Samsung recently announced Galaxy A7, the newest addition to the A series family in the Indian market. The new model, A7, is the bigger sibling to the A3 and A5, which were launched in the country last month.
We took the all-new Samsung Galaxy A7 out for a quick test drive and here's what we think about the smartphone:
Design and build quality
While the Galaxy A3 and A5 felt more like bigger and slimmer than iPhone 5S, the Galaxy A7 feels decidedly Samsung through and through. With its large S-series like body, rectangular rounded design highlights associated with Samsung devices are evident. Even the back panel retains the look with the familiar camera housing, flash and speaker grille.
The one thing that stands out on the design is how slim the phone is at 6.3mm, instantly competing with the likes of the Gionee Elife E5.5 and the Oppo R5, though with a bigger display.
The build quality is fantastic with a metal unibody design, which feels great to hold with its big gorgeous display. The top is flat, with the design going around the back after a silver bevel into a slightly chamfered then to flat back.
The design of the A7 will clearly appeal to those who like Samsung devices over the iPhone 5-like design and want something metallic at a decent price point.
The specs
Samsung has jumped on the 64-bit bandwagon with Qualcomm's new octa-core Snapdragon 615 and Adreno 405 GPU powering the Galaxy A7. The rest of the specs are quite good too. Starting with the 2GB of RAM to power up that gargantuan display, 16GB of storage and support for microSD up to 64GB.
With 1080p display and all, there was no lag at all when using the phone. It was snappy and instantaneous when calling up menus or swiping. While we would have loved to run some tests to see the speed, we weren't able to, so watch this space for an in depth review of the performance.
The display
Samsung has really pulled off all the stops in the display department as far as Galaxy A7 is concerned. Its 5.5-inch Super AMOLED screen with a 1080p resolution is bright and offers gorgeous colour reproduction. The screen was a tad reflective, especially with the glaring lights around, but as you can see from the images the display did shine through quite admirably. Protecting the display is Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
The cameras
The same cameras in the Galaxy A5 have made it into the Galaxy A7. We don't have any data to suggest otherwise, or if Samsung is using a new lens, but it seems to be the same 13MP rear shooter and the 5MP front shooter. Another good thing is that Samsung's selfie-focused fun tools like selfie panorama, beauty face etc have made it into the new phone.
Conclusion
What little time we got to play with the Galaxy A7, we were quite satisfied. The phone marries Samsung's looks with premium build quality and materials. The thickness of the phone adds to its looks, but we hope that Samsung has taken measures in the structure of the unibody to prevent a bendgate. The specs are quite good for the price and it's great to see the 64-bit processors permeating to the budget devices first and Samsung adopting it for this phone.
Watch out for our in depth review soon, where we will be diving into the Galaxy A7 a lot deeper, so stay tuned.
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