Review of smartphone text samsung a 3. Internet and communications. The SIM card is used in mobile devices to store data that certifies the authenticity of mobile service subscribers

For samsung 2017 became the year of the championship. The Koreans not only released one of the most technologically advanced Galaxy S8 flagships at the moment, setting the bar for the famous IPhone, but also updated many younger and simpler models. Among those who were noticeably upgraded, there was also a line of medium samsung class Galaxy A. And not only the older models of the series, but also its youngest representative - Samsung Galaxy A3.

Specifications Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017)

The South Korean developer is quite cunning - while most manufacturers are still chasing the screen size of their smartphones, Samsung is chasing the quality of technology. The guys from this company know their customer. And they know that a small but productive gadget is valued much more among ordinary people than a large smartphone with a weak processor.

As a result, we see annual updates to the South Korean mid-range lineup.

In technical terms, the Samsung Galaxy A has undergone significant changes. However, the models in the series do not differ so much.

Housing

Like its older counterparts, the A3 is smoother and more rounded. The corners of the body no longer protrude so clearly, and the edges smoothly flow from one to another. Many people do not like this decision regarding the redesign, they say, the phone looks like a soap dish. However, such are the current trends - angular cases now seem to be the trend of the last century.

The perimeter of the phone is framed by a metal frame, the front panel is covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 with 2.5D effect. At the back, the same glass covers the slightly curved rear panel. By the way, the panel is now smooth, there are no protrusions on it, the camera lens is perfectly retracted deeper into the body, which is quite convenient. The glass surface can sometimes play a cruel joke with its owner - glass and metal in the body materials make the phone uncomfortably slippery. If you intend to carry it without a case, be careful and hold the device tighter. Any fall in this case guarantees cracks and scratches on the phone case.

The front panel is not much different from the version of 2016 - the screen occupies about 70% of the entire front part of the device, above it there is a speaker, the company logo, front-camera and a proximity sensor. Below is the "Home" button on the mechanics with a built-in fingerprint scanner. Here is the "Return" and "List of applications" on the sensor. The touch buttons do not remain visible on the panel in the inactive mode, although this is one of the signs of budget - more luxury models do not have this anymore.

Photo gallery: features of the appearance of a smartphone

Many users noted that after the redesign, the phone looked like a soap dish
The camera now practically does not protrude beyond the surface of the body

At the bottom there is a mechanical button to return to main screen and touch "Context menu" and "Back"
The speaker was originally placed on the side, next to it is the lock key

On the bottom there are two connectors - for headphones and for a charger
Above the display you can find a speaker, a front camera lens, a motion sensor and the usual logo of the developer company

On the top edge of the phone, the developers justified the SIM card slot and microphone
Traditionally, the left side houses the volume up and down buttons

The dimensions of the device remained practically unchanged. The phone's length and width were respectively 135.4 x 66.2 mm, and its thickness was 7.9 mm. The weight of the model is 138 g. Compared to the last year's version, the body length, thickness and weight have increased, but the width has decreased. Apparently, the developer tried to bring the phone as close as possible to the FullHD parameters with 16: 9 aspect ratios.

There are only three color solutions: black (Black), blue (Blue), gold (Gold), pink (Pink). In general, we tried to please everyone.

The small size of the phone makes it extremely ergonomic and convenient. It is pleasant to hold the phone in hand, and an attempt to reach the opposite corner, if necessary, will be crowned with undoubted success even among girls.

Technachinka

The Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 is powered by a fairly powerful eight-core Exynos 7 Octa 7870 processor, which is manufactured using 14 nanometer technology. Four ARM Cortex-A53 cores were placed here, whose clock frequency equals 1.6 GHz, and the same number of cores gPU Mali-T830. By the way, this chipset was previously included in the oldest representative of the budget J line - the Samsung Galaxy J7 last year. You shouldn't expect high results from the filling developed for medium-class phones. However, for its price and niche, the phone demonstrates good performance and stable performance. Local technology is quite enough for everyday work. More resource-intensive tasks, although they noticeably load the processor, are still too tough. But it is useless to test the power of the hardware on heavy 3D games.

