Software update on samsung a3 phone. Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) review: Android series update

Received by owners Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017). Now it's the Galaxy A3 (2017). It should be noted that the update was distributed on April 21, and only today it began to be massively discussed. At the same time, Samsung decided to update the A3 so far only in the CIS countries, which, you see, is nice.

The update is 1.27 GB in size. For information about the innovations, we visited the popular thematic forum W3bsit3-dns.com, where the already renewed owners shared their impressions. The main disappointment can be the lack of background blur effect in selfies. At least this was stated by the user under the nickname mr.alex249.

User GordonFreemanBY from Belarus has shared a list of innovations. So, the company has updated the main settings menu. Now it is similar to that in flagship models:

There are several options for the contrast keyboard:

The function "Show notifications" has been added. With it, a long hold on the application icons on the home screen activates the quick view of notifications. Probably, we are talking about some analogue of 3D Touch.

Samsung Cloud is now presented with a separate section with various information.

Instructions for installing the official single-file firmware on Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 (SM-A320x).

    Drivers and programs

Attention!

To install the official stock firmware on Galaxy A3 (2017) and return the phone state (Settings\u003e About device\u003e Properties\u003e Device status) to Official after switching from custom firmware and thereby return the ability to receive updates by air, it is enough to follow the instructions provided.

Installation instructions

    Make backups all the necessary data and files and save them to your computer, removable media or the cloud. When you reset the device inner memory will be formatted.

    Unpack the downloaded archive into the folder with Odin PC for convenience. The file in the ".tar" or ".tar.md5" format must be kept and "SS_DL.dll" can be deleted.

    Reset device data.
    To do this, go to the settings in the section " Backup and reset settings ", select" Reset data "\u003e" Reset device ", enter the PIN-code (if one is set) and click on the" Delete all "button. The phone will restart.

    Run Odin PC as administrator.

    Put the device into Download Mode.
    To do this, simultaneously hold down the Volume Down key, the Home button and the Power button. Then wait until the phone restarts and accept the warning by pressing the Volume Up key.

    In this state, connect the smartphone to the computer. In Odin, the inscription "COM" should light up.

    Press the "AP" button and select the TAR-archive of the firmware.

    Items "Auto Reboot" and "F.Reset Time" must be activated, and "Re-Partition", if active, must be disabled.

    Click on the "Start" button. The process of installing the firmware will begin.

    At the end of the operation, if everything went well, the message “All threads completed. (succeed 1 / failed 0) ". The phone must be rebooted manually by holding down the power button until the screen turns off. The device may take up to 5 minutes to boot up for the first time.
    ATTENTION!
    If the device does not boot for a long time or the data has not been reset, it must be performed from recovery.
    To do this, simultaneously hold down the Volume Up key, the Home button and the Power button. After downloading, select the item "Wipe data / Factory reset", and then - "Reboot system now". If after these steps the device also freezes at startup, you must reflash it again.

    When the device boots up (it is advisable to skip the initial setup), delete the data again from step 6.

    That's all. After loading the phone, it will be completely ready for use, and its state should change to "Official". If this did not happen and the condition is still "Special", you must repeat the 6th paragraph of this instruction.

Samsung was the main culprit behind the rise in smartphone screen sizes, but back in 2014, the company was trying to offer something different with Galaxy alpha... The series was designed to represent high-end phones in small bodies. We believe that the Galaxy A3 is the spiritual successor to the Alfa, and how it turned out in its third version, we will tell below.

Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) is a kid lineup in terms of screen size: just 4.7 inches. With the Super AMOLED panel type, it seems to immediately stand up in opposition iPhone screen 7 with its everlasting IPS screen.

Another distinguishing mark of the A-series is waterproofing: the IP68 rating again puts the device on a par with latest smartphones... Samsung has also brought its mobile payment solution, inviting the user to enjoy Samsung Pay through the fingerprint reader. Again, this is done as if in opposition to Apple pay.

