Samsung Galaxy A7 Overview
Up until last year, there were tons of cell phones introduced in the market and Chinese competition was primarily restricted to the smartphones which fall under the bracket of good budget cell phones and Samsung’s A-series was one of the rare few branded options for mid-range buyers.
Surprisingly Samsung Galaxy A series has still made it to one of the best-selling smartphones in the year 2020 in Pakistan and is in no mood of coming down on the list.
A little dig from the Past
One of the newest smartphones to join the Samsung Galaxy A – series happens to be the Samsung Galaxy A7 which also appears to be the device that:
- Features a triple camera system at the back of its body.
Many people were expecting
- Galaxy S series or
- Note series
To feature some new high-end features unlike the A-series, but this new surprise certainly grabbed the attention of every smartphone lover in Pakistan as well as other parts of the world.
A little about Samsung Galaxy A7 and Galaxy A9
That's not it, the company has also recently released the:
- Galaxy A9, the world's first smartphone to feature a rear quad-camera system.
Although this could somewhat lessen the hype and all the jazz of the Galaxy A7, however, the main question is are its triple camera feature more than enough to give it an advantage in its price segment over the competition? We've put that to the test in this article to find out.
Some other famous mobile brands
Brands like:
- Oppo and
- Vivo
Are pushing competent alternatives in the mid-range segment and, on the other hand, companies like:
- Xiaomi
- Nokia, and
- Asus is pushing very lucrative devices online as well.
But since the need is rising day by day, Samsung is naturally stepping up its game as well and the recently launched Galaxy A7 perhaps is the lowest price ‘A7’ which comes in some amazing innovations.
Some of its features and the new triple camera phone have been tested and their findings have been already summed up in this article review so let’s begin with the review of Samsung Galaxy A7 – 2020.
Samsung Galaxy A7 Review: Design and Build (2020)
Unlike the A6-series that was launched a few years ago, the Galaxy A7 came with a:
- Glass back and colour-matched polycarbonate side frame.
- The company managed to restrict the overall thickness to 7.5mm, even while housing triple rear cameras.
Staying true to its design pedigree, Samsung has managed to avoid both:
- The camera hump and
- The notch.
- While restricting camera bulge is laudable from a design perspective, (and something Samsung practices even in its high-end phones like Galaxy S9 and Note 9) it also restricts the size of the camera sensor.
Another significant talking point here is the:
- Fingerprint sensor position.
- The Galaxy A7 houses the biometric sensor in the slight indentation on the right edge, clubbed with the power button.
- The power button is still clickable, but you don’t need to press it for the fingerprint sensor to work.
- It’s the ‘Always-active’ type and all you need to do is place your thumb or any registered digit in the groove to unlock.
People quite liked the side-mounted fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy A7, and that became the reason for its massive sale in Pakistan.
Some Other Features
- The Samsung Galaxy A7 is slim, premium quality and very comfortable to handle smartphone
- The regular, uninhibited, notch-less status bar feels refreshing.
- Thankfully the speaker grill is present at the bottom and not on the top-right edge.
- The sensor is always on, and you need not press the power button to unlock.
- Users can only register three fingerprints, though.
- The regular micro USB port at the bottom does not feel right. Samsung should have opted for the Type-C port as it was reviewed by the customers
- Samsung does not bundle a protective case in the box. Users had to buy one separately and this was considered as a bit of a drawback
Display Review of Samsung Galaxy A7 - 2020
The cell phone comes with a 6.0-inch display with Full HD+ (1080 X 2220) AMOLED display. Samsung makes some of the best AMOLED screens and the one on this smartphone also felt fine for its price in Pakistan.
The display is also protected by Gorilla Glass and some of its key features are as follows:
- The 6.0-inch AMOLED display counts as one of the strengths of this series
- Users can easily choose between different colour profiles under display settings.
- Outdoor visibility is decent.
- The Always-on display further adds value. Samsung also adds an Always-on home button that users can double-tap to wake the phone.
