Samsung Galaxy A7 2018

The Galaxy A7 is the first phone from Samsung that features a triple camera setup at the back. Now, by all means, this is the clear USP of the handset and Samsung wants you to know that the three camera sensors are capable of clicking some seriously good shots. For the uninitiated, the rear-facing triple camera setup on the Galaxy A7 includes a 24MP primary sensor with f/1.7 aperture and PDAF support, a 5MP depth sensor with f/ 2.2 aperture, and an 8MP wide-angle sensor with f/2.4 aperture. Below this vertically-oriented camera module, there is an LED flash to assist the smartphone in poor lighting conditions. In the default camera app, you don't even have to dive in deep before you will come across the wide-angle feature. In the Auto mode, the wide-angle option presents itself on the home screen itself. Notably, this wide-angle option is only available with the Auto mode. When clicking pictures, you will realise that you don't have to move back physically just to get subjects into frame anymore. We ended up taking most of the pictures with the wide-angle lens during our testing as it enabled us to capture a bigger picture. There is a slight fish-eye effect in the images taken via wide-angle mode, but it is not noticeable to a point where it would diminish the picture's quality or make it look as if we are looking through a glass ball. The wide-angle lens is a nice addition to the phone, but not something that revolutionises smartphone photography.The other modes on offer include Panorama, Pro, Scene Optimiser, Beauty, Live Focus, Slow Motion, AR Emoji, and Hyperlapse. The Scene Optimiser mode, as you might have guessed from the name, allows the phone to detect the scene and accordingly make enhancements. In our usage, this mode did not add an unnatural tone to the images but made subtle enhancements, which were mostly decent. The handset's rear camera setup managed to take some decent shots for us, most of them in daylight and outdoor conditions. Indoors, the pictures clicked by the handset look slightly underwhelming. Overall, the level of detail in the pictures clicked by the Galaxy A7 could have been better. Unfortunately, in night conditions, there is considerable noise in the pictures taken from the Galaxy A7 and we even had to struggle quite a few times to get a decent picture.

The Galaxy A7 runs Android 8.0 Oreo-based Experience UI 9.0 out of the box and comes with the standard set of apps that you might have seen on other recent handsets from the company. You get Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Shopping, and Dailyhunt apart from the proprietary Samsung Mall, Samsung Max, and Samsung Pay mini apps. As we have seen in many Samsung phones before, there is a Game Launcher app that helps you manage notification and other phone settings to help you play games uninterrupted.There are some Google and Microsoft Office apps pre-installed on the phone too. If you have used a Samsung phone before, you would not be much bothered by the UI, but someone who has been using stock Android would likely prefer a more stripped-down version of the Experience UI.The Samsung Galaxy A7 is powered by an octa-core Exynos 7885 SoC, clocked at 2.2GHz. The handset is available with 4GB or 6GB of RAM with either 64GB or 128GB of storage. Surprisingly, we faced occasional stutter issues with the phone while navigating through the UI and switching between the apps. However, as we mentioned earlier, these were occasional. The handset managed to run most of the apps and games without any significant hiccups. Slightly demanding games would have worked better with a more powerful processor but most users will be able to get through the day without any such issues. As there are now handsets in this price range that offer flagship-grade processors, Samsung should seriously consider its processor choice for its mid-range devices.

For a smartphone that does not weigh too much, the Galaxy A7 packs in a rather sizeable 3,300mAh battery. In our HD video loop test, the handset dropped down from 100 percent battery level to 20 percent in around 14 hours. Even if we keep these test results aside, in daily usage, the Galaxy A7 managed to last a full day of use. Notably, the handset does drop battery levels at a higher rate than some other phones in standby mode but overall, the battery backup offered by the Galaxy A7 is decent and should last a full day for most users. If you are a heavy user, you might have to grab a wall charger by the end of the day. As there is support for fast charging, this should not be much of an issue.

ProsThe wide-angle sensor is quite helpfulImpressive displayGood build qualityConsPerformance issuesNo USB Type-C port