Of late, Samsung has been called out for releasing sub-par devices on several occasions since the beginning of the year. The company has been releasing Snapdragon 450 powered mid-range devices one after the other and despite the fact that these devices bring some premium features, the company just hasn’t been able to justify their price tags. With the recent launch of the new Galaxy A7 (Rs. 23,990), Samsung aims to recapture the mid-range market which is currently being dominated by Chinese smartphone manufacturers.

The new Samsung Galaxy A7 is a premium mid-ranger that packs in some impressive hardware for the price. So before we get on any further with the review, let’s take a look at the complete hardware specifications of the device:

What’s In the Box

The Samsung Galaxy A7 comes in a standard white box that the company reserves for its mid-range devices. The box doesn’t feature the device on the outside and just states A7 Triple Camera up front, with more information about the device on the back.

Here’s everything you’ll get within Galaxy A7’s retail packaging:

Design and Build Quality

Beginning with the aspect of the Galaxy A7 that you’re bound to notice before everything else, its design. The new Galaxy A7 takes a departure from Samsung’s tried and tested design for its mid-range smartphones and does things a bit differently. The device has very premium all-glass design with Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the front and back. The Galaxy A7 is a bit more boxy, compared to previous A-series devices, and it’s great to hold in the hand thanks to its 2.5D curved glass coupled with its 7.5mm thin form factor. The device feels very premium in the hand and I personally like this design more than the design of previous Samsung mid-rangers.

On the back resides the triple camera setup in the top left corner, underneath which lies the dual-tone LED flash. The Samsung logo has been etched in the center and there isn’t much else on the back. Samsung has moved the fingerprint scanner from its usual position on the back to the power button on the right edge of the device. In order to make the power button/fingerprint scanner easier to locate, it has been placed within a recess in the chassis. I prefer this placement of the fingerprint scanner much more than its position on older devices.

Display

As mentioned earlier, the Galaxy A7 features a 6-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio. Samsung’s Super AMOLED displays are known worldwide for their brilliant color reproduction and the display on the Galaxy A7 is no different. The display is an absolute pleasure to look at, especially because none of the content is cropped out because of an unsightly notch. The colors are vibrant and punchy, much like all other Samsung Super AMOLED display, with deep blacks that make the smartphone ideal for content consumption.

Performance

With the Galaxy A7, Samsung seems to have finally given up on including the Snapdragon 450 on its premium mid-range devices and has included an Exynos 7885 SoC instead. The processor is backed by 4/6GB RAM and performance wise the device is significantly better than its predecessors, but not as good as some of its main competitors. I tested the device quite thoroughly, running most popular benchmarking apps and a few demanding games and the results are as follows:

In day-to-day use, the Galaxy A7 fared quite well and I faced no troubles whatsoever while using the device as my daily driver. Gaming on the device, however, wasn’t as great as I’d expected it to be. I played PUBG Mobile, Mortal Kombat X and Shadowgun Legends on the device and I wasn’t too happy with the performance.

In Mortal Kombat X, I faced no issues as such with the gameplay, but for some reason the game wasn’t optimized for the device and left large empty spaces on both the top and bottom. Shadowgun Legends, which is another intensive game, ran smoothly for the most part but faced the same issue where panning the camera and aiming resulted in abysmal frame rates. Other lighter titles ran perfectly well on the device.

I also don’t like the look and feel of Samsung’s Experience UI, but that boils down to personal preference so I wouldn’t really penalize the device for the same. Much like most modern devices these days, Samsung has included a Face Unlock feature on the device that makes use of the front facing camera to identify the user. In my use, I found that not only was the Face Unlock feature painfully slow, but it was also quite inaccurate.

The Galaxy A7 features a 24MP+8MP+5MP triple camera setup on the back, along with a 24MP selfie shooter up front. Since Samsung laid a lot of emphasis on the camera quality while launching the device, I was really eager to test out the camera for myself and I wasn’t disappointed. The device performs remarkably well in most scenarios and would definitely appeal to people who’re looking for a mid-range smartphone with a great camera.

