Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) vs Galaxy A5 (2015) Compare

With the launch of the updated line of devices Galaxy A5 (2016) Samsung has brought the premium features in the middle segment of smartphones. The new Galaxy A5, on the characteristics of an average unit of three, is an example of the company's eagerness to get into a more accessible band mobile market. Today we will have a detailed comparison of Galaxy A5 (2016) and Galaxy A5 (2015). Briefly: Excellent hardware and software, but in spite of the TouchWiz interface is optimized, the problem is still there. 

Characteristics

We begin, of course, by comparing the technical characteristics of the Galaxy A5 (2016) and Galaxy A5 (2015). The list of specifications provides a brief, cursory glance the differences and similarities between the two devices: 

	GALAXY A5 (2016) SM-A510	GALAXY A5 (2015) SM-A500
Display	Super Amoled 5.2 inches (1920 x 1080, 424 ppi)	Super Amoled 5 inches (1280 x 720, 294 ppi)
CPU	Exynos 7580 Octa core, 64 bit, 1.6 GHz	Snapdragon 410 Quad core, 64 bit, 1,2 GHz
Memory	2 GB of RAM 16 GB of storage microSD support	2 GB of RAM 16 GB of storage microSD support
Housing	Metal, glass	Metal
Cams	MP 13, OIS, f / 1.9 5 MP front 1080p video Pro mode	13 MP, f / 2.0 5 MP front 1080p video
Battery	2900 mAh Support for fast charging	2300 mAh
dimensions	145 x 71 x 7.3 mm 155 grams	139 x 70 x 6.7 mm 123 grams
other	Android 5.1.1, Radio The fingerprint scanner, the latest version of TouchWiz	Radio, Android 5.0.2

Design

About a year ago, Galaxy A5 has become one of the first smartphones Samsung, who received a metal enclosure. Still, its sharp edges and line boring prevent gadget win the competition for the best design. New reminds his appearance Galaxy S6 current flagship, as it has a glass back cover. 

Specifications Galaxy A5 (2016) and Galaxy A5 (2015)

Although the original Galaxy A5 has not been slow in daily use, it chetryehyaderny Snapdragon processor 410 already showed mediocre performance. The new Galaxy A5 (2016) is equipped with an eight Exynos 7580, which has an excellent speed. 

Remained unchanged device memory. These are the same 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB constant. It is interesting that although the Galaxy A5 (2016) copies the Galaxy S6 design almost completely, it is equipped with a slot for microSD-memory cards. In general, the smartphone offers a very good performance in comparison to its predecessor. 

Display

Galaxy A5 (2015) provides the user with Super AMOLED-display with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels, and his successor screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, which is much larger. The density of pixels in the Galaxy A5 (2016) is 424 ppi versus 294 ppi in the Galaxy A5 (2015). 
Battery 

Very often consumers have expressed their wishes to the manufacturer to increase the capacity of the battery, instead of making the device thinner. It seems, the Samsung has done just that: A5 (2016) is a little thicker than its predecessor (7.3 mm vs. 6.7 mm), which made it possible to establish a more capacious battery (2900 mAh vs. 2300 mAh). The new device has bypassed even premium Galaxy S6 of the gadget, which is equipped with a battery of 2550 mAh. Of course, the novelty has yet to be tested in real conditions before drawing conclusions, but it has huge potential to become one of the best gadgets for autonomous operation in its category. 

Camera

Camera Galaxy A5 (2016) has not suffered great changes, as compared to the Galaxy A5 (2015). Updated smartphone received the same 13-main and 5-megapixel front camera. Although the gadget is now equipped with an optical image stabilization system, and become a little more aperture - f / 1.9. It is worth noting that you can quickly start the camera by double clicking on the "Home" button. 

You may be disappointed lack of ability to shoot 4K-video and HDR in real time. 

Functions and Features

As we mentioned, the new A5 has received a number of very important features. This optical stabilization, a screen with perfect resolution and improved battery. In addition to the metal housing and AMOLED-display, the first Galaxy A5 has other advantages over its competitors, even though he got a slot for memory cards microSD. 

Galaxy A5 (2016) kept the last two functions, and even received the support of technology fingerprint scanner, which had previously been available only on the flagship devices, and rapid charging. These features are extremely useful, and many are crucial when choosing a smartphone. 

Software

They left the most interesting thing in the end, you ask? Sorry, but no. With the Galaxy A5 (2016) there was the same story as that of its predecessor. New running on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop operating system, though it has been almost 3 months from the Android 6.0 release. Of course, I would like to Samsung are more concerned about their own software gadgets. Freshness OS is also important. 
It is worth noting that the new optimized TouchWiz combined with improved hardware leaves a pleasant feeling, regardless of version of Android. 

results

Taking into account all of the above, two things are clear. First, the manufacturer is committed to competition in the market middle segment of smartphones, combining quality build and a large number of really useful features. 

