With the 2017 Samsung Galaxy A5 and Samsung Galaxy A7, the company has brought many of the features of its flagship S7 to the mid-range segment. Samsung claims that the phones come with water and dust resistant body. This is the first smartphone to come with always-on display in this price range. Both Galaxy A5 and Samsung Galaxy A7 phones have been improved from the previous variants, in which the storage can be increased through microSD card up to 256 GB. The phone’s battery supports fast charging. The battery capacity of both the phones has also improved.
Gadgets 360 got a chance to spend some time with the new Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) and Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) at the launch event. Know how we liked the phone at first glance.
At first glance, the new Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017) look a lot like the flagship Galaxy S7 (Review), especially with their curved edges. The only difference between the two phones is the screen size. Talking about both the new variants, the Galaxy A5 has a smaller 5.2-inch screen which makes it comfortable to hold. And this phone will also be liked by those people who like to use the phone with one hand. Whereas, Galaxy A7 has 5.7 inch screen. As expected, the Galaxy A5 smartphone is heavy at 159 grams while the Galaxy A7 feels a little heavier at 186 grams.
The front of both phones retain the iconic Galaxy series look. The phone has a physical home button on the front, just below the screen. There are capacitive navigation buttons on either side of the home button. While spending limited time with both the phones, we realized that the capacitive navigation buttons are backlit but for very short periods of time. We noticed the same thing in the Galaxy A series 2016 handsets also. Overall, the biggest feature of these handsets is the metal frame and glass rear panel. Manu Sharma, vice president of Samsung Mobiles, stressed that the glass rear panels are Samsung’s “premium design heritage”. However, both of them are prone to fingerprints and we would recommend using the Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017) with the cover only.
Apart from this, Sharma confirmed in a conversation with Gadgets 360 that the new Galaxy A-series smartphones will support Samsung Pay (NFC and MST capability). The company’s mobile payment service is now available in India.
There is a primary camera and flash on the rear of the phone. But other phones in this segment like OnePlus 3T, Asus Zenfone 3 (ZE552KL) and moto z It is not a camera like the one shown in. And we liked this change. Apart from this, we also liked the location of the speaker grill on the right side of both the phones, although in the short time we spent, we did not find their sound to be very loud. Both phones have a 3.5 mm audio jack and a USB Type-C port at the bottom. There are power buttons on the right panel while volume rocker buttons are provided on the left. We found the physical buttons fine on the Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7.
Samsung is heavily promoting two SIM cards and a microSD card slot in the new Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 smartphones. The Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017) support 4G with VoLTE, which means these phones will work with Reliance Jio’s mobile network.
Talking about the specifications, Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) has a 5.2 inch display while Galaxy A7 (2017) has a 5.7 inch display. Full HD and Super AMOLED display has been used in both the phones. The new Galaxy A series variant has the company’s new octa-core Exynos 7870 processor which runs at 1.9 GHz. The phone has 3 GB RAM. Both phones have 32 GB inbuilt storage. Samsung is also offering 15 GB cloud storage on its Samsung Cloud app. Both the new phones come with a set of preset camera filters, including a food mode that makes photos look better. Samsung has provided nine effects which can be accessed by swiping up the main camera interface. Overall, the camera app looks cleaner than before and is easier to use.
Both Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 phones have a 16-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and aperture F/1.9. Apart from this, there is also a 16-megapixel front camera with aperture F/1.9. The dimensions of the new Galaxy A5 are 146.1×71.4×7.9 millimeters. And it has a 3000 mAh battery. The dimensions of Galaxy A7 (2017) are 156.8×77.6×7.9 mm and the battery is 3000 mAh.
Talking about software, we did not feel any major changes between Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7. The company’s UI seems light and there is no special problem in it. Like other Samsung Galaxy phones, there are separate folders for Google and Microsoft’s app suites. In our limited time spent with the new Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7, we found that the phones handled multitasking and internet browsing well. However, we will reserve our judgment on the performance and cameras of the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017) until we complete a detailed review process.
final thoughts
The new Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017) are priced at Rs 28,990 and Rs 33,490 respectively. Both phones will be available for purchase from March 15 at offline and online retail stores across the country.
With these prices, the new Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 smartphones will compete with the popular Honor 8, Asus ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL) and OnePlus 3T smartphones.