Samsung Galaxy A5 nearing roll out, but won't come cheap.....

Samsung raised the curtain on the Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3 at the end of last month and ushered in a new range of devices with premium build quality (read metal). The company said at the time that the handsets would roll out sometime in November and it seems one of them is now available. The Galaxy A5 has made an appearance on Samsung's Chinese website, although the Galaxy A3 is still absent and now set date for either device has been issued. 

The Galaxy A5 gets a unibody all metal body and at just 6.7mm is Samsung's thinnest ever device, an accolade it shares with the Korean company's Galaxy Alpha that launched back in September and serves as inspiration for the A range. 



Other specs include a 5-inch 720p resolution Super AMOLED panel, a quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor with 2GB of RAM, LTE connectivity, and Android 4.4 KitKat (surely to be bumped to Lollipop). Elsewhere there is a 2300 mAh juicer, 16GB of internal storage, expandable microSD space, a 5 megapixel selfie-centric front facing shooter and a 13 megapixel rear lens.

A solid enough mid-range package that is probably Samsung?s response to the likes of Xiaomi that have hit the company hard this year in Asia. However, the Galaxy A5 has some issues before it has even launched. There are reports that the device is apparently struggling with cell signals for calling, with the metal chassis getting the blame. 

We are willing to give the benefit of the doubt on that until the A5 is released, but I can't overlook another potential issues.

Consistent reports say that the Galaxy A5 is going to cost more than $400, which I think is one the expensive side. Samsung needs to realize the consumers are now savvy to well-made and well spec'd handsets that are affordable, and until the giant realizes that sales will continue to fall.