Successful update of the line. Review: Samsung A5 (2017) - A Decent Upgrade When the A5 Upgrade

Not so long ago, the line of Samsung smartphones of the "A" series was updated. The changes were enough to make them talk about.

The design of Samsung smartphones at all times left few people indifferent. It happened this time too. The stylish, but not flashy design is largely due to the pleasant combination of glass and metal in the body, each face of which refracts light very richly. Especially the front panel with 2.5D glass and the rear wall, made of glass, gracefully curving closer to the side edges. With regard to this phone, it is quite possible to call it a premium design.

If we continue to develop the theme of the case, then we can note the traditional mechanical Home button under the screen. The button is combined with a fingerprint scanner, which is fast enough, but not always immediately configurable. Due to the fact that the button, and therefore the scanner itself, is very narrow, during setup, a message often appears asking you to move your finger, and not just put it in the same position.

Volume and Power keys are located on different sides of the phone, which is convenient, and you don't have to look for them and remember which one is higher and which is lower. Also striking are the two SIM card trays. In the 2017 Galaxy A5, the main SIM card is installed on the right side of the case, with a dual tray on top. The upper tray holds a second SIM card and a memory card. Now it will be even more convenient to use the second SIM card, since you do not have to choose between it and a memory card up to 256 GB.

Where Samsung has excelled in its smartphones is the level of water resistance. It happened this time too. The Galaxy A5 is IP68 compliant. That is, it is not only one hundred percent protected from dust, but is also able to spend up to 30 minutes in fresh water at a depth of one and a half meters without any consequences. This is always not superfluous and it is very pleasant to distinguish the smartphone against the background of direct competitors in its price segment. By the way, this phone costs from 22,000 rubles, which is quite a bit for a high-quality phone.

In conclusion of the features of the case, it can be noted that there are three colors for it, including black, blue and gold. Gold isn't even very gold, though. At least not so conspicuous.

Display

The diagonal of the display is 5.2 inches, which is a lot considering the dimensions of the smartphone itself. The display resolution is predictably FullHD, and the matrix is, of course, SUPER AMOLED. The display is good and bright, as it should be given its specs, but what's especially good is that it changes color significantly less when viewed from an angle than before. Of the pleasant additions, we can note the Always on display function that has reached the younger Samsung models. You can now display the date, time, battery status and basic notifications on the Galaxy A5's screen. Considering the features of AMOLED displays, this is doubly convenient, since it not only frees the owner from the obligation to periodically take the phone off the table and turn it on, but also does not consume much of the battery. The watch constantly changes its position on the screen a little. It is easy to find an explanation for this in terms of the technological features of AMOLED displays.

Camera

Naturally, there are two cameras in the phone. Both are now at 16 megapixels and with an aperture of f / 1.9. The pictures taken with the main camera are very good. Actually, the Korean giant is famous for its cameras in smartphones. In bright light, the pictures are very clear and saturated, but if you dim the lighting a little and choose a subject with insufficient contrast, the camera can start to make mistakes. The number of possible camera settings will delight many fans to dig deeper into manual modes. There's even a food mode that lets you take a photo with a sharp center, slightly blurry edges, and custom brightness settings. The main camera does not just stick out, but, on the contrary, is even slightly recessed into the body, but it's a pity that there was no place for optical stabilization.

Iron

The performance is based on the Exynos 7880 processor at 1.9 GHz and the Mali T-860 graphics at 700 MHz. RAM in the phone is 3 GB. The hardware produces more than enough performance for applications and almost enough for everyone, even the coolest games. There is a decrease in the frame rate, but it does not always turn out to be critical. So the gameplay will not be overshadowed by freezes and slowdowns. In the AnTuTu benchmark test, the Galaxy A5 scores about 60,000 points.

It is worth noting that the smartphone is predictably running Android 6, but should soon receive an update to the seventh version of the green robot.

The built-in memory is rather big and amounts to 32 GB. But only 23 GB of them are available to the user. Although this is also enough for a very large number of photos and more than one album of your favorite artist. But it's still nice that it is possible to install memory cards up to 256 GB, which I talked about earlier.

The sound in headphones is traditional for Samsung. There is nothing to add or subtract. But the external speaker turned out to be very interesting. For a start, it's worth noting where it is. It is located on the side edge, just above the Power button. An original and convenient solution. Now it will definitely not be possible to accidentally close it with your hand in any orientation of the device. True, the large holes in the case for this speaker look a little strange, but it sounds very good. Naturally, there is no bass, but there are distinguishable high frequencies, which is nice. The volume, though not small, but not prohibitive. We will assume that it is above average.

