Samsung Galaxy A3

vienne86

I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 mini which is coming towards the end of its life, and am thinking of getting a Samsung Galaxy A3 as a replacement. Any thoughts?

Day Lewin

following

darragh o meara

I have one as a work phone and to be honest it's been 100% reliable since I got 3 months ago. I'm a heavy user and the battery tends to last the full 12 hour shift.

Performance wise it's stable, a lot more so than my note 4 for some reason... Plenty of memory for apps etc is a major plus as the cheaper end of the range usually ends up with "not enough memory" issues. The screen resolution is pretty decent for its size and touch reponse is great.

Can't really comment on the camera as the company I work for have it disabled when on site and I don't really use it for taking pics off site, but trying it just now it looks pretty decent.

All in, it's a decent phone for the money, my company is replacing all the company mobiles with these ( a lot of Galaxy S4 and S5's being replaced with them ) My only gripe is that cases aren't exactly plentiful, or at least weren't at the time I was looking for one.

vienne86

darragh o meara wrote: »

I have one as a work phone and to be honest it's been 100% reliable since I got 3 months ago. I'm a heavy user and the battery tends to last the full 12 hour shift.

Performance wise it's stable, a lot more so than my note 4 for some reason... Plenty of memory for apps etc is a major plus as the cheaper end of the range usually ends up with "not enough memory" issues. The screen resolution is pretty decent for its size and touch reponse is great.

Can't really comment on the camera as the company I work for have it disabled when on site and I don't really use it for taking pics off site, but trying it just now it looks pretty decent.

All in, it's a decent phone for the money, my company is replacing all the company mobiles with these ( a lot of Galaxy S4 and S5's being replaced with them ) My only gripe is that cases aren't exactly plentiful, or at least weren't at the time I was looking for one.

Very helpful - many thanks.

The lack of cases is something I had noticed all right, and also the batter cannot be replaced. I have had battery issues with my current phone and always carry a spare, so that is an issue I will have to consider.

darragh o meara

As I've said, I'm a pretty heavy user while at work and haven't had any issues as yet. Might be an issue when the battery gets older, but for now its all good.

vienne86

I see that the A3 has a nano sim, whereas my current phone, S3 mini, has a standard sim card. I was hoping to buy a sim free handset as I have a sim only contract. Will I be able to chance the sim card easily?

darragh o meara

vienne86 wrote: »

I see that the A3 has a nano sim, whereas my current phone, S3 mini, has a standard sim card. I was hoping to buy a sim free handset as I have a sim only contract. Will I be able to chance the sim card easily?

Just call into the phone store and ask for a new one. They can be cut down but its a pain to get it right.

vienne86

Well I got it today - lovely phone, and plenty for what I need. Picked up a case on Ebay. It upgraded to Lollipop, which I didn't really want, because SwiftSMS doesn't work properly with it, and I hate the google search bar cluttering up the screen, but that seems to be a fact of life now.