Samsung showcases some new products every year at its South Asian Forum and this year saw two new smartphone announcements from the Korean tech giant. The new A5 (2016) and A7 (2016) are the latest entrants and a refresh to the previous-gen models. According to Samsung, the A-series has grabbed a lot of attention thanks to the premium design and a lower price segment than flagship devices.
Both the handsets come with a similar yet new finish combining glass and metal, something that was seen on the Galaxy S6 and the Note 5 last year. The handsets are slippery due to the glossy finish but definitely feel very premium, more like affordable Galaxy S6 models. While the A5 features 5.2-inch full HD Super AMOLED display, the A7 comes with a larger 5.5-inch full HD Super AMOLED display.
They will feature a 13MP rear camera with an f/1.9 aperture and OIS (optical image stabilization), which should offer pretty good low light performance, just like the Galaxy S6. On the front there will be a 5MP wide-angle camera. Both of them run on Samsung’s own Exynos octa-core processors and 16GB of internal storage along with an expansion slot. The A5 will have 2GB of RAM while the A7 will have 3GB of RAM. Both are dual-SIM and 4G LTE enabled, have a fingerprint scanner and run on Android 5.1 Lollipop along with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on top. In the battery department, the A5 will come with a non-removable 2900mAh unit and the A7 will have a similar non-removable 3300mAH battery.
Speaking to Manu Sharma, Director, Mobile Business, Samsung India, "The A-Series is an essential line-up of smartphones for Samsung as it offers luxurious styling along with a superior performance package. It has also been one of the most popular series in terms of sales ever since it was introduced."
The handsets are priced at Rs 29,400 and Rs 33,400 and will be available through Snapdeal and offline retail stores. The company is offering a bundle offer with Airtel where customers get up to 30GB of data for 6 months. The pricing does sound a bit on the higher side, but knowing Samsung, it should drop in about a month or so. Samsung didn't showcase the recently announced Galaxy A9, the top of the line model for the current series, which comes as a surprise but hopefully will be announced at a later period.
_20240701192043_original_image_15.webp)