Until recently, people who want to buy a decent smartphone with a budget of 350-400 dollars, the choice was, in fact, between the Chinese flagships from Xiaomi, ZTE, Meizu, OnePlus and similar companies, which offer balanced solutions with close to top-end characteristics. Smartphones from A-brands, with a similar price tag, gave, to put it mildly, a more modest user experience, and felt like outright middle peasants with a bunch of compromises.

Samsung companies are a clear illustration of the above, it seems, decided to change the established situation and seriously compete for the middle segment of the market. The new generation Galaxy A brings many features previously only available in flagships, and many other equally interesting updates. Let's start the review of the Samsung A5 2017 and see if it is as good as it seems at first glance.

Price and main characteristics

Galaxy A5 2017 has already appeared on sale, you can buy it at a price of 28 thousand rubles. The device is presented in 4 colors of coprus - black, light blue, pink and gold.

Specifications:

Display: 5.2 ", Super-AMOLED FHD 1920 * 1080 px, 424 ppi;
processor: Exynos 7880 (8 cores, 1.9 GHz) + video accelerator Mali-830 MP3;
RAM: 3 GB;
internal memory: 32 GB + micro SD flash cards up to 256 GB;
camera: main - 16 MP (f / 1.9), front - 16 MP;
optional: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, LTE, NFC, USB-C;
battery: 3000 mAh.

Out of the box, the device runs on the Android 6.0.1 operating system, covered with the Grace UI shell (the same TouchWiz, which has suffered pleasant cosmetic changes), which in 2017 looks somewhat undignified for a device of this level. An update to the 7th version of Android Samsung promises in the first quarter of this year.

Design and ergonomics

The Samsung A5 2017 is a relatively compact 5.2-inch smartphone. The body is made of glass (front part, back panel) and aluminum (side frame). The case back is curved and the side corners are rounded to give the case a streamlined shape.

The front glass has a 2.5D curvature. We did not bother too much about reducing the width of the side frames - they are very noticeable here, which, among other things, does not spoil the appearance of the smartphone. A hole for the earpiece is cut above the screen, next to it there is a sensor unit and a front camera. Also on top is the Samsung logo.

Under the screen is a mechanical Home key with a built-in fingerprint scanner. On the sides of it there are touch-sensitive navigation keys, which are practically invisible without the backlight on. The scanner works quickly and stably, in addition to unlocking the smartphone, it is used when making Samsung Pay payments and to gain access to password-protected folders.

On the back there is a flash and a camera, which is recessed into the body, which will potentially prevent scratches on the optics.

The arrangement of functional elements on the side faces of the A5 case is rather unusual. Above is a speaker for noise reduction and a hybrid tray for a memory card.

At the bottom there is a microphone, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a UBS Type-C port, which for some reason is not located in the center of the edge, but noticeably slides towards the back cover. It doesn't look very aesthetically pleasing.

On the right is the screen lock / power off key and the stereo speaker hole, which is made in the form of several perforations. The location of the speaker is not usual, but when the smartphone is lying on something, the speaker does not deafen, as if it were behind.

On the left, there are two spaced-apart volume keys and one more tray for SIM-cards. A5 allows you to fully use 2 SIM cards and a USB flash drive, which is an indisputable advantage of a smartphone in comparison with gadgets equipped only with a hybrid tray.

Overall, the Samsung A5 review showed that the smartphone is made of quality materials and has excellent build quality. It is very weighty and fits comfortably in the hand due to its streamlined shape. In black, the A5 looks very solid, more expensive than its price. Another significant plus is the presence of dust and moisture protection according to the IP68 standard. We do not recommend purposefully bathing your smartphone, however, any unforeseen situations associated with short-term drowning (according to the manufacturer's statement - up to 30 minutes), it will survive without problems.

Now about the disadvantages. The ceramic case looks impressive and is pleasant to the touch, but at the same time it is quite slippery and quickly becomes covered with fingerprints, so you will most likely have to use the smartphone in a case. But the serious disadvantages are the absence of an event indicator and vibration feedback when pressing the touch keys. We also note that the case of the new A5 is non-separable, and if necessary, you will have to change the battery at the service center.

Screen

The Samsung A5 screen is a 5.2-inch SuperAMOLED matrix made using OGC technology, with a resolution of 1920 * 1080 px and a pixel density of 424 ppi. There is support for the Always On mode (the display of a locked smartphone displays the time, charge and the most important notifications), which consumes less than 1% of the battery per hour.

