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Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) Review: More Bulk, Less Fun

Samsung Galaxy A7 comes in a new avatar. Is it worth the price tag of Rs 33,490. 

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People these days are working hard to become slim and trim. The mere phrase ‘tum mote lag rahe ho’ sets our blood boiling. This clearly demonstrates that ‘slim is in’ and it holds true for smartphones too.

The 2017 version of the Samsung A7 exudes simplicity and offers some very impressive specs but also loses some points on the extra weight its put on, almost as if it went on some crazy sugar diets!

So what does the Samsung Galaxy A7 bring to the table besides its bulk? Let’s take a look.

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Snapshot

Pros:

  • Good Battery Life
  • Dust/Water Resistant
  • Good Camera
  • Always On Display

Cons:

  • Bulky & Heavy
  • Boring User Interface
Samsung Galaxy A7 comes in a new avatar. Is it worth the price tag of Rs 33,490. 
Combination of glass and metal on the A7 gives it a premium look. (Photo: The Quint)

What’s Good?

The new A7 has undergone a drastic transformation compared to its predecessor. The sharp edges of the earlier A7 (2016) have disappeared and the new A7 gets a more rounded form factor. Not only have the edges been rounded off, the back of the phone also has a cascading waterfall effect to it, like what you see on the Galaxy Edge devices.

The glass back looks good on this phone. It maintains a very subtle balance between premium and sturdiness.

We were really impressed with the display of the device. The 5.7-inch Full-HD Super Amoled screen comes with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels. The colours are bright and crisp and viewing texts in daylight won’t be a problem. The blown-up display has a merit for people who are into smartphone gaming and watching movies.

Samsung Galaxy A7 comes in a new avatar. Is it worth the price tag of Rs 33,490. 
A7’s 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display is one of the best in its class. (Photo: The Quint)
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Performance via the A7 is smooth. You get a good hardware combination of an Exynos 7880 octa-core chipset and 3GB RAM which we feel is enough to get things done on the A7.

Another highlight in the hardware department is the dual-SIM slot with an additional microSD card slot with expandable memory up to 256GB. Which means you can run two separate SIMs and use a microSD simultaneously! Nice!

The fingerprint sensor on the home button is also responsive. The one feature that caught our attention and gave us a bit of a shock was the placement of the speaker grill on the top right! Come to think of it, not a bad idea! It doesn’t do any harm to the audio and watching content horizontally also won’t be a problem.

You also have the standard 3.5mm audio jack at the bottom neatly placed with a type-C port for charging. Also, the phone is dust and water resistant with an IP68 certification.

Battery back-up of the phone also makes it a hot seller. The 3600mAh battery juice inside can easily last you the entire day on a single charge, even with heavy usage.

Samsung Galaxy A7 comes in a new avatar. Is it worth the price tag of Rs 33,490. 
A7 still with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Good or bad? (Photo: The Quint)
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The camera quality of this phone is undoubtedly very impressive. You get a combination of a 16-megapixel rear camera with f/1.9 aperture and a 16-megapixel front camera. We got good pictures in sunlight and indoors.

Samsung Galaxy A7 comes in a new avatar. Is it worth the price tag of Rs 33,490. 
The 16-megapixel rear and front camera deliver good results. (Photo: The Quint)
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What’s Bad?

Now to something that is a deal breaker in the A7. Its bulky size and weight. The phone feels too heavy in the hand. Two hand operation is tough, forget one hand use. The bulky nature of the phone makes it uncomfortable while using, even for a brief period.

Also there isn’t anything new we saw in the phone’s TouchWiz UI which comes bundled with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Gives us the feeling of ‘yeh toh pehle bhi dekha hai’.

Samsung Galaxy A7 comes in a new avatar. Is it worth the price tag of Rs 33,490. 
TouchWiz on top of Android 6.0.1 in the A7, nothing out of the box.(Photo: The Quint)
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Why Buy It?

The Samsung Galaxy A7 2017 offers a premium Android phone experience without making you spend more than 50k on it. From great battery life to exceptional optics, the phone pack the best of Samsung features in it.

If you are a Samsung fan who doesn’t have the kind of budget to for a Galaxy flagship like the S7 Edge, you can consider the A7 2017 at Rs 33,490.

Although, there is stiff competition from the likes of the OnePlus 3T, Honor 8 and the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium in this price category.

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