Samsung Galaxy S7 vs. Galaxy A5 (2016): Bargain bin

Cheaper price, but just as good?

Companies usually push their premier product hard, but that leaves other models slightly overlooked. The Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016), for example, is in the shadow of the Galaxy S7 and its massive marketing campaign.

Their price difference is not quite double as in Samsung's portfolio, Samsung's A-series is second only to the Galaxy S lineup, but it offers compelling alternatives at a competitive price.

Both phones deliver the trademark of a premium Samsung phone - an amazing Super AMOLED display. The two phones even have fairly similar designs (it's entirely subjective which one looks better) and both are fully equipped for Samsung Pay.

The list goes on - cameras with OIS and bright apertures, large batteries in slim bodies, the bodies themselves are built with glass on a metal frame. The list goes on until it hits a snag, namely the processing power.

With only a Snapdragon 615 or Exynos 7580 (both with just 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage), the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) is just no match for the Galaxy S7 in terms of speed. Worse still, it caps the video recording to 1080p, we might have been more lenient if it supported 4K 2160p.

Obviously, something had to give - this isn't Company A vs. Company B which sell the same specs at different prices because one runs on lower margins. Instead this is Samsung vs. Samsung, it's a question of whether you truly need the full flagship experience or if its advantages will go unused.

	Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)	Samsung Galaxy S7
$	€270	€460
	Glass/Aluminum 7.3mm thick, 155g	Glass/Aluminum 7.9mm thick, 152g
	5.2" Super AMOLED 1080p (424ppi)	5.1" Super AMOLED 1440p (577ppi)
	13MP 1080p	12MP 2160p
	1.5GHz (octa) Snapdragon 615/ 1.6GHz (octa) Exynos 7580	2.15GHz (quad) Snapdragon 820/ 2.3GHz (octa) Exynos 8890
	2GB RAM 16GB memory	4GB RAM 32GB/64GB memory
	2900mAh	3000mAh

Availability

Both phones are widely available both online and in brick and mortar stores. The holiday promotions have ended, but the Galaxy A5 (2017) is already official and the Galaxy S8 is months away so both phones are due for a drop in price.