Samsung galaxy a7 camera test. The position obliges. Review of the Samsung Galaxy A7 smartphone. Design, dimensions, control elements

Stylish and minimalistic.

Comfortable and ergonomic.

Modern colors.

More creativity.

With the Galaxy A7 (2017), feel like a professional photographer. Availability of a wide selection of filters...

The device works with Nano-SIM cards from all GSM operators.

Stylish and minimalistic.

A modern, minimalistic 3D glass and metal body, as well as a 5.7-inch FHD sAMOLED screen - it's all distinctive features Galaxy A7 (2017).

Comfortable and ergonomic.

Smooth lines of the body...

The device works with Nano-SIM cards from all GSM operators.

Stylish and minimalistic.

A modern, minimalist 3D glass and metal body and a 5.7-inch FHD sAMOLED screen are all hallmarks of the Galaxy A7 (2017).

Comfortable and ergonomic.

The smooth lines of the body, the absence of camera protrusions, and a sophisticated and elegant finish allow you to truly enjoy using your smartphone.

Modern colors.

Be a trend setter, don't just follow them. Stylish color schemes perfectly harmonize with the glass and metal body, creating a dynamic and seamless image.

Capture memorable moments.

Thanks to the high resolution of the 16 MP main camera, photos will always be bright and colorful.

More creativity.

With the Galaxy A7 (2017), feel like a professional photographer. Having a wide selection of filters allows you to approach the shooting process more creatively. Now every photo will be special.

Perfect selfies even at night.

Wherever you are - on an evening walk or in a nightclub - your photos will be perfect. The camera automatically adapts even to low-light conditions, and the display acts as a flash. Thanks to the Smart button, taking selfies has become easy. All you need to do is choose the location of the shutter button on the screen.

Protected from water and dust.

IP68 water and dust protection standard allows for comfortable use Galaxy smartphones A7 (2017) in any conditions - be it rain or swimming pool.

Capacious battery and fast charging.

Enjoy gaming or watching videos longer with longer battery life and technology support fast charging.

Equipped to the maximum.

All your favorite videos, photos and music are always with you thanks to support for memory cards up to 256 GB, and the presence of a slot for two SIM cards makes it easy to change the operator while traveling.

Always active screen.

With Always On Display, all relevant information is always on the screen. View the time, calendar events, and unread notifications even when your smartphone is in sleep mode.

Protection and safety.

Store confidential information in a secure folder. Thanks to the secure KNOX environment, you can be sure that your personal information will not fall into the wrong hands.

Samsung Cloud.

Samsung Cloud is a secure cloud service where you can store contacts, photos, calendar and even your backup copy home screen and settings. Galaxy A users get 15GB free.

Easy connection.

Symmetrical connector USB cable Type-C is convenient to use on any side.

Samsung Pay.

Make payments at absolutely all retail outlets, thanks to support for NFC and MST technologies. You can leave your wallet at home and buy goods simply by paying with your smartphone. You can be confident in the security of your payment, as all transactions are fingerprint protected.

Absolutely all smartphones from the Galaxy A line, of which there are more than a dozen, if you start counting from 2014, were made with design in mind. It is quite obvious that the flagship ones were taken as a basis Samsung models, and therefore this time the Galaxy S7 was “copied”.

But, of course, the Galaxy A7 (2017) is not as similar as the A5 (2017). Can you guess what's going on? Okay, I won’t bore you: the S7 has a screen diagonal of 5.1", and our hero has a 5.7", that is, the same as Galaxy Note. No, don’t think, the new product will not be a kind of replacement for the infamous Galaxy Note 7 - they have fundamentally different positioning. And the laptop looked cooler.

Note 7 looks cooler, but also Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) also looks good. If we stop comparing it to expensive top models, we will get a stylish device made of glass and metal. It is all so convex and rounded, thanks to the 2.5D glass.

At the back, the tube was bent at the edges so that it fits better in the hand. Well, what can I say, the palm doesn’t expand very much, but it still expands. You can’t hide physics anywhere - 5.7 inches is 5.7 inches. I’ll immediately add that the tactile sensations from the case are excellent - the massive, weighty block of the phone is very well assembled, there is no doubt about its reliability.

The front and back of the smartphone is covered with Gorilla Glass 4, so although it is possible to break it, it is not so easy. And he shouldn't be scratched. The device also has protection according to the IP68 standard - it is now also difficult to drown it.

However, the addition of moisture protection did not come free to the Galaxy A7 (2017) - its thickness has increased to 7.9 mm (it is 7.3 mm), as well as its weight, which is now around 180 grams. The latter parameter was also influenced by a more capacious battery and a 0.2" larger display.

In general, what can we conclude about the appearance of the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)? Stylish, beautiful, interesting. I had the black Galaxy A7 (2017) black in my hands, but the pink Galaxy A7 (2017) ping, the gold Galaxy A7 (2017) gold and the blue Galaxy A7 (2017) blue will also be sold - for all tastes, so to speak. At the same time, the device is perfectly executed, well protected both from scratches and from moisture and dust.

Connectors and controls

In terms of ergonomics, the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) has not changed very much. All the usual elements are in place, although one has been replaced entirely.