Performance, Software, and Battery Review
The company powered this smartphone by
- Exynos 7885 processor which is a 14nm process based chip with two 2.2GHz Cortex-A73 CPU cores and
- 1.6GHz Cortex-A53 CPU cores.
Tech analysts have earlier experienced the same chipset on Galaxy A8+ and the performance as well.
The chipset powering the A7 smartphone also supports:
- Dual SIM Dual VoLTE.
- The handset comes in two variants – 4GB RAM + 64GB storage and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage.
- Both variants accept up to 512GB storage. Interestingly, users can transfer Apps and social media data to the SD card as well.
- Micro SD storage is inherently slower than the SD card storage but this should still make external storage a lot more useful, especially in the long run.
- The Experience UI 9.5 running on the phone is based on Android 8.0 Oreo.
- The body of the Samsung is quite efficient and light. Analysts have ample experience with the UI by now and find it quite agreeable.
It has been said by the company that they will be bringing some additional features including gesture navigation in the Experience UI 10.0 next year.
- The handset includes a 3300mAh battery and users are easily getting a comfortable one-day mileage with moderate to heavy usage.
- Fast charging is not supported.
Performance of A7 cell phone is without a doubt quite smooth.
- People can run heavy games without any trouble.
- This phone also now supports HD streaming on Amazon Prime and Netflix.
- The inbox charger is rated 5V, 1.5A.
Now comes the Camera Review of A7!
This amazing and unique smartphone is very well-known for its superb quality camera and has grabbed the attention of the fans just because of it.
The cell phone includes:
- Three cameras on the rear and one on the front (are we finally moving away from the selfie marketing pitch?).
- The primary 24MP sensor (f/1.7, PDAF) relies on pixel binning (Interpolating data gathered by 4 pixels as 1 for better details),
- the 5MP sensor is used as a depth sensor to fuel portrait mode or Live Focus as Samsung puts it, and the 8MP sensor (f/2.4, 13mm) for shooting in wide-angle mode.
Now let’s talk about camera performance.
- The primary 24MP rear camera is a very good performer for its price. The shots that were clicked outdoors show a wide dynamic range and sharp details.
- Indoor camera performance (for the primary camera) is great too.
- The portrait mode (Live FOCUS), that uses the 5MP depth sensor, can be a hit or a miss.
- The background blur is adjustable and looks awesome when things click.
- Edge detection needs to get better, though.
- The software-based live focus works for selfie camera works decently in proper outdoor lighting.
People can easily switch to the third 8MP sensor from the camera app to capture wide-angle shots. Since this is a wide-angle lens, the barrel distortion at the edges is expected and if anyone is not familiar with how to use the wide-angle lens properly, they won’t be using it very often.
- Besides, the low resolution (8MP) for wide-angle shots could be a problem, and the wide-angle lens is also fixed focus.
- For selfies, there is a 24MP sensor up front.
- The portrait mode is available for both rear and front cameras.
- The ‘scene optimizer’ in the camera app can also recognize scenes and adjust camera settings accordingly.
- Analysts say that they don’t remember Samsung using the word ‘AI’ which is actually refreshing. The optimization is, thankfully, not as aggressive.
Some final suggestions as it might help – Should you really buy it?
This smartphone is indeed better looking and more comfortable to handle compared to the other better top-notch cell phone that it challenges.
Users are quite happy with the overall rear camera performance, but that’s not because Samsung is using three sensors instead of two. Or, even one.
Of course, phones like:
- Xiaomi F1 and
- Vivo V11 Pro offers more impressive spec-sheet, but perhaps what A7 musters, combined with Samsung’s brand value should be enough to make for a recommendation.
Pros
- AMOLED Display
- Ample RAM and Storage
- Dual SIM Dual VoLTE support
- Indoor camera performance
- An accessible side-mounted Fingerprint sensor
Cons
- Only the mini version of Samsung Pay
- No fast charging
- Case cover not bundled in the box
Conclusion
With having said that, this cell phone would be an excellent gift to give somebody on their graduation, birthday or even engagement.