Finding fault with the display is difficult with all the desire. It has maximum viewing angles and good factory calibration for accurate color reproduction. The maximum brightness exceeds 357 cd / m2, which, along with the presence of an anti-reflective coating, gives a good readability of the screen in the sun, the minimum is 2 cd / m2. You can comfortably read from the screen in a dark room, the existing eye healed mode (blue filter) helps.

We also note the presence of a high-quality oleophobic coating and an adaptive color rendering mode, which adjusts the image based on the scenario of using a smartphone (viewing photos, videos, etc.). From the controversial points - multitouch for 5 touches, but does anyone need more? In general, the A5 has a solid screen.

Performance

A5 2017 processor - Exynos 7880, the company's own development, made using a 14-nm process technology. This is a chipset based on 8-core Cortex A53 (up to 1.88 GHz) and a Mali-T830 MP3 graphics accelerator. In terms of power, the Exynos 7780 is approximately on a par with the Snapdragon 625, it does not have a large margin of gaming performance for the future, but at the same time it allows you to play any toys at high settings with a comfortable FPS, and also provides a nimble and smooth system operation.

Synthetic test results:
AnTuTu Benchmark - 61.8 thousand points;
3DMark Ice Storm - 13.3 thousand points;
GeekBench: single-core - 4692, multi-core - 817 points.

Of 3 GB of RAM, about 1.3 GB is available to the user, of 32 GB of internal memory - 24 GB. The possibility of expanding memory is present, the smartphone recognized a 124 GB flash drive without any problems, the manufacturer claims to support cards up to 256 GB. During use, the A5 showed excellent performance, there were no complaints about thoughtfulness or system jams, under any scenarios of use.

Camera

Both cameras Samsung A5 (front and rear) have a resolution of 16 MP. The main module has an aperture of f / 1.9, a focal length of 27 mm and a hybrid autofocus. On the one hand, the camera resolution has increased compared to the A5 2016, but the novelty has lost optical stabilization and has not received the ability to record 4K video, which is somewhat disappointing.

The A5 has no major problems with the shooting quality. The pictures are almost perfect in good shooting conditions: excellent detailing, accurate color rendition and a large dynamic range pleases, but in low light the lack of optical stabilization still affects.

The front camera is good, 16 MP is fair here, in contrast to the interpolated resolution of most competitors. The smartphone writes video in FHD / 30pfs resolution, the picture and sound quality is not bad, but when shooting moving objects, the picture noticeably strobes (slight twitching occurs). Autofocus in video mode is present.

Speaker, sound quality

The sound of the main speaker of Samsung A5 is loud and of sufficient quality. Music, even at high volume, does not turn into mush and does not hurt the ear. There are no problems with the spoken speaker, the interlocutor is perfectly audible. The sound in the headphones is standard, no components were used to improve the audio path in this model, 95% of users will be satisfied.

Battery

The built-in 3000 mAh battery is enough for a day and a half for the smartphone to work in medium load mode. If you use the A5 to its fullest, then it will ask for charging at the end of the day. Fast charging is present, the smartphone can be charged from the supplied adapter in about an hour.

Communication and Internet

One of the main features of the A5 is the presence of NFC and MST modules, which, together with the support of Samsung Pay, allows contactless payments in 90% of Russian terminals. To do this, simply put your smartphone to the terminal and confirm the payment with your fingerprint.

Also note that instead of the systematically aging Micro-USB, the new product uses the USB-C interface. In all other respects - the quality of connection, synchronization and navigation via GPS, work in 3G and LTE networks, there are no complaints about the device.

Video review Samsung A5 2017

Competitors, conclusion

Concluding the review of Samsung A5, let us summarize - the device turned out not without minor flaws (old Android, lack of optical stabilization and event indicator, strange location of the speaker grill and USB connector, not a record performance), but its advantages outweigh, and significantly.

A5 is a very high quality product: beautiful, pleasant to use, moderately powerful and well balanced. Its advantages include design, assembly, high-quality screen, cameras that perfectly shoot during the day, good autonomy, separate SIM cards and a flash drive, dust and moisture protection, support for Samsung Pay and much more.

Competitors in price - and many other smartphones, among which you can find much more productive devices. But is it worth abandoning a protected case or, for example, the ability to fully use 2 SIM cards and a USB flash drive, for the sake of an additional gigabyte of RAM or a slightly more powerful processor, if it is practically not felt during everyday use?