Above the smartphone screen there is a front camera lens, light and proximity sensors, and a speaker. The latter is painted black and the paint may come off over time - not the most pleasant moment. The phone also does not have an LED event indicator. For now he only stayed with Samsung flagships, although for the entire Galaxy A line for 2017 it can be replaced by the Always On function - I’ll talk about it in the section about the screen.

Below the display are the traditional “Korean” buttons Home, Back and recent applications. The last two are touchscreen and are not visible until they are backlit, and the first is mechanical, with a built-in fingerprint scanner.

Fingerprints are added in the “Lock screen and security” section Galaxy settings A7 (2017). But, as usual, you must first ask alternative way unlocking: with a pattern, PIN code or password.

To save a fingerprint, you need to touch the sensor a little more than a dozen times. Afterwards, you can set parameters for what else can be unlocked with it, and the smartphone itself is already configured to work with your finger. We have a short video about this whole process:

The backlighting of the buttons is bright and clearly visible.

At the back of the Galaxy A7 (2017) there is a camera and an LED flash.

On the left side there are the usual volume buttons. And just below them, in a not so “usual” way, there is a compartment for the first SIM card.

The Galaxy A7 (2017) and its younger brother A5 (2017) have two separate slots for nanoSIM cards; there is no combination with the memory card compartment.

The second tray is placed on the upper side, not the opposite side from the microphone for noise reduction.

Here the holder is longer - for two cards: for nanoSIM and microSD. If you suddenly don’t figure out how to manage all this “economy”, I recommend watching our video:

Meanwhile, on the right side, in addition to the power button, there is now also a speakerphone. Previously it was below.

And at the bottom there is a 3.5 mm mini-jack for headphones and headsets, a conversational microphone and a connector USB Type-C– it is this “element” that has been replaced “entirely and completely.” Samsung has installed it on the entire updated line of devices, which is cool in my opinion. Yes, there are few such cables yet, but the situation will change every day.

So, what comes out: the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) has two full-fledged compartments for SIM cards, it supports the USB Type-C interface, the external speaker has moved to the left side, where it is more difficult to close, and all other elements remain in place. Overall, it turned out great!

Case for Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)

It was impossible to buy a case or cover for the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) at the time of writing this article - this device has not yet gone on sale. However, this model is popular, so there will be quite a lot of offers for it.

For example, a case for the Galaxy A7 (2017) of this type will probably cost about 1,000 rubles.

This book case for the Galaxy A7 (2017) will cost about 1,200 rubles.

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) screen

The quality of screens in Samsung smartphones is increasing every year. Even in flagships, where it would seem there’s nowhere better. Of course, the growth is not dramatic, but it is there. Meanwhile, flatter models also get new-generation displays. So is the Galaxy A7 (2017) - its predecessor already had a good image, and now it looks even nicer. However, this can only be seen if you put two devices side by side and start looking closely.

On the other hand, the pixel density of the screen of the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) decreased from 401 to 386 ppi, if we take the previous phone for comparison. It's all about the increased screen diagonal - it was 5.5", but became 5.7", that is, like the Galaxy Note. It is unlikely that the company will in this way compensate for the untimely death of Note 7; rather, the increase in size is caused by the desire to further differentiate the Galaxy A5 (2017) and A7 (2017) - previously there was a difference of 0.3" between them, and now - 0.5".

And yes, as you might have guessed, the display resolution remains the same: 1920x1080 pixels or Full HD. For me, this is more than enough for everyday life. The picture still remains clear, no nicks or other interface irregularities are visible. Subjective image on Galaxy screen I like A7 (2017). Super AMOLED is Super AMOLED - a high-quality matrix, with bright colors and wide viewing angles, almost no blinding in the sun. And if you think that the colors are too eye-catching, then changing the profiles will help solve the problem, but more on that below.

Meanwhile, objective measurements indicate screen brightness at 413.81 cd/m2, which is quite good. Coupled with a high-quality anti-reflective coating, this provides that very good “resistance” to the bright sun. Let's add here the feature of OLED technology, namely deep black color and, therefore, excellent contrast.

The color gamut of the Galaxy A7 (2017) display is, as always, maximum and noticeably higher than that of the best IPS matrices. When the Adaptive profile is activated, it noticeably exceeds the sRGB color space and is close to closing Professional Adobe RGB. Well, the “Main” profile, which is more “calm” in terms of saturation, produces a smaller number of colors, which is in no way noticeable to the eye.

The gamma curves generally look good. Not ideal, but very close to the standard curve 2.2: in the case of the “Adaptive” profile, the curve was slightly lower than the standard, and for the “Basic” it was higher. In the first case, this means a slight darkening of the image, or rather its output is slightly darker than necessary, and in the second - lightening. But again, you won’t see it by eye.

The white balance is, as always, very good for the “Main” profile, but in the case of the “Adaptive” it is compromised towards a cooler picture. But in general, most smartphones have this problem, it’s even a kind of “norm”.

The Galaxy A7 (2017) screen recognizes up to 10 simultaneous touches. This is a small thing, but younger models support no more than 5 touches at once.

And here are the screen profiles, they are selected in the settings. The default is Adaptive, but you can choose the one that suits you best. Moreover, in this generation of the device, you can additionally adjust the gamma of individual color components.

