The newest Galaxy A7 2018 is a big, 6-inch phone with a glass back and a triple camera system, but does it have what it takes to beat the new kings in the affordable phone arena?\u2026 The newest Galaxy A7 2018 is a big, 6-inch phone with a glass back and a triple camera system, but does it have what it takes to beat the new kings<\/b>
\nCompetition in the affordable phone market these days is not merely intense, it\u2019s almost impossible to compete with aggressively priced phones out of China with top-tier specs at prices of around just $300.
There are plenty of alternatives in this price range:
Don\u2019t get us wrong: it\u2019s a phone that has that glass look and style that comes with it, and it handles basic tasks mostly okay, plus it has a beautiful Super AMOLED screen, but for demanding users its performance is lacking, its camera is downright disappointing, the fingerprint scanner is slow and in a sloppy place, you have the ancient microUSB, there\u2019s no gesture navigation and overall this phone just lacks excitement and vigor! And that\u2019s just unforgivable at the price that Samsung is asking for it.
And Samsung should know. It\u2019s been losing ground to the likes of Huawei, Xiaomi and OnePlus quicker than all other Android phone makers. So is its newest mid-range Galaxy A7 2018 the transformative device that would bring it back on the success track? On the surface, the Galaxy A7 looks\u2026 a bit boring. It\u2019s a pretty big rectangular slab with slightly sloppy-looking bezels. There are no top-tier chips on board and the interface is the same old Samsung Experience with no modern gesture navigation. And no, there\u2019s no 4K video on board either. What was Samsung even thinking? Well, there are three cameras on the back, more than on any other mid-range phone, and a few surprises on the inside and we can\u2019t wait to tell you all about them. Read on. The Galaxy A7 2018 is made of glass and feels surprisingly light-weight, but it\u2019s still a massive phone almost as big as an iPhone XS Max, but weighing nearly 25% less. This is definitely not a device you can easily operate with a single hand. We\u2019ve gotten pretty used to glass phones by now, but the A7 surprised us with just how slippery it was. It’s one of those phones that slip and fall on their own unless it’s resting on a perfectly flat surface. This happened a few times and we feel so lucky that the phone is not broken yet! So a case with this phone is not only strongly recommended, it\u2019s mandatory in our opinion. The A7 comes in a selection of three colors: we have the blue model up for review, but there are black and gold models as well. One element that makes this phone look a bit on the cheap side are the plastic sides with a very reflective polished finish (but we do like that the sides have a matching color with the back cover). Buttons are all on the right side, the volume keys way up at the top and a recessed power button that you cannot easily find without looking and always feels a little weird to press. The big disappointment is on the bottom. Nope, it\u2019s not the 3.5mm headphone jack, which Samsung has kept on this phone, but the age-old microUSB port. Is it really that expensive to include a USB-C port on a mid-range phone in late 2018, Samsung? We wonder. On the bottom, you\u2019d also find the single loudspeaker. On the back, you have the star of the show: the triple camera system. We\u2019ll take a closer look at it below, so stick with us. One more thing: there is no special water-proofing on this phone, so be careful not to get it wet. By now you are probably wondering: where\u2019s the fingerprint scanner? It\u2019s here, but this time Samsung has built it right in the power button on the side. After using the Galaxy A7 for nearly two weeks, we find this to be a bigger inconvenience than we suspected. Sure, it\u2019s not a dealbreaker, but it just doesn\u2019t feel very comfortable to reach to the side and than have to reposition your hand to actually unlock your phone every time you want to check something quickly. Speaking of speed, this is definitely not the fastest fingerprint reader around, always taking a slight, but noticeable moment to unlock the phone. And risking to sound too petty, you do get a nice click with the power key, but the recessed position makes it even stranger as you cannot easily feel it by hand. You also have face recognition on board. Enrolling your face is a fast and easy process, and using face recognition to unlock the A7 works most of the time. We also tried using it while wearing glasses and without them, as well as in a well-lit room and in darker environments, and it recognized us fine if (and this is important) you place your phone at the right angle and without moving too much. If you kind of just glance at the screen at an angle it often fails to recognize you and also while you are moving and on the go, it seems to have a tougher time. There is again a slight delay, similar to the one you get with fingerprint scans, when you use face recognition to actually unlock your phone, so keep that in mind. While we\u2019ve been criticizing the A7 2018 for its looks and slightly slow secure unlock systems, there\u2019s nothing to criticize about the big and beautiful Super AMOLED screen that you get with this phone. It is a 6-inch display with a Full HD (1080 x 2220 pixel) resolution and it looks gorgeous. Colors are impressively wide and lively, blacks are deep, viewing angles are mostly fine, and you can select between a few different color modes for more eye-popping color or a more toned-down appearance. The screen is very reflective, though, which makes it slightly more inconvenient to use outdoors. It is the big bezel around the sides, however, that we dislike the most, as it contributes to the width of the phone and spoils the looks a bit. This being a Samsung AMOLED screen, you also get the useful Always-on screen option so you can quickly glance at the screen to see whether you have missed notifications or calls. You also have a blue-light filter to help ease the strain on your eyes when you use the phone at night. The Galaxy A7 2018 is a brand new phone and it comes with the latest and greatest version of Android\u2026 oh wait, it doesn\u2019t! It still runs on last year\u2019s Android 8 Oreo software, which is disappointing, to say the least. The reason for this probably lies in the heavy custom interface that is Samsung Experience and that takes a lot of time to port to newer versions of Google\u2019s platform. Whatever the reasons, though, we find it hard to find an excuse, especially considering how cheaper Android phones rarely if ever get updates, and with this one, you are starting off with old software. Still, if you don\u2019t care too much about having the latest software, you will find the Samsung Experience on the A7 2018 to be a reliable interface that slowly but surely churns through tasks. What\u2019s missing here, however, is clearly excitement: a prime example is that you don\u2019t have the modern gesture navigation system that even cheaper phones have these days and only have the on-screen button navigation. Under the hood, the Galaxy A7 2018 is powered by the Samsung Exynos 7 Octa 7885 chip and if you get as easily confused by such long names as we do, you might find it useful to know that this chip compares to Snapdragon\u2019s 6xx series in terms of performance, ranging somewhere between that of the Snapdragon 636 and Snapdragon 660 chips. The chip features two Cortex A73 performance cores and six Cortex A53 efficiency cores for an octa-core total design and it\u2019s built on a 14nm manufacturing process. The phone comes in three memory configurations:Storage expansion with a microSD card is supported. Those are the technicalities, however, and what we take greater interest in is the actual performance. And it\u2019s not among the fastest. There is a strange paradox about this phone: its animations mostly feel smooth, yet it never feels fast, quite the opposite. Apps take an extra moment to load up, the keyboard only comes after a slight delay and combined with the quite slow unlock speeds, you never feel like you are operating a fast phone. Right below, you\u2019d also find some benchmarks to give you a rough idea of how the A7 2018 compares against the competition. The Galaxy A7 2018 supports 4G LTE bands and it\u2019s officially sold and compatible with GSM carriers (T-Mobile and AT&T) in the United States. You won\u2019t find it at carrier stores at the moment, though, but you can buy the US version at retailers like B&H. The phone that we have for review is a dual SIM device and it\u2019s a true dual SIM phone, meaning that the microSD card does not overlap with one of the SIM card slots, and you can have two SIMs and a memory card at the same time. In terms of other connectivity options, you also have dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC support, plus you can also use Samsung Pay here. The star of the Galaxy A7 2018 show is the new triple camera system that includes an ultra-wide angle lens that Samsung has never used on its phones before, even on the flagship models. Having an ultra-wide angle lens allows you to fit more in the frame and shoot in tight spaces, giving you extra versatility. You don\u2019t have a telephoto camera on board here, but you do get the Live Focus portrait effect thanks to a depth camera and you also have a selfie camera that\u2019s capable of pulling the same Live Focus trick. Here is a quick summary of the cameras on the Galaxy A7 2018:So\u2026 how do images actually turn out? Uhm\u2026 not great. Let\u2019s be perfectly honest: images range from barely okay to downright disgusting, and yours truly does not recount testing a 2018 phone with a camera so bad. When you have plentiful light and excellent shooting conditions, images turn out barely okay with decent color reproduction, fairly correct white balance, but sorely lacking detail and lost detail in the shadows that make it evident that you won\u2019t be putting these images on a poster. But the real trouble starts at low light when you lose even more detail for pictures, the lack of dynamics is even worse with badly burned highlights and lack of detail in darker areas, and the resulting photo is definitely below the average. The ultra-wide angle camera offers an interesting perspective, but it manages to smudge detail even worse so photos from it mostly look like a blurry mess that reminds us of phones in the early 2000s, but definitely not a modern smartphone. Selfies turn out a bit better and with good light you can get some decent self-portraits, and you also have the built-in LED flash that allows you to snap selfies even at night and in pitch dark environments. On the video side, you only have 1080p30 recording and no 4K video mode. Video footage here turns out mostly okayish with a decent stabilization on board, a slightly slow but reliable continuous auto focus. But once again, let\u2019s not forget that phones in this price range offer 4K video and compared to those devices, footage from the A7 lacks sorely in detail, has trouble dealing with highlights and is just not quite on par. You can shoot video with the wide-angle camera as well, but you cannot switch between the two while shooting. You have a single bottom-firing loudspeaker on the A7 and it blasts out sound pretty loudly. It performs decently for an affordable phone with the main issues being the somewhat tinny sound and the lack of depth. As we already mentioned, the good old headphone jack is alive and well here on the A7. Samsung even ships the phone with a pair of headphones in the box, but you\u2019d likely want to use higher quality ones as these really are very basic and don\u2019t sound very good. When it comes to call quality, we had no issues with the Galaxy A7 2018. Voices in call sound crisp and clear on both ends of the line and volume gets sufficiently loud. The phone also supports Voice over LTE (VoLTE), so if your network has this technology you will be able to enjoy even clearer sound quality in calls. The Galaxy A7 2018 sports a 3,300mAh battery inside and it proved to last a decent amount of time, without breaking any records. Screen-on time averages at around 4 hours or less, but stand-by times are excellent, and of course, your mileage will vary depending on whether you use the Always-on screen option or not. We\u2019ve also run this phone through our standard battery life test where it scored 8 hours and a half, a result slightly higher than the average 2018 phone. Turning over to the charging situation, it\u2019s really depressing to see a microUSB port on a 2018 phone and on one that\u2019s not among the very cheapest ones at that. The charger that comes in the box outputs 7.75 watts of peak power, which is not as fast as many other phones, and it took us almost 2 hours and 20 minutes to fully charge up the phone with this charger. There is no wireless charging on board either. We\u2019ve been mentioning cost all throughout this review, so let\u2019s name it now: the Galaxy A7 2018 price is set at $350 and you can find the phone unlocked at retailers like B&H in the United States. And that\u2019s quite the steep price for it actually. Xiaomi Pocophone F1 costs slightly more at $370 and offers more in terms of\u2026 everything Honor 10 costs less at $340 but offers more in terms of speed, looks and refinement- OG Google Pixel 128GB model now retails for $370 and it\u2019s a much faster phone with a vastly better camera, double the storage and a new version of Android on board Nokia 7.1 costs the same, but again offers a more compact design, snappier and newer version of Android and more promising camerasWhen you draw the proverbial line in the sand, you are really left wondering: What was Samsung even thinking with the Galaxy A7 2018 Or rather, was it even considering the newly emerged powerful competition or is the Galaxy A7 just a moment of complete inertia?<\/p>\n

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Similarity rank: 17<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: 0<\/div>\n

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