Samsung Galaxy A3 and A3 Duos review: A-ddictive

Performance

The Samsung Galaxy A3 is utilizing the next-generation of mid-range chipsets with a 64-bit processor - the Snapdragon 410. The new chip offers a snappy quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU running at 1.2GHz. It also sports an Adreno 306 GPU and 1GB of RAM. The single-SIM version of the phone features 1.5GB of RAM.

Snapdragon 400 was one of the most popular chipsets for mid-range offerings and it's interesting to see how much faster its successor moves about. Before we begin, it's worth noting that our anti-cheat benchmarks detected no foul play.

Onto the benchmarks, then, starting with Geekbench 3, which gauges the CPU performance. The four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.2GHz provide a 25% boost in speed compared to the Cortex-A7 running at the same frequency in the Snapdragon 400.

The Galaxy A3 scores similarly to the HTC Desire 510, which too utilizes the Snapdragon 410 chipset, but falls behind the Xperia Z1 Compact and the HTC One Mini 2.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  2968
• HTC One mini 2
  1526
• HTC Desire 510
  1471
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  1400
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  1175
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  1106

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 510
  20756
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  20024
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  19016
• HTC One mini 2
  18641

AnTuTu 5 is a compound test taking in consideration the on-screen GPU performance and the storage speed as well. The Galaxy A3 beats the Snapdragon 400 competition and again scores similarly to the Desire 510.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 510
  20756
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  20024
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  19016
• HTC One mini 2
  18641

The cross-platform BaseMark OS II tests even more - it adds the browsing performance to the already lengthy performance equation. Here, the Galaxy A3 aces the test beating the One mini 2 and Sony Xperia M2 Aqua.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A3
  556
• HTC One mini 2
  517
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  495
• HTC Desire 510
  491
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  452
• Nokia Lumia 735
  435

Unfortunately the raw performance of the Adreno 306 turned out mostly the same as its Adreno 305 predecessor judging by the offscreen tests.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  22
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  6
• HTC One mini 2
  5.8
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  5.8
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  5.3
• HTC Desire 510
  5.3

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  34
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  15.5
• HTC Desire 510
  15.5
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  13
• HTC One mini 2
  11
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  10.8

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  9
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  1.8
• HTC Desire 510
  1.8
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  1.7
• HTC One mini 2
  1.7
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  1.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  17
• HTC Desire 510
  8.3
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  6.9
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  6.4
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  4
• HTC One mini 2
  3.8

The GPU intensive BaseMark X came up with a promising score for the Adreno 306. The Galaxy A3 manages to beat the Snapdragon 400-powered One Mini 2.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 510
  1906
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  1895
• HTC One mini 2
  1650

Finally we've checked the Samsung Galaxy A3 web browser performance. The default Samsung browsing app didn't perform as good as the Desire 510 or the Moto G in both Kraken and Browsermark. We'd advise switching to a third-party browser to get better results out of the hardware.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• HTC Desire 510
  14171
• HTC One mini 2
  15684
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  16118
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  16129
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  18323
• Nokia Lumia 735
  26913

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• HTC One mini 2
  945
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  911
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  883
• HTC Desire 510
  832
• Nokia Lumia 735
  625
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  465

Other than the subpar web browsing performance, the Galaxy A3 and the Snapdragon 410 inside it deliver great performance. Tapping around the user interface is fast and seamless. On top of that, the Galaxy A3 is ready for the next-gen 64-bit Android apps and we're sure that once Android 5.0 Lollipop arrives for the phone, the phone will fly thanks to the new ART runtime.