New version of the Samsung Galaxy A5 spotted in the wild

posted by Ben R. / Aug 28, 2016, 4:36 AM

New version of the Samsung Galaxy A5 spotted in the wild

Though a 2016 variant of the Samsung Galaxy A5 already exists, the company appears to be working on a refresh. Carrying the model number SM-A520F, the newer variant looks poised to be graced with a typical evolutionary upgrade, including a faster Exynos processor and an extra gigabyte of RAM.

Polish blog Tablety has caught wind SM-A520F on both Geekbench and GFXBench, with a couple of welcome, if largely incremental upgrades. Where the current Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) sports Qualcomm's Snapdragon 615 processor, the benchmarks indicate that Samsung's own octa-core Exynos 7880 could soon take care of proceedings, flanked by Mali T830 graphics. The 2 gigs of RAM is expected to improve to 3 GB, whilst on-board storage may double to 32 GB of (presumably expandable) real estate.

Both the front and rear cameras could offer 16-megapixel resolutions, while the latter looks set to be graced with f/1.9 aperture. The 2900 mAh battery of the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) could also be set for a minor bump to 3000 mAh. Given how excellently the existing version's battery performed during our review, here's hoping for more of the same in this regard.

Software-wise, the benchmarks point to Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with TouchWiz. Given the December-January time frame of past release, there's good reason to believe the new Galaxy A5 won't roll out until the turn of the year — by which time, it's likely that Android 7 Nougat may be present right off the bat. Having said that, it's worth pointing out that Galaxy A5 (2016) stumbled out on Android 5.1 Lollipop despite Marshmallow having been around for months, so there are no guarantees.

In our review, we found the Galaxy A5 to be a decent sub-flagship smartphone hindered by a decidedly abject user experience — thanks in no small part to Samsung's TouchWiz interface. If Sammy can make the necessary software adjustments in line with these purported hardware tweaks, though, we have a rather exciting upper-mid-ranger in prospect.

The Galaxy A5 is likely to be refreshed along the Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A7 later this year. We'll be keeping our eyes peeled for further info, so stay tuned.

The current Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)

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source: Geekbench via Tablety.pl (translated)

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12 Comments

1. WAusJackBauer

Posts: 456; Member since: Mar 22, 2015

Great phone, wish they made it 5 inch though

posted on Aug 28, 2016, 4:56 AM 0

4. Sealblaighter

Posts: 430; Member since: Jan 26, 2014

I hope not. 5 inches is small these days.

posted on Aug 28, 2016, 6:46 AM 0

6. Fona13A unregistered

Not everyone wants a phablet

posted on Aug 28, 2016, 7:10 AM 3

7. Clars123

Posts: 1078; Member since: Mar 16, 2015

this isnt a matter of wanting a phablet..the A series has phones with different screen sizes, you pick what you want.The A5 is currently at 5.2 inches and it works well that way

posted on Aug 28, 2016, 7:18 AM 5

2. sebbellic01

Posts: 305; Member since: May 03, 2016

might get one for my mother

posted on Aug 28, 2016, 4:58 AM 1

3. Pogma9

Posts: 40; Member since: Apr 19, 2015

I might get one for Bundy and Gacy.

posted on Aug 28, 2016, 5:37 AM 0

5. UglyFrank

Posts: 2194; Member since: Jan 23, 2014

Why is the Exynos mid range GPU so weak? They should at least use something as powerful as the Adreno 420 or Adreno 510 like a T860MP6 or a T880MP4

posted on Aug 28, 2016, 7:05 AM 0

10. may_czos

Posts: 955; Member since: Nov 22, 2014

E7880 has Mali-T860MP4 GPU which is actually quite decent. Much better than current one.

posted on Aug 28, 2016, 10:42 AM 0

13. may_czos

I take it back. Article is wrong - it's Exynos 7870, not 7880! Exynos 7870 has Mali-T830MP2 which is faster than Adreno 405 and its' pretty equal to Kirin 930/935 processors. Kirin 650 has one as well (Huawei P9 Lite).

posted on Aug 28, 2016, 10:55 AM 0

9. may_czos

Outside the US A5 2016 has Exynos 7580. PS. Multicore score can be cloe to 4700https://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/7942139

posted on Aug 28, 2016, 10:41 AM 1

12. may_czos

It's actually decent result. Multicore score close to Exynos 7420 (~4700 vs. ~5000), really decent GPU (Mali-T860MP4), 3GB of RAM, hopefully FullHD 5,2" display - A5 (2017) looks like a really good midranger.