Samsung’s mid-range metal mobiles materialise ahead of the S6 announcement

It’s not unusual to see a release here and there ahead of Mobile World Congress, but Samsung has two for Australia barely a week before it unveils the Galaxy S6.

This week, Samsung is showing off two phones that will be making their way to Australia for the mid-range mobile buyers, customers probably not looking to wait until late March or April when the next big Galaxy lands, and likely for a price closer to the top end of the market, also known as a grand.

These two phones aren’t going to sit anywhere near previous Galaxy release prices, though, coming in at $449 and $599 for what will essentially be mobiles that offer Samsung’s overlay, at least 8 megapixel rear camera, 5 megapixel front-facing selfie cameras, 16GB storage, microSD slots, 5G LTE, and something Samsung hasn’t yet released locally: a metal body.

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Not just a frame, these two phones will actually include proper metal bodies, taking the edge used in the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge past that basic frame, which will no doubt give people interested in something other than plastic a new phone to consider.

Still a part of the “Galaxy” range, these will be the Galaxy A3 and A5, arriving in thicknesses of 6.9mm and 6.7mm respectively, with a style closer to that of the Galaxy S3, at least on the back of the handset.

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“The Galaxy A5 and A3 are new additions to the Galaxy family which are perfect for young Australians looking for a stylish device to keep them connected,” said Prasad Gokhale, Vice President of IT and Mobile at Samsung Australia.

“Featuring some of Samsung’s latest technology including a Super AMOLED display and Adaptive Display technology, the Galaxy A5 and A3 offer a fantastic set of features in a stylish new design that we know this audience will love,” said Gokhale.

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Beyond the screen and metal body, you’ll find a bit of a difference between the two models, and not just the price. Both will rely on similar processing tech — 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1.5GB (A3) or 2GB (A5) RAM, 16GB storage with microSD slot to expand, Android 4.4 “KitKat”, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Category 4 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and Near-Field Communication — with the main differences coming from the screen size and camera type.

As such, the $449 Galaxy A3 will rely on a 4.5 inch qHD (quarterHD, with a resolution of 960×540) Super AMOLED display, while the $599 Galaxy A5 uses a HD (with a resolution of 1280×720) Super AMOLED display.

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Cameras are also different, with an 8 megapixel shooter on the A3, while a 13 megapixel rear camera can be found on the A5, with 5 megapixel selfie camera on the front of each. Batteries are different too, with a 1900mAh on the A3 and a 2300mAh on the A5.

Availability occurs from March 5 from Telstra, Vodafone, and Optus, or to put it another way, a few days after Samsung announces the Galaxy S6, which will be early next week. We guess if Samsung’s S6 doesn’t grab your attention (or nothing else at MWC, for that matter), this will at least be around a month or two before the announcements materialise in proper product form.