Samsung's Galaxy A5 smartphone - the 2016 model - which is languishing on Android Marshmallow, could soon get a taste of Android 7.0 Nougat.
The Galaxy A5 smartphones has surfaced on benchmarking website Geekbench and the listing - posted on Jan. 7 - reveals that the Samsung smartphone is running the latest Google OS. That's correct! The Galaxy A5 has been benchmarked with Android 7.0 Nougat.
On Geekbench, the model number of the Samsung phone tested is shown as SM-A525F, which is actually a variant of the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017).
It is interesting that the model number listed on the benchmarking site does not match its actual specifications. The Galaxy A5 2017 (SM-A525F) model runs on an Exynos 7880 chipset and has 3 GB of RAM. The device mentioned in the post; however, has an Exynos 7580 chipset and 2 GB of RAM. The phone that was tested housed an octa-core CPU running at a speed of 1.6GHz.
Interestingly, the specs listed on the site match up perfectly with the 2016 model of the Galaxy A5, which is the model we believe was actually benchmarked, but with Nougat on board.
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
For the unfamiliar, the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) was unveiled by the company in December 2015, alongside the Galaxy A7 and Galaxy A3. In January 2016, the smartphone was released in Europe.
The Galaxy A5 (2016), the successor of the Galaxy A5 (2015), came pre-loaded with Android 5.1 Lollipop and later got updated to Android Marshmallow. If the latest listing is to be believed, then the Galaxy A5 (2016) smartphone is on track to get updated to Android 7.0 Nougat.
Android 7.0 Nougat, which was released in H2 2016, is the smoothest operating platform to be released by Google. It has several new features with the most notable being the split-screen functionality. Smartphones with larger screens, like the Galaxy A5 may greatly benefit from this feature and this has caused a flutter in the tech space.
The Samsung phablet sports a 5.2-inch Full HD screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The handset offers support for 16GB of on-board storage, out of which 10.8GB is available for use.
The device has a 13-megapixel primary camera and the secondary camera is 5 megapixels. The phone packs in a 2900 mAh battery and also boasts a fingerprint scanner, which is embedded in the device's Home button.
When Will My Galaxy A5 (2016) Get The Update?
Samsung has finished beta testing Android 7.0 Nougat for its flagship Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge and they may benefit from the latest OS by end January. A strong possibility exists, that Samsung will begin pushing out the Android N update to its other eligible smartphones post this.
In light of the latest benchmark listing, the Galaxy A5 (2016) - which received a critical security patch in December 2016 - could possibly benefit from the latest OS in Q1 2017.
