There once was a time in smartphone history where the line in the sand was clearly drawn. On one side stood Apple, with a beautiful but limited operating system housed in a premium and stylish aluminium frame. On the other was Samsung, with a gaudy but incredibly flexible Android system stationed in enough plastic to make tupperware jealous.
Fast forward, and that axis still exists… arguably. Yet how times have changed; as Apple slowly and carefully extends iOS’ reach, Samsung have made the leap from plastic to metal; and what a fantastic leap that is. The Galaxy A5 is the second Samsung smartphone to stand on this precipice and reap the results.
There’s been much written on the Galaxy A5 already, and a majority of that content – rightly so – focusses on Samsung’s design decisions with a metal smartphone and just how that affects usability. In the spirit of rebellion, let’s deal with this later, as perhaps it is best to start at the beginning and evaluate the Galaxy A5 for the smartphone it is.
The Galaxy A5 costs roughly R6500. That smacks this smartphone squarely at the upper-mid end of the price spectrum, which is where many wealthy South Africans seeking a premium smartphone – those who aren’t prepared to splurge on an insanely-priced iPhone or Android flagship, that is – will endeavour to throw their money.
At this juncture, theres a choice: quality over performance, or performance over quality. There are great phones, such as the now aging LG G2, which can be found at a similar price.For example, The G2 offers a great use factor, but pales in terms of design aesthetic compared to its predecessor, the G3.
What the Galaxy A5 absolutely nails is the balance between the two: offering a premium design while at the same time accommodating a decent performance. While the A5 might not arrive with Android 5.0 Lollipop (it instead comes with 4.4.4 KitKat), it is potentially one of the cleanest, easiest-to-use exemplars of why Samsung smartphones appeal to so many South Africans.
The A5 sports a super AMOLED display accommodating a moderate 294 pixels per inch ““ however, in use, the A5‘s display feels of a greater quality: colours are vivid, and the display offers a surprising amount of depth. The Galaxy A5 also sports a Snapdragon 410 processor, with 2 gigabytes of RAM and 16 gigabytes of storage, expandable up until 64 GB. The Snapdragon processor, while occasionally underpowered – resulting in interface lag or an outright freeze – performs cheerfully for most common tasks.
The A5’s battery life, considering the phone’s slim frame, is also amicable – the 2300mAh battery will see the average user through roughly 16 hours of normal use. Standby time is excellent, and the A5 will seldom loose more than 5% of its battery capacity over a night’s sleep.
All of these factors amount to a smartphone that is deliciously easy to use, while at the same time seldom offering little-to-no performance issues. I loathe the application of TouchWiz as much as the next Android purist, and while it does occasionally cause the phone’s Snapdragon processor to tremble, the implication is far less terrible than it was on earlier Samsung phones.
The A5 also has – for its position in the greater Samsung world – a truly great camera. Detail is crisp, colours are accurate, and the camera launched far more quickly than any other Android snapper I’ve been privy to use. The primary 13 megapixel camera works a charm, and easily accommodated closeups, as I spent most of my time trying to outdo it. The 5 megapixel camera offered great quality, at a resolution that easily matched the phone’s display.
Many Apple fanboys have for years derided Samsung for copying Cupertino’s work in an all-out effort to conquer the firm as the largest smartphone producer on the planet. Many times over, that criticism was valid. Yet this, I feel, is the first Samsung smartphone to fly as closely to the sun that is Apple’s product approach and not have its wings burned to ash in the process.
Yes, the A5’s outward appearance does scream Apple. Whether it’s the rounded bezels, the use of glass and metal, or even the presence of an irremovable battery, the A5 does move into iPhone territory. However, the most worrying aspect – for Apple at least – is that the A5 does it well.
The A5 shares a 5.“ form factor with its predecessor – the Galaxy Alpha – and is framed in a classy all-metal chassis that feels absolutely great in-hand. The thinness of the device in no way impedes any comfort; the full-metal unibody is simultaneously slim, at just 6.7mm, and feels rigid and unyielding. A bend-gate, this will not cause.
Samsung’s design approach with the A5 largely seems to be a continuing experiment to evaluate how consumers react to its premium-feel aesthetics. The slimness of the A5 is definitely a desirable factor, as the thinness of the side panels highlights the long swathes of glass and aluminium that render the device so bespoke for a mid-ranger.
Indeed, the device is so thin that the primary camera protrudes from its position at the top center of the phone to even more of a degree than the iPhone 6’s main camera; the camera enclosure often caught on the lip of my jeans’ pocket. Luckily, the A5 runs cool to the touch, and I never experienced any overheating that can sometimes occur in an all-metal frame. The only negative experience I had dealing with the A5’s frame was its propsenity to bend the MicroUSB jack I used to charge it. Luckily – even while bent – the phone still charged.
In conclusion, its necessary to consider the A5 as the sum of its parts, lest we end up defining the device by them. For an upper-mid-range smartphone, the Galaxy A5 is one of the best devices I’ve had the pleasure of using. It’s crisp, elegant, useful, and in no way an obvious compromise over a more expensive flagship. It’s a beautiful phone that will likely appeal to a mass market whose hearts long for an iPhone, and wallets long for a Nokia.
The A5 isn’t perfect, nor does it try to be. Yet it does represent one of the most compelling buys I’ve seen this season; a mid-weight that punches far above its station. I’ve admittedly not had the time with the Galaxy S6 that I’ve had with the A5, though, from what I’ve experienced, and the amount of money such a choice might cost me, I’d be more than content using the latter.
Score: 8/10.
Follow Bryan on Twitter: @bryansmith1138