The Galaxy A7 (2017) also has the coolest feature – Always On, which literally translates as “always on”. The screen always shows the time, as well as notifications. You can choose a background for the clock, replace it with a calendar or just a pattern. It would seem that this is nonsense, but you get used to it so quickly and “firmly” that you decide right away: the next smartphone will have Always On! I have it, but you can buy it for yourself right away, yes. The battery life of this thing is very small - if consumption increases, it is by a couple of percent per day. Moreover, the autonomy of the Galaxy A7 (2017) is wow! But more on this later, in the testing section.

To summarize, I can conclude that the screen of the Galaxy A7 (2017) is excellent, with a good picture, bright colors, the ability to fine-tune and a very convenient Always On function.

The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) also received an updated camera, as did the Galaxy A5 (2017). The predecessor had 13 megapixels, but now it is 16 megapixels. Although, of course, this did not affect the quality in any way - the shooting resolution only increased. But the update of frame processing algorithms has had an effect, so the smartphone takes better pictures.

The application that controls the camera has changed its interface. As always, insignificant, but noticeable. So filters are now pulled out with a slide gesture on the right, and shooting modes on the left.

From interesting modes There is Pro, where you can set photosensitivity, white balance and exposure compensation. Also useful will be HDR, hyperlapse - shooting slow-motion video (don't forget to put your phone on a tripod!), as well as Food, where you'll get cool bokeh.

Maximum resolution, as always, is achieved with an aspect ratio of 4:3.

As you can see, the Galaxy A7 (2017) shoots decently. The frames are sharp, with good white balance, without flare. Overall, I liked it. Even in the evening the result is good.

The video is shot in Full HD resolution. 4K is still not available for Samsung smartphones unless it's a flagship.

The video also turned out well, although not in the newfangled 4K resolution.

The front camera also has its own modes, although there are significantly fewer of them.

The resolution of the front sensor has been noticeably increased - up to 16 MP, that is, equal to the rear one.

The shots from the front camera are also good, the colors are correct, and the white balance is not affected. True, there is a nuance - the lens is set to focus close, and therefore the photos came out so “blurred”.

The front camera also shoots video in Full HD.

The problem with video is the same as with photos - it’s good, but blurry if you don’t shoot close objects.

In principle, I liked the cameras of the Galaxy A7 (2017). The rear one takes pictures very well - it will suit many people. There are complaints about focusing on the front, but perhaps this will be fixed with a firmware update.

The Galaxy A line for 2017 includes three models: Galaxy A3 (2017), Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017). Our type is like “senior”. And it’s not “like”, but it is – this is the most expensive model, although its characteristics correspond in every way to the Galaxy A5 (2017). Therefore, it is much more interesting to find out how they have changed in comparison with the Galaxy A7 (2016).

The most interesting thing is that the Galaxy A7 (2016) differed in terms of characteristics from the Galaxy A5 (2016) more significantly - the largest device had 1 GB more random access memory. Now this difference has been leveled - only the screen diagonal and battery capacity remain.

Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) has an Exynos 7880 Octa processor. It has eight Cortex-A53 cores operating at 1.88 GHz. The chip is manufactured using a 14-nm process technology, and therefore heats up less than the 28-nm Exynos 7580 of its predecessor. The frequency has increased noticeably - all cores operate at the same frequency. In principle, this is not the fastest chipset on the market, about “above average”, but its speed should be enough for everyone.

There are, however, some questions regarding the video card. Mali-T830 MP3 is a three-pipe accelerator, operating in this case at a frequency of 750 MHz. This mid-budget solution is not the slowest, but it’s not so easy to classify it as productive either. Of course, compared to the Exynos 7580 with its Mali-T720 MP2, the new video card has become noticeably better, but it still has to deal with Full HD screen resolution. Although, on the other hand, I did not notice any problems with performance.

The amount of RAM has not changed - it is still 3 GB. Obviously, they did not increase it to 4 GB, so as not to create unnecessary parallels with the Galaxy S7. Moreover, the Galaxy A7 (2017) has 32 GB of flash memory - a twofold increase here, which I strongly welcome.

The remaining characteristics are less significant, but still. So LTE is supported by category 6, that is, data reception can reach up to 300 Mbit/s. Bluetooth has been updated to version 4.2, Wi-Fi is now compatible with the high-speed 802.11ac standard. But USB Type-C is just a new fashionable connector, while the interface behind it is the old one, USB 2.0.

Generally Samsung specifications I rate the Galaxy A7 (2017) as good. The smartphone clearly does not use the very best components, and someone will say that some Xiaomi will offer a flagship for the same money. Well, let him offer it, but the value of a Korean phone is not only in its hardware, although it is good. Now see for yourself.

Performance testing

Now we'll find out how good the Galaxy A7 (2017) is compared to its predecessor, the 2016 model.

Well... both the old and the new system-wide tests showed a noticeable increase in performance.

There is no difference in the SunSpider browser test - obviously, it was not able to fully load the new chipset.

But three-dimensional tests show a noticeable increase in speed. I shouldn’t have blamed the video card; it has become much faster, which is good news.

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) in Antutu

Now let's take a look at what the popular Antutu benchmark shows.

As you can see, here too the Galaxy A7 (2017) has become significantly faster than last year’s model. Although someone will say that “less than 100 thousand is nonsense.” Well, what can I say to that? This is nonsense, but in my opinion all these “parrots” are a very arbitrary thing. Moreover, if you consider what amazing autonomy the smartphone showed.

