame with the front and back being made of glass. The edges of the smartphones are rounded and the metal has a matte texture which makes them comfortable to hold. The front of the phones are dominated by the display and on turning them over, we have the camera and LED flash.

Both the Samsung Galaxy A5 and A7 2016 versions have uni-bodies and houses the power on the right edge and the volume rocker buttons on the left side and the hybrid sim card slot below them.

The Samsung A5 2016 weighs around 153 gram while the A7 is marginally heavier at 169 gram, but both the phones feel light enough for smartphones this size. We were quite taken by the phone’s basic look and feel.

Display                                                                                                     Samsung Galaxy A5 and A7 2016 edition smartphones sport 5.2-inch and 5.5-inch FHD Super AMOLED touchscreen display respectively which showed bright vibrant and life-like colours.

There appears to be a good improvement in the quality of the display compared to predecessors.

Hardware
Both the Samsung Galaxy A5 and A7 are powered by 1.6GHz octa core Exynos 7580 processor with 2GB RAM in A5 and 3GB on A7. These come with 16GB of internal storage and users may expand the storage by installing microSD cards of up to 128GB

xThe Galaxy A5 2015 variant smartphone packs a 2,900mAh battery and comes with 4G connectivity, a feature getting increasingly common in this price band now. Other connectivity features of the phone include 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and microUSB.

Software                                                                                                         The Samsung Galaxy A5 and A7 2016 run a homegrown UI-based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. The OS is light and appears snappy enough without any lag whatsoever.

Camera                                                                                                         The latest Samsung duo Galaxy A5 and A7 2016 series smartphones come equipped with a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP selfie camera. Rear camera works very fast and hardly showed any lag in the shutter speed.

The front cameras, however, could do a better job producing the images.