Ever since the Galaxy Alpha gave us a first glimpse of what Samsung could do with a metal-framed smartphone, we've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of its new all-metal A series. The Galaxy A3 is the smallest and cheapest in the range, but it's by far one of Samsung's best-looking phones to date.
Measuring just 6.9mm thick and weighing 110g, it's one of the slimmest and lightest phones Samsung's ever made, but its stunning full metal unibody gives it the same level of durability and excellent build quality as Samsung's top-tier Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 4 devices. It certainly makes a welcome change from the swathes of white plastic we normally see at this end of Samsung's lower-end smartphones, and the Galaxy A3's shimmering, almost glitter-like finish really makes it look like one classy handset.
It's not completely flat, as the 8-megapixel rear camera protrudes out of the back, but its angular edges make it very easy and comfortable to hold. Admittedly, its straight edges aren't quite as interesting to look at as the angular indentations you'll find on the Alpha or Note 4, but we much prefer the smooth finish on its rear panel to the faux leather of its more expensive cousins.
Its 4.5in screen also uses one of Samsung's Super AMOLED panels, so colours were rich and punchy and black levels were wonderfully deep and inky. It's not the brightest display we've ever seen, but Super AMOLED displays are traditionally dimmer than their LCD counterparts and we certainly didn't have any problems with visibility on Samsung's brightly lit show floor.
It's a shame the Galaxy A3 only has a resolution of 960x540, as this can make web browsing a little hard on the eyes when viewing desktop sites, but at least its TouchWiz interface looked sharp and crisp when swiping between its various home screens.
The Galaxy A3 is powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor and 1.5GB of RAM. This is more than capable of running Android 4.4, but we encountered a very small amount of lag when browsing the web. This was mainly when pages were loading up, as it tended to stutter a little when we tried scrolling up and down image-heavy websites, but we had no problems at all once the page was fully rendered. Pinch zooming was also smooth and responsive and we were able to pan round pages very easily without waiting for images to ping into life.
With 16GB of onboard storage, you should have plenty of space for your music and video files. It also has a 1,900mAh battery, NFC support and a front-facing 5-megapixel camera for those all important selfies.
There's certainly a lot to like about the Galaxy A3 and it's great to see Samsung introducing more of its top-end features further down the range. As you'd expect, a full metal unibody doesn't come cheap, as the Galaxy A3 is currently on sale in the UK for £230 SIM-free or free on a £18-per-month contract, putting it firmly in mid-range smartphone territory. Still, it's a beautifully made handset and its design is definitely a cut above its similarly priced rivals, such as the HTC Desire 620 and (potentially) LG Magna. If its price undergoes a significant price drop as well (as Samsung handsets often have a habit of doing a few months after launch), then it could be one of the best bargains around. We'll bring you our final verdict as soon as we get our hands on a review sample.