Key features:

- case: waterproof case (IP68) with metal frame and coating Gorilla Glass on the front and back;

- screen: 4.7-inch Super AMOLED with a resolution of 720 × 1280 pixels (density 312 units per inch); always-on display function;

- 13 MP camera, F / 1.9, with LED flash; 1080p video recording at 30 frames per second;

- 8MP selfie camera with 1080p video recording at 30 frames per second;

operating system: Android 6.0.1 with a proprietary TouchWiz shell + near android update Nougat;

- Chipset: eight-core Exynos 7870 processor with Cortex-A53 cores (1.6 GHz); graphics chip Mali-T830;

- memory: 2 GB random access memory + 16GB storage + microSD slot (dedicated or hybrid, region dependent)

- battery: 2350 mAh lithium polymer (sealed) + fast charging;

- connectivity: two SIM cards; LTE-A communication of the 6th category; USB-C; Wi-Fi A / B / G / N / ac; FM radio;

- Miscellaneous: fingerprint reader; Samsung Pay.

Main disadvantages:

- the second slot for memory cards allows you to use either a second SIM card, or just a memory card;

- only 16 GB of memory is available (of which you only get 10 GB free);

- the main camera is mediocre;

- weak processor.

Upgrades from last year's model:

- waterproofing properties (IP68);

- Always-on display technology displays basic information without having to wake up the entire screen;

- Fingerprint reader with support for Samsung Pay;

- 8MP selfie camera;

- an eight-core processor (compared to a quad-core processor), slightly more RAM (2 GB versus 1.5 GB);

uSB-C port;

- the price went up (from ~ 200 € to ~ 300 €).

Preliminary conclusion

The Galaxy Alfa has always been a premium device that was positioned for a target audience that looked at iPhones but preferred to spend half the money. So the Galaxy A3 (2017) is struggling with Apple's new flagship. True, for a complete victory, it lacks a normal main camera that could shoot 4k content and had optical image stabilization. And the processor is not as good in processing power as that of the "apple" opponent. But if you want just a small phone that can be operated with one hand, then the 4.7-inch format here is saved by Samsung. In addition, there is a clear display advantage. It's brighter, sharper, and orders of magnitude richer than the iPhone (although the iPhone7 now offers a quarter brighter display).

Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) turns out to be interesting because it fills a sparsely populated niche. Compact phones are now in short supply in the market. Everything is occupied by phablets ranging in size from 5 to 6 inches.

Externally, the smartphone has remained the same, so there is no reason to review its design again. But the addition of waterproofing properties turned out to be long-awaited, and now the phone has become much more practical. It can be dropped into a puddle or sink without consequences, you can safely take a bath with it and get caught in the pouring rain.

In general, the general update of the characteristics smartphone Samsung The Galaxy A3 (2017) definitely suits the face.

Instructions on how to install the firmware on Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) SM-A320 F / FL / Y, official or custom firmware, custom TWRP recovery firmware, getting root rights superuser.

How to install the new official firmware (stock) on the Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) SM-A320 F / FL / Y phone

Before reflashing samsung phone Galaxy A3 (2017) SM-A320 F / FL / Y, activate the PIN in the Safe Start section

And so the first thing to do is download and install on your PC the driver for connecting the phone to the PC - Odin3 Drivers v3.09

Then download the official firmware you need for Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) SM-A320

Unzip the firmware and copy it to any folder like your desktop. Then run the program to odin firmware v3 as administrator.

The smartphone must be loaded in Download Mode, to do this, turn off the phone and then hold down the central button (where the fingerprint scanner is) + the power button + the volume down button and hold until a yellow triangle appears on the screen.

Connect the transferred Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) to bootloader mode to your PC using the supplied USB cable, the blue indicator with the name of the port to which the device is connected should light up in the Odin program.

Press the PDA button (or “AP”) and select the TAR file from the folder where we placed the downloaded firmware. In addition to the firmware, the archive may contain the SS_DL.dll file - we don't count it - this is the remainder of the KIES (garbage).

In the Options tab, uncheck the box next to re-partition. After that, boldly press the start button, and wait a couple of minutes for the smartphone to reflash. If everything goes well, you will see the inscription "RES OK", in case of failure there will be an inscription - "False", in this case restart the program One and the smartphone, repeat the process.

That's all, your SGA 3 smartphone has the official, updated firmware installed without triggering the Knox protection.

