The latest things to dance out of Samsung’s hyperactive R&D department are the A5 and A3, a pair of all-metal, super-thin phones aimed at teenagers. However, they’re also “optimised for social networking” and feature a “5MP Camera For Unmatched Selfies”, which probably mean that they will be terrible.
On the face of it, the A5 and A3 actually look decent: all-metal construction, decently thin (6.7 and 6.9mm, respectively), and specs that are pretty good, without being unnecessarily over-the-top: 5-inch 720p screen for the A5, 4.5-inch qHD for the A3, with a 1.2GHz processor and 4G featured in both. Hopefully, that should all make for speedy guts, with a small pricetag attached. On hardware terms, they might actually give the Nexus 5 a run for its money, and if they’re cheap enough, possibly usurp the Moto G as the cheap phone king.
Unfortunately, almost every phone marketed as being “optimised for social media” or aimed specifically at teenagers has been an abject failure: remember the HTC First, or the Microsoft Kin? No? There’s a reason for that: social media is great in very small doses, but not when it totally dominates your smartphone.
If that wasn’t enough reason to avoid Samsung’s latest offerings, there’s also the fact that they ship with a dedicated selfie camera, and multiple selfie modes. Oh hell no.
Either way, the press release only mentions a launch in “select markets”, starting with China, which means that the A5 and A3 may well never see the light of day in the US of A. Whether that’s a blessing or a tragedy you’ll have to decide for yourself. [Samsung via Engadget]