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) is much more than just an updated version of its predecessor. For some parties, it looks even better than the flagship smartphone Galaxy S6.

Review of Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (SM935F): on the brink of perfection (Part 2)

Click here to read the first part of the article about Review of Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (SM935F)

Interface
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge running the operating system Android 6.0 Marshmallow with a proprietary interface TouchWiz. On the desktop by default is the widget "Google search», a folder with Google apps and the main Samsung Apps.

Note that on the desktop, you can select multiple mesh screen sizes: 4x4, 4x5 and 5x5.

Swipe to the left turns the screen can be called Briefing, allowing to read the latest news on a given subject. In addition to Google apps and programs branded Samsung, the device pre-installed application WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram (we all have one owner), Microsoft Apps and Papergarden application for reading magazines.

On the unlock screen, everything is familiar: a large clock on the top center of the active notification labels and grown in size quick launch icon "Phone" and "Camera".

Notifications panel also looks familiar to TouchWiz: top five icons quick settings, adjust the display brightness, fast connection and active notification. Pulling the second time, open all quick settings - you can change their order.

"Dialer" has not changed and is familiar to users of Android with TouchWiz - classic sans serif font.

Keyboard appearance remained unchanged, but it now appears a lot of options. For example, the fifth row of numeric keys can be disabled, but we think it is extremely convenient. You can also change the keyboard height. Continuous input is included in a separate menu.

But the story about the device interface is not complete, since there are two interesting "chips". The first - always on display. Through the use of Super AMOLED, can be displayed on the screen of the monochrome image with the clock, missed calls and SMS and hardly spend the battery. The user can choose what to display on the screen - a clock, calendar or a picture, choose a style of hours (a total of seven) and even display the background image (there are four).

When the screen is locked, the clock appears, and no longer need to unlock it to check the time or see if anyone called.

The second "trick" - a curved display. In S7 edge he received more applications: added Yahoo News.

Tasks edge is designed for quick access to certain functions or applications easy to communicate with your favorite contacts.

Basic, little has changed. Visually, it appeared in the side panels of the second row. Well, in general, third-party applications, edge-ground under the screen, it became more. For example, there was a panel of friends online game League Of Legends. The most interesting side of the widget allows you to open a compass, a ruler, or turn on and adjust the brightness of the flashlight.

When the screen is off in the same way as before, you can call the information panels, including notification, weather, Twitter trends, and numerous applications Yahoo.


In short it should be said about the gesture control. It is still there, just not particularly Samsung focus on it the attention of users. All that was in the past generation, and remain there, but added, very interesting and useful "chips". For example - an intelligent capture: as soon as a screenshot, the bottom there is a small menu that allows you to crop images quickly and send it to someone else. All this makes the device a little more convenient.

Apparatus in
The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge mounted eight-processor Exynos 8890 processor with a clock frequency of 2.3 GHz. The market will also be presented with the option quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, which will be in a version with a SIM-card and a dedicated slot for a microSD card. Last, most likely, will not appear in Russia in the official retail. In our country, will be officially on sale a version with support for two SIM-cards and a universal slot, which is based on Exynos chipset.

Graphics Accelerator - Mali-T880. Resources Memory - 4 GB RAM and 32/64 GB internal. The latter can be expanded using microSD cards up to 200 GB, but will have to decide whether the second SIM-card memory or more.


The smartphone runs quickly and smoothly. Work tables are turned over without any problems, the browser does not slow down anything. Minor delays occur when you open the image in the gallery. Rather, it is an early feature of the software version.

Before the start of the game test it is important to mention about one more innovation in the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge - Annex Game Tools. It allows you to turn off notifications on the game, as well as lock the touch buttons "Menu" and "Back". Game can be minimized, make a screenshot and record video from the screen. Moreover, you can display an image with the front camera when broadcast and use a microphone. It is also possible to choose the video quality and bitrate. In fact, with the Galaxy S7 edge can be "Stream" mobile games.

GameTools present as small red spot in the corner and does not interfere with play.

Synthetic tests showed the following results:

Online video is played without any problems. With movies in HD and Full HD resolution, loadable from the device memory, they are also there.

The sound from the speaker quality and loud. But location is not the best - it is very easy to close, if you hold the smartphone horizontally.

Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge set the main camera sensor c 12 megapixel with LED-flash and auto focus. Camera compared to S6 edge lost megapixels - a generation ago was a sensor 16 megapixels. In fact, in Korea's actions there is some trick. The fact that the image size M 16 are achieved by the aspect ratio 16: 9, while 12 and Mn were present in the past year at a ratio of 4: 3. In fact, in the S7 edge user is obliged to take in the proportions of 4: 3 (which, by the way, is a more traditional format for classical photography).

Starting the camera application is possible from the desktop and from the lock screen, but the fastest way to enable application - double-tap the home button.

On camera, we'll talk in more detail in a separate article. Now briefly say that almost the best camera to date on the market Samsung Galaxy S7 edge. It focuses very quickly and is able to produce excellent results in all conditions. Especially impressive are the results of night shooting. Make it easy to shoot while viewing examples.


Main camera:

Wireless interfaces

The device supports data networking in 2G, 3G and LTE (4G). During the test the speed of LTE could disperse to near 87 Mbit / s for reception and release rate reached during the daytime to 36 Mbit / s. Excellent.

The gadget is equipped with a module Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac and accordingly supports dual-band connection. There is also Bluetooth 4.2 module installed. Available also NFC-module that is located under the camera unit to the manufacturer's logo area.

navigation module supports the GPS network, the GLONASS and BeiDou. The satellites are determined by fairly quickly, on a "cold" start out from 5 to 10 seconds.

Autonomy
The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge set non-removable battery capacity of 3600 mAh. You can count on the operation of the device throughout the day in a fairly active usage mode (3-3.5 hours of web surfing, social networking and chatting, half an hour of voice calls, shooting photos and video recording).

In one hour of the game about a third of the brightness and Wi-Fi enabled spent about 15-16% of the battery charge. But when viewing the video in the "flight" at full brightness per hour takes only about 5% of the battery. As part of testing, we continuously twisted video in Full HD quality and 10 hours battery sat less than half - 49% charge.


Remember that the kit includes an adapter for fast charging, maintaining the amperage 2 A at 5 V and current of 1.67 A at 9 V with him the device is fully charged from scratch a little less than 2 hours. But the essence of the fast charging is not even that - just half an hour of the smartphone battery can be recharged to 60%. By the way, Samsung Galaxy S7 edge supports wireless charging, and more.

results
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, without a doubt - one of the best devices ever produced a Korean company. Last year, Samsung engineers were given an excellent flagship, but in 2016 they took the imaginary file and needle file and "trate 'curved smartphone to perfection. In fact, S7 edge - this machine without obvious drawbacks: someone may not like the combo slot, but the company has returned microSD support. There are no USB Type-C, but, at first, not the fact that it is vital, and, secondly, connectors device without plugs are not afraid of dust and water (protection class IP68 on). Someone does not like shell TouchWiz, but it has changed a lot last year, for the better. And if the absolute cons the device is not present, the pros - a lot. Large battery and excellent charge flow optimization, high quality display and brilliant camera, the presence of all modern communications and uncompromising performance - all new Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.

Pros:

• one of the best cameras on smartphones;
• long battery life;
• curved Super AMOLED display of high quality;
• microSD card support up to 200 GB;
• dust and moisture protection class IP68 without caps;
• support fast and wireless charges.

Minuses:

• combo slot for nano-SIM / microSD;
• easily soiled case.

Click here to read the first part of the article about Review of Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (SM935F)

Review of Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (SM935F): on the brink of perfection (Part 1)

 The article has been divided into two parts because of its greater length. Its the part number 1 of the review. here we have discussed about Packaging equipment, Appearance, Ergonomics, Screen of Review of Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (SM935F): on the brink of perfection

You can find the discussion about the other ideas about Review of Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (SM935F) in part 2 of the article.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge will be the first high-profile flagship of 2016, as will appear on store shelves March 18. The company continued to develop smart phones last generation, and made no less interesting device, taking into account almost all, as requested by users: in the "Galaxy" back support memory cards, battery capacity has increased considerably, the camera is no longer "stands" on the rear surface of the housing, which received more fluid and comfortable lines for the hands, as well as protection against dust and moisture - whether to grieve for non-removable battery?

