Samsung Galaxy A7 2017

Samsung’s Grace UX makes a comeback in both the smartphones but the core software is still Android 6.0 Marshmallow and not Nougat, which is definitely a downer. In Grace UX, Samsung does a very good job of hiding all the extraneous features of the software and bringing it up only when necessary. Nothing is in your face anymore. What this means is that by default you get a clean look with home screens, an app drawer, and the Briefing panel — which is nothing but a Flipboard-powered collection of news articles — that can be invoked by sliding left from the first home screen.

Even the cameras inside the Galaxy A5 (2017) and the Galaxy A7 (2017) are the same. You get a pair of 16MP shooters on the front and the rear, both attached to f/1.9 aperture lenses. In my testing I noticed that the performance of both the cameras are identical on the Galaxy A5 (2017) and the Galaxy A7 (2017). For the sake of this review, I will use the Galaxy A7 (2017) as the reference. Note: click on the reference images for full resolution view.

Samsung has fitted the phones with its homegrown Exynos 7880 octa-core chips and 3GB of RAM. As for storage, you get 32GB with the option to expand it to 256GB using a microSD card. The Qualcomm chipset equivalent of the Exynos 7880 is the Snapdragon 625 SoC because both use eight Cortex A53 cores and are built on the 14nm fabrication process. The major advantage of using a 14nm process is that you get good battery life and it actually shows. In our battery test, the Galaxy A7 (2017) lasted 18 hours and 47 minutes, whereas the A5 (2017) lasted 17 hours and 31 minutes. These numbers are exceptionally good, and you can easily derive a day and half worth of usage from your phone on moderate usage. I regularly got a screen-on time of four to five hours on both the phones.

After spending time with the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017), I can confidently say that these are premium-looking smartphones that pack in a lot of punch. I liked the design, the display, the gaming performance, superior battery life, and the great cameras on the rear and the front. Apart from some minor issues, it is really hard to find any faults in the phones. Obviously, you won’t get the grunt of the OnePlus 3T’s (review) Snapdragon 821 SoC but there’s enough power to satisfy users who aren’t too demanding. Furthermore, the phones will be available for easy purchase in retail stores across the country. I consider this an added advantage for Samsung because offline presence is vital in a country like India where a lot of people still like to buy their phones from brick-and-mortar stores. Let’s not forget the Samsung Pay support on both these devices; it could actually go on to become quite a coveted feature in the future as far as payments are concerned.