Samsung, which first released the Galaxy A5 in 2014, has continued to improve the model, adding one refreshed A5 per year to its arsenal. At the time of this review, the official price of the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) SM-A520F / DS in Russia is $ 484, and in Ukraine, according to the mobcompany.info portal, it is $ 408.

The updated model has inherited some features previously unique to flagships. Compared to the previous version, the device has got a fresh processor, dust and water protection, increased memory capacity and a USB Type-C port. But in some ways the smartphone is still inferior to its predecessor.

1. Characteristics of Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)

The device received a good filling, but if you compare it with the competitors, the cost of the A5 SM-A520F seems overpriced.

1.1. Design, body materials, dimensions and weight

The smartphone comes in black, gold, blue and pink body colors.

Most often, the domestic buyer will come across options in black and gold colors. The side edges are made of metal, the screen is protected by tempered glass with rounded edges, the back wall is also made of glass. The curved back panel and relatively small footprint contribute to a good grip. However, due to the glass and the lumpy shape, the device constantly strives to slip out of hand.

It seems that the manufacturer overdid it a little with rounding corners. And yet, for some reason, the frames at the top and bottom of the screen are larger than in the A5 2016. Subjectively, the previous version looks more cultured. But there are also improvements. For example, the rear camera lens is now flush with the panel.

The body is assembled well. What's more, it is IP68 dust and water resistant. It can roll for 30 minutes at a depth of one and a half meters, without damage to the insides of the device.

At the bottom of the screen is a mechanical Home key with a built-in fingerprint scanner. On the sides of it are touch buttons for going back and displaying a list of running applications.

It is noteworthy that the device received separate slots for installing cards. The first SIM tray is located on the left side, next to the volume buttons. And on the upper edge there is an additional hole, which accommodates a combined slot for another SIM and memory card.

The right side houses the power button and the main speaker grill.

On the bottom is a symmetrical USB Type-C connector, a microphone hole and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

All this is housed in a case with dimensions of 146.1x71.4x7.9 mm and a weight of 159 grams.

1.2. CPU

The manufacturer installed a fresh 64-bit Samsung Exynos 7880 chipset in the smartphone, with an integrated Mali-830 MP2 graphics chip. The SoC includes 8 Cortex-A53 cores, the maximum frequency of which reaches 1.9 GHz. The processor is made according to the modern 14-nm process technology, with all that it implies. For example, energy efficiency is improved, there is no significant heating. As a result, the performance level does not drop under intense loads.

The Antutu test gives an average result of 60 thousand points by today's standards. There are no complaints about the device's performance in everyday use. The device has enough power for almost any task. The exception is the most resource-intensive 3D games. For example, at the maximum graphic settings everyone's favorite "tanks" turn into a slideshow. On the other hand, with the basic graphics settings, you can count on a smooth game with 50-60 fps.

1.3. Memory

Samsung A5 2017 is equipped with 3GB of RAM. This is normal for a device of this class. Except that together with the OS and running services, the Samsung shell eats up one and a half gigabytes. The manufacturer has recently been trying in every possible way to optimize the shell, but pure Android will work faster anyway.

The volume of the built-in storage is 32 GB, about 23 GB is available to the user. By conservative estimates, this will be enough for installing an impressive list of applications, a couple of "heavy" games, and for storing captured photos and videos. An expansion slot is always available for installing a microSD card with a maximum capacity of 256GB.

1.4. Autonomy

A built-in non-removable 3000 mAh battery and a non-voracious 14-nm chip give a good result. The device in normal, mixed use mode lasts up to two days from a single charge. With intensive use, the battery lasts for a day. Fans of watching TV shows on a smartphone are in luck: FullHD video is played for 17 hours. In HD resolution via MX Player - up to 19 hours, and at full brightness!

The power saving mode will help to extend the operating time, by limiting performance and other tweaks. Fast charging is supported, from 0 to 100% the device charges in just 1 hour.

1.5. Camera

Samsung A5 SM-A520F is equipped with a 16-megapixel main camera sensor with an equivalent focal length of 27 mm and an aperture of f / 1.9. The flash is quite bright, although it consists of a single LED. The interface of the application for shooting is concise, easy to learn. There is a lean PRO mode. It is a separate section, into which the basic settings were simply transferred: ISO, white balance and exposure.

During the day, the camera shoots well, at the level of solid middle peasants from China. The color rendition of the images is good, close to natural, the level of detail is quite high. White balance is detected correctly, dynamic range is wide. In the evening and at night, things are not so fun. In automatic mode, the appearance of noise, loss of detail and overexposure of bright objects are provided. In addition, the device focuses slowly, very often a blurry picture is obtained.

