Samsung Launches New Galaxy A Series for 2017 - A5 and A7

Samsung kicked off the year of the Rooster with the official launch of two new Galaxy A series smartphones for 2017, A5 and A7. Samsung held a media gathering in Makati where tech bloggers and gadget enthusiasts were invited to witness the arrival of these two new phones in the Philippine shore and personally learn what the latest Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 have in store for us.

These two smartphones have a lot in common both in stunningly beautiful design language that really resembles the current flagship counterpart Galaxy S7 and in technical specifications. Galaxy A5 (2017) and A7 (2017) are almost exactly the same products only different in two aspects, size and battery capacity. The A5 bears a 5.2-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display with 3,000mAh battery while the bigger A7 has 5.7-inch display with all the same resolution and the same Super AMOLED screen and also a much bigger 3,600mAh battery pack. These are quite large battery packs and usually take so much time in charging, thankfully Samsung opted out for a USB Type-C port for both of these handsets which allows them to be equipped with fast-charging technology.

Water and Dust Resistance

The Galaxy A5 and A7 are not just about beauty and power anymore but also about durability. Samsung Electronics, for the very first time, has made these latest versions of the Galaxy A series more rugged and perfect for users with active lifestyles equipping the two mobile devices with IP68 certification. Basically, the A5 and A7 are now water and dust resistant phones. Users can submerge them up to 1.5 meters deep underwater for as long as 30 minutes. Take note that these phones fall under the midrange category, and up until today this particular feature is almost nowhere to be seen from other smartphones in this category.

One more very likable feature about the phones is that both front and back cameras are pegged at 16MP with large f/1.9 apertures, and not bulging out of the 3D glass-protected back panel, which should be perfect for taking photos and videos even in low light situations. See rest of the specs below.

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) specs:

• 5.2-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display
• 1920 x 1080 resolution
• 2.5D + 3D Glass back
• 1.9GHz octa-core Exynos 7880 processor
• 3GB RAM
• 32GB internal storage
• Supports microSD card up to 256GB
• 16MP rear camera with f/1.9 aperture, PDAF
• 16MP front camera with f/1.9 aperture
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, GLONASS, NFC
• Dual-SIM
• LTE cat 6
• USB Type-C
• IP68 Certification (water and dust resistant)
• Fingerprint Scanner
• Black Sky or Gold Sand
• 3000mAh battery

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) specs:

• 5.7-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display
• 1920 x 1080 resolution
• 2.5D + 3D Glass back
• 1.9GHz octa-core Exynos 7880 processor
• 3GB RAM
• 32GB internal storage
• Supports microSD card up to 256GB
• 16MP rear camera with f/1.9 aperture, PDAF
• 16MP front camera with f/1.9 aperture
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, GLONASS, NFC
• Dual-SIM
• LTE Cat 6
• USB Type-C
• IP68 Certification (water and dust resistant)
• Fingerprint Scanner
• Black Sky or Gold Sand
• 3600mAh battery

Beginning January 14, the Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017) will be initially available on Lazada for Php19,990 and Php23,990 respectively.