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Poised for a global release soon and priced between Rs 25,000-40,000 bracket, the refreshed versions of these A series phones will quite be head turners, says Himanshu Juneja.
Samsung is ready with its A series 2017 smartphones, and although the series has not been able to make any serious impact till now, Samsung plans to set that record straight this year.
Features like IP68 certification, always on display, premium build quality borrowed straight from their flagship Galaxy S7 series, and Samsung Pay complete with finger print scanners on this year's A series handsets are looking fabulous.
With the onslaught from the Chinese makers not looking to ease anytime soon, it was natural for the other manufacturers to push for more feature laden handsets.
The Samsung Galaxy A3, A5 and A7 phones are slated for a global release soon, and the handsets seem poised to turn more heads this time round. We take a closer look at what they have in store for us.
Samsung Galaxy A7 2017
The eldest sibling in the series surprisingly had missed out on the Samsung Pay last year despite carrying the fingerprint sensor. That, among other things, has been corrected this time round to bring forth a more powerful model.
The SoC sees the customary upgrade and while it is carrying a newer Octa Core CPU, the RAM stays put at 3GB. The on board storage doubles up in size and now sits at 32GB.
The resolution stays at 1080 x 1920p but the screen is now 5.7-inch as opposed to the 5.5-inch of 2016. This has resulted in increased phone dimensions and weight, albeit not by much. The cameras do get some boasting rights, with the rear shooter being 16MP as compared to 13MP.
The front unit goes up to 16MP vs the 5MP of yesteryear.
It is entirely obvious that Type C will be the connector here. The battery pack is 3600 mAh. The 2016 edition came with 3300 mAh, and given the increased screen size and upgraded SoC, battery back up in terms of hours should be near about the same.
Samsung galaxy A7's India pricing should be between Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000.
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)
The second in the Samsung's designated mid-ranger series has similar growth pattern when compared to its 2016 avatar. We again see the small increments in dimensions and weight.
The Galaxy A5 already had the fingerprint scanner and Samsung Pay built in since last year; so this along with the new Octa Core SoC replacing the 2016's 8 cores will come across as marginal increment to many.
Onboard memory of 32GB gets doubled, while the 1GB RAM increment over last year means 2017 edition comes with 3GB.
The screen size and resolution remains same at 5.2-inch and 1080 x 1920p respectively, but the camera at the rear goes up from 13MP to 16MP.
The front shooter also sees a big upgrade, going from a paltry sounding 5MP to 16MP.
A very slight bump in the battery department means that the latest A5 comes with 3000 mAh battery capacity. USB 2.0 standards from last year have been bettered by USB Type C.
Going by the EUR 429 pricing, the Indian price should be well below Rs 30,000. Even then, it will feel the heat from the likes of OnePlus 3T.
Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017)
The Galaxy A3 with its 4.7-inche screen brings back the memories of the time when the regular sized handsets were the norms.
Samsung has dished out the refreshed A3, and while the IP68, the Galaxy S7-esque metal and glass build, and the USB Type C connector are some major improvements, there is more goodness in store.
The 2017 edition witnesses marginal increments in dimensions and the weight, but the screen size remains the same, as does the 720p resolution.
The SoC sees an important upgrade and the processor this time round is an Octa Core SoC Exynos 7870 replacing the Quad core SoC from last year. The RAM goes up from 1.5GB to 2GB.
The storage space unfortunately remains the same at 16GB, and will make some cringe. Similarly, the rear camera is the same 16MP affair, but the rear snapper goes up from 8MP to 16MP.
Last but not the least, the battery sees a marginal increment as the 2017 model comes with a 2350 mAh battery pack, bettering the 2300 mAh from last year.
The EUR 329 makes us believe this should land up within the Rs 25,000 price bracket.
A powerful GPU and an improved rear camera would have landed the A3 2017 with some serious credentials, but Samsung clearly wants to keep this series mid range.
All the three handsets come with expandable storage memory option, Super AMOLED screens with Corning Gorilla Glass protection, support for fast charging, and will be released on Android Marshmallow (ver 6.0.1 ). The last bit was disappointing.
Thankfully, Nougat release is in the works and should land well in time. Samsung also claims to have installed enhanced cameras, which will yield better night time photography experience.
Of course it remains to be seen how these handsets will perform when put under the scanner, so stay tuned for in depth analysis from our side.
Note: The last two images of the new Samsung Galaxy A3, and the rest of Samsung Galaxy A5, have been sourced from http://www.samsung.com/uk/
The UK website has no information about Samsung Galaxy A7 but the Internet is abuzz with its impending launch along with the A3 and A5.
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