One of the effects of last year's revolution in smartfonowym directory Samsung is the creation of series A. Belonging to the phones have not compete in price and performance benchmarks, but the quality of workmanship and fine tune. This approach works, and although the first generation of Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 paper seemed to be very profitable, and so found many satisfied users. After testing the Samsung Galaxy A5 second generation, we believe that the popularity of this family of devices still strongly increase.
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) - a lot of news
Last year's Samsung Galaxy A5 fell to our liking because we like neat and hassle-free smartphones, but we also had some complaints. The main was that the performance and functionality have been too much depleted. In the second generation Galaxy A5 Samsung's designers have gone, but on the whole, and introduced a lot of improvements that we associate more with flagowcami than hardware middle class. The scale and type of change is best shown in the following table:
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2015) Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) The dimensions of 139.3 × 69.7 × 6.7 mm 144.8 × 71 × 7.3 mm
Weight 123 g 155 g
Screen 5 ", 1280 × 720 5.2" 1920 × 1080
410 Snapdragon processor Exynos 7580 / Snapdragon 615
2300 mAh battery 2900 mAh
OIS No Yes
Fingerprint scanner No Yes
Quick charge No Yes
As you can see, the exchange went not only such obvious elements, such as the processor and screen. Also added as useful things like: optically stabilized camera, fast-loading, fingerprint readers. In this list, we lack only the function for induction charging, but did not even try to complain about that, because the new Samsung Galaxy A5 and is already ... enough new.
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) - Specifications
The dimensions of 144.8 × 71 × 7.3 mm LTE Cat 6
Weight 155 g Wi-Fi 2-band, n
Screen 5.2 inch NFC Yes
1920 × 1080 Infrared Do not
AMOLED FM Radio Yes
Exynos 7580 processor output image not
8 × 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53 USB Host Yes
Mali-T720MP2 Noise reduction Yes
RAM 2 GB of available memory approx. 9.5 GB
Battery 2900 mAh Micro-SD Yes (64+ GB)
The camera on the back of photos: 13 MP OIS, F / 1.9, LED, HDR
Video: 1080p @ 30 fps.
Front camera Photos: 5 MP
Video: 1080p @ 30 fps.
Completely changed the look of this series of smartphones and conforms them to the Samsung Galaxy S6. The basic formula is the same: the front and rear glass, the edges of the metal housing, all assembled in a tasteful manner. However, a closer look at the Galaxy A5 reveals that rounding the corners have a smaller radius, the edges are more angular (which we like), the camera less protrudes from the housing and the edges of the glass panes of the front and back are gently rounded, making the glass more smoothly passes into the metal. They are not a revolutionary change, but it quickly appreciated. However, we have a small caveat: the side frames are very narrow and also slightly rounded, which regularly sometimes we accidentally touch the screen or the root of the thumb protruding fingertips covering the side of the housing. In the high-end smartphones such problems usually solves special algorithm rejects any unwanted activation digitizer cases, but apparently it lacked A5.
The rest of the parts looks and is distributed in a very typical way: on the top edge mounted only an additional microphone that is used in the active noise reduction, on the left there are buttons to change the volume on the right - off and drawer card nano-SIM card and micro- SD, and at the bottom - easy to obstruction hand speaker, headphone and micro-USB port. Samsung did not give up either of the buttons below the screen: mechanical appliances, of which the integrated fingerprint scanner and touch reversing and switching between programs. Everywhere there adequate attention to detail, so that all mechanical keys provide a very pleasant and easy tactile feedback and also house a delicate border in the same color as the rest of housing - a tiny thing, and happy.
In a nutshell: The Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) from the outside is the Samsung Galaxy S6, but ... nicer. And also a little bigger and heavier, mainly because of the long diagonal of the screen (5.2 inches instead of 5.1 inches) and a much roomier battery (2900 mAh instead of 2550 mAh). Designers Samsung somehow squeezed the essence of his flagship, and it replaced the light, and the result of these treatments was simply great. And a little unpredictable, but I did not expect that the new Galaxy A5 we like more than the Galaxy S6. Well, once again it turned out that small changes can have a surprisingly large effect on the whole. We are pleased, too, that more and more manufacturers see the need for great looking and made mid-range smartphones, and that these companies do not come only from China;)
Practice
Using the Samsung Galaxy A5 can be summed up in two words: pleasant and hassle-free. During testing, we do not stumble on any defect or lack of disqualifying, but instead we found a lot of things for which you can fall in love with this phone.