As always, I conduct the main test of autonomy.

The result obtained is not that much, but still noticeable better than Galaxy A7 (2016) – the new handset lasts longer and this is visible to the eye. It has almost a record value of all the tested devices. Better, perhaps, only .

The Antutu autonomy test shows a slightly different picture - the Galaxy A7 (2017) is almost twice as good as its predecessor. The tube really lasts a long time. It has the best performance of the entire Galaxy A line, and in general it will be difficult to find a smartphone on the market whose performance will be comparable. We won’t take bricks with mega-batteries into account, okay?

As is usually the case, most energy is consumed 3D games. All other tasks consume more or less the same charge.

In addition to internal optimizations, Samsung gives you the opportunity to customize energy consumption yourself. In the settings there are modes for increased energy saving, and optionally, individual applications can be allowed to work without restrictions.

So it turns out: Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) is a smartphone with decent, although not top-end, performance, as well as excellent battery life. The autonomy is really cool - one of the best.

Games on Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)

Games on the Galaxy A7 (2017) run reliably, and there is enough memory for them.

• Riptide GP2: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Asphalt 7: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Asphalt 8: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Modern Combat 5: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• N.O.V.A. 3: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Dead Trigger: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Dead Trigger 2: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Real Racing 3: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Need For Speed: No Limits: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Shadowgun: Dead Zone: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Frontline Commando: Normandy: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Frontline Commando 2: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Eternity Warriors 2: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Eternity Warriors 4: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Trial Xtreme 3: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Trial Xtreme 4: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Dead Effect 2: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Plants vs Zombies 2: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Dead Target: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Injustice: Gods Among Us: excellent, the game does not slow down.

As you can see, none of the tested games slow down in any way.

BY

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) received Android 6.0.1. To be honest, I expected more. It would be nice if it were a budget smartphone, but this model is only one step below the flagship – it’s a mess! In general, I wanted Android 7.0 out of the box, but I’ll have to wait for the update, I think, somewhere until the spring-summer of 2017.

Meanwhile, the phone has a proprietary TouchWIZ shell installed, in its most latest version. However, the desktops here have not changed in any way: on the left, as always, is the Briefing ribbon, and the rest are normal, with shortcuts and widgets.

And here is the notification panel and quick settings updated, became white and with new icons. There’s nothing fundamentally new here, it’s rather refreshed appearance. But the lock screen and task manager remain completely the same.

From the task manager, as always, you can activate the MultiWindow mode - splitting the screen into two parts, in each of which an application opens. Very relevant for such a large smartphone.

The design of the settings has changed, there are a little more items, they have new icons, and each one is given a larger width, which was used to good effect: a brief description is given under the section name.

You can customize quite a lot. For example, notifications that come from applications in the status bar have the ability to disable “cluttering”. Among additional functions There are options such as manual processing of screenshots, as well as advanced options for games, where all notifications and something else are turned off.

Samsung also thought about a one-handed control mode a long time ago - let me remind you that it was the Koreans who came up with shovel phones. In general, on the Galaxy A7 (2017) you can shrink the keyboard and move it to the side, and also display the image in a smaller window.

Hidden in the “Optimization” section is what was previously called Smart Manager, and on other devices “Phone Manager” and the like. In fact, this application is an optimizer for RAM and flash memory consumption, as well as energy consumption. Knox Protected Mode is also activated here.

Samsung is also developing its own service, Samsung Cloud (an extremely original name!), in which you can store a backup copy of data from the device.

They also hid the theme configurator in the settings. Here you can download additional ones from the Internet, customize wallpapers and icons.

There are not many applications installed on the Galaxy A7 (2017). More precisely, not much, besides the standard set of calendar-calculator-hours-and-so-on. There is a set of utilities from Samsung, Google and Microsoft. From the latter - Skype and Microsoft Office.

Some proprietary programs can be downloaded from the Galaxy Apps store - Samsung did a very smart thing by placing them in a separate section of its store, rather than cluttering up the smartphone’s memory with them. Whoever needs it will download it. This thing is hidden under the Galaxy Essentials shortcut widget. There is a “Children” mode, a music player and music editor, business card and text recognition in general, an S Translator, and a simple graphic editor.

Of the installed ones, I would like to note the “Secure Folder” program. The name suggests what it does - it creates an encrypted folder that integrates with a standard file manager.

Also installed on the Galaxy A7 (2017) is the Samsung Pay payment service application - the company is beginning to actively distribute it.

Separately issued Samsung app Notes, where you can create notes. It has been modernized and now it has become much more functional.

Other programs are the most common alarm clock, stopwatch, file manager and similar things that are on any smartphone.

I'll be honest: I'm subjective. I am used to Samsung shell and once again she got better. So, fans of this company’s products, the Galaxy A7 (2017), and other representatives of this line, will not be disappointed. Well, as for the rest, it seems to me that everything is good and convenient, but if you are already accustomed to something specific, then the difference will begin to be felt. And so TouchWIZ, in terms of its operating logic, is not very different from “naked” Android.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) is impressive. Yes, it just “makes an impression” - it’s such a huge shovel, somewhat larger in size than any of the Galaxy Notes. In other words, if you wanted a phablet with good specifications, high build quality and great design, then this is here for you. It also has water protection, yes.

