The flagship of the middle class: smartphone Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) - advantages and disadvantages

The beginning of 2017 for Samsung fans was marked by the release of new smartphones in the A line, focused on the production of phones in the middle price segment. From the very beginning of the release of mobile phones of the A line in early 2015, it was represented by the A3, A5, and A7 models. In 2017, Samsung decided not to change its traditions and also released three phones with the same numbers.

In this article, we will take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of the youngest of the three brothers, the Samsung Galaxy A3, and analyze how it differs from the older ones, so that you can decide for yourself whether to buy it or not.

Equipment

The package bundle for this model is quite standard for more or less new Samsung phones. It includes:

• The phone itself;
• Charger with USB connector for 1.5 Amperes;
• New generation Type-C cable for high-speed data transfer. It is used in almost all new devices. The length of the cord is standard and is 1.2 meters;
• Quite good wired in-ear headphones with a volume control button and an answer / call rejection button on the wire;
• An interesting surprise was a small adapter from microUSB to Type-C, which can come in handy if you have an old microUSB cable or charger, which, thanks to this adapter, can still serve you.

Design and convenience

The diagonal of the screen, which, by the way, has a SuperAmoled matrix with HD resolution, is 4.7 inches, under the screen there is a proprietary Samsung mechanical HOME button, which is also a fingerprint scanner. To the left and right of it are 2 touch buttons.

Above the screen is a speaker, a proximity light sensor, the one that turns off when you bring the phone to your ear, and a front camera. On the right, the manufacturer has placed buttons for adjusting the volume, on the left there is a speaker and a power button. The speaker is not too loud, but the sound is clear and pleasant.

The dual sim slot is located on the top of the phone. Since there is no separate slot for a microSD card, the user will have to choose between two SIM cards or a SIM card and a memory card. On the bottom, there is a Type-C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The body itself is made of aluminum, and the front and back panels are protected by Gorilla glass 4. The phone is available in three colors: gold, blue and black.The most spectacular of them is, perhaps, black, because due to the design features, the turned off screen seems to merge with the body and the transition border is almost invisible.

The device is also quite comfortable, fits well in the hand. Is that a little slippery because of the glass on the back. So if you are afraid that it might slip out of your hands, then you should purchase a case. The weight of A3 is only 138 grams, as the smallest in the entire line. A5 and A7 weigh 159 and 186 grams respectively.

Peculiarities

It is worth starting, perhaps, with the Always On Display function. It allows you to look at the clock, calendar, battery indicator and other useful information without unlocking your phone. In 2018, almost all phones already have this built-in feature, but until 2017, it was implemented only in the flagship Samsung models.

The phone also supports Samsung pay, which allows you to pay for purchases with your phone instead of a plastic card. It can even simulate a magnetic strip using MST technology. Since their release and until now, the 2017 A line is the most budget phones that support this payment method.

The IP68 water and dust resistance standard used makes the A3 quite reliable, like its brethren. You don't have to worry too much if it falls into the water, because with its water resistance level, it can lie under water up to 30 at a depth of up to 1.5 meters without any loss of performance. And there is no need to even talk about dust and dirt inside the phone.

Main characteristics

Memory

A3 has only 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal memory at its disposal, which is quite a bit, and having only a combined slot for a SIM card and a memory card, owners of two SIM cards will have to be content with only these 16 gigabytes. There are no such shortcomings in A5 and A7, since in addition to 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal memory, they also have an additional slot for a microSD card.

CPU

The A5 and A7 models have a completely new, at that time, 8-core Samsung Exynos 7880 processor, operating at a frequency of 1.9 GHz, but the A3 was slightly cheated by installing the Samsung Exynos 7870 processor, whose frequency is only 1.6 GHz. Therefore, the A3 is not as fast as its counterparts from the same line, and gives out only 45,000 in the AnTuTu test, while the rest of the models from the same series quietly gain about 60,000.

If we talk about games, then it’s not a fact that such power is enough for new items in 2018, but, for active games in 2017, it will do. Although with difficulty. Take, for example, the rather demanding Asphalt Extreme. It works fine at maximum settings. However, really heavy games like Unkilled slow down even at medium graphics settings. With light 2D or just not very demanding games, there should be no problems at all. True, when recording video from the screen, almost any, even not at all demanding games, start to slow down.

Another advantage of this processor is that its temperature almost does not rise, despite the absence of throttling (specific protection against processor overheating by skipping machine cycles (cycles) and, following this decrease in processor performance, however, preventing it from further heating).

This was made possible thanks to the state-of-the-art FinFET process technology, which makes it possible to create processors with a thickness of only 14 nm.

Camera

The rear camera is 13MP with a good aperture - f / 1.9 and autofocus. The capabilities of the camera are small and will not give much room for shooting. Regular photos, HDR mode, panorama shots, food, night shooting, and indeed everything. There is a PRO mode, however, it does not have too many settings. You can only change the white balance, adjust the ISO in order to increase sharpness and adjust the exposure compensation.

The shots taken by the camera, however, turn out to be quite good, however, it is often necessary to wait 2-4 seconds for focusing before the camera takes a picture if you are photographing in conditions of non-ideal lighting.

You can see how the camera takes pictures below:

And here is an example of how he photographs at night:

The front camera deserves special praise. With a matrix resolution of 8 megapixels and the same aperture as the rear camera, selfies are highly detailed and with excellent color reproduction. There is a built-in photo retouching program that allows you to whiten your skin, smooth out wrinkles, widen your eyes, and some other little things. In general, selfie lovers should like it.