Photo gallery: Galaxy A3 2017 benchmarks

Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 runs on a fairly efficient eight-core Exynos 7 Octa 7870 processor Four ARM Cortex-A53 cores were placed here, whose clock speed is 1.6 GHz. Also, the smartphone has four Mali-T830 GPU cores
For its price and niche, the phone demonstrates good performance and stable operation. In single tests the cores show low results. The joint core test will give a completely different picture - the result is "above average"
Despite the fact that the smartphone is significantly inferior to the leading flagships of the company, its performance is absolutely sufficient for most everyday tasks. Difficulties in work are caused only by heavy and resource-intensive 3d games If you buy a smartphone for work and everyday tasks, and not for games and entertainment, the device will not cause any complaints

Android version 6.0.1 Marshmallow is installed here with Grace UX shell, which is among lineup Samsung was only used in Note7. It has a custom notification panel and settings menu, and also provides the owner of the phone with an additional screen that displays the latest news. In addition, Grace UX allows you to change the appearance of standard icons and a theme (they, however, have to be bought), can respond to the owner's view (activating the display when you look at it), and offers to optimize the phone's energy consumption with your own hands. In general, Grace UX has a wagon and a small cart for useful gadgets. Despite their abundance, the shell works smartly, and noticeable slowdowns are observed only when loading news into the panel.

It is worth noting that the Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 has the ability to update to the latest Android 7.0 Nougat.

Photo gallery: operating system features

The phone is equipped with 2 GB of RAM

Almost half of all phone memory will be occupied system files and folders that you cannot get rid of. Fortunately, the developers thought about their customers and put a slot for a fash card here, the maximum volume of which can reach 256 GB. Considering that the A3 is the youngest model in the middle price segment of Samsung, the gift from the creators seems impressive. Although, do not forget that the additional memory slot will simply be unavailable if the owner of the gadget uses two SIM cards. You will have to sacrifice either contacts or documents.

Of the available 16 GB of internal memory, the owner of the smartphone will have access to about half

Battery

The battery on the Galaxy A3 is non-removable and non-removable. Its capacity is only 2350 mAh, but a low-consumption screen and an integrated processor that intelligently distributes the load to the battery, more than compensate for the small capacity.

The battery in the Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 is not very large, but the results and the duration of the work are pleasantly surprising

The time of continuous work on the Internet reaches 12-17 hours, the phone can play video for up to 17 hours in a row, play audio - up to 41 hours with the screen on periodically and up to 55 hours with the off. At the same time, the talk time without interruption is about 17 hours. In general, with an average load level, the smartphone will calmly withstand almost two days of work.

There is no fast or wireless charging in the Galaxy A3 2017. However, even without them, the device is fully charged quite quickly - in 1.5 - 2 hours the battery replenishes its supply to the maximum level.

The battery is undoubtedly the strong point of the smartphone, even with low figures of its capacity.

Other amenities

In addition to good technical characteristics Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 has added some special features that will pleasantly surprise the owners of the gadget.

IP68

The IP68 standard guarantees your smartphone reliable protection against dust and moisture getting into the phone case. Now you don't have to be afraid that the gadget will suddenly stop working after a meeting with water or a sandstorm. It can be safely placed at a depth of 1.5 meters for as much as 30 minutes. If during this time even water cannot get inside, to say nothing of the dust.

Despite the fact that the smartphone occupies the lowest place in the line, it has also been equipped with dust and moisture-proof properties since 2017

Samsung Pay

One of the undoubted advantages of the updated version of A3 is the ability to pay without a physical card. In the 2017 version, support for NFC and MST technologies appeared, which allows you to bind the card to the phone, and then calmly pay with it, even without having this card in your pocket. The data is reliably protected and you do not need to worry about losing it - every transaction of funds is confirmed by your own fingerprint.

They did not forget to put Samsung Pay in the smartphone

Always-On-Display

This feature, previously unique to luxury models, only appeared in the Samsung Galaxy A range this year. Moreover, as you can see, not only among its senior representatives, but also among the youngest A3. The function itself is as follows: the screen of your phone, even in inactive mode, displays all relevant notifications, event, calendar, clock and other important and useful information.

Like its older brothers in the lineup, the Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 is not without the function of an always-on screen.

Blue color filter

This mode changes the current color scheme of the phone to a softer, warmer and more autumnal one. Such a change has a very beneficial effect on the eyes of the owner of the device, relieves tension from them, and allows you to relax the eye muscles. As a result, the time spent on the phone is increased, and the discomfort and fatigue are reduced.

USB Type C (1.0)

Among other things, the phone has got a new usb-connector. It is now USB Type C version 1.0. What is the difference new connector from the old? Yes, because it is symmetrical, which means that it doesn't matter which side you try to insert it into the phone. Any one will do.

The fingerprint scanner

The fingerprint scanner is built into the mechanical Home button on the front of the phone. About his work, users are very controversial. Some are satisfied with the device, they note a quick response (less than 1.5 seconds for unlocking), smooth operation. Others categorically state that the scanner is mediocre and works every other time. Considering that we are talking about a junior phone in a budget line, then such flaws seem excusable.

