The Galaxy A5 is a real high flyer in its price range and will win you over not only with perfect workmanship, but also with great inner values.
Constant dripping wears away a stone. This saying comes to mind when looking at the first models of the brand new A-series from Samsung. The Koreans were criticized more and more for their choice of material - that the current Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4 flagships are still housed in plastic annoyed many smartphone enthusiasts. Samsung is at last tackling the issue of tactile quality - first in the mid-range. The A-series models are covered in a chic unibody aluminum housing, there by eradicating the last area of attack for the competitors. Can the Galaxy A5 for 399 euros show off in other areas?
Elegant and easy on the hands
The first contact proves that the Galaxy A5, available in black, white, silver and champagne gold, are easy on the hands. The nearly seven millimeter-wide flat metal housing is free from any seams and lies comfortably in the hand due to the flattened edges. The slightly roughened back of the black test devices also makes for a secure hold. Headphones and micro USB connectors are located on the bottom of the Galaxy A5, the slots for a nano SIM and micro SD memory card are perfectly integrated into the side. The Samsung does not skimp on visual stimuli and, with every touch, users know they have made the right purchase decision at least in terms of workmanship and value.
Display with radiance
Such an elegant packaging deserves a display befitting its quality. Samsung equipped the Galaxy A5 accordingly with a 5-inch OLED display with HD resolution. The display provides both brilliant and strongly colored presentation and a good brightness of 348 cd/m2. Thus equipped, it is a real pleasure to zap through the menus, surf the Web, look at photos and watch videos, or play a game.
Potent platform
The combination of a 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU and 2 GB of RAM is primarily responsible for a great operating experience for all of these actions. However, the Qualcomm MSM 8916 platform used belongs in the major leagues, which was not expected for the price. Nevertheless, the multitasking features known from higherclass Samsung models run smoothly, such as Multi Window, which allows two functions to run parallel on the display of the Galaxy A5.
10.5 gigabytes of media and app memory are available to the user, and this can be expanded through the use of a micro SD memory card. When it comes to connectivity, the Galaxy A5 runs the full program and masters all important and current standards with quad-band GSM and -UMTS, LTE, HSPA +, NFC, a/b/g/n WLAN and AGPS.
Photos and selfies? Of course!
And what about the hot topic of photography? The main camera has a maximum resolution of 12.8 megapixels, but features an autofocus and a photo light. You might also like the purified menu navigation: there are eight preinstalled image modes, but you can define which are displayed. This makes for an organized overview. If that‘s not enough for you: other settings can always be downloaded from the App Store.
The picture quality is above average with sufficient artificial or natural light. In low light, however, clear image noise occurs. The A5 takes full HD quality videos.
The trendy selfie cannot be ignored, and it even has its own entry in the main camera menu. In most cases, however, the 5 megapixel camera on the front is used for this popular pastime. A special features is the mode for group selfies, beauty retouching and gesture control for the trigger.
Successful user interface
The Touchwiz user interface that Samsung lays over the installed Android 4.4 is also no big challenge for beginners and laymen. You reach the individual functions intuitively, of which there are not as many as with the flagship models.
As is common with Samsung, there are a variety of setting options which you can use to customize the inter face to your needs. Different home screen themes are new, which make for diversity in everyday smartphone use with differently designed icons.
Hardly any weaknesses in the lab
Now the question arises: can the Galaxy A5 win over the connect lab? It can. The permanently installed energy supplier makes for good running time across the board with its capacity of 2300 mAh. In practical mixed mode, it comes in strong at 7:45 hours, and the talk times are 16:26 hours in GSM and 12:39 hours in UMTS mode. They are joined by good to very good transmission and reception properties, as well as impeccable acoustics.
Buy? Absolutely!
If you are looking for a high quality but affordable smartphone, you can‘t ignore the Galaxy A5. The elegant metal model is impressive with its OLED screen, perfect workmanship and a range of equipment that has truly matured. With this strong performance, the Samsung Galaxy A5 deserves not only the verbal grade „very good“, but also a strong connect recommendation.