The device definitely has some disadvantages, and in my opinion, the main one is the identical characteristics of the Galaxy A5 (2017). It turns out that the older model differs only in screen diagonal and battery capacity, and costs significantly more. Someone else will not like the non-separable case and the lack of an LED indicator, although it is now well replaced by Always On.

Always On, by the way, is a very cool thing. And the rest of the smartphone is very good. Among the unmentioned advantages, I will cite a high-quality Super AMOLED screen, a USB Type-C connector (although some will write this down as a disadvantage), a fingerprint scanner, an excellent camera, and also excellent battery life. So how much is all this happiness worth?

Galaxy A7 (2017) price

You can buy a Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) for 33 thousand rubles. For the Galaxy A5 (2017) they are asking 28 thousand rubles, that is, the difference is 5 thousand - and this, I repeat, is only for the increased screen diagonal and increased battery capacity. In the meantime, what are competitors offering?

Meizu U20 is noticeably cheaper - only 20 thousand, but the characteristics are similar: 5.5-inch Full HD screen, 8-core MediaTek Helio P10 processor, 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal memory, the body is made of metal. What's wrong here? Well, look, a 3260 mAh battery plus a not so economical MediaTek processor - battery life will obviously be lower. There is also no water resistance and a fingerprint scanner, and the camera is 13 MP.

Motorola Moto Z Play sells for 30 thousand, that is, it costs more. There is a 5.5-inch AMOLED screen (worse than Super AMOLED from Samsung), a Snapdragon 625 chipset, 3/32 GB of memory, and a 3510 mAh battery. You can also mount external modules on the back - this is a feature of the entire Moto Z series. This is such an interesting image-functional model.

If it competes with the Galaxy A5 (2017), then the Nova Plus is the rival of the A7 (2017). The price here is lower, around 25 thousand, and the characteristics are comparable: Full HD IPS screen, Snapdragon 625, 16 MP camera with the ability to record 4K video, 3/32 GB of memory and a 3340 mAh battery. And yes, add here a stylish appearance and a metal body. But without moisture protection.

Pros:

• excellent design;
• excellent assembly;
• high-quality Super AMOLED screen with customizability;
• good cameras;
• The case is protected according to the IP68 standard;
• Fingerprint's scanner;
• USB Type-C connector;
• conveniently located audio jack;
• Always On function;
• very good autonomy.

Minuses:

• Android 6.0 out of the box (there will be an update to 7.0);
• the paint will rub off from the speaker;
• non-separable body;
• no LED event indicator above the screen;
• The specifications are no different from the Galaxy A5 (2017).

Fashionable slim model with a large screen in an all-metal case

Samsung Galaxy A7 went on sale a little later than its brothers in the new line (Galaxy A3 and A5), and immediately stood at the head of this new series, the positioning of which, in fact, is not so obvious. Looking at the characteristics of any of the new devices belonging to the Galaxy A line, including their flagship, it becomes clear that these smartphones do not belong to the truly top level in most respects. Even the Galaxy A7 cannot compare in capabilities with the same Galaxy S5, which, even after almost a whole year of sales, remains a much more technically advanced device, being a true flagship. The new product, in comparison, has a much less productive platform, a simpler camera, a non-removable battery, no fingerprint scanner, no heart rate sensor, for some reason MHL was cut, and, finally, no protection from water. So the Galaxy A7, like the rest new line Galaxy A can rather be classified as a middle class, but certainly not a top-end one.

Instead, the emphasis in the new line is largely on the image component. The main feature of the whole Samsung series Galaxy A is about the Koreans rethinking their approach to the choice of materials: instead of traditional plastic, metal has finally appeared in cases. All models of the new family have all-metal bodies made entirely of aluminum, but at the same time, all smartphones in the series are similar to each other, like twin brothers - the difference can only be noticed by placing all three models side by side. Compared to its family brethren, the Galaxy A7 looks the most preferable - for starters, it has a slightly more productive hardware platform (the younger models in the series use a very budget platform as a filling entry level), although the Galaxy A7 is still far from the top solutions in terms of performance. A thin, metallic and lightweight body, as well as a large, bright Super AMOLED display are the main and most noticeable advantages of the device. Well-selected lightweight and durable modern materials, a large bright screen, as well as improved capabilities of the front camera for creating popular selfies - all this, according to the creators, should appeal to a young audience who loves to take pictures of themselves and spend their leisure time on social networks.

Video review

To get started, we suggest watching our video review Samsung smartphone Galaxy A7:

Now let's take a look at the characteristics of the new product.

