Design
- Premium design and build quality - features an all-glass design with Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the front and back - one of the best looking phones in this price bracket
- Great to hold in the hand thanks to its 2.5D curved glass coupled with its 7.5mm thin form factor.
- The fingerprint scanner is embedded in the power button - while this placement is pretty ergonomic (if you are right handed) - the authentication speed of the scanner is a bit on the slow side
- Face unlock, too, is a bit slow and not the most accurate
Display
- Impressive 6-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED Infinity display with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio and no notch - vibrant, punchy colors, with deep blacks that make the smartphone ideal for content consumption - the display gets bright enough for it to be visible even in direct sunlight and the viewing angles are also pretty great
- Relatively thick bezels for a tall aspect ratio phone
Software
- Samsung's Experience UI is one of the better Android UIs, with some useful features, and not too much bloatware
Performance
- Good, solid performance with a Exynos 7885 SoC – one of Samsung’s own processors that lies somewhere between the Snapdragon 636 and the Snapdragon 660 in terms of performance - will reliably handle most things you throw at it, except the most heavy games - in case you’re looking for a smartphone to play a lot of games on, then you should probably consider the Poco F1 (Snapdragon 845) or the Vivo V11 Pro (Snapdragon 660)
Camera
- Very good set of triple cameras (24MP+8MP+5MP) on the rear - the first mainstream phone to feature a triple camera set - the device performs very well in most scenarios and would definitely appeal to people who’re looking for a mid-range smartphone with a strong camera - takes very good images in good lighting conditions, delivering detailed shots with great color reproduction and high dynamic range - and low light shots are decent too
- The Galaxy A7 makes use of its 5MP lens for depth perception and the smartphone is capable of delivering some very good portrait images, especially in good lighting conditions - Samsung has also included a few cool portrait mode features, like the new Portrait Dolly feature, that further enhance portrait shots captured using the device
- The 8MP 120-degree ultra-wide angle lens on the Galaxy A7 also allows users to click some unique wide-angle photos
- The 24MP selfie shooter is good too, capturing a good amount of detail in good lighting conditions - the device also includes a software-enabled portrait mode feature on the front camera, which works more or less like the portrait mode implementation on the rear camera
- Overall, the camera performance of the Galaxy A7 is pretty solid, and especially with the slew of software features it offers, puts it right on par with the 2 best camera phones in the upper mid-range - the Poco F1 and the Vivo V11 Pro
Audio
- Decent, single downward firing speaker - gets reasonably loud at max volume
- Audio output from the 3.5mm headphone jack is pretty decent too, with the device featuring some great software optimisations - though you should probably use your own earphones - the ones that are included in the box are not very good
- Good call quality
Battery
- Good battery life with a 3300mAh battery - lasts a full day, even with heavy use
- No fast charging support - takes about 2 hours and 10 minutes to charge the device up to 100 percent
More
- Overall, the Galaxy A7 is one of the better mid-range phones from Samsung in a long time - the highlights are an impressive 6-inch Super AMOLED display, a very good triple camera setup and premium design and build quality - if these features appeal to you then the Galaxy A7 is a solid choice - but in case you’re looking for the best price to performance ratio, then you should probably consider getting the Poco F1 which is powered by a flagship Snapdragon 845 chip
- Uses the old micro USB port for charging, instead of a modern USB-C port