Dubai: Samsung has a lot to prove after an explosive 2016. Its 2017 ‘A’ series have inherited a lot from Galaxy S7 devices, including the IP68 dust and water resistance.
The 5.7-inch Super AMOLED (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) display with 386 dots per inch is powered by 1.9GHz octa-core home-grown Exynos processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage capacity.
The microSD card slot supports up to 256GB and runs on older Android 6.0.16 Marshmallow OS and not on Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.
The device supports dual-SIM cards and a microSD slot trays.
The metal-glass design A7 features more pronounced curves on the edges and on the rear than 2016 A7 due to its 3D glass design. It is 7.9-mm thin and weighs 172 grams, slightly heavier than S7’s 152 grams.
Samsung has improved the processor, RAM, internal storage, USB-Type C connectivity, and battery all deliver some form of an upgrade when compared to 2016’s A7 and the noticeable change is in the front-facing camera from 5MP to 16MP while the rear camera is bumped up from 13MP to 16MP.
The 16MP rear camera with f/1.9, 27mm, autofocus and LED flash takes good snaps even in lowlight conditions.
Samsung has also tweaked its camera user interface to introduce a free-floating shutter button you can drag around the screen. That’ll make it easier than ever to take pictures of your face.
The camera offers a simplified UX, including easy swipe to quickly change modes or instant filters to activate picture effects. Users can leverage modes such as the Food Mode, to optimise photos and enhance the colour of images and with various photo effects such as Classic, Cosy or Maple.
The rear camera takes lively and bright photos, though they look slightly blurry when zoomed in. Images also look overexposed at times, compared with the same shots with the S7’s camera.
It can shoot Full HD videos at 30 frames per second and no option to record 4K videos.
In spite of the fact that the A7’s front camera has a much higher megapixel count than the S7 edge’s (5MP), I prefer the latter’s camera, because the skin tone looks more natural.
Even though Samsung has copied some of its features onto A7, it has also improved it.
For example, the A7’s front physical home button, similar to S7, doubles as a fingerprint sensor but to unlock the S7, you’d have to click on the home button once to wake the screen up and then keep your finger on the button to authenticate your fingerprint.
The placement of the speaker on A7 is much better than S7. The A7 is on the right-hand side, just above the power button. The S7 has it on the bottom. Many a time, I have covered the speaker on S7 when holding the phone in the landscape mode and when playing games.
Secure folder
The new feature on A7 compared to its predecessor is the Secure Folder, a private folder where users can store private data and it is accessible if you have the password or fingerprint.
Similar features like Always-On Display, S-Voice, Samsung Pay and Samsung KNOX security along with all the expected pre-loaded apps are found in A7.
The new Grace UX user interface, which debuted on Galaxy Note 7, is much better than its old TouchWiz interface. It offers users neat new features like wide selfie, ultra-power saving mode, smart manager, blue light filter and Game Tools. It’s a lot cleaner than previous builds of TouchWiz and sports smoother animations. All the settings are accessible on the notifications tray. It is more simple to operate now and more customisable.
The 3,600mAh battery with Fast Charging technology provides more than one day of heavy use and the standby time is excellent.
Regarding connectivity, it has 4G LTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, WiFi Hotspot, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth 4.2, ANT+, USB Type-C, NFC, headphones and FM radio. Sensors on the phone include accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer.
Price, variants
The device comes in black sky, gold sand and blue mist colours and priced at Dh1,749.
Pros
• AMOLED screen
• Good battery life
• Excellent standby time
• Premium look and feel
• Grace UX user interface
Cons
• Bit expensive
• No 4K recording
• Old OS out of the box
• Bit heavy
• Only Full HD display
