Samsung officially launches 6.3mm thin, 5.5 inch, octa-core Galaxy A7

The Samsung Galaxy A series of phones has been slowly growing. Samsung launched the Galaxy A3 and the Galaxy A5 at the end of October, and the A5 went on sale in China at the end of November. The A3 and A5 became available in the USA at the end of December. Now just a couple of weeks into 2015 and Samsung has added another model to the A series, the Samsung Galaxy A7. It is a 5.5 inch device, with a HD Super AMOLED display, that measures just 6.3mm thick. Samsung is calling it “one of the slimmest Galaxy smartphones equipped with premium hardware.”

If you have been following the news and rumors of the new A series, then the A7 won’t be much of a surprise to you. The phone had been expected to appear soon, and there have been various signs that it would be launching in Asia around now. Most of the leaked details where right about the A7. The only real surprise is the choice of processor package. All the models will use an octa-core processor, coupled with 2GB of RAM, however depending on your region you will either get a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC or a 32-bit Exynos 5430 SoC.  The Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC uses four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.5GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.0GHz. This technically makes the CPU a big.LITTLE processor as the cores are heterogeneous, in that they don’t all offer the same performance, however they are all in fact Cortex-A53 cores. The Samsung Exynos 5430 uses four 32-bit Cortex-A15 cores, clocked at 1.8GHz, coupled with four Cortex-A7 cores clocked at 1.3GHz.

The single SIM versions of the phone offer full 4G LTE support, whereas the dual-SIM version only offers 3G. The latter will use the Samsung Exynos 5430, while the processor found in the 4G models will depend on where you are in the world.

Besides the octa-core processor and 2GB of RAM, the Galaxy A7 has 16GB of memory and a 2600mAh battery. As for optics, the A7 offers some of the same features from the A3 and A7. There is a 13MP rear facing camera and a 5MP front-facing camera with advanced selfie features such as ‘Ultra Wide Shot’ and ‘Auto Selfie’ modes. The latter allows you to take a photograph using only a voice command or a wave of the hand.

The A7 runs Android 4.4 KitKat and includes all the normal bells and whistles like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. The LTE versions also include NFC. There is no current information about a possible upgrade of the Galaxy A7 to Android 5.0 Lollipop.

The Galaxy A7 will become available globally during the next two months, but there is no official word on pricing. The A3 costs around $330 in the US, while the A5 costs around $410. It is likely that the A7 will cost around $500 (+/- $25).

Samsung’s A series covers several different size and performance points. The A3 is a 4.5 inch quad core device with 1GB of RAM and a 1900MAh battery, the A5 is a 5 inch quad-core device with 2GB of RAM and a 2300mAh battery, and the A7 is a 5.5 inch octa-core handset with 2GB of RAM and a 2600mAH. All three models in the A series come with 16GB of internal storage and a micro SD slot.

So what do you think of Samsung’s A series? Impressed?