To a large extent this is due to lean TouchWiz, known for its Galaxy S6 and other recent Samsung products. What is true is still at refine this cap, but it is a whole lot better and less frustrating than the older versions, known reload functions and tools and notorious mulenia. We hope that Samsung will maintain this direction and will be added to your system only really useful and running things, not superfluous goodies that hinder more than help.
The new Samsung Galaxy A5 is equipped with a handy fingerprint scanner and support for Samsung Pay APPLEs, known for its top models of the company. Many people praised the convenience of biometric authentication, well, it goes slowly it also a little cheaper smartphones, but a bit of a shame that Samsung's implementation is not as fast and convenient as smartphones Huawei, the new Nexus and Apple devices. Unlocking the system takes noticeably longer (though still talking about the time of the order of a second, maybe two) and software often requires repeat scan, because he can not recognize the fingerprint.
With connectivity is all right: dual-band WiFi (but without support for Wi-Fi ac) works seamlessly and we saw no problems with coverage, the modem LTE Category 6, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC and USB host function (but without exit image). The handset provides good quality and volume of sound during conversations. So, as mentioned at the beginning of this section, it is all that important, and everything, most importantly, it works as it should work, but they lack some traits of larger and more advanced solutions.
The same can be said about the use of multimedia: Samsung Galaxy A5 decodes the video with a resolution of Full HD (also encoded HEVC codec) supports Miracast, and its headphone output and built-in speaker ... are sufficient: in terms of sound quality and volume balancing somewhere in the neighborhood average, which in practice means that the Galaxy A5 could not compete on the field with older flagowcami that cheapen had time to his level.
Modern screen Super AMOLED
AMOLED matrices are still seen as one of the most important incentives for the purchase of Samsung smartphones and there is no denying that it is no different in the case of the second-generation Galaxy A5. In the new model mounted screen really great quality, outgoing ago Galaxy S6 only resolution (Full HD instead of QHD). It can shine very brightly, so be it comfortable to use, even in very sunny weather, perfect images of blacks, and was equipped with a factory-calibrated color profiles, so the displayed colors will be satisfied both purists, looking for possible good their mapping, as and those who prefer more saturated. It really is everything what you expect from a decent display of good quality.
You just need to remember the typical disadvantages of organic matrices: the time may lose their clarity and may appear on them afterimages, and when set to a lower brightness have a problem with the display of smooth gray backgrounds. Used by Samsung anti-reflection coatings also make it when the screen Galaxy A5 look at large angles, are beginning to be visible purple discoloration. However, these are little things that in the eyes of the vast majority of future users will have greater significance in the context of the undeniable advantages of display used.
Very solid uptime and fast loading
Another big advantage of this year's version of the Samsung Galaxy A5 is the time to act. Relatively low-power processor, modern display and battery with a capacity of 2900 mAh simply did their job. Not only that, actually there are no elements that would somehow extremely greedy for power, it's still the ones that are, once you start to need energy, enjoy a considerable supply of it. During testing, the Galaxy A5 times we were amazed at the evening show the battery indicator after a day's use of the hot-spot, listening to music, take pictures, record videos, surf the web and use of navigation. You really need to try to defuse this phone in one day. Actually, there are only two ways: 3D games and set the maximum brightness of the screen for the duration of use. Most people will, however, was loading the phone every two or three days. Since we're at it, it is worth noting that the new Samsung Galaxy A5 supports fast charging and is sold with a suitable charger, allowing the energy to complete one hundred percent in less than two hours. Really decent piece of work.
Stabilized camera and Full HD camcorder
Cameras with a resolution of 13 MP are already standard in smartphones, but stabilized optics is still a luxury item. That is why we are very pleased that stabilized, clear lens aperture of F / 1.9 went to the second generation of Samsung Galaxy A5, because this is in addition far more important and more useful than another pixel matrix.
