The smartphone world is like an infinite loop. It is always in motion with newer things replacing the old ones. Every smartphone requires a successor that would carry on its legacy and such is the case with the Samsung Galaxy A5 whose found a more than worthy successor in the form of the Galaxy A5 2016.
The A Team is a supreme mixture of premium build quality materials and superb specifications packed within some excellent prices. This is exactly what the Galaxy A5 2016 and Galaxy A5 are about which is why we’re here to separate the two and diagnose which is the better one so that those of you who own an A5 can decide whether to make the jump to the A5 2016. For those who don’t own an A5, they can decide whether to buy the older one on the cheap or go for the newer one.
Display and build quality
We’ll start this comparison with the Galaxy A5. What we can tell you with confidence is that the A5 was a one of a kind smartphone when it first debuted in 2014. This was made possible by its supreme metallic build and glossy finish that was simply breathtaking. Probably one of the slimmest releases ever with a 6.7mm width, the smartphone weighed in a miser 123g despite its metallic build which is simply amazing.
The front features a Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protected display while the back is made entirely out of metal. Both are separated by a layer of glossy metal which thoroughly compliments the A5’s body. Speaking of its display, it features a 5.0 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 294ppi pixel density. This translates into a 720p resolution which was and is, a respectable amount for a smartphone with similar pedigree to the A5.
When it comes to the Galaxy A5 2016, we’re talking about a completely revamped design compared to the Galaxy A5. The metal is almost gone and glass panels take center stage with this one. Personally tried and tested by us, we were simply amazed by how beautifully crafted this smartphone was.
The back features a Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protected back panel while the front features the display with similar protection. A metallic frame separates the two from any conflict. All in all making for a truly premium smartphone from Samsung.
The display in numbers is a 5.2 inches Super AMOLED capactitive touchscreen with 424ppi pixel density. This translates into a delicious 1080p resolution which was extremely pleasing to look at when we tested it. This is where the display features improved schematics compared to the Galaxy A5 while the overall build is also good though, the new design does buff its width up to 7.3mm, which in its own right is very respectable. If there’s dust or waterproofing you’re looking for here, we apologize as both the A5 and A5 2016 don’t know how to swim or clean.
Cameras
While the build quality and display category showed tremendous differences between the two smartphones, the cameras is where they show a lot more stuff in common.
The Galaxy A5 features a 13 megapixel primary sensor with autofocus and an LED flash. The camera was subject to immense praise on its launch as in 2014, this was a camera with a lot more prowess than it is now. Its selfie camera is also a respectable 5 megapixel sensor and both of these sensors fully appeased the public as they performed well up to the task.
The Galaxy A5 2016 features a small but important upgrade to its predecessor’s camera. Apart from having a smaller aperture size, the A5 2016’s primary sensor features OIS which further improves an already astonishing camera. The selfie camera also has similar pixels but then again, a smaller aperture size also.
Performance and hardware
The performance and hardware section sees the successor improve dramatically over its predecessor. This is because the Galaxy A5 was powered by a 1.2 GHz Quad-Core Cortex processor with 2GB of RAM. People expected it to perform a lot better considering it had 4 cores of back-end power but unfortunately, it couldn’t provide them with the lag-free Android Lollipop experience they were hoping for. Lag-free and being slow are two separate things and you’d be pleased to hear that the Galaxy A5 is devoid of the latter.
Its other notable mentions only include 6 different color schemes, all of which look sassy, as the A5 isn’t loaded with much features.
The Galaxy A5 2016 is a definite improvement upon its predecessor because its powered by an Octa-Core processor, which promises twice more clock-speed, with an additional 2GB of RAM. The RAM is similar which is a little disappointing but hey, they had to comprehensively differentiate the A5 2016 from the A7 2016 too! The Octa-Core processor brings much more processing power to the furor which results in a much improved performance for its built-in Android Marshmallow. Both the A5 and A5 2016 come in with 16GB internal storage variants with external card slots.
It also carries a fingerprint sensor and Fast Charge, both features that are unknown quantities for the Galaxy A5. All of the aforementioned features truly make the A5 2016, a much better smartphone than its older counterpart.
Pricing and warranty
Samsung officially sells smartphones in Pakistan which means a 1 year warranty is guaranteed with its products (assuming you buy from the right online store). Both the smartphones lie within the mid-range smartphones category but due to the older A5 spending more time in the market, it is bound to be much cheaper than the newer A5 2016.
Stay on the lookout for their ever-changing prices on our website; the Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A5 2016.
The verdict
If you haven’t quite guessed it yet, we’d solemnly suggest you to upgrade to the Galaxy A5 2016. We fully agree that the A5 is the more sleeker of the two smartphones but believe us, the A5 2016’s build quality was well beyond our expectations and it’ll surely appease you to the fullest. Other than that, it also shelters many other features that are now must-have (fingerprint, OIS etc.). So to keep yourself in sync with the world, the Galaxy A5 2016 is a good choice to go for.
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