14 DAY TRIAL // The Galaxy A5 has been officially introduced in China, but Samsung is not making it available for purchase to consumers yet due to some manufacturing delays. However, the South Korean company claims the Galaxy A3 and A5 will be available in the Mainland by the end of year.
Today, in a surprising move, Samsung announces the Galaxy A5 is up for grabs in Russia. The smartphone was officially launched in the country and customers can already purchase it for €355 ($440) outright.
The Galaxy A3 hasn’t been announced in any European country yet, but GSMArena reports at least one Russian carrier lists the smartphone as “out of stock.” This is usually an indication that the seller will soon add the device to its portfolio, so there’s a high chance that the Galaxy A3 will hit shelves this year as well.
As for the price, Samsung Galaxy A3 will cost around €250 ($310) in Russia outright, which makes it the cheapest device in the Galaxy A series. Obviously, it’s also the less powerful in terms of features, but the Galaxy A series is mostly about looks rather than specs.
Both Samsung Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 might be available in Russia by the end of this year, but other European countries are expected to receive the first stocks only next year.
The Galaxy A3 will be available in Europe only next year
That’s kind of bad news as Samsung would have been able to boost its smartphones sales by running various promos on both Galaxy A3 and A5 during the Holiday seasons.
Unveiled back in October, the Galaxy A5 comes with Android 4.4.4 KitKat operating system out of the box, but Samsung is likely to offer a Lollipop upgrade at some point next year. The same goes for the Galaxy A3, which is powered by the same version of Android.
On the inside, Samsung’s Galaxy A5 smartphone is armed with a 64-bit 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor, an Adreno 306 graphics processing unit and 2GB of RAM.
There’s also a 13-megapixel camera on the back, which features autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording, as well as a secondary 5-megapixel camera in the front for selfies and video calls.
The smartphone sports a 5-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display that supports HD (720p) resolution. It also packs 16GB of internal memory, as well as microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 64GB). Keep in mind that the 2300 mAh battery powering the Galaxy A5 is non-removable.