SoftwareThe software is based on known solutions Galaxy S6, and thus inherits all of their advantages and limitations. Until there is some further problems, which remind us that the Galaxy A5, however, is not the Galaxy S6.
Strengths of this software readability, speed and efficiency of automation, and its weakest point is the so-called professional mode, which is professional in name only. If, however, the most important thing for you is to give up as soon as possible to grasp the personnel, and do not plan to bury the manual settings, I just want to ... camera work, this Galaxy A5 is for you.
The only pity is that the HDR mode is very limited compared with its counterpart from the Galaxy S5 and S6. It is impossible to watch the results live, and the maximum image resolution is limited to about 8 MP. Fortunately, and so it provides a pleasing picture, so it's easy to forgive these minor shortcomings, fairly typical for this class of equipment.
Image quality
If anyone of you expecting the Galaxy A5 camera image quality, such as that provides the Galaxy S6, we have bad news: not yet. The overall image quality we assess as good: the tonal range is relatively large, the colors are nicely saturated, and the detail is decent for a phone of middle class. However, a closer look reveals a large amount of noise (even at low sensitivities matrix) and aggressive noise reduction, blurring fine detail. It is particularly strong noise reduction can be felt when shooting in low light, because even though the camera Galaxy A5 (2016) has stabilized optics, pictures indoors and night look a little worse than expected. Our final assessment of the camera Galaxy A5 four-plus, that is fast, easy and fun, but still would like to know more.
Camera
Camera Galaxy A5 (2016) has a very basic functionality and is devoid of any technical bells and whistles. Optical stabilization works very well during the filming of the hand, the quality of Full HD video is high, but ... that's about it. Adjusting the exposure recording is impossible (the camera always uses matrix metering, which is problematic if a large part of the frame is such as sky, because then the result will always seem too dark), there is no mode of 1080p @ 60 fps. or use UHD resolution. In short, there is not much of anything beyond the absolute minimum necessary. Less demanding smartphone filmmakers may not notice these shortcomings, but still we were hoping for much more than the bare minimum after the smartphone that has stimulated our appetite fine tune and decent facilities ...
Performance remains the weak point of the series A
The good news: the new Samsung Galaxy A5 is much faster than its predecessor. The bad news: it is still the least efficient smartphone of this class. And regardless of the version, because the stores can meet both the Samsung Galaxy A5 ośmiordzeniowym Exynos 7580 (this version, which we test in Poland is much more popular), as well as a variety of ośmiordzeniowym Snapdragon 615 (which is a bit faster GPU and a little slower CPU) . Gamers should definitely look for something else, but if you require a 3D game completely you are not interested and you care only on that to smartphone fared well in everyday use, then you know that the new Samsung Galaxy A5 will not disappoint. Slim TouchWiz running it very briskly and save the game actually never missed a performance, because the phone in most situations is simply not fast enough. This does not mean that we are defending the approach that Samsung has adopted a series of A. As usual we find that the development smartfonowych processors reached the point where fewer and fewer people really need these powerful CPUs.
The world ends - Samsung is doing cool smartphones
The beginning of the new year greeted us with a pleasant surprise, because it totally did not expect so large changes in the second generation Galaxy A5 and that it will prove so successful, and the tests will make us that much fun. Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) has everything what most owners of the smartphone needs to be completely happy: it is well made (and in our opinion nicer than the Galaxy S6), has a very good screen with a decent resolution, good camera stabilization, works very well (the latest software update also much improved memory management), a long-running (and when you need to recharge it, it's just a dozen minutes to the indicator system appeared to additional tens of percent), and of many people appreciate the convenience, which provides fingerprint reader.
Samsung Galaxy A5 is still not a rival for flagowców, but we really like the choice of what was cut from the Galaxy S6, and what is left, and you can see that this was done with the head. Of course, it is not without flaws equipment and next-generation A5 is still not the most profitable and fastest smartphone in its class. Therefore, we believe that, however, he could use slightly reduced price. But if you are measuring the quality of smartphone performance in AnTuTu, and above all you care about, that equipment was hassle free and provide joy to use - we recommend.
Leave a Reply