Installing custom TWRP recovery on Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) SM-A320 F / FL / Y

Custom recovery Team Win Recovery Project 3.1.0 can currently be installed on SM-A320F and SM-A320FL, SM-A320Y phones

Before any actions with the smartphone firmware, do not forget to enable the “OEM UNLOCK” option in the settings (item “for developers”). To do this, settings -\u003e about the device, press 7 times on the build number, after which a menu should appear - for the developer.

Also, do not forget, if the recovery is changed, the KNOX meter ticks on one and you will lose your warranty. After flashing custom recovery on the Samsung Galaxy A3 phone, OTA (System Updates) will stop working, to receive updates you will need to flash the custom ROM ROM.

How to install TWRP recovery on Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) SM-A320 F / FL / Y

download and install on your PC the drivers for connecting the phone with the PC - Drivers, then download the program for the firmware itself - Odin3 v3.09

Next, we get the file with the .tar extension from the archive and flash it with using ODIN it according to the first paragraph of this manual (firmware official firmware), the difference is that in the AR field we do not insert the firmware, but our custom recovery.

It is also important when flashing custom recovery without getting Root, when the smartphone is restarted, the stock recovery is restored, therefore you need to flash the custom recovery with removing the jackdaw in Auto reboot in the Odin 3 program, after flashing the custom recovery, turn off your Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) SM-A320F manually (directly from the Download mode, disconnecting from the computer) , then from the off state go to Recovery mode (three buttons)). After CF-Auto-Root, this is no longer relevant, the procedure for restoring the stock recovery is nailed.

How to set up TWRP for new phones

1. If you installed TWRP and everything went well for you, now you need to first configure custom recovery for Samsung A3

2. Boot into TWRP recovery and select “Keep / system RO”. (Do not swipe to the right or are not sure if you can then boot into TWRP recovery)

3. Go to “Wipe”, there you need to select “Format Data”. and then confirm that you want to reset to “yes”.
4. Then go to "Reboot" and select "Recovery" there in order to reboot the smartphone into TWRP again.

Download custom firmware for Odin for example - A320 17 Nougat Stock Fast and unzip it to a convenient place.

Run the Odin program, and in the AP field select the firmware file

put your smartphone into bootloader mode, to do this, turn off the phone and then hold down the “Home” button + the power button + the volume down button and hold until a yellow triangle appears on the screen.

Connect the transferred Samsung A3 to bootloader mode to your PC using the supplied USB cable, the blue indicator in the Odin program should light up with the name of the port to which the device is connected.

After the PC recognizes the smartphone, press the start button, wait until the end of the smartphone firmware process. At the end, it should automatically reboot.

It's pretty clear that the Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) will get an update to Android 7.0. I would even bet that Android 8.0 for the Galaxy A3 (2017) will be released. So a guide to flashing your smartphone will not be superfluous.

So, to flash Galaxy A3 (2017), you need to do the following:

  1. download the Odin program to the PC and make sure that the smartphone has enough charge;
  2. enter the smartphone into Download Mode (at the same time pressing the "off" + "volume down" + "home button" keys), then press "Volume up";
  3. connect a USB cable to the device;
  4. in the Odin application on your computer, select files from the archive with the firmware:
  • for the PIT graph - a file with the * .pit extension;
  • for PDA - a file with the word CODE in its name, if there is none, then you should know that this is the heaviest file in the archive;
  • for CSC - a file with the word CSC in its name;
  • for Phone - a file containing MODEM in its name;
  • Note. If the files for the CSC, Phone and PIT graphs are absent in the archive with the firmware, then we sew exclusively by the method of one file, i.e. indicate the location of the firmware in the PDA column, and leave the remaining lines blank.
  • make sure Odin is checked for Auto Reboot and F. Reset Time ". If the location of the * .pit file was specified, then the "Re-Partition" checkbox will be set automatically;
  • press the "Start" button and watch the firmware process progress. The phone may reboot several times during installation and in no case should you disconnect the cable from it until the message "All threads completed" appears in the Odin log or the green information window with the inscription "PASS!"
  • The firmware update process traditionally takes several minutes (from 5 to 15) and if successful, you will be prompted to configure the smartphone according to your preferences. After that, you can start working.

    If suddenly something did not work out, you can ask about it in the comments under the article.