The fingerprint scanner in the Samsung Galaxy A3 2017, although weak, is still present

Camera

The smartphone is equipped with a camera with a main camera resolution of 13 megapixels. The focal power of the lens is f / 1.9. Like the older models, the Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 has both built-in standard modes and Pro mode, which involves manual adjustment of most parameters. So, in this mode, you can easily adjust the ISO, that is, the light sensitivity of the lens, select the white level, assign exposure, and much more. The camera interface is also very standard and is unlikely to cause confusion among those who had to use Samsung smartphones in recent years.

In addition to the standard ones, the camera is equipped with an HDR mode. If some time ago this mode quite justifiably seemed to many users to be useless and inactive, now HDR often “pulls out” many images. On Samsung Galaxy A3 2017, this mode works very smoothly. Dark dips after applying HDR do not take on unnatural tints, and highlights do not gray out.

Left - non-HDR image, right - with HDR mode

Daytime shooting

During the day, the camera focuses the image very accurately and quickly. The shots are detailed, bright, rich and enjoyable. The color gamut of the images is close to natural, the range of shades is high and diverse. As for the white balance, the camera determines it quite close to the original, i.e., real, picture.

However, the fact that the smartphone is the younger version of the line is also noticeable. The Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 lacks optical stabilization, due to which, even during the day, pictures can sometimes come out insufficiently clear and blurry in places. In this situation, the quality of the photo directly depends on the firmness and reliability of the hand that holds it. Considering the product's light weight as well as its size, trying to get a good, clear picture becomes a serious task. And in conditions of night shooting or indoor shooting, it becomes even more difficult.

Photo gallery: daytime shooting

The front camera of the phone has a resolution of 8 megapixels and an aperture equal to the main camera at f / 1.9

The Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 has the same convenience in handling the front-facing camera that its older brothers S-series had. You can switch from camera to camera with a simple swipe across the display, take pictures with a quick touch of the screen, take pictures using a voice command or gesture.

With the redesigned front camera, you don't have to worry about the quality of your images - they will be great

Video

Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 shoots videos in FullHD quality, with a frame rate of 30 fps. The user has access to panorama mode, as well as Pro-mode with the same settings as the camera.

Video: Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 camera review

Price

The price range for the Galaxy A3 2017 is quite large - from 14,700 to 22,990 rubles. The cost of the model in the official Samsung store for July 2017 is 19,990 rubles.

Video: review of the smartphone Samsung Galaxy A3 2017

It is not often that Samsung smartphones of the middle and budget segments come to our test. It's even somehow ashamed to admit: the last time a non-flagship of this company was with us almost three years ago, and it was Galaxy alpha (overview). That model was largely a turning point for Koreans: after an extremely unsuccessful design experiment in the Galaxy S5 (review), the company finally stopped considering plastic as the only possible material for a smartphone body and began to actively use metal and glass. The success of Galaxy Alpha has led to the birth of the line of stylish "strong middle peasants" Galaxy A. At the beginning of 2017, the third generation of these devices was presented, with the youngest representative of which we will now meet with you.

Technical samsung specifications Galaxy A3 (2017):

• Network: GSM (850/900 MHz), UMTS / WCDMA (Band 1, 2, 5, 8), FDD-LTE (Band 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20), TDD-LTE (Band 40 )
• Platform: Android 6.0 Marshmallow with a proprietary shell
• Display: 4.7 ", 1280x720 pixels, 312 ppi, SuperAMOLED with PenTile
• Camera: 13 MP, f / 1.9, Sony IMX258 sensor, LED flash, video recording [email protected]
• Front camera: 8 MP, f / 1.9, Sony IMX219 sensor
• Processor: 8 cores, 1.6 GHz, 14 nm, 64 bits, Samsung Exynos 7870
• Graphics chip: Mali-T830
• RAM: 2 GB
• Internal memory: 16 GB
• Memory card: microSD (up to 256 GB)
• Dual SIM slots (nano-SIM + nano-SIM / microSD)
• GPS, GLONASS
• Bluetooth 4.2
• Wi-Fi (802.11a / b / g / n / ac), 2.4 / 5 GHz,
• USB Type-C 2.0
• The fingerprint scanner
• Battery: non-removable, 2350 mAh
• Dimensions: 135.4x66.2x7.9 mm
• Weight: 138g

Video review

Design

Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) is available in three colors - black, blue and gold. We got the most classic version for the test, that is, the first (but for the photo session we took the blue one). The body is made of glass (front and rear panel) and metal. The design is full of rounds: 2.5D glass on the front, 3D glass on the back (which means both the inside and the outside are non-planar), rounded corners of the body, rounded ends, squares with rounded corners for camera eyes and flash. The abundance of roundness, in my subjective feeling, only spoils the impression of the design - the exterior of the device seems too soft and soothing, soapy. However, you may like these features, this is pure taste.

