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Samsung's 2016 A series phones bring flagship looks and features at mid-range prices

By James Lu - 13 Jan 2016

Samsung's 2016 A series phones bring flagship looks and features at mid-range prices

Samsung unveiled its updated 2016 Galaxy A series phones today. Available in 4.7- (A3), 5.2- (A5) and 5.5-inch (A7) sizes, all three phones boast premium metal and glass builds, Super AMOLED displays and expandable storage.

Design-wise the new A-series phones look very similar to last year's flagship Galaxy S6, with an aluminum frame and a glass rear. Each is relatively thin with the A3 and A7 coming in at 7.3mm and the A5 a hair narrower at 6.9mm. The front of all three phones has an ultra narrow 2.7mm bezel, resulting in a near edge-to-edge display. At this price range, these are some of the nicest looking phones we've seen.

Speaking of the display, on the A3 you get an HD 1,280 x 720 pixels resolution (312ppi) display and on the A5 and A7, you're looking at a Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 pixels resolution (A5 - 424ppi, A7 - 401ppi). All three displays are Super AMOLED and look top notch, with vivid colors, great contrast and wide viewing angles. 

On the rear of each phone, you'll find a 13-megapixel f/1.9 aperture camera. On the A5 and A7, the rear camera also has optical image stabilization. Unfortunately, there's also a fairly substantial camera bump back here. The front camera is a 5-megapixel f/1.9 aperture shooter, which probably makes it the same module found in the S6.

Unlike Samsung's flagship phones, each of the Galaxy A range has expandable storage, with the A3 using a shared dual SIM card slot (all three phones are dual SIM capable), and the A5 and A7 each having a dedicated microSD card slot compatible up to 128GB. You also get 16GB internal storage on all three phones. Samsung hasn't confirmed what processor each phone is running but we know that the A3 has a quad-core processors, while the A5 and A7 have octa-core processors. The A3 has 1.5GB RAM, the A5 has 2GB RAM, and the A7 has 3GB RAM.

Missing expandable storage on your Samsung device? Good news, the entire A range supports microSD cards up to 128GB.

Just in time for Samsung Pay's launch in Singapore later this year, the A5 and A7 will be the first non-flagship phones in Samsung's lineup to be compatible with Samsung Pay thanks to their fingerprint scanners. The fingerprint scanner is located on the home button and is likely to be the same lightning fast scanner used in the S6, S6 Edge and Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5

Battery life on all three phones looks quite promising with the A3 armed with a 2,300mAh battery, the A5 with a 2,900mAh battery, and the A7 with a 3,300mAh battery. That makes the A7's battery 300mAh larger than the Note 5, which has the same display size and is our current battery life champion. The A7 also has a lower resolution display, so we expect its battery life to be even better. As for the A5, it compares favorably against the similarly-sized S6, with a battery that is 350mAh larger. The A5 and A7 are also armed with Samsung's fast charging technology and ultra power saving mode.

The 2016 Galaxy A range looks like a great addition to Samsung's lineup. Depending on what processor it's running on, the A5 is basically an S6 with a Full HD display and a marginally lower megapixel rear camera, but with a much lower price point, and the addition of expandable storage and a higher capacity battery - both worthwhile tradeoffs if you ask us. Again though, it depends on that processor. We know the entire A range is running on Exynos chips, but how they compare to the S6's excellent Exynos 7420 remains to be seen.

The Galaxy A3 (2016) will be available on 16th January (this Friday) for $398, while the A5 and A7 will both be launching on 30th January for $598 and $698 respectively. All three phones will be available in three colors: Black, Gold and Pink Gold.

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