An example photo of the front camera:

You don't have to worry about the video camera at all. The phone can shoot video in FullHD with a frequency of 30 fps. The sound and detail are top notch. There is also autofocus. Some complain, however, that it is too smooth, even slow, but this is completely uncritical. Shaking from walking when shooting is not compensated, so you need to shoot carefully.

Interface

Samsung galaxy A3 was released on Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS with a subsequent upgrade to Nougat.The smartphone uses the standard Samsung shell. Describing it in detail does not make much sense. These are all the same desktops familiar to everyone with widgets and icons.

A screenshot can be taken by pressing the HOME key and the lock key, which is almost impossible to do with one hand. Unlocking by default is done by pressing the power button and swiping up the screen.

Software

There are about 45 apps preinstalled on the phone, the vast majority of which cannot be uninstalled. (Except maybe UBANK, Yandex and a couple of standard Samsung programs).

These include: a standard set for utilities used in all smartphones, redesigned by Samsung for their models. Such branded applications from Samsung as: S Voice, Samsung's own "Siri", Samsung Health, which is useful for those who need to monitor health indicators, Samsung technical support, Galaxy Apps, a kind of google play analogue for Samsung phones, have not gone away.

Also installed by default are applications from Google, the Microsoft Office software package, Skype, Facebook, One Drive cloud service, Samsung pay, which was mentioned above and others.

The settings look quite compact due to the fact that a large number of parameters are collected in various sections, such as:

• "Optimization" - includes settings for RAM, ROM, battery and security settings
• "Sound and Vibrations" - contains sound control options, as well as an equalizer and even things like reverb, which can please people who are prone to using a smartphone as a full-fledged audio player.
• “Display”, in addition to the standard screen settings, allows you to turn off the Always on Display function, however, it does not consume a lot of batteries, and the thing is quite convenient, so you can leave it.
• "Extras" are mostly things like gesture control, eye tracking (the phone doesn't turn off until you look away), and the near-useless screen shrinking tools.

In general, the firmware seems to be a solid and complete shell, but perhaps too overloaded. The manufacturer put a lot of things into it. Take at least 45 pre-installed applications. However, in such a large functionality, you can find almost any functions that you may need, so it's up to you whether it's a plus or a minus.

Battery

The energy source for this model is a Li-Ion battery with a capacity of 2350 mAh. It easily provides the phone with high autonomy, despite such a modest-looking capacity. Fast charging is not implemented in this model, but with a charging speed of 1 hour 35 minutes with a standard charger, it is not needed.

Despite the small amount of battery, it lasts quite a long time. If you keep the screen on for 3-5 hours a day, with active data transfer to LTE and making calls, then the battery charge will calmly last for 2 days

If you use the phone exclusively for calls, you can even count on 5-6 days of work, depending on the operator and the frequency of these calls, of course.

Watching high-definition video with the brightness turned up to maximum will drain the battery in about 17 hours, which is very, very good, especially considering such a small amount of battery.

With such indicators, the operating time is definitely an advantage of this model.After all, even with active use and a heavy load on the processor, it is unlikely that this device will be able to discharge in less than a day. And with such a charging speed, the problem of lack of energy goes away by itself.

Communication options

There is no need to talk about the availability of access to the Internet, the presence of WI-FI and GPS, especially in models of 2017. Although it is worth noting that here these functions are implemented just fine.

GPS access speed only takes about 10 seconds. Navigation works perfectly and without failures, thanks to a competent approach to the design of antennas.

The device works on almost all required LTE frequencies, which can also be considered a compliment to antenna manufacturers

It also has a built-in FM radio. Just like a nice bonus.

What is the price

As of August 2018, the average price for this device is:

1. In Russia - 13,500 rubles;
2. In Belarus - 500 denominated Belarusian rubles;
3. In Ukraine - 6500-8000 hryvnia;
4. In Kazakhstan - 75,000 tenge.

Here we have indicated the approximate cost in online stores in various countries. In order to better navigate the price and find where you can profitably buy this model, you should not be limited to the first store in your region, but consider offers from several points of sale. You may be lucky enough to stumble upon discounts. However, you already know about it.

conclusions

Summing up, I would like to say that the phone turned out to be quite good, although there are controversial points, but first things first:

Advantages

• In the manufacture of the case, the manufacturer used good and high-quality materials, and the assembly itself is beyond praise;
• The advantage of the processor is its small size and manufacturability, as a result of which it almost does not overheat and at the same time ensures stable and smooth operation of the phone in operating mode;
• The biggest plus of the phone can be called its battery, which just amazingly holds a charge and does not run out for a long time;
• The high class of protection against water and dust IP 68 makes the phone quite tenacious and will protect it from unpleasant accidents in which case;
• Availability of Samsung pay service;
• Always on display function;
• An excellent speaker that produces good sound and is also well protected from water.

Flaws

• The minus of the processor is its still not very high performance. If it is enough to work with applications, then there are problems with games;
• An unnecessarily overloaded shell, taking up about 10 GB of memory from the standard 16, leaving the user with only 6;
• A small minus is that the phone is quite slippery due to its design, and buying a case is highly desirable;
• The camera in the phone, although not bad, lacks stabilization, which negatively affects the quality of pictures when shooting moving objects. Also, after reading the reviews, you can see that the focusing speed does not please not only us.

Samsung Galaxy A3 is a worthy smartphone of the Korean brand from the budget class.