Let's study the arrangement of the elements on the case, there are a lot of interesting things here. On the left are only the volume keys. Above is the first surprise: in addition to the additional microphone, there is a SIM-card tray (the usual location for Samsung, but unusual for its competitors; the sled has one nano-SIM slot and one combined nano-SIM + microSD). On the right is the second surprise: not only the lock key, but also the multimedia speaker. It seems that only a well-drunk designer could place it there, but in fact the place is very good: you can block the sound only with a grip in portrait orientation, and that is unlikely (more likely your finger will lie in the area of \u200b\u200bthe lock key). Bottom - 3.5 mm microphone jack, reversible uSB connector Type-C and microphone, the relative position of which will infuriate the perfectionist:

The back panel (it is not removable, the battery cannot be pulled out by "legal" means) is boring: only the camera, flash and Samsung logo. There is no oleophobic coating on the glass, so it quickly becomes covered with unpleasant fingerprints. On the front, everything is traditional for Samsung: a logo, a protruding earpiece, a front camera and sensors above the screen, two touch buttons backlit and a hardware home button underneath. The button has a built-in fingerprint scanner, which works quite well if you enter your finger several times (with a dirty and clean button, with a dirty and clean finger).

The screen of the Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) has a diagonal of 4.7 "and a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. 312 ppi is a good pixel density, but ... Samsung uses SuperAMOLED screens with a special pixel structure (PenTile), which is why the pixel density indicator it is reasonable to divide by one and a half. Indeed, at 208 ppi it is much more similar: the diagonal grid is visible to the naked eye, fonts are loose and with red halos. The screen has excellent maximum brightness, a clear day does not interfere with it, and a wonderful minimum. Reading from the screen in the dark - this is not a problem at all, especially when the blue filter is on. The viewing angles are excellent, but even under slight tilts there are slight color inversions. However, when the tilt is increased, they do not grow, so this should not be considered a serious disadvantage. Black is very deep, and white as usual with OLED screens, dirty. There are four modes of operation of the screen - "adaptive", "film", "photo" and "main." In contrast to the flagship Galaxy, where all modes We are working, because of the low resolution of the Galaxy A3, only "adaptive" can be recommended for use. The other three give out very dirty light colors.

Software

Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) is based on operating android system 6.0 Marshmallow, an update to Nougat is being prepared. Like all other smartphones of the Korean giant, our today's hero uses a proprietary shell samsung... This is one of the most feature-rich and cluttered firmware I've come across. It is impossible to describe it in any detail, I will limit myself to the necessary minimum. So, in the shell there are traditional desktops with icons and widgets, and the leftmost table is the news aggregator Briefing, a simplified Flipboard. The application menu also has desktops and folders. In the curtain, the switches are opened by a repeated swipe, but the five most important (of your choice) are available immediately. Screenshots are obtained by pressing "home" and the lock key, it is almost impossible to take them with one hand.

45 applications are preinstalled on the smartphone, and almost all of them cannot be removed (with the exception of Yandex, UBANK and a couple of Samsung branded programs). Many can be disabled, but this is akin to removing shortcuts from the desktop - this does not significantly free up the device's resources. What are these applications? Utilities standard for all smartphones (all redesigned by Samsung), Samsung branded applications (S Voice, Samsung Health, tech support + Samsung Members news, Gifts from Samsung Galaxy ( free apps), an online store for Samsung products, "Secure Folder" based on KNOX and an application store Galaxy Apps), the set google applications, Microsoft Office suite, OneDrive cloud, Skype, Facebook, Samsung Pay payment tool, Yandex and Ubank.

There are not so many items in the "Settings", but this is due to the fact that a lot is grouped. So, the parameters of RAM, ROM, battery and security are hidden in a single section "Optimization". In Sounds and Vibrations there is an equalizer and audiophile chips like reverb, in Display - the ability to enable simple mode and Always On Display (shows a clock, calendar or a picture of your choice). The discharge rate in Always On is not high, so you can not be afraid for it. "Additional functions" are mainly gesture controls, eye tracking (not turning off the screen while you are looking at it, and so on), as well as chips to reduce the screen (they are almost useless by 4.7 "). There are also game functions - screencast , blocking buttons, etc. The application itself has a lot of cross-references, which is very convenient - if the desired function is not in the section where you looked, then you will still find this item by reference.

In general, the firmware gives the impression of something solid, but very overloaded and redundant. And it's not just 45 preinstalled apps - in the shell behind each menu there are two new ones, which makes it seem infinite in its hidden sub-items. On the other hand, convenience is hidden behind the abundance of functions, because every little thing that may be useful to you will probably be found somewhere. And the shell also lays in the menu, yes, how could it be otherwise?

