Samsung
launched four new smartphones for the Indian market on Monday: the
Galaxy Grand Prime 4G, Galaxy Core Prime 4G, the J1 4G and the new
Galaxy A7 which is part of the Series of full-metal body smartphones.
The
smartphones were on display at the Samsung Forum 2015 in Bangkok and we
got a chance to spend sometime with each of these phones. The Galaxy A7
is the device that has already been launched in India, with a price of
Rs 30,499, while the other three will launch in mid-March. Samsung is
expected to announce the price of Grand Prime 4G and Core Prime 4G
phones at the time of the launch, while the J1 4G will cost Rs 9,990 in
India.
The
Galaxy A7 which is the most expensive smartphone of the A series is
part of Samsung’s new series which are sleek in design, sport a
full-metal body and aimed at the mid/high budget segment user. Here’s
our first impression of the smartphone.
Design,
Screen: The USP of this smartphone is the slim design (it’s only 6.8mm
thick) and comes in a full metal unibody design. Personally, this is one
of the best-looking phablets from Samsung I’ve seen. The screen is
5.5-inch full HD Super AMOLED which means its big enough to watch videos
and movies and the resolution is quite sharp. While a big screen is not
my personal preference, for those who want a phablet that doesn’t look
too tacky and is available for under Rs 40k, this is a worthy option to
consider.
It’s
a slim phone aimed at the chic crowd, the one that Samsung hopes will
go for its phones because they might find the iPhone over-priced.
Thankfully Samsung kept the back cover design simple and did not add any
faux leather look, which looked tacky on older phones.
Storage,
Processor, RAM, Connectivity: Samsung’s smartphone comes with 16 GB
total storage space, 2GB RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Octa-core
processor which includes two quad-core A53 chips clocked at 1.5 and 1
GHz respectively.
Users
can expand the space on the phone to 64 GB via a microSD. Of course,
for users who want more space this won’t seem like a great option given
that other phones on the market offer more space for a lower price.
Examples include OnePlus One (which comes with 64GB and is priced at Rs
21,999) and the Xiaomi Mi 4 which has launched a 64 GB version of
smartphone in India for Rs 23,999.
The
phone supports Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, WiFi. There appear to be two
versions of the Galaxy A7 , one which is an LTE Cat 4 and an HSPA+
version. It’s not clear if the A7 will support 4G in India, given that
Samsung did not specify which bands the India version of smartphone
supports. If this isn’t a 4G phone for India users, this would appear to
be quite an expensive buy, especially if 4G as an option is available
in your city.
Camera,
OS: The Galaxy A7 has a 13 megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel
front camera with a wide-angle for group-selfies. It’s also got the
usual-modes that Samsung tends to add on its smartphone camera, which
also includes a Beauty-face mode.
While
there was no lag on the camera and it was fairly easy to switch modes, I
wasn’t too impressed by the beauty face mode. The skin tends to look
rather plasticky and a flawless that borders on the unnatural, which
isn’t something I favour. Of course, if you want selfies with perfect
skin and a really good-looking smartphone to flash while you’re taking
them, then the A7 is a phone for you to consider.
The
Galaxy A7 runs Android 4.4.4 which is dated now specially considering
the Galaxy S4 has already got the Android 5.0 Lollipop update (and also a
price drop to Rs 17,499). The A7 might be a new phone but the old OS is
a disappointment and once again highlights the problems of the
fragmented Android universe.
Conclusion:
So is the Galaxy A7 worth the price? As we’ve noted before, the USP of
this phone is the slim form factor and the metal body which give it a
stunning design. Add to that Samsung has given this one a great screen
and a camera resolution that will appeal to the selfie-lovers.
If
you want a branded phone and aren’t willing to wait in flash sales, as
is the case with a lot of new devices that are being launched in India,
the A7 should be on your list to consider, if have a budget that is
north of Rs 25, 000. For sure this is a good-looking phone from Samsung
but whether that’s good enough to convince today’s demanding consumers
is another question.
Posted by : Gizmeon
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