oday's smartphone launches are usually all about hyping up the next technological breakthrough. Recent advances have included heart-rate monitors, fingerprint scanners, wireless charging and waterproofing.

The question is; while these are features you might want, are they features you actually need? Perhaps we've been lured into expecting our handsets to have it all, even when we'll never use hardly any of it.

Enter the Samsung Galaxy A5...

Perhaps the first thing you'll notice about the A5 is the feel - from the moment you pick it up you'll detect quite a difference between this phone and its big brothers, the S5 and the Note 4. In fact, at first sight, the thing most Samsung users will be asking is, "How do you get into it?"

The obvious answer is, you don't.

Unlike most Samsungs, the back won't come off your A5. Instead, you change the sim and SD card via two small ejector slots on the side.

At this point, iPhone users are wondering why you'd want to get into your phone anyway, and that's the basic difference between Android converts and Apple acolytes... us Androiders like to to fiddle. We want the flexibility to change the amount of storage space if we want, or even replace our own battery if need be.

While the A5's battery remains securely out of reach, once you've figured out how to eject the tiny drawers that receive the sim and SD card, you'll appreciate the more solid feel the non-removable back offers. Just a note, the A5 takes a nano-sim, not a micro-sim like many other Android phones. This'll probably mean a trip to your phone shop to clone your sim. (By the way, the secret to popping the little drawers out is poking a special tool in the hole. Or failing that, the end of a paperclip)

Another physical first impression is a real slimness and indeed a lightness to this phone. At a time when smart phones seem to grow more giant every generatuion, the A5 makes the jeans pocket a viable option again.

Despite being a smaller phone, the A5 doesn't really scrimp on screen-size - you get a full 5 inches which is plenty for most people, although perhaps not quite enough to effectively multi-screen two apps at once. Still, you can if you want.

Frustratingly, the stock home screen doesn't rotate into landscape mode automatically, so you'll need to download a 3rd party app to force it to. I've never understood why you'd want to browse the web in profile, but maybe that's just me.

Speaking of browsing, I found the A5 a little slower to use than my S5, but only a little. Waiting an extra split-second for an app to open isn't really a deal-breaker. What I did miss was a couple of stock apps I've grown quite attached to. Neither S Health or Gear Manager seem to be available for the A5 in the Samsung App store. So does this mean you can't use your new Samsung smart watch with this phone?

As it turns out, to my relief,  I was able to sideload a version of Gear Manager which worked perfectly well with my Gear 2 Neo. I didn't have much success with S Health though, so you'll have to cross that one off your list.

The camera is, as you'd expect with any decent phone these days, excellent. There aren't nearly as many shooting options available as there are on other more high-end devices, but if you're just a point-and-shooter, you'll be perfectly satisfied. If you needed any proof of who this phone is being marketed to, the fact the forward-facing camera is 5MP is likely to be pretty popular with the selfie generation.

What really impressed me was the way this phone displayed video - either streaming it or playing it from local storage. The A5 ran Chromecast flawlessly, and worked just as well with streaming apps like Google Play Music and iHeart Radio.

I was also very happy with the A5's battery life. Perhaps when you're not trying to power fancy accessories like heart-rate monitors, your battery lasts longer. It seemed to charge faster too. Unfortunately, although Samsung has promised wireless charging as standard on the S6 and S6 Edge when they came out later this month, the A5 doesn't have it, and because you can't replace the back, you can't add a wireless charging receiver either. This rules out the A5 as the perfect phone for me.

I don't know what's happened to the IP67 waterproof rating Samsung used for the S5, so I'd be careful not to drop this one in the toilet. However if you're looking for a reliable phone, with good battery life and excellent streaming ability, that slides easily into your pocket, the A5 is definitely worthy of your consideration... and if you want something even smaller, try the A3. Most of the same features with a 4.5" screen (and a much smaller price).