Overview of Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)

While Samsung’s A-series smartphones are known for its premium craftsmanship and affordable price tags, the latest iteration of these devices now comes with water and dust resistance. We can check review of Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy A7 2017 Design and Specifications

Since the days of the Samsung Galaxy S6, the company has been seriously working on unique design cues for both its flagship and mid-range smartphones. The first Samsung Galaxy A series devices were truly a step apart when compared to other mid-range smartphones in the market, thanks to its all-metal body. The smooth and curvy metal frames, which joins seamlessly with front display and back panel, are undoubtfully similar to the Samsung Galaxy S7 flagship and the ill-fated Samsung Galaxy Note7 phablet. The device features a large 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with an impressive FHD resolution that’s sufficient enough for sharp images. Outdoor visibility appears to be fine. The smartphone is 7.9mm thick and has a weight of 186g, which is quite good for a large-screen device. There are a couple of things that Samsung has changed as compared to their usual design taste. While the speaker grill is usually seen on the bottom of the device, Samsung has placed the speaker grill of the Galaxy A7 on the right side alongside the power button. The power rockers are on the upper left portion. The top portion only consists of the SIM card slot and mic.

The bottom of the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) features a reversible USB Type-C port and the 3.5mm headphone jack. The home button on the front sports a fingerprint scanner which is pretty fast. While the metal frames of the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) give out the feel of a premium mid-range smartphone, the back panel is made of plastic. That isn’t really bad as it seems. The camera module on the rear is almost flat, so you don’t need to worry about wobbling issues when the smartphone is kept on a straight table. There is one more thing that’s new with the A-series. The new Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017), Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017), and the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017), is the first in the series to offer water and dust resistance (IP68 certified). While we did some test trials on sand and water, the smartphone did give out warnings that the USB Type-C port is wet, incase, if we would have kept it in charge.

The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) is powered by the 1.9GHz octa-core Exynos 7880 Octa CPU with 3GB RAM. The operating system is Android 6.0 OS. We were hoping that the device came with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. While my past experiences with the previous Galaxy A series smartphones weren’t that impressive due to the laggy and slow responsiveness of the UI, the latest Galaxy A7 (2017) is quite fast when it comes to software performance. The UI appears to be quite similar to what’s seen on the Galaxy S7, so there is a good chance that Samsung has removed all the unnecessary bloatware. Our Antutu benchmark test scored about 60411 points, GeekBench Single and Multi-Core for 758 and 3941 points, respectively, and 3D Mark Slingshot Extreme for 812 points.

Samsung Galaxy A7 2017 Camera and Battery

The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) packs two 16MP cameras with 1080p video recording in the front and rear side. Both these cameras are backed by F1.9 lens aperture so that you can get sharp images and better low-light performance. Speaking of low light, the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) has flash modules for both the rear and front-facing camera. The front camera has a mode for both standard and wide angle selfies. The main 16MP camera offers a PRO mode which allows users to toy with the ISO, white balance, and exposure. The maximum resolution of 16:9 ratio can be shot at 12MP, and 16MP with the 4:3 image aspect ratio. We took some few shots in the Dubai Canal using the rear camera, and fired off some selfies too in standard selfie mode.

The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) holds a large 3600 mAh battery with fast charge support via the USB Type-C port. Samsung has also included a USB Type-C converter for those who still wants to use the old ports. In this Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) review, it included using the front and rear cameras, some internet surfing and calls, connected to the Gear S3 Frontier which we are currently reviewing too, and watched some videos online. These usages easily lasted the smartphone for almost the whole day. However, LTE usage is another issue which will drain the battery faster on any smartphone.

Verdict

Up until now, Sony has been the only smartphone maker in the market to offer waterproof/dustproof smartphones for the mid-range market. But their devices didn’t come with a premium metal design as the latest Samsung A series smartphones. This Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) review highlight features a similar design cue of the Galaxy S7, along with 16MP cameras on both the front and rear. The addition of USB Type-C port confirms that Samsung has started to transition towards newer connectivity, and the software is easily the best performing that I’ve seen on any Samsung mid-range smartphone till date. However, we hoped that the price could have been slightly on the lower side. The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) is priced at AED 1749 in Dubai, UAE.