Main characteristics of Samsung Galaxy A7 (model SM-A700FD)

• SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939), 4+4 ARM Cortex-A53 cores, 1/1.5 GHz
• GPU Adreno 405 @550 MHz
• operating room Android system 4.4.4
• Touch display Super AMOLED, 5.5″, 1920×1080, 401 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 2 GB, internal memory 16 GB
• SIM cards: Nano-SIM (2 pcs.)
• Supports microSD memory cards up to 64 GB
• 2G communication: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• 3G Communication: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
• Data transmission 4G LTE FDD (Cat4, up to 150 Mbps)
• Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n (2.4/5 GHz), point Wi-Fi access, Wi-Fi Direct
• Bluetooth 4.0, NFC
• USB 2.0, OTG
• GPS/A-GPS, Glonass, BDS
• Position, proximity, lighting sensors, electronic compass
• Camera 13 MP (F2.0), autofocus, LED flash
• Camera 5 MP (F2.2), front
• Battery 2600 mAh
• Dimensions 151×76×6.3 mm
• Weight 141 g

Appearance and ease of use

In design, as mentioned above, the Galaxy A series smartphones are practically no different from each other, but that’s not all. The main thing is that even despite the rethinking of the interests and aspirations of the modern market, despite the sharp transition from plastic to metal in manufacturing materials, the new Samsung smartphones still remain in appearance almost the same as they were before. That is, their appearance remained so recognizable that those who were somehow dissatisfied with the design of Korean devices are unlikely to see anything encouraging this time.

The easily recognizable design of Samsung smartphones has not changed much:

As for materials, the devices actually received metal cases, and entirely made of this material. The back wall and sides in such a case form a solid “trough”, and gluing occurs in the place where the glass of the screen adjoins the metal in the front part. And yet, owners of new Korean smartphones will not have the opportunity to touch real metal and feel all its cold appeal. The fact is that all surfaces here are carefully covered with a special plastic coating so as to completely hide all the metal underneath. That is, the all-metal bodies of the new Galaxy A look and feel as if we were still looking at the same plastic. The presence of metal can be recognized, perhaps, only by the unpainted chamfers on the side faces.

Due to the matte finish, thin body and low weight, the device is held comfortably in the hand, does not slip out and does not collect fingerprints. New Samsung smartphones have become very pleasant to the touch, this cannot be taken away. Even with a huge display, the Galaxy A7 remains such a thin and light solution that the smartphone can easily be carried in your pocket, although the dimensions are certainly large.

The assembly does not cause any complaints; Samsung is fine with this. Having abandoned the removable cover for the first time, the developers resorted to a common solution for placing cards in the side slots: now here, too, you need to press in the hidden buttons with a paper clip in order to remove the slide with the SIM card and memory card. In place of the memory card, you can put a second Nano-SIM card, but then you will have to leave the memory card at home - a very controversial, and it is completely unclear how justified the decision of the developers was.

According to the not very pleasant tradition that has developed recently, here it is also proposed to compromise and choose only one of possible options using cards: either install two Nano-SIMs without the possibility of expanding the memory, or put a microSD card in the second slot, but then you will have to say goodbye to the second SIM card. This strange idea of ​​saving captured the minds of not only Chinese developers, but, as it turned out, Korean ones too. In marketing materials, this solution is usually presented as ideal: those who need a second SIM card will insert it, and those who need additional memory will choose microSD card. However, nothing is said about those who may need both. It is completely unclear what benefits such a solution should provide - after all, the market is full of devices with simultaneous support for two SIM cards and a memory card, and even with two “full-size” Mini-SIM cards, there is nothing special about it.

Despite the fact that the smartphone body is not particularly thin, the camera module still protrudes quite noticeably from the back wall. In this matter, the new Samsung smartphones turned out to be no better than the notorious ones Apple iPhone 6/6 Plus, which only the lazy would not “wash their bones” for this option of placing the camera module. The same square-shaped LED flash and chrome speaker grille are symmetrically distributed on both sides of the camera lens. Since the protruding camera module does not allow the grille to overlap with the surface of the table, the sound of a smartphone lying “on the back” is practically not muffled. However, since the main contact with the surface will be the glass of the protruding chamber, it will most likely be scratched first. There was no built-in flashlight mode for the flash; the flash module itself has only one section.

The front of the smartphone is completely covered protective glass Gorilla Glass. As in the case of the Galaxy A5, there was no place in the device for such a useful element as an LED notification sensor.

At the bottom, under the screen, there is the usual oval mechanical key and two touch buttons on both sides of her. The buttons have a bright white backlight with the ability to adjust the duration. The front panel under the glass has a dotted texture, like previous Samsung smartphones.

The mechanical volume and lock keys are also made of metal, the buttons are quite large, the action is springy and responsive, and there are traditionally no complaints about the controls in Samsung devices.

For some reason, the Micro-USB 2.0 connector and the audio output for headphones with a diameter of 3.5 mm were clustered on one, bottom end, very close to each other. This is inconvenient if you have to use both sockets for connecting power and headphones at the same time. It’s good that, unlike the younger Galaxy A5 model, Micro-USB here supports connecting external devices and flash drives in OTG mode.

The smartphone is not protected from dust and moisture and does not support wireless charging, there is no strap mount on the case. In addition to the white color option, the dark blue and golden body colors familiar from previous series of Samsung smartphones are also offered. With a clear focus on the youth segment, the developers perhaps should have given their new products fresher and brighter colors, since they decided to cover the metal with a plastic coating that is easy to paint.

Screen

The Samsung Galaxy A7 smartphone is equipped with a large Super AMOLED touch matrix. The physical dimensions of the display are 68x122 mm, diagonal - 5.5 inches. The screen resolution in pixels is 1920×1080 (dot density 401 ppi), a decent figure, but do not forget that the screen here is made using Pentile technology.