The primary camera setup on the Galaxy A7 managed to take some stunning images in good lighting conditions, delivering detailed shots with great color reproduction and high dynamic range. Even though the images captured by the Galaxy A7 leaned a bit towards the warmer tones, they weren’t as over saturated as the ones captured by the Vivo V11 Pro. Just take a look at some of the images clicked using the Galaxy A7 in good lighting conditions:

The Galaxy A7’s SuperPixel technology helps it capture a lot more light than its competitors, but the images captured are a bit on the softer side. In my use, I was able to capture some decent images in low light which had an ample amount of detail with just a little bit of noise. Compared to other smartphones in the price range, the Galaxy A7’s performance in low light conditions is just about okay. Check out these images that I captured using the device:

The Galaxy A7 makes use of its 5MP lens for depth perception and the smartphone is capable of delivering some great portrait images in good lighting conditions. Thanks to Samsung’s Live Focus mode, portrait shots captured by the Galaxy A7 can also be edited later on, with the device allowing users to adjust the background blur and change the subject in focus. Samsung has also included a few cool portrait mode features, like the new Portrait Dolly feature, that further enhance portrait shots captured using the device. Check out these portrait shots captured using the Galaxy A7:

The Galaxy A7 also works quite well while clicking selfies, with the 24MP selfie shooter capturing a good amount of detail in good lighting conditions. In low light conditions, however, the selfies captured using the front facing camera aren’t as vibrant and they also have a fair bit of noise. The device also includes a software-enabled portrait mode feature on the front camera, which works more or less like the portrait mode implementation on the rear camera. Here are a few sample images captured using the front facing camera:

Overall, the camera performance of the Galaxy A7 is pretty satisfactory. Thanks to the slew of software features it offers, the Galaxy A7’s camera performance is almost at par with that of the Poco F1 and the Vivo V11 Pro.

The Galaxy A7’s price tag pits it directly against the Poco F1 and the Vivo V11 Pro, both of which are great performers in the camera department.

In low-light conditions, the Galaxy A7 performs slightly better than the Poco F1, as it’s able to capture more light, but if we only lay emphasis on the details I think the Vivo V11 Pro takes the lead. Portrait mode images captured using the Galaxy A7, Poco F1 and the Vivo V11 Pro are almost at par, with the Galaxy A7 and the Vivo V11 Pro taking a slight lead due to the software implementations that allow users to adjust portrait shots later. Here are a few sample images we clicked for the comparison:

The selfie shooters on all three devices work quite well, delivering decent images that have a good amount of detail. The differences lie mostly in the color temperature, with the Galaxy A7 capturing the most neutral shots and the Vivo V11 Pro capturing over-saturated shots. Just take a look at these samples below:

Audio Quality

The Galaxy A7 features a single downward firing speaker that gets fairly loud at max volume, but it most certainly isn’t the loudest speaker on a smartphone that I’ve heard before. The Galaxy A7 suffers from the same problem you’d face on any other Android device with a downward firing speaker – the speaker gets easily muffled while using the device in landscape mode. Samsung could have easily included front firing speaker, considering the fact that the Galaxy A7 doesn’t have a completely bezel less display, but unfortunately that isn’t the case.

Connectivity options on the Galaxy A7 are plentiful and most users won’t even find any problems with the device in this regard. The device features a 3.5mm headphone jack and a triple slot SIM tray with a dedicated slot for expansion using a microSD card.

The Galaxy A7 packs in a respectable 3,300mAh battery with no fast charging support. The company has included a 5V/1.55A charging brick in the box and using the included charger I was able to charge up the device from 10 to 50 percent in around 50 minutes, taking a total of 2 hours and 10 minutes to charge the device up to 100 percent. Compared to the Vivo V11 Pro, which has a similar sized battery, the device took over 40 minutes longer to charge up to full, while taking around 30 minutes more to charge up to 50 percent.

Priced starting at Rs. 23,990, the Galaxy A7 offers a ton of great features that you wouldn’t find in other competing mid-rangers. The device includes an impressive 6-inch Super AMOLED display which doesn’t feature a notch, a great triple camera setup which captures some stunning images and a premium design and build quality. If these features appeal to you then the Galaxy A7 should definitely be your go to choice, but in case you’re looking for the best price to performance ratio, then you should probably consider getting the Poco F1 which is powered by a flagship Snapdragon 845 chip.

  • Stunning Super AMOLED display with no notch
  • Ergonomic fingerprint scanner placement
  • Good camera performance
  • Great battery life
  • Premium design and build quality

Cons:

  • No USB Type-C port
  • Slow and inconsistent face unlock
  • No fast charging
  • Average performance

Samsung Galaxy A7 Review: Finally Something Fresh from Samsung

Well, that rounds up our review of the Samsung Galaxy A7. As I mentioned earlier, the device brings a ton of premium features to the mid-range price segment, however, it isn’t the best performer in the price range. The Galaxy A7 will be a perfect buy for you if you’re looking for a smartphone with a beautiful display, great cameras, good battery life and a premium design. However, if you’re looking for a device that offers the best performance for the price, then the Galaxy A7 isn’t for you and you should probably consider getting the Poco F1.