Camera

Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) is equipped with a 13MP camera based on Sony IMX258 sensor. It has a good aperture - f / 1.9. The camera app doesn't spoil ample opportunities: Regular Photos, Panoramas, HDR, Food Yes night shooting... There is a professional mode, but only white balance, ISO and exposure compensation can be adjusted in it. All pictures below are taken in automatic mode... The quality of the pictures can be judged by a series of examples. I can say that their detailing is not the best (more like 8 megapixels), that the camera is trying to fix it by oversharp, but there are no problems with color rendition and noise. I didn't like the fact that in imperfect lighting conditions (cafe, house) the camera can take a picture up to 2-3-4 seconds, trying to figure out the algorithms and shutter speed, without reacting to the shutter key. After that, the shot is good, but only if you were shooting a stationary subject.

The video is written in [email protected] Detailing at a height, the sound is recorded with high quality. There is autofocus. It is so smooth that it is rather slow than smooth. Shaking from walking is not compensated.

The front camera made me happy. It has a resolution of 8 megapixels and the same aperture as the rear - f / 1.9. Sony IMX219 sensor is used. Selfies are obtained with excellent detail and good color reproduction. Lovers of self-portraits will love it. There is a face beautifier, it widens the eyes, whitens the skin and smooths out wrinkles.

Do not forget that you can quickly launch the camera from any application by double-clicking on Home. An extremely convenient opportunity.

Performance and benchmarks

Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017), according to official specifications, uses an eight-core chipset with a frequency of 1.6 GHz. The Koreans traditionally do not name the system-on-a-chip model, but you cannot hide from AIDA64 - this is Samsung Exynos 7 Octa 7870. It is made according to the 14-nm process technology, and the Mali-T830 video accelerator is responsible for the graphics. Of the 16 GB of internal memory, the user has only 6.5 GB, the amount of free RAM is 0.9 GB. Here's what this stuff shows in benchmarks.

External samsung view Galaxy A3 2017 is stylish, but not original. The device turned out to be compact, it is easy to operate it with one hand.

The main features he inherited from - a back with curved edges, a metal frame, the same arrangement of cameras and sensors. And in size, the hero of our review looks like a reduced version of the S7 - 135.4 × 66.2 × 8.1 mm, with practically the same thickness, it is only slightly smaller in height and width. The updated model weighs 138 grams.

The front panel is covered with tempered glass Corning Gorilla Glass 4, made using 2.5D technology, or in simple terms - rounded at the edges. It has a good oleophobic coating, which is why fingerprints and other dirt are not particularly noticeable and are well wiped off. The display takes up almost 68% of the panel surface area. Above the display are the light sensor, earpiece and front camera. Below the display is a mechanical Home button with a built-in fingerprint sensor. On the sides of the button there are touch keys "Recent applications" and "Back". When the smartphone is activated, they are highlighted. The left side of the case contains the volume keys. On the right is the power button and music speaker. On the top is a tray for a hybrid nanoSIM / microSD slot and an additional microphone. On the lower edge are located uSB port Type-C, main microphone and mini-Jack.

The back panel is curved at the edges and, like the front, is made of Gorilla Glass 4. It also has good stain resistance, despite the gloss. The main camera is located at the top of the panel, and next to it is the LED flash.

The main feature of the device case is the presence of moisture protection according to the IP68 standard. This means that the smartphone can easily survive immersion in water to a depth of one and a half meters, but no more than half an hour.

You can buy Galaxy A3 2017 in several colors: black (Black Sky), gold (Gold Sand), blue (Blue Mist) and pink (Peach Cloud).

Screen - 4.3

The phone is equipped with a high quality AMOLED screen with HD resolution. He has some features of older models, which distinguishes him favorably from competitors.

With a 4.7-inch display diagonal, the 1280 × 720 resolution is comfortable, with 312 pixels per square inch of screen area. This is a fairly high value, you can see individual points only when looking at close range. By comparison, this figure is only slightly higher at 326 ppi.

The main advantage of the display can be considered a wide color gamut, covering not only the entire sRGB range, but also 99% AdobeRGB. As a rule, such high-quality matrices are equipped with flagships like. Color reproduction is accurate, the deviation from the standard does not exceed three units. At the same time, the oversaturation characteristic of devices with an AMOLED display has not gone anywhere, and the color temperature is clearly too high. If you do not like this image, you can set other modes in the settings. The default is adaptive mode and you can manually specify RGB values. Besides it, the modes "AMOLED Movie", "AMOLED Photo" and "Basic" are available. Functionally, they are similar to those of the new flagship - they change the color temperature for warmer shades, and the latter mode narrows the color gamut and removes oversaturation.

The brightness range we measured was from 2 to 400 nits; on a sunny day, using a smartphone is quite comfortable, as in the dark. Automatic brightness works flawlessly, setting the desired value in accordance with the lighting. The contrast of the display tends to infinity, as it should be for an AMOLED screen.