Affected by the lack of optical stabilization. This is a significant downgrade compared to the 2016 version. But it is not all that bad. If you mount your smartphone on a tripod, manually adjust the sensitivity and exposure, you can achieve an acceptable result. The maximum resolution of recorded videos is FullHD (30 fps). The result is not bad in terms of quality. But other manufacturers offer at least the ability to shoot at 60 fps, or 2k and 4k resolution.

The front camera received wide-angle optics, and can shoot with a resolution of 16 MP. The photos come out pretty good, but you shouldn't expect anything special. In terms of image quality, the front camera is significantly inferior to the main one. But there are branded chips that smooth the skin, enlarge the eyes and allow you to correct the shape of the face. The focus is fixed, set for close-up shots. Because of what distant objects are out of focus. At dusk, instead of a flash, the face is illuminated by the bright backlight of the screen, filled with a white background.

1.7. Display

The device is equipped with a 5.2-inch display with a solid FullHD (1920 × 1080) resolution. Excellent image clarity is achieved through a high pixel density (424 ppi). The SuperAMOLED matrix is used, with its characteristic rich color reproduction and deep blacks. The "vyvvyglaznaya" gamma is regulated in the settings, if desired, you can activate more calm tones. Viewing angles are good, colors can only be distorted at extreme angles. The margin of maximum brightness is high.

There is a blue filter for those who worry about their eyes. One of the main advantages of this smartphone is the Always On Display function. This is a feature that migrated from flagship models to the middle segment. Thanks to it, the current time and date, battery level and missed notifications are displayed on the locked screen. The screen is covered with 2.5D glass with a good oleophobic coating. The touchscreen recognizes 5 simultaneous touches.

1.8. Connection

In Samsung A5 2017, you can install 2 NanoSIM cards at the same time. The set of supported mobile networks includes 2G, 3G and 4G (LTE-A Cat6), with all common frequencies. The smartphone is equipped with a Bluetooth v4.2 module, and dual-band (2.4 and 5 GHz) Wi-Fi a / b / g / n / ac. Thanks to the presence of NFC and MST, the device can be used for contactless payments. Support for the Samsung Pay payment service has been implemented. However, it is temporarily unavailable to the owners of the "A" series.

For navigation and geolocation, you can use GPS + A-GPS, Glonass and Beidou. The smartphone copes with the role of a navigator flawlessly: it finds satellites within 10 seconds, accurately determines the location.

1.9. Sound

The external speaker received a non-standard location - on the top of the right edge.

Accordingly, it will not overlap, regardless of the position in which the smartphone is lying on the table, or in the hands. Undoubtedly, this is a plus, but the sound seems muffled. This is due to the fact that the speaker is protected from the ingress of dust and moisture with a special membrane. If you allow for that, the sound can be considered good.

It is quite clean, moderately loud, almost all musical instruments are transmitted. Unless the bass is heard. When using headphones - no surprises, you can enjoy quite normal sound. There is a built-in software equalizer from Samsung. FM radio is also supported. The device has two microphones: one for spoken and one for noise cancellation.

1.10. Operating system

Out of the box, SG A5 2017 comes with Android 6. An update to Android 7 will be released soon. Traditionally, for Samsung smartphones, a proprietary shell from the manufacturer is installed on top of the system. Only instead of TouchWiz, as in the Note 7, the Grace UI is used. The relatively new shell inherited from TouchWiz not only gluttony for resources. But also an eye-pleasing, bright and customizable interface, with a built-in theme manager.

There are also branded software chips, also inherited from the flagships of previous years. For example, splitting the screen into 2 parts for two applications, one-handed operation, quick launch of the camera by double-clicking the Home button, etc.

1.11. Peculiarities

For the scanner to work, you need to put your finger at the right angle, and only when the screen is on. That is, to unlock the device, you first need to press the Home button, and then scan the fingerprint. Fortunately, to do this, you don't need to press the button and swipe it over the scanner - just put your finger on it.

2. Pros and cons of Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)

Advantages:

design (for an amateur)
dust and moisture protection of the case according to IP68 standard
you can use two SIM and a memory card at the same time
good display, function "Always active screen", the ability to filter blue
normal autonomy

Flaws:

no optical stabilization
there is no possibility of shooting at 60 frames per second and in 4k resolution
features of the fingerprint scanner

3. Alternatives

OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T offer better performance. The Honor 8 is also more powerful and has a better camera. Xiaomi Mi 5s offers a more practical metal body and a convenient fingerprint sensor. Meizu Pro 6 is a music flagship with 4 GB of RAM. And finally, the Galaxy S6 is in the same price range, but has a much better camera.

