Over the past few years we’ve seen entry-level and mid-range smartphones get features that used to be reserved for flagships. There are plenty of affordable phones these days with full HD displays and fingerprint sensors, for example.
Samsung’s new Galaxy A series smartphones also have another feature that used to only be available on high-end phones: an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, which means that you should be able to use the phones in the rain or in the kitchen without worrying that a little water will brick your device.
The Galaxy A3, A5, and A7 are launching in Russia this month, and will roll out to other markets later.
Samsung’s Galaxy A7 is the top of the line model, and it features a 5.7 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel Super AMOLED display, a 1.9 GHz octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a microSD card slot that supports up to 256GB of removable storage.
There’s a fingerprint sensor in the home button, a USB Type-C port on the bottom, and the phone has 16MP front and rear cameras, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, and NFC.
The Galaxy A7 is powered by a 3,600 mAh battery with support for fast charging.
Samsung will offer single SIM and dual SIM options, and the Galaxy A7 ships with Android 6.0 Marshmallow software.
The Samsung Galaxy A5 features similar specs, but this model has a 5.2 inch full HD display and a 3,000 mAh battery.
And the smallest mdoel in the new Galaxy A series is the Samsung Galaxy A3 with a 4.7 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel Super AMOLED display, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a 1.6 GHz octa-core processor.
This model has a 2,350 mAH battery (with no mention of fast charging) and 13MP rear and 8MP front cameras,