Three’s a crowd for Samsung as the Galaxy A3, A5 and A7 drops by SIRIM

It’s a New Year for the Korean giant and the Galaxy A series pops up just a month after being announced in their home ground of Korea. More metal, that’s the trend that Samsung looks to impose on their 2016 version(s) of the Galaxy A lineup.

Whether you’re going to be loving all that metal with their accompanying specs is a whole other story but they’ve maintained microSD slots across all three smartphones – we know you wanted to hear that.

Click to enlarge image

Mainly playing in the low-to-midrange leagues, the darling of Korea have started to look to more precious materials as Chinese brands have managed to out metal devices at the same price range.

Since they’re playing catch up in the race of affordable metal smartphones here’s what the Galaxy A series is up against in their similar indicative price-points (based on last years Malaysian pricing):

Galaxy A7 (RM 1,499)  – honor 7 (RM 1,399)
Galaxy A5 (RM 1,199) – OPPO R7 Lite (RM 1,298)
Galaxy A3 (RM 899) – Redmi Note 3 (RM 899)

Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016)

That’s a whole lot of competition if you ask us. Regarding specs here’s what you’ll pay for the Galaxy A3 – beginning with the entry-level device, you’re getting a 4.7-inch HD (1280 x 720) Super AMOLED display.

It’ll have a 1.5GHz quad-core processor buried inside its metal together with 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. This smartphone will also have a MicroSD slot as mentioned earlier, arrive with a 2,300 mAh battery and be equipped with a Dual-SIM 4G LTE (Cat.4) slot. You’ll also find 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC and charge through microUSB.

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)

Moving to the middle child, this smartphone has slightly bigger 5.2-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution Super AMOLED screen. Similarly, the processor gets upped to an Octa-core 1.6GHz processor coupled with 2GB of RAM and the same 16GB of internal storage (still expandable). Keeping it powered will be a 2,900 mAh battery that has fast charging abilities.

Connectivity options get an upgrade too with Cat 6 LTE capabilities in its Dual-SIM slots. It’ll have the same WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC features and the charging port is still microUSB. But at this price point, the home button will act as a fingerprint scanner.

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)

On the top of the A series is the Galaxy A7 and deservingly so with its bigger 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution Super AMOLED panel. Oddly, the Octa-core processor is still clocked to 1.6GHz but gets its RAM bumped up to 3GB. Internal storage again stays the same at 16GB but you’ll have that microSD slot if you want to expand it up to 128GB.

This device also has Dual-SIM capabilities and the same connectivity options as the A5. But the battery is a larger 3,300 mAh cell to make up for the larger screen, still with fast charging. The Galaxy A7 also has a fingerprint scanner and support for Samsung Pay.

Summing up

It’s refreshing to see that a big name like Samsung is starting to adjust itself to markets but in a market that requires you to adapt or perish, that makes a whole lot of sense. Only thing the specs of the three devices don’t seem to match up to their competition in respective brackets.

In spite of that, could you see yourself owning any of the Galaxy A series devices? Or are you going to splash a more money on the anticipated Galaxy S7(s) that are to arrive after MWC 2016? Do let us know in the comments below!