4. Our opinion on the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)

In general, the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) is a good smartphone, which inherited the flagship chips from the "older brothers". As you can see from the review, it does not stand out with the best performance and camera among the competitors. But it pleases with autonomy, water protection and the Always On Display function.

I would like to praise the manufacturer for such small steps of a large company towards the user. We are talking about separate slots for 2 SIM and a memory drive, as well as a camera module that does not stick out of the body.

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) smartphone
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) smartphone

02.06.2017

Foreword

Hello everyone. So, I finally decided to make a review of one of the new products from Samsung - Galaxy A5 2017. What prompted me to buy this particular smartphone? After all, I have a wonderful and perfectly working one! Yes, he is good for everyone: with a screen, and with power, and with everything that is possible. But there is one "but". And this "but", in fact, covers the many advantages of this flagship of 2013. Battery. Which constantly swells like there is nothing to do. On this flagship, I have already changed a bunch of batteries, and they all worked for no more than six months, both the originals and their Chinese counterparts.

And so, at the end of 2016, I saw the announcements of the updated A-series line on the site, and the middle device, with number 5, attracted me both by its characteristics and appearance. Although the price, of course, was biting at that time. So, after reading a few more reviews on it, which were just beginning to appear, I already knew for sure that as soon as it appeared on sale, I would buy it! And I bought it!

Criterias of choice

For me, in smartphones, the camera has always been important. Although it is clear that for high-quality shots it is better to have a DSLR, it is nevertheless nice to have both a phone and a high-quality camera in a single bottle. And if this bottle is also beautiful, then it is even better. And handsome, you can't argue with that! Well, for me, at least.

Battery. It was not the capacity that was important, but how economically the charge is consumed. And according to reviews, this smartphone keeps the charge well.

Multiple symbols and MICROesdeshnost. And preferably, all together, which is rare even for flagships.

Protection against water and dust, well, that is, IP68 standard. I have never had a secure phone ...

Appearance

And what I also like is the build quality. And although I used to be constantly confused by the peculiarity of then some smartphones with non-removable batteries, I must admit that such smartphones really feel monolithic. Well, although it also had a good build quality, it surpasses it very much in this parameter.

Plus, the speaker is not located on the back of the smartphone, but on the side. This is very cool, because when you play on a smartphone, you cannot cover the speaker with your hand. And when it lies on the table, the sound will not overlap, again. As for me, this is the most convenient location. Although in terms of sound quality it falls short. Yes, loud, yes there is a hint of bass. But its probably not the best sounding due to its water resistance.

The buttons are made quite in the spirit of Samsung, clear and minimalistic. They are pressed clearly and do not hang out in their usual holes. As well as the Home button, to which I am accustomed to, is also present and does its job properly, also serving as a fingerprint scanner. But more on that later.

The back of the smartphone houses a camera and flash. The camera does not stick out from the body, and there is no fear of scratching the peephole. The flash also does not stand out in any way.

Screen. Display

The more - the better - I think. And therefore, I did not take a smartphone with a diagonal of less than five inches. And he took a smartphone with a diagonal of 5.2 inches. And the resolution is not lower than Full HD. Because less I can already see grain in the display. And 2K is so in general. Okay, this is all chatter, because it is not the resolution that decides, but the number of ppi. Is that so? Just after reading about the A3 2017, which has too grainy HD resolution, I refused to buy it in favor of the A5 2017, which is fine with this case. And my favorite AMOLED with acid colors is in place, just the way I like it. Of course, in the display settings, you can also turn off this acidity, but I did not. Let it not look natural, but pretty.

No graininess is visible. The viewing angles are the widest. But when you deviate to the sides, you can still see that the colors are not exactly inverted, but a small fraction of green, very small, is present. And this is such a feature of this model. Interestingly, this was not observed, and there are several years of difference between these smartphones. But let's not forget that it was the flagship, and this is the average ...

As far as the tactile sensation is concerned, this is fine here. The fourth generation Gorilla Glass makes itself felt. I don’t know about the strength, I haven’t checked it and I’m not going to, but my finger slides over this "monkey" like clockwork. As for the oleophobic coating, it seems to be there, but there is no particular effectiveness. But what I want - if you use any smartphone, drag your finger over it, then traces of them will remain anyway. They also appear on them, and are more or less erased, there is no discomfort.

