The path to selfie esteem

Samsung Galaxy A5 is an ultra-slim smartphone optimised for social networkers and anyone who loves taking selfies.

The A5 is beautifully crafted in a full metal body, including the back, but a sleek 6.7mm thick. The battery is built in and there’s are slots on the side for a nanoSIM card and microSD card.

The elegant A5 comes in Pearl White, Midnight Black, Platinum Silver, Soft Pink, Light Blue and Champagne Gold. I got to test the Pearl White variant, and it’s really quite lovely.

Although the five-inch display doesn’t feature Full HD resolution, it sports a Super Amoled panel with HD resolution of 1280x720 pixels. You get 

 vibrant colours and good brightness, and the adaptive display technology allows for further optimisation when viewing photos and videos. You can also manually select the Amoled cinema, photo and basic display options.

Powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, the A5 comes with two gigabytes of RAM (working memory) and 16GB of internal storage that can be expanded with a microSD card by up to 64GB. It runs on the Google Android 4.4 (KitKat) operating system.

The phone is great for the social media because the front-facing camera has two different shooting modes for self-portraits – Selfie and Wide Selfie.

In Selfie mode you show your open palm to the camera and then close it to start a timer. You have two seconds to strike a pose. This is useful when using a selfie stick (extension arm) that doesn’t have its own remote control.

Wide Selfie mode is for group portraits. Again, your palm open and close triggers the shutter timer, but here you have to slowly rotate the camera left and then right to get a panoramic view. You can see the frame guides at left and right so you can check that everyone’s in the picture. Tell everyone to freeze while you’re doing this. A series of photos is taken and then combined into a single image.

And the rear camera, with a resolution of 13 megapixels, has a Rear-cam shooting mode for selfies. It detects faces and focuses automatically when your and your friends' faces are in the view frame that can be repositioned on the screen. You can move the frame and resize it. Once you’re inside the frame, you hear a beep, which is the 

 two-second signal before the shutter activates.

I found that the main camera took good-quality photos in well-lit environments. In more complex lighting conditions, it’s best to use HDR mode so you get a burst of shots at various exposures that are then combined into the best possible image with acceptable tones.

Samsung makes new shooting modes available for download for the A5 that you can occasionally check out online.

The Galaxy A5 uses LTE 4G and HSPA+ 3G connections. I tested it on TrueMove H’s HSPA+ linkage and was impressed at the connection speed. I managed to download and install apps fast while on the go. Checking my Gmail and Hotmail was a breeze, as was uploading pictures to Facebook and monitoring my network accounts.

The Smart network switch function is great. It automatically switches between Wi-Fi and mobile networks to maintain a stable Internet connection.

The “Multi windows” function lets you run two apps onscreen at the same time, dragging and droping content from one to the other. You activate from the settings and then drag in whatever apps you need.

If you want to keep certain information strictly private, activate Alpha’s Private mode. The first time using it you have to set an “unlock” code and a backup PIN, or create a drawing pattern to unlock the device while in Private mode. Then you can hide content in the Gallery and My Files folders – video, music, voice recordings, whatever. 

The Ultra Power Saving mode keeps the phone going longer when the battery charge is low. At 90 per cent full the battery will last 10.2 days in this mode, saving juice by switching off screen colours and other unnecessary functions.

The Samsung Galaxy A5 has a suggested retail price of Bt12,900.

 

KEY SPECS

 

Network: 4G: LTE 800/850/900/1800/2100/2600 MHz; 3G: HSPA+ 850/900/1900/2100 MHz

OS: Android 4.4 (KitKat)

Processor: 1.2GHz Quad-Core Processor

Display: Five-inch HD Super Amoled with 1,280x720 pixels

Camera: Rear – 13MP AF with LED Flash; Front – 5.0MP with Wide Selfie, Rear-cam Selfie, Beauty Face features

Video playing formats: H.263, H.264 (AVC), MPEG4, VP8, VC-1, Sorenson Spark, MP43, WMV7, WMV8

Video Playback: FHD (1920*1080) @ 30fps

Audio Codec: MP3, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, WMA, AMR-NB/WB, FLAC, Vorbis(OGG), WAV

Connectivity: Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth: 4.0(BLE), ANT+, NFC, A-GPS/ GLONASS

Sensor: Accelerometer, Proximity, Geo-magnetic, RGB ambient light, Hall Sensor

Memory: 2GB RAM

Storage; 16GB Internal memory + micro SD slot (up to 64GB)

Battery: 2,300mAh

Dimension: 139.3x69.7x6.7mm

Weight: 123g