The viewing angles are wide. If the phone is on the table and you look at it from a large angle, then color distortion is almost invisible.

Also note the Always on Display function, which was previously only seen in samsung flagships... It allows you to display on the off screen a certain minimum of information like clocks and icons for various events. In this case, the screen always consumes a small amount of battery power, more on this in the corresponding section.

Cameras - 3.5

The Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 smartphone is equipped with 8 and 13 MP cameras, which are good for their class. Their quality is sufficient for quick shooting, for example, documents, but they are not suitable for artistic photography.

The main camera has an aperture of f / 1.9, an LED flash and autofocus are available.

Photo quality is above average in daylight. The color rendition is close to natural, the details of the frames are good, but the pictures are often lacking in sharpness. Autofocus is correct in most cases, but sometimes it "misses", which can cause sharpness to fall, spoiling the frame.

When shooting at night, rather strong noise is added to the sharpness errors, the quality of the shooting drops significantly. To improve the situation, night modereducing the amount of noise. Its work is similar to the HDR mode - the final image is formed from several frames, which requires holding the phone still for a while. In addition to night shooting and HDR, there is a "Panorama", "Burst", "Food" and "Pro" modes. The latter are available manual settings exposure, ISO (100-800) and white balance.

Video recording is possible in resolutions up to Full HD (1920 × 1080) at 30 frames per second. Video quality is above average, sharpness and noise are acceptable. Audio is recorded at a high bitrate of 256 kb / s, which is quite a lot.

The front camera is not equipped with autofocus, although it has a similar main aperture - f / 1.9. The focal length is fixed, this should be taken into account when taking selfies: if you find yourself too close or far away, the frame will turn out to be blurry. The image quality is good, with natural colors and a lot of detail. Wide-angle shooting is possible, there are also night and burst modes.

Video resolution is the same as that of the main camera - 1920 × 1080, which is enough for video calls and Skype communication.

Photos from the camera Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 - 3.5

Photo from the front camera Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 - 3.5

Working with text - 3.0

Typing messages on Samsung A3 2017 is quite convenient.

Out of the box, a proprietary keyboard from the manufacturer is preinstalled. It supports continuous input, has a separate row of numbers, and the language is changed by swiping on the "Space" key. In the settings, you can change the size of the keyboard, select input languages, enable spell checking. There is also a high contrast mode - when the keys turn yellow with black edging. However, this mode does not really match the light theme of the interface design.

Internet - 4.0

Galaxy A3 2017 comes with two preinstalled browsers - Samsung Internet and Google chrome... Both are good for browsing the internet.

The proprietary browser supports multiple tabs, bookmarking and autocomplete forms. He can also read QR codes and supports extensions downloaded from the Samsung Apps store.

We have already talked about the browser from the search giant many times, so let's briefly recall its main features: traffic compression, synchronization with the desktop version and the ability to quickly view web content from any application.

Communications - 5.0

The set of communications Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 is almost flagship.

All popular interfaces are available, and the connector for connection, contrary to modern trends, has not gone anywhere. Objective disadvantages include a hybrid nanoSIM / microSD slot. The solution, on the one hand, is classic - the buyer is offered to choose: use two SIM cards or one SIM, and install a memory card in the second slot. On the other hand, the amount of built-in memory is not large, so the choice is very difficult. Separately, we note that the manufacturer saved on the quality of the SIM / microSD sleds themselves - they are made of fragile plastic. So with frequent replacement of memory cards or SIM, there is a great risk of breaking this part.

The general list of communications is as follows:

• Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, Dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, Hotspot
• Bluetooth 4.2 LE, A2DP
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou
• USB Type-C, USB On-The-Go
• FM radio
• accelerometer
• barometer
• gyroscope.

Multimedia - 3.6

The multimedia capabilities of the smartphone are quite good.

The built-in video player “digests” most of the popular video file formats, although it refuses to play audio in AC-3 and DTS, there were also problems with playing mkv files.

Google preinstalled as an audio player Play Music... It allows you to conveniently sort your local music collection, but its main advantage is access to the music section of Google Play.

The proprietary "enhancer" Samsung SoundAlive is used to adjust the sound. It allows you to improve the quality of compressed audio recordings and can emulate the timbre of a tube amplifier. In addition, there is an Adapt Sound function that allows you to adjust frequency range for the individual characteristics of your hearing. As in, it cannot be turned off completely.

We rated the quality of the audio section as good. The sound in the headphones is quite smooth, the frequency response is without drops. Amplifier power is sufficient for most headphones.

The volume of the music speaker is quite high - 74 dB. Comparable to the sound when watching football on.