I read an interesting fact on one site about the oleophobic - they say, there is some kind of defect on these new smarts - in some places of the display it is quickly erased, and the traces are too visible from this. I don’t know how it looks live, rubbed, rubbed, stained, stained, wiped - but I did not notice such a defect, or it does not look bright on my device. It doesn't matter, because I immediately glued tempered glass to the screen to prevent scratches. After all, no matter how they assured that Gorilla Glass protects from scratches, I then managed to plant a scratch ... True, this glass does not completely cover the display, because the A5 2017 now has a new-fashioned 2.5D.

I was always dissatisfied with the fact that Samsung's Tachwiz shell is slow, overloaded, though outwardly beautiful. And it was strange for me to see how everything was done slower on the flagship than on inexpensive Chinese smartphones with pure Android. Now I will say something else - the shell changed its name and began to look much better - and ... most importantly - it just flies.

Really flies, no kidding. Everything opens quickly, that gallery, that the dialer, the camera. I don't notice any lags or brakes, surprisingly.

The version here is Android 6, a kind of marmalade.

An over-the-air update is supported, and I constantly turn it on in order to find "nougat", that is, the seventh version, which Samsung promises in the spring. Summer is coming, and there is no new version. I would very much like to. Look, middle peasants or even basic ones from LG come out immediately with a seven, but what do we have? Still a six. How is that?

In general, the design of the new shell from Samsung differs not only visually, and practically, the settings menu has been slightly changed, there is even support for what I was incredibly happy about, so I will not risk installing custom firmware in order not to get a "brick". And here you can externally change Android so that no firmware is required - it will be enough just to go to the Samsung branded store and register, download the necessary themes, and even the icons you want separately. Which is what I actually did.

There is also a blue light filter that reduces eye strain by limiting the amount of blue light. In fact, the screen just dims and gives off more yellow.

I have never used a device with such a screen parameter.

By the way, there is no LED here that signals missed calls, messages, turns on the screen and shows the clock screen saver if you hold your hand over the LED. At first I suffered from this, then I got used to it, especially since instead of the LED there is one feature that was previously available only to the flagships of the latest generation - this is Always On Display, which, thanks to AMOLED technology, constantly displays clock and notifications on the screen saver, or you can put the calendar. And this function does not consume much battery power.

In the "Optimization" item, the parameters of the battery, memory and RAM are comfortably located. Everything is convenient and understandable.

This smartphone also has NFC support for payment. Everything is standard.

The fingerprint scanner, as I said, is present, and I did not understand this trick before. But having tested it on my own experience, I realized that a fingerprint scanner is a convenient thing. First of all, because of the protection. Because no one outsider, whose fingerprint has not been entered, so to speak, in the database, will not be able to unlock the smartphone, and thereby see its internal contents. The speed of the scanner does not cause any complaints, everything is fast enough, as soon as you put your finger on the Home button, the screen is unlocked immediately. Even in some narrowly focused applications, such as banking, this method of entering your personal account also works. Very comfortably. And I'm so used to unlocking a smartphone using a scanner that, picking up another device from Samsung, I automatically try to unlock it in the same way!

As for the rest, the shell over pure Android is quite wow, it is convenient to use. As for the rest, it is a familiar "robot".

Performance. "Moscha", random access memory

It's time to say a little about the hardware as well. Inside the new smartphone is a proprietary processor from Samsung - Exynos 7 Octa 7880. If you need dry numbers - here, 8 Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.88 GHz, Mali-T830 MP3 950 MHz. Now for my personal feelings: if the flagship was kind of fast, although it was a heavy shell, then everything here is an order of magnitude higher and faster. All operations are performed just lightning fast, programs open quickly, it is a pleasure to use. I understand that now there are those who say that even last year's flagships will be faster and more powerful than. Perhaps it is, because neither, nor and, and even more so, I did not use, because I used the old one, and I directly compare it with the brand new A5 2017, and for me it is much faster than my previous device. Judging by the test in AnTuTu, it can be seen that this is a real average and is gaining "only" 60078 points.

Yes, this is not much, but for me, who saw the number on the flagship of 2013 at 28,000 points, it is a monster in the best sense of the word ☺.

As for heating under load, it was a pleasant surprise for me in the sense that no matter how I tried to load the smartphone in order to cause heat from all sides, I could not do it. Even when scrolling through the desktops, the screen was already becoming noticeably warm, and if you surf the Internet for a while, the screen was already heating up decently. As soon as you go into a toy, even an undemanding one, such as Angry Birds, the heating was felt even more. And if you take a photo or record a video, it was just painful to hold the smartphone in your hand, because the heat was felt both in the front and in the back.

