Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018)

The Samsung Galaxy A7, Blue, 128GB (6GB RAM) runs for Rs. 28,900. It comes with a 15.36 centimetres (6 inches) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display with 1080 x 2220 pixels at 411 PPI (pixels per inch). This flagship is powered by 2.2GHz + 1.6GHz Exynos 7885 octa-core processor and comes with 4/6 GB RAM. It also has 64/128 gigs of internal storage that can be expanded up to 512GB with a microSD card. The phone runs Android 8.1 and a 3300mAh non-removable battery. It measures 159.8 x 76.8 x 7.5 mm and weighs 168 gm. Further, it also houses a 24+5+8MP triple camera on the rear and a 24MP front-facing shooter for selfies.

One of the first things you notice about the Galaxy A7 2018 is its metallic sheen, which covers both the glass back and the aluminium frame. Unlike most glass-sandwich phones, the frame isn’t made of aluminium but of plastic. Another thing that catches the eye is the lack of a notch on the front. This is how Samsung has decided to stand out from the 2018 crowd – by sticking with a full top bezel for the selfie camera and sensors!

The A7 2018 can be unlocked with a fingerprint reader which is mounted on the side. Rarely do we see a sensor on a Samsung phone to be a bit unresponsive, slow to read, and wake up the phone, yet that is what has happened here with the Galaxy A7 2018. The one feature it does enable, though, is that you can swipe on the reader to pull down the notification shade.

Another change from last year is the speaker being at the bottom and mono-firing instead of on the side, which creates just about decent sound for not being stereo. There’s a 3.5-millimetre jack at the bottom as well, which gives access to Dolby Atmos sound options with headphones plugged in. There is a tray that supports dual SIM and has a dedicated slot for expandable storage on top of the 64 or 128 gigs built in. For connectivity, we have a micro USB port here instead of the expected USB Type-C which we had in the 2017 mode. Samsung worries with there being a lack of water resistance on the A7 2018 when last year’s model had an IP68 rating.

The display itself is a six inch AMOLED with a tall aspect ratio and a 1080p resolution – better known as Samsung’s Infinity Display. However, this particular one doesn’t come with curved edges. The panel is decently sharp at 411 PPI. We also measured a maximum brightness of 600 nits in auto mode, in sunny conditions. The Galaxy A7’s sunlight legibility test posts an even higher contrast number than the Note 8. There’s an always-on display too, in case wants to check notifications at a glance.

Moving on to the A7 2018’s Exynos 7885 chipset, which is the latest and most powerful Samsung’s in-house line of mid-tier chipsets. It’s here alongside either 4 or 6 gigs of RAM in benchmarks, that it’s on par with the Galaxy A8. The Galaxy A7 2018 runs on Android Oreo with Samsung experience 9 on top, just like the rest of the recent A-series phones.

Now let’s move on to the A7’s headline feature, the triple camera setup at the back. It is, however, important to point out that it can’t actually shoot through all three lenses at the same time. There’s a main 24 megapixel F 1.7 wide-angle cam with face detection and autofocus. Then you have an 8 megapixel F 2.4 ultra wide-angle cam and the third is a 5-megapixel camera, only used for depth sensing in portrait mode.

In daylight, shots look great while colours come out pretty good with deep reds and lively yellows and greens. There doesn’t seem to be 24MP worth of details, though. By keeping the HDR setting in Auto most of the time, a result oriented towards reasonably wide dynamic range and high-contrast scenes can be handled well. An ultra-wide cam is a handy option for a  120-degree field of vision, however, the quality isn’t as great as the main camera, with the colour rendition being a bit duller and the dynamic range more narrow.

In low-light the Galaxy A7 (2018)’s images aren’t spectacular though. The pictures generally come out soft with muted colours, low detail, and narrow dynamic range. On a positive note, noise is well controlled using the ultra wide-angle camera at night, which produces images that are even more saturated – unless you have a well-lit scene you should probably avoid using it. Portrait shots aren’t too bad, but you will have to be quite close to your subject. Since there’s no telephoto lens, you can change the blur level while taking the portrait afterwards in the gallery, with subject separation being achieved accurately in either case.

For selfies, the front-facing camera is 24MP just like the main camera, while the aperture here is f 2.0 with no autofocus. Selfie portraits aren’t bad either, though the processing takes away some sharpness even if you’ve got the focal distance right. Although the Galaxy A7’s video recording is pretty basic with only up to 1080p at 30fps footage capacity, the footage is very high-quality in the given circumstances. There’s plenty of detail and almost no noise contrast.

The 2018 model has a slightly smaller battery than last year at 3300 mAH with a battery life of 93 hours in endurance tests. The phone’s great endurance is marred only by the slow charging process which gets you from 0 to 25% in 30 minutes.

The Galaxy A7 2018 is a nice phone overall with a good-looking screen, solid battery life, and a respectable triple camera for a mid-range phone. However, Samsung has made some strange choices regarding the features on this phone compared to last year and is missing the IP rating, the USB type-C port and the aluminium frame, all without much of a significant drop in prices. it’s starting at around Rs 28,900, so if you want a mid-range phone with an ultra-wide camera and good battery life, the A7 2018 is worth looking into. Otherwise, there are plenty of other great mid-range options available on the market.