Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 review
Build Quality
Phone Set Up
Features
Camera & Video
Battery Life
Desirable brand name in a compact form
Our Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 review sheds light on this branded yet affordable and compact mobile phone.
Priced in the UK from £15.99 per month on a 24 month contract, from £269.99 on pay as you go or from £288.99 as a handset only, there are good savings to be had, compared to the larger Samsung Galaxy A5 2017.
To make those cost savings, Samsung has given the Galaxy A3 2017 a smaller display, processor, internal memory, battery and camera, yet there is still plenty of Samsung goodness to enjoy.
Build Quality
Display, design and durability
The Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 has a compact 4.7” Super AMOLED HD display (720 x 1280 pixels). Samsung’s Super AMOLED displays are extremely desirable due to their brightness and vivid colour production.
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The design has been crafted with minimalism and a symmetrical form in mind. The rear of the phone is made from 3D Glass and there is no unsightly camera protrusion. The Galaxy A3 2017 is just about as light as they come at 138g and this phone is 7.9mm thick.
There are four colours to choose from and these include the muted tones of Black, Blue, Gold and Peach, coloured after the natural elements.
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Furthermore, the design includes a speedy 1.6GHz octa-core processor with 2GB RAM. The durability of the phone is given a boost with IP68 certification indicating that the phone is protected from spills, splashes and the rain, in most situations.
Phone Set Up
Security
Setting up some security should be your first task after receiving your new Samsung Galaxy A3 2017. The fingerprint sensor is pretty handy for this and it can also be used to access a private Secure Folder.
Samsung Cloud
You can transfer content and media from your old smartphone onto the Galaxy A3 2017 and there is an internal memory of 16GB, of which 9.7GB is free to the user. A microSD card slot accepts cards with a memory of up to 256GB.
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You may also wish at this stage to back up your content on Samsung Cloud, where you can enjoy 15GB of free storage.
Features
Always On Display
One of the most attractive features of the Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 is the Always On Display. This preserves both time and power with a clock, calendar and notifications always visible.
Android OS
The Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 has Google’s Android Marshmallow operating system pre-loaded. It is expected that Samsung will provide an update to Android Nougat soon, but this hasn’t officially been announced, so it isn’t gauranteed.
Camera & Video
Quality photography
The Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 offers quality photography and on the left, we have an included a gallery of photos taken by the 13MP camera. After all, pictures speak louder than words.
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There are plenty of filters to add a unique touch in post editing and there is a special food mode, for when it’s time to gloat. The camera can record Full HD video at 30 frames per second.
The 8MP selfie camera is perfectly adept at its job and is perfectly capable of accurate colour rendition, even under low light.
Battery Life
Excellent longevity
The 2,350mAh battery may have a fairly low capacity but don’t let this fool you into thinking that you will be charging the phone every five minutes. Under laboratory testing conditions, the battery outlasted most current flagship phones.
To put this into numbers, you can expect to enjoy up to 41 hours of audio playback or up to 17 hours of internet browsing or video playback. You can extend the audio playback times further by turning off the Always On Display, giving you up to 55 hours of playback
Charging is also made easier with the new symmetrical, and hence reversible, USB Type-C port and charging cable.
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Written by: Michael Brown