Vladimir Nesterov

Samsung updated its Galaxy A series in 2017, today we will test the middle brother of this family -. I would like to note that the manufacturer listened to some of the wishes of its fans, the model turned out to be really good, although not without minor flaws. The A5 was fully tested for a week as the main phone. The review is based on the feel and experience of the average user.

The equipment for this model is quite simple:

the Galaxy A5 smartphone itself;
charger with USB and micro USB cable;
paper clip for opening trays;
simple headphones;
special adapter for interaction with old phone models;
passport, warranty card.

In fact, it is a copy of the older brother A7 with minor differences: the battery capacity is less, the screen diagonal is also. The smartphone is available in several colors: black, blue, gold. We had a black version of the smartphone on the test. The company's designers did their best - the smartphone looks elegant.

The phone supports two full-fledged Nano-SIM cards plus a microSD memory card with expansion up to 256 GB. There are two trays:

the first one is located on the upper edge of the phone and is designed for 1 SIM card and a memory card.
the second one is located on the left side of the model and is intended for the second sim card. The solution is very successful, because the upper tray can be used with the main card, and the side tray, if necessary, can be used for a second SIM card.

On the upper edge of the smartphone there is a tray for a SIM card with a memory card, an additional microphone. The main speaker in this model has moved to the right side - a very good solution for gamers, now the sound will not be hidden during the game. The sound itself from the speaker is not very loud, but it is sufficient not to miss an incoming call. On the same side there is a “on / off” button for the device.

Below you can see: USB Type-C connector, headphone jack, spoken microphone. The sound in headphones is not perfect, but it is pleasant for everyday listening as an MP3 player. On the left side there are volume control buttons and a second tray for a SIM card.

Touch control buttons in this model are located under the screen. From left to right, you can see: a list of recent applications, a main button with a built-in fingerprint scanner to exit to the desktop, a return button. The "home" button, unlike the previous version of this model, is slightly recessed into the body and does not play. The scanner works very quickly, recognizes all touches, during testing, there were no problems with it.

On the back cover, the main camera with flash is installed. There are two cameras in the Galaxy A5, both 16 MP: front and main. There is no optical stabilization in them. The quality of the main camera is average, slightly worse than that of the A7 of the same year. Although the A7's camera is far from ideal.

The A5 is equipped with a self-made processor from Samsung - an 8-core Exynos 7 Octa 7880 with a clock speed of up to 1.9 GHz. RAM in the phone is 3 GB. The smartphone test results are quite good:

AnTuTu - Dingle-Core - 766 points, Multi-Core - 3958;
AnTuTu Benchmark - 61760 points;
graphics test showed FPS - 59.9.

All these indicators will be enough for work for a couple of years. You can play almost all modern toys on this smartphone. Network shooters are better set to medium settings, and at maximum A5 it will obviously slow down.

The networks have everything you need to work, plus NFC and Samsung Pay. There are no problems with payment by phone through the terminal. Navigation systems GPS, Glanass work average, signal reception is fast.

The phone battery has a capacity of 3000 mAh. Based on the test results, we can confidently say that it will be enough for the whole day. If the operation is not very active, then the charge will be enough for a longer period of time. When playing a video at maximum brightness, the battery lasts for 14 hours of continuous playback.

The display has a diagonal of 5.2 inches, with a proprietary Super Amoled display from Samsung. The resolution of the screen is Full HD 1920 × 1080 pixels, while the screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4. Amoled displays from this company have always been famous for their image quality, excellent viewing angles.

Samsung Galaxy A5 test results.

Final conclusion: In general, we liked the model; many wishes of users were taken into account. Excellent screen, good performance, well-thought-out ergonomics of the entire device. The price - yes, it bites, but it is, after all, a brand. With a limited budget, it is better to pay attention to Chinese manufacturers. , , or Russian .

Cons of Samsung A5 2017:

not a low price tag, but it must be borne in mind that this is, nevertheless, a brand.
a slightly slippery body, especially along the side metal edges.
the main camera is very average, but perhaps this shortcoming will be corrected in the future through a firmware update.

Pros of the Galaxy A5:

a good processor that can easily cope with most modern toys, both now and in a couple of years.
a good battery, the capacity of which will be enough for a whole day of work.
good location of the main speaker.
moisture protection according to IP68 technology.
the model has interesting solutions:

if there is a contact on the screen, to connect with the subscriber, it will be enough just to bring the phone to your ear, the connection will happen automatically, which is very convenient.
extreme power saving allows you to extend the operating time of your phone by 5-10 times when the battery is low.