Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) Hands-On: Triple Cameras at an Affordable Price

Sep. 25, 2018

The device will be available in two variants, with the low-end variant featuring4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage, while the high-end variant will feature 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage (Rs 28,990). Both the variants come equipped with a triple slot SIM tray which can house two nano SIMs along with a microSD card for expansion. We had the opportunity to spend some time with the device following the launch event and here are our initial impressions of Samsung’s latest mid-ranger:

Build and Design

The device features an impressive 6-inch Super AMOLED Infinity display up front withthick bezels on the top and bottom to accommodate the front camera, a front facing flash, the earpiece and sensors up top. The bezels on the sides are relatively slim and aren’t really intrusive.

The back houses the triple camera setup in the top left corner underneath which is the dual-tone LED flash. There’s a Samsung logo bang in the center of the back, but there’s not much else which gives the device a very clean look. However,keeping the look clean would definitely prove to be a challenge as the glass back is a major fingerprint magnet.

The fingerprint sensor on the device has beenintegrated within the power button which resides on the right edge of the devicealong with the volume up/down buttons. In order to make the power button/fingerprint scanner more intuitive to use, it has been placed within a recess in the chassis which makes it really easy to locate.

While the placement of the fingerprint scanner might take a bit of getting used to, I believe it is way more ergonomic (at least for right-handed users).

Thetriple slot SIM trayresides in the left edge of the device and has enough space to house two nano SIM cards and a microSD card slot which supports cards up to 512GB in size. The bottom edge of the device houses the 3.5mm headphone jack, amicro USB port for charging and data syncing (which is a disappointment), and a single downward-firing speaker.

The display gets fairly bright which will definitely aid in sunlight visibility and it’s powered by a Trust Zone technology processor that enablesWidevine L1 certificationso you wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to watch DRM-protected HD content, such as on thePoco F1.

On the software front, Samsung has included a bunch of software optimizations and features to ensure that the device captures great images in almost all scenarios. There’s theLive Focusfeature that’s found on a number of other Samsung devices which allows users to capture great portrait shots and edit the bokeh effect at a later stage.

While I’m not a big fan of Samsung’s software, the company hasreally toned down on the bloatware this time around. The device I used had a couple of apps pre-installed, including Facebook, Amazon Shopping, Prime Video and Microsoft’s Office Suite, which are more or less quite useful for the average buyer. The device also supports Samsung Pay Mini for instant payments.

The device packs in a substantial3,300mAh batterywhich should easily last more than a full day of use on a single charge, however, the company hasn’t highlighted if the device comes with fast charging support, the lack of which could be a major deal-breaker for some.