I have come to the Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 from a Windows Phone. My impression, having paid about £240 for the phone, was that it was a v classy piece of hardware. Compared to any WP I have owned the A5 is beautifully put together, although with glass front and back it can be a slippery customer! I went for the black colour and find finger prints/markings are not a problem. Basically excellent piece of kit.
Not so impressed with the software. On a WP if you want to put an app on your sdcard, with very few exceptions, you can. On this phone all the software that came with the device has to stay on the device ... somewhere I read if one "roots" one's phone (what's that? Sounds faintly pornographic!) one has more flexibility in this regard but I also read somewhere that doing this will invalidate one's warranty so ... forget it! Why should I take a risk to make a Samsung phone do what it should do in the first place? Daft!
WP comes with a lot built in. For example when using the phone (on bluetooth) in a car it has an easy system to mute the phone so it rings through the car and only the car. On the A5 it took me an age to find a bit of software that will do the same ... and having found it, it's not that reliable.
I'm happy with my purchase and am becoming increasingly attached to the phone. There are some excellent reviews for it and it seems to be only just eclipsed by the S7 which I'm told is twice the price, so definitely represents good value for money.
EDIT: Oh! and I forgot. The battery is better than excellent ...seems to go on forever!