Phone available only in stores.
By Dileep Thekethil
Galaxy A5, the first full metal unibody smartphone model unveiled by Samsung, has been listed on the company’s Chinese website for $420.
However, Samsung is not selling Galaxy A5 online. Instead, customers are asked to visit the nearest Samsung retail store to purchase the device.
While announcing the model last month, Samsung had only unveiled the single SIM model, but last week the Chinese website listed a dual Nano SIM version of Galaxy A5 with identical specifications.
The Chinese website of Samsung has not listed Galaxy A3, which was launched alongside Galaxy A5. If the company follows the trend of making a dual SIM variant for all the latest mid-level smartphone, one can expect a dual SIM version of Galaxy A3 soon on the Samsung website.
Galaxy A5 has a 5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display and is powered by a 1.2 GHz Quad-Core Processor, coupled with 2 GB RAM.
The USP of Galaxy A5 is its dual camera. The device has a 13 MP auto-focus rear camera with flash and a 5 MP front camera, offering the young a superior selfie experience. The 5 MP front camera has extra features like Wide Selfie, Palm Selfie, Animated GIF, Beauty Face feature etc.
Galaxy A5 has 4G LTE enabled with CAT6 antenna that allows the phone to access 4G on the higher band frequency of 2.6GHz.
A5 has an internal storage capacity of 16 GB, expandable up to 64 GB using MicroSD card. The new smartphone from Samsung runs on Android KitKat 4.4 out-of-the-box. Samsung might soon come up with a Lollipop update.
The device has a 2300 mAh battery that might drain out in few hours if used continuously for playing games and surfing net. Power bank will be a handy gadget for avid net surfer or game enthusiast.
Galaxy A5 has connectivity features such as Bluetooth: 4.0, WiFi, NFC. The phone also has a few sensors such as Accelerometer, Proximity, Geo-magnetic, RGB ambient light and Hall Sensor.
At the beginning of November, there were reports that Samsung might delay the rolling out of Galaxy A smartphones due to the low production yield of the metal body. That said, Samsung will launch the Galaxy A5 in Chinese market in November.
Samsung had earlier planned to launch the Galaxy A during the third quarter but due to the risk in procuring the high yield metal casing, the company postponed the launch of its first-ever complete metal body smartphone for the fourth quarter.
SamMobile wrote: “[B]eing Samsung’s first attempt at making smartphones with full metal bodies (ones that take away the traditional Samsung feature of removable batteries), the company was met with low production yields while manufacturing the metal casings. According to our source, the casings did not meet the quality requirements Samsung was aiming for, and only around 50 percent of the yield came out right.”