The side frames around the screen are not impressive: the distance from the edge of the body to the edge of the screen on the sides is about 4 mm, and on the top and bottom - approximately 14 mm. The display brightness has manual and automatic adjustment, the latter based on the operation of the light sensor. There is also a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear. Multi-touch technology allows you to process 10 simultaneous touches. In the settings, you can enable support for working with the screen while wearing gloves (this was not the case in the Galaxy A5).

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections, Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the sample under study.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are no worse than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected when the screens are turned off (on the left is Nexus 7, on the right is Samsung Galaxy A7, then they can be distinguished by size):

The screen of the Samsung Galaxy A7 is slightly lighter (brightness according to photographs is 102 versus 98 for the Nexus 7) and does not have a pronounced tint. Note that the reflection from bright objects in the screen of the Samsung Galaxy A7 has a pale bluish halo that is slightly more pronounced in the transverse direction. The ghosting of reflected objects on the screen of the Samsung Galaxy A7 is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen. Due to the smaller number of boundaries (glass-air type) with very different refractive indices, screens without an air gap look better in conditions of strong external illumination, but their repair in the case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be replaced. On the outer surface of the Samsung Galaxy A7 screen there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (very effective, noticeably better than that of the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a lower speed than in the case of regular glass.

When the white field was displayed in full screen and with manual brightness control, its maximum value was 350 cd/m², the minimum was 1.9 cd/m². You also need to take into account the fact that in this case, the smaller the white area on the screen, the brighter it is, that is, the actual maximum brightness of the white areas will almost always be higher than the specified value. For example, when outputting white on half the screen, the maximum brightness with manual adjustment increases to 410 cd/m². As a result, readability during the day in the sun should be at a fairly good level (there was no opportunity to test it). The reduced brightness level allows you to use the device even in complete darkness without any problems. There is automatic brightness adjustment based on the light sensor (it is located to the right of the front speaker slot). You can make adjustments to the operation of this function by moving the adjustment slider from −5 to +5 units. Below, for three conditions, we present the screen brightness values ​​for three values ​​of this setting - for −5, 0 and +5. In complete darkness in automatic mode brightness is reduced to 3.8, 10 and 18 cd/m², respectively (the first is a bit dark, the rest are normal), in an office illuminated by artificial light (approximately 400 lux) the brightness is set to 76, 113 and 300 cd/m² (dark - in just right - a bit light, which corresponds to the specified correction), in a brightly lit environment (corresponds to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) - increases to 350 cd / m², regardless of the position of the slider. This value is equal to the maximum for manual adjustment. In general, the result of the automatic brightness adjustment function is as expected. Only at medium and low brightness levels there is modulation with a frequency of 240 Hz. The figure below shows the dependence of brightness (vertical axis) on time ( horizontal axis) for several brightness settings:

It can be seen that at maximum and close to it brightness, the modulation amplitude is minimal and its frequency is 60 Hz (screen refresh rate), as a result, there is no visible flicker. However, when the brightness decreases (somewhere below 75%), modulation appears with a frequency of 240 Hz and a large relative amplitude. Therefore, the presence of such modulation can already be seen in a test for the presence of a stroboscopic effect or simply with rapid eye movement. Depending on individual sensitivity, this flickering may cause increased fatigue.

This screen uses a Super AMOLED matrix - an active matrix on organic light-emitting diodes. A full-color image is created using subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B), but there are twice as many green subpixels, which can be referred to as RGBG. This is confirmed by a fragment of a microphotograph:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

In the fragment above you can count 4 green subpixels, 2 red (4 halves) and 2 blue (1 whole and 4 quarters), and by repeating these fragments, you can lay out the entire screen without breaks or overlap. For such matrices Samsung company introduced the name PenTile RGBG. The manufacturer calculates the screen resolution based on the green subpixels; based on the other two, it will be two times lower. The location and shape of the subpixels in this version is close to the case of the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and some other newer devices from Samsung and not only with AMOLED screens. This version of PenTile RGBG is better than the old one with red squares, blue rectangles and stripes of green subpixels. However, some unevenness of contrast borders and other artifacts are still present. However, due to the fairly high resolution, they have a minimal impact on image quality.

The screen is characterized by excellent viewing angles, although white color, when deviated even at small angles, acquires a slight blue-green tint, but black color is just black at any angle. So black that the contrast setting is not applicable in this case. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the white field is excellent. For comparison, here are photographs in which the screens of the Samsung Galaxy A7 (profile Movie AMOLED) and the second comparison participant displayed the same images, while the brightness of the screens was initially set to approximately 200 cd/m², and color balance on the camera it is forcibly switched to 6500 K. White field:

Note the excellent uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field. And a test picture (profile Basic):

Color reproduction is good, however, the color balance of the screens is slightly different and the colors of the Samsung Galaxy A7 are a little more saturated. The photo above was taken after selecting a profile Basic in the screen settings, there are four in total. Profile Adaptive display differs in some kind of automatic adjustment to the type of displayed image and environmental conditions, which is obtained by selecting the two remaining profiles shown below.

Movie AMOLED:

Saturation and color contrast are noticeably increased.

