Samsung's bringing two new midrange smartphones to Australia from February 16: the 5.7-inch Galaxy A7, and the 5.2-inch Galaxy A5.
While the A series is billed as Samsung's midrange offering, the phones' design is almost identical to the Samsung's 2016 Galaxy S7 flagships. The devices feature metal edging, curved glass backs, USB Type-C for charging, Samsung Pay support, an always-on display, and IP68 water-resistance.
Notably, Samsung is treating water-resistance as an important feature for the Australian market, to the point where the lack of water-resistance is being attributed as the reason previous A series models didn't make it to our shores.
"This is the first time we've had a mid-tier phone with water-resistance out of the box," said Samsung Australia VP of IT and Mobile Richard Fink, "To me, Australians expect water-resistance. They demand it."
Other key specifications are as follows:
The Galaxy A7 has a 5.7-inch 1080p display, 1.9Ghz eight-core processor, 16MP front- and rear-facing camera, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, and a 3,600mAh battery. It will retail for $799 outright.
The Galaxy A5 has a 5.2-inch 1080p display, 1.9Ghz eight-core processor, 16MP front- and rear-facing camera, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, and a 3,000mAh battery. It will retail for $649 outright.
Both phones run Android Marshmallow.
While a 4.7-inch Galaxy A3 is also part of the 2017 A series family, it won't be available in Australia. Fink said that this is due to Australians' preference for bigger screen devices.
"We didn't think [the A3] would do well [here]."
The A5 and A7 will be available through Samsung's online store from February 16 in a choice of black or gold. Samsung says telcos and retail stores will range the phones at a later date. Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, and Virgin will all offer the phones on contract, but we're still waiting for confirmation on pricing and which telco is ranging which phones.
Alex Choros
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