Specifications Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (SM935F)

• Screen: 5,5 ", Super AMOLED, 2560x1440, 534 ppi
• Processor: 64-bit eight-Samsung Exynos 8890 2.3 GHz
• Graphics Accelerator: Mali-T880
• Operating system: Android 6.0 Marshmallow
• RAM: 4 GB
• Built-in Memory: 32/64 GB
• Memory card support: microSDXC up to 200 GB (universal slot)
• Communication: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz || UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz || LTE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 20
• SIM: nano-SIM + nano-SIM, Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS)
• Wireless interfaces: Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFC
• Navigation: GPS, GLONASS, Beidou
• Cameras: Home - 12MP (f / 1.7, autofocus, LED-flash), front - with a 5 megapixel (f / 1.7, fixed focus)
• Sensors: proximity, lighting, palpitations, the SpO2, microgyro, fingerprint reader
• Battery: 3600 mAh non-removable
• Dimensions: 72,6x150,9x7,7 mm
• Weight: 157 grams

Packaging equipment
Unfortunately, the smartphone has arrived in the editorial office in the so-called commercial version. Not sure if the user equipment is the same, but, nevertheless, briefly tell you about it. Thus, the kit includes an adapter for fast charging, maintaining the amperage 2 A at 5 V and current of 1.67 A at 9 V. Also included is a micro-USB cable and USB-adapter, with which you can transfer data from one device to another (Smart Switch function). It is worth noting that we did not have complete sets and staples for SIM-card slot. The latter will probably be. The presence of stereo headphones with a microphone we know nothing.

Appearance
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge as amazing as last year did first S6 edge, and then the S6 edge +. Then we saw two whole device with a curved front screen with different diagonals - 5.1 and 5.7 inches. This year, the Korean company has chosen a middle ground and released a device with a diagonal of 5.5 inches

To the Editor smartphone arrived in the colors of "Black Diamond", looking very stern. There are other options: "Dazzling platinum" and "titanium silver".

Most of the front surface is the display, above it - the front camera and sensors. Samsung logo located under the speaker.

Below are two classic touch keys: "Back" and "Menu", and in the middle - a hardware home button with an integrated fingerprint reader. A small detail: in the past generation home button chrome trim allocated in S7 edge it does not, so the device looks monolithic.

The display is covered with a curved safety glass. It will not go away edging aluminum frame. On the left side volume keys located on the right - the power button.

At the top end - compartment, which houses a slot for the SIM-card nano is versatile and a second slot for SIM-ki or microSD card.

Below are a 3.5 mm audio jack for headset, speaker grill and micro-USB port. The latter can be called a surprise, as more and more devices on the market are equipped with a connector USB Type-C. But the port is not afraid of water and dust is not needed in the plug.

The rear wall is also covered with glass, and, most importantly, it is also curved at the edges. The smartphone has become about a millimeter thicker, resulting in a seriously increased the volume of the battery and the camera performs at less than a millimeter.

in the center of the top is an updated camera unit, next to him - a flash and the heart rate sensor (heart rate), to which you can put your finger and measure the pulse using the S Health app. Also back is the logo of the manufacturer.

Overall, Samsung Galaxy S7 edge retained all the "chips" of the previous generation of devices, including the WOW-factor of the curved display, but it began to look more interesting, and in black - more concisely and rigorously.

Ergonomics
Dimensions Samsung Galaxy S7 edge determines the diagonal of the display - 5.5 inches. The frame around the display is about 2.5-3 mm. Dimensions of the device - 72,6x150,9x7,7 mm, and weight - 157 grams.


Thanks to the curved glass front and back, the smartphone is very comfortable to hold in the palm of your hand and even quite possible to manage with one hand. Moreover, thanks to the updated design, the metal frame is stopped to cut into the skin, while its thickness decreased significantly laterally.

The button layout is convenient for both left-handed and right-handed: they will be under the thumb and index finger of the left or right hand, depending on the grip holder.


The quality of materials and assembly - is beyond praise. You can complain about, except, to slots for nano-SIM cards and memory cards, as the internal "notch" are made of plastic and elastic.

Screen

The smartphone Samsung Galaxy S7 edge set Super AMOLED display diagonal of 5.5 inches with a Quad HD resolution (2560h1440) and a density of 534 ppi.

High pixel density ensures that the color transitions and pixelation here is absolutely invisible. Display, as usual with the Samsung, you can customize and select the mode: "Adaptive Display", "the AMOLED Movie", "Photo the AMOLED", "main". We stopped at the "Film AMOLED» profile: it is classic solution - there colors look a little more natural, and almost pure white without shades.

Screen superior color reproduction, wide viewing angles and a huge stock of brightness - all this relates to its undisputed advantages. Available oleophobic and anti-reflective coating.

If you look closely to the curved side of the screen when browsing, desktops, will be visible geometric distortion of images and icons, but that can be attributed to the cavils.

The screen is only positive emotions, but most importantly - this is the WOW-factor of the unusual-looking on the curved display content. One gets the impression that the picture and video are becoming more voluminous - it is an interesting sensation.

click here to read part 2 of the review