Battery - 3.9

The battery life is not bad, but it could be better, especially considering the AMOLED screen and the energy efficient processor.

Galaxy A3 2017 is equipped with non-removable battery capacity of 2350 mAh. By modern standards, this is not much, on the other hand, with good optimization it can be quite enough. Based on the results of our tests, we got the following:

• playing a video at full brightness drains the battery in 14 hours. If you reduce the brightness to a comfortable value of 200 nits - 15 hours;
• listening to music in mp3 format non-stop "eat up" the entire battery charge in 42 hours;
• talking on 3G networks will drain the battery in about 15 hours.

Music playback and conversation performance are similar to test results with a larger battery. But watching the video was a pleasant surprise: the result is at the level of the flagships of the Galaxy line - S7 and S8 +.

In everyday use, the smartphone confidently lasts for a couple of days with fairly active use, which includes half an hour of calls on 3G networks, correspondence in instant messengers and social networks, about an hour of watching videos on Youtube and a couple of hours of listening to music. However, if you activate the Always-on Display function, this time is reduced to 40-42 hours. You have to choose between convenience and a few extra hours of work.

The device charges pretty quickly. When using the supplied charger, the battery charge will rise from 5 to 100% in an hour and a half. There is no support for any fast charging standards here.

Performance - 2.9

The performance of the Galaxy A3 2017 is average, although it is sufficient for most everyday tasks, but heavy games are no longer for it.

The smartphone is equipped with an Exynos 7870 processor, which has 8 cores on board with a frequency of up to 1.6 GHz. Responsible for the graphics accelerator Mali-T830MP2, random access memory 2 GB. This decision is aimed primarily at energy efficiency, so you can not expect high performance in games. However, the system interface works quickly and without any slowdowns, and several running applications can easily "get along" in the memory.

Synthetic tests gave us the following results:

• Geekbench 4 - 3630 points (almost a thousand less than Apple iPhone SE)
• AnTuTu 6 - 46,093 points (double that of)
• 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited - 8639 (scored 13778 points).

It is better to run heavy games like "Asphalt Extreme" or World of Tanks on low settings graphics, at high frame rates drops too much.

With prolonged use, the smartphone practically does not heat up, the surface temperature does not exceed 34 degrees, which is almost imperceptible.

Memory - 4.0

Memory is one of the weaknesses of a smartphone.

Of the 16 GB of internal memory, about 10 GB is available to the user. This is not enough if you shoot a lot or are used to storing your music collection on your smartphone. Of course, there is support for microSD up to 256 GB, but since the memory card slot is combined with the nanoSIM slot, you will have to choose one thing.

Features:

Galaxy A3 2017 runs with Samsung's proprietary interface. It is not too different from the standard one, it is intuitive and easy to use. There is support for Android Pay and Samsung Pay and some "chips" from the flagship family. For example, Game Launcher, which allows you to conveniently group game icons, record video of gameplay and disable alerts.

The operation of the fingerprint sensor is not satisfactory, touches are recognized quickly and from any angle.

The beginning of 2017 for Samsung fans was marked by the release of new smartphones in the A line, focused on the production of mid-range phones. From the very beginning of the release of A-line mobile phones at the beginning of 2015, it was represented by the A3, A5, and A7 models. In 2017, Samsung decided not to change its tradition 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 yourself can make a conclusion: to buy it or not.

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

• The phone itself;
• 1.5 Ampere USB charger;
• New generation Type-C cable for high speed data transmission. It is used in almost all new devices. The cord length is standard and is 1.2 meters;
• Quite good wired in-ear headphones with a volume control button and an answer / reject call on the wire;
• An interesting surprise was a small microUSB to Type-C adapter, 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 there are 2 touch buttons.

Above the screen is the earpiece, the light proximity sensor, the one that goes out when you bring the phone to your ear, and the front camera. On the right, the manufacturer 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 at 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. At the bottom there is a connector for a Type-C cable and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

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

The device is also quite comfortable and fits well in the hand. Maybe a little slippery due to the glass on the back. So if you are afraid that it may slip out of your hands, then you should purchase a cover. The A3 weighs only 138 grams, being the smallest in the entire line. A5 and A7 weigh 159 and 186 grams, respectively.

Features:

Perhaps we should start with the Always On Display function. It allows you to look at the clock, calendar, battery indicator and other useful information without unlocking the phone. In 2018, almost all phones have this built-in feature, but until 2017 it was only implemented in Samsung's flagship models.

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

The used IP68 standard for water and dust protection makes the A3 quite reliable, like its brothers. You don't have to worry too much if it falls into the water, since with its level of water resistance it can lie under water up to 30 at a depth of up to 1.5 meters without any damage to its performance. And you don't even need to talk about dust and dirt inside the phone.

Main characteristics

Memory

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

CPU

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

If we talk about games, then it is not a fact that this power will be enough for the novelties of 2018, but for active games in 2017 it will do. Although with difficulty. Take the rather demanding Asphalt Extreme, for example. She works quietly at maximum settings. However, really heavy games like Unkilled slow down even at medium graphics settings. With light two-dimensional or just not very demanding games, problems should not arise 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 hardly rises, despite the absence of throttling (specific protection against processor overheating by skipping machine cycles (cycles) and, following this, a decrease in processor performance, but preventing its further heating).

This is made possible by the state-of-the-art FinFET process, which allows processors as thin as 14 nm

Camera

Rear camera 13MP with good aperture - f / 1.9 and autofocus. The camera's capabilities are not great and will not give you much scope for shooting. Regular photos, HDR mode, panoramic shots, food, night shooting, and that's all. There is a PRO mode, but there are not too many settings in it. You can only change the white balance, adjust the light sensitivity in order to increase the sharpness and adjust the exposure compensation.

The shots taken by the camera, however, turn out quite good, but often you have to wait 2-4 seconds for focusing before the camera takes a picture if you are photographing in imperfect lighting conditions.

How the camera takes pictures can be seen below:

And here's 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 much more. In general, selfie lovers should like it.

Example of a photo of the front camera:

You don't have to worry about a video camera at all. The phone can shoot video in FullHD at 30 fps. The sound and detail are at a high level. There is also autofocus. Some people complain, however, that it is too smooth, even slow, but this is completely uncritical. Walking shake is not compensated for when shooting, so shoot carefully.

Interface

Samsung galaxy A3 came out with android 6.0 Marshmallow OS with subsequent update to Nougat. The smartphone uses the standard Samsung skin. It doesn't make much sense to describe it in detail. These are all the same desktops familiar to everyone with widgets and icons.

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

Software

About 45 applications are initially installed on the phone, the vast majority of which cannot be deleted. (Except perhaps UBANK, Yandex and a couple of standard Samsung programs).

These include: a standard set for utilities used in all smartphones, redesigned by Samsung for its models. Such branded applications from Samsung as: S Voice, its own "Siri" for Samsung, Samsung Health, which is useful for those who need to monitor health indicators, Samsung technical support, Galaxy Apps, a kind of google play analog for samsung phones, don't go anywhere.

Also installed by default are applications from Google, Microsoft Office, 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 Vibration" - contains sound control parameters, as well as an equalizer and even gadgets like reverb, which can please people who are inclined to use a smartphone as a full-fledged audio player.
• "Display" besides standard settings the screen allows you to turn off the Always on Display function, but it does not consume a lot of battery, and the thing is quite convenient, so you can leave it.
• "Extra features" are mostly things like gesture controls, eye tracking (the phone doesn't turn off until you look away), and almost useless screen shrinking tools.

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

Battery

The power 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 seemingly modest capacity. Fast charging it is not implemented in this model, but at a charging speed of 1 hour 35 minutes with a standard charger, it is not needed.

Despite the small size of the battery, it lasts quite a long time. If you keep the screen on for 3-5 hours a day, with active data transfer in LTE and making calls, then the battery charge will quietly be enough 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 video in high resolution with the brightness turned to maximum will drain the battery in about 17 hours, which is very, very good, especially given such a small battery.

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

Communication capabilities

It is no longer necessary to talk about the availability of access to the Internet, the presence of WI-FI and GPS, especially in the 2017 models. It's worth noting, though, that these functions are implemented just fine here.

The GPS access speed only takes about 10 seconds. Navigation works perfectly and smoothly, thanks to a competent approach to antenna design.

The device works at almost all the necessary LTE frequencies, which can also be considered a compliment to antenna manufacturers

It also has a built-in FM radio. Simple as a nice bonus.

How much is

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 different countries. In order to better navigate the price and find where you can buy profitably this model do not limit yourself 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.

Samsung Galaxy A3

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

• When manufacturing 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 working mode;
• The biggest advantage of the phone can be called its battery, which simply delightfully holds a charge and does not discharge for a long time;
• The high class of protection against water and dust IP 68 makes the phone quite tenacious and protects it from unpleasant accidents in case of anything;
• Availability of Samsung pay service;
• Always on Display function;
• Excellent speaker that delivers good sound and also well protected from water.

disadvantages

• The downside of the processor is that it's still not too much high performance... If it is enough to work with applications, then problems arise with games;
• Unnecessarily overloaded shell, occupying about 10 GB of memory from the standard 16, leaving the user with only 6;
• A small disadvantage is that the phone is rather slippery due to its design and the purchase of a cover is highly desirable;
• Although the camera in the phone is not bad, it 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 is not happy not only for us.

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

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