Photo AMOLED:

Saturation is still high, but color contrast is back to normal. Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen (profile Basic). White field:

The brightness at an angle for both screens has noticeably decreased (to avoid strong darkening, the shutter speed was increased by 2.5 times compared to the previous two photographs), but in the case of Samsung the drop in brightness is much less pronounced. As a result, with formally the same brightness samsung screen The Galaxy A7 looks much brighter visually (compared to LCD screens) as the screen mobile device often you have to look at least from a slight angle. And a test picture:

It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens and the brightness of the Samsung at an angle is noticeably higher. Switching the state of the matrix elements is performed almost instantly, but at the switching edge there may be a step with a width of 16.7 ms (which corresponds to a screen refresh rate of 60 Hz). For example, this is what the dependence of brightness on time looks like when moving from black to white and back:

In some conditions, the presence of such a step can lead to plumes trailing moving objects, but in normal use these artifacts are difficult to see. Quite the contrary - dynamic scenes in films on OLED screens are distinguished by high clarity and even some “jerky” movements.

For profiles Photo AMOLED And Basic constructed using 32 points with equal intervals according to the numerical value of the shade of gray, the gamma curve did not reveal any blockage in either highlights or shadows, and the indicator of the approximating power function is equal to 2.30, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma curve deviates little from the power-law dependence (the captions in parentheses show the indicator of the approximating power function and the coefficient of determination):

For profile Movie AMOLED The gamma curve has a slightly pronounced S-shape, which increases the apparent contrast of the image, but shades are still distinguishable in the shadows.

Let us recall that in the case of OLED screens, the brightness of image fragments dynamically changes in accordance with the nature of the displayed image - it decreases for generally light images. As a result, the resulting dependence of brightness on hue (gamma curve) most likely slightly does not correspond to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential display of shades of gray on almost the entire screen. This image dynamism increases when you select the option Auto tuning screen brightness. In this case, on the graph of brightness (vertical axis) versus time (horizontal axis), when moving from black to white and back, a descending section appears, that is, the brightness of the white field begins to decrease after about 0.4 s:

Color gamut in the case of a profile Movie AMOLED very wide, it almost covers the Adobe RGB gamut:

When selecting a profile Photo AMOLED The coverage decreases slightly:

When selecting a profile Basic the coverage is significantly compressed, almost to the limits of sRGB:

Without correction, the spectra of the components are very well separated:

In case of profile Basic with maximum correction, the color components are already noticeably mixed with each other:

Note that on screens with a wide color gamut, without appropriate correction, the colors of regular images optimized for sRGB devices appear unnaturally saturated. Hence the recommendation - in most cases, watching movies, photographs and everything natural is better when choosing a profile Basic, and only if the photo was taken on Adobe installation RGB, it makes sense to switch the profile to Photo AMOLED. Profile Movie AMOLED, despite the name, is the least suitable for watching movies or anything else.

The balance of shades on the gray scale is not ideal, but, in general, acceptable. Color temperature in profile Movie AMOLED above 6500 K, in the remaining two - close to 6500 K, while in a significant portion of the gray scale this parameter does not change very much. The deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) over most of the gray scale remains below 10 units, which is considered a good indicator for a consumer device, and also does not change much:

(The darkest areas of the gray scale can in most cases be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

Let's summarize. The screen has a fairly high maximum brightness and has good anti-glare properties, so the device can most likely be used outdoors even on a sunny summer day without any problems. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. It is permissible to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works quite adequately. The advantages of the screen include a very good oleophobic coating, as well as a color gamut close to sRGB and an acceptable color balance (if you select the appropriate profiles). At the same time, let us remind you about the general advantages of OLED screens: true black color (if nothing is reflected in the screen), excellent uniformity of the white field, noticeably less than that of LCDs, and a drop in image brightness when viewed at an angle. Disadvantages include modulation of screen brightness. For users who are particularly sensitive to flicker, this may cause increased fatigue. However, overall the screen quality is very high.

Sound

The sound of the Samsung Galaxy A7 is very decent. The smartphone produces a fairly loud sound, saturated with the entire spectrum of frequencies, the speaker is not deprived and low frequencies. The smartphone sounds really nice, at the maximum volume level the sound is not distorted, does not wheeze, there are no complaints at all. In conversational dynamics, the voice of a familiar interlocutor, timbre and intonation remain recognizable, the conversation is quite comfortable.

With headphones, the smartphone also sounds at the level of modern flagships; to play melodies, a proprietary player with a maximum number of settings is used as standard. All sound effects are combined with a technology called SoundAlive - although some of them are only available with connected headphones. The same applies to the sound optimization function. There are a lot of different virtual effects, visually they are combined into a matrix of squares.

An FM radio is included as standard with the smartphone, and there is also a voice recorder. The voice recorder is simple - unlike top Samsung smartphones, there is not such a variety of recording modes, everything is standard (“normal”, “voice note”). Radio without connected quality external antenna headphones will not work, but can record programs. The device cannot record telephone conversations from the line.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy A7 features the exact same two physical digital camera modules as the cheaper model in the lineup, the Galaxy A5. Front-camera it is equipped with a 5-megapixel module with an f/2.2 aperture; it shoots video at a maximum resolution of 1080p. For popular selfie-style entertainment, there are group selfie modes, as well as shooting with GIF animation. Animated Selfie mode allows you to take up to 20 continuous photos and automatically combine them into one animated GIF that replaces a