Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016): huge Samsung’s progress within one year

HighRabbit · March 9, 2016

Hey guys, as always, I have copied the whole article from my blog (except images, text under them, and some outside links) here, so you can simply scroll down and read. However, if you enjoy the full experience of reading with all the images, etc., you can read the same text in my blog, here. Enjoy reading, and comment!

Despite the fact that every Samsung’s fan’s attention now is at Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, not everyone can afford these two luxury flagships. But for the people who can’t or simply don’t want to spend that much money, Samsung has prepared a new Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016). I have tried the 2015 model and I didn’t like it too much, so, let’s see if Samsung has made any changes for better.

Design that makes this device look and feel premium
Despite the fact that Galaxy A5 (2016) is not a flagship Samsung’s device, it looks and feels really premium. It uses a “glass sandwich” construction – there’s glass in both the front and in the back, and there’s also a metal frame. It’s the same construction that Samsung used for its 2015 and 2016 flagships’. However, there are three design aspects that a bit disappointed me. First of all, it’s very easy to cover the speaker because it’s on the bottom of the phone. Also, Samsung still uses old MicroUSB and the glass on the back is a real fingerprints magnet. But these disappointments are very minor and they don’t really change my opinion about Galaxy A5’s design. It’s fantastic.

Incredible Super AMOLED display
The display is one of those aspects of Galaxy A5 (2016) that makes you forget that it is a mid-range device. This phone has a 5.2-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display. I remind you that 2015 model had a mediocre display and I didn’t like it too much. But this year Samsung did a great job, this Super AMOLED screen beats every other midrange device’s screen, there’s no doubt. I love its colors, sharpness, viewing angles, visibility in the sunlight. I love everything about this screen. Thank you, Samsung!

But software and its performance didn’t satisfy me
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) uses Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on it. Sadly, there’s no Marshmallow update yet and that’s really unfortunate as Android N is already on its way.

Samsung still has lots of room for improvement in TouchWiz. It is better than it was about 2 years ago, but it still has some bloatware and lacks optimization. The phone works much worse than I expected, and there are no excuses as Galaxy A5 (2016) has an octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor and 2GB of RAM, meanwhile Oukitel K4000 Pro with quad-core MediaTek 1GHz processor and 2 gigs of RAM just flies.

Also, there is still way too much bloatware on this phone. Most of its functions like Flipboard or S Voice should be downloadable, but not pre-installed. However, the biggest TouchWiz’s problem is still its performance – everything else is, at least, acceptable.

Fingerprint reader is terrible
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) has a fingerprint reader, but it’s almost terrible – it scans my fingerprint correctly about 1 time of 3, and that makes the experience even worse than using PIN. I don’t recommend using fingerprint reader on this phone.

But camera is impressive
Like the 2015 model, 2016’s Galaxy A5 has a 13 megapixel camera. But this year Samsung has improved it a lot. They added optical image stabilization (OIS) and simply better optics. How about the result? Simply woah. I don’t think that the Galaxy S6 is way ahead of A5’s. Sure, A5 (2016) has some problems with white balance and autofocus in the dark, but everything else has a really fine detail and impressive colors. You can check all the pictures I made by yourself.

Oh, and one more thing… Galaxy A5 (2016) doesn’t have 4K video recording, so keep that in mind if you wanted to create a movie using your phone. But you didn’t, so don’t worry. What you wanted is a one more selfie. And you will be able to do some amazing selfies with Galaxy A5 because it has a decent 5 megapixel front camera with a wide-angle lense.

Battery that will work for two days
Galaxy A5 (2016) has a non-replaceable 2900mAh battery that will last you full two days if you are using your phone moderately. You should usually get about 5 hours of screen on time and overall I think that Galaxy A5’s battery is a little surprise for everyone.

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) showed us what progress Samsung can make within a year
2015 model of Samsung Galaxy A5 was created for… Nobody. It had a high price tag, mediocre display, slow processor, and even Samsung itself had better phones in the market for the same price.

But this year story is different. Sure, I’d still better buy OnePlus Two, LG Nexus 5X or Sony Xperia M5, but Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) is a decent choice – it has a great camera, battery, display and design and if you like TouchWiz or you simply don’t care about user interfaces, it might be the best choice for you. However, if performance and stability are the most important for you, look for something else.