Samsung teased an event at the start of September saying “4x fun†with clues of having 4 cameras on a smartphone. All of the media were waiting for first of its kind. Samsung released the Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 later which got a lot of mixed feelings nonetheless.
Samsung is a leading smartphone manufacturer globally with the largest smartphone market share. The company is known for bringing notable innovations to the smartphone industry which still remains patented to be found only in Samsung devices such as a curved display, Iris scanner for unlocking the smartphone. When Samsung teased a smartphone release with 4 cameras the press and media went crazy expecting it to come out with 4 rear cameras. There were various rumors of Samsung working on different prototypes which seem to leak now and then, one of which happens to be the 4 rear camera smartphones to take over the 3 rear cameras seen in Huawei P20 Pro.
What we saw on the event floor disappointed most as it was a mid-range smartphone with three rear cameras – the Samsung Galaxy A7 2018. Not that the phone is bad but the expectations for something wild is broken. At least we got 3 rear cameras which is also first for Samsung. What is more surprising is the first in class feature coming in mid-range Galaxy A series than in flagship. We will see the specs, features, first impressions and our opinion on the new Samsung Galaxy A7 2018.
Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 Display, Design and Looks
The design is not the generic design from Samsung that you see in mid-range smartphones. Well, it has got a glass sandwich design with 2.5d Gorilla glass to the front and back and that is the only major similarity. The back has three cameras stacked one below each other which is followed by an LED flash. You don’t find the fingerprint reader to the back, turn it front it is missing still. Turn to the side and you find a matte finished small surface which turns out to do the trick. We guess Samsung is trying out new features in the mid-range to get feedback before pushing it to the flagship, sounds like a good strategy.
The display is a Super OLED display with a resolution of FullHD+ spread across 6 inches. The screen has great colours as we expect and get bright enough in the outdoors. The phone looks good overall with glass all around and fits in hand easily. The fingerprint scanner works well as checked during the initial use period.
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Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 Processor, Storage, and Performance
The chipset that powers the handset is Samsung’s in-house Exynos 7885 octa-core chipset with Mali G7 MP2 for graphics processing. For reference that is close to Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 on paper and the performance is as expected. Manages to run everything smoothly.
The memory and storage options for the Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 are 4gb + 64gb and 6gb + 128gb. It is nice to see two variants of storage so that you can choose the right one to fit in your requirements of usage and pricing. It also gets an external card slot which can expand storage furthermore. Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 runs on Samsung experience UI on top of Android 8 Oreo out of the box.
Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 Camera
Let’s see the cameras, the most hyped feature of the Samsung Galaxy A7 2018. The triple camera to rear comprises of the main 24 MP, f/1.7 sensor supported by 5 MP f/2.2 depth sensor and an 8 MP f/2.4 ultrawide angle sensor. It is nice to see wide angle sensors in smartphones gaining momentum. There is no stability of any sorts and the camera app can shoot 4k and full HD videos at 30 fps. On the front is a large 24 MP camera with an f/2 aperture which takes high-res selfies.
The main camera seems to give out impressive shots and the wide-angle sensor covers a large area and also stays similar in quality. Samsung claims to use pixel binding (combining 4 adjacent pixels into one) for low light shots but was still mediocre. Both the front and rear camera set-up gets a portrait mode which is good in good lighting conditions. Some funky new features based on portrait mode is interesting and a nice addition to a camera-centric smartphone.
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Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 Battery
The battery is a decent 3300 mah capacity inbuilt battery. This capacity should last a day on average usage considering the power efficient OLED panel and the 14 nm chipset running the smartphone. Push it harder and you will end up charging the Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 before the end of the day.
Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 Price
The Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 starts at 23,990 INR which is good by Samsung’s standards. The higher 6gb + 128gb variant comes for 28,990 INR and you also get an introductory cash back offer of 2000 INR on using HDFC cards to purchase the new Samsung Galaxy A7 2018.
Inside the box, you find a generic headphone in white, not the in-ear types which is common among all Samsung smartphones. What is not expected is the 5v 1.55amp charger. A 2amp charger could have been provided at least if not fast chargers.
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Verdict
It is clearly a typical mid-range smartphone with an additional camera to the back. With the cameras even, there seem to be not any drastic leap in quality from the combination. If you wish to pick this phone for the highly marketed triple camera feature, all you get is a wide angle sensor. You have a lot better option from other brands which performs better and has a better camera. If you are hell bent towards Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 for the AMOLED display, wide-angle sensor and Samsung branding you can proceed with the purchase. If you in dilemma about picking the Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 over other competitive mid-range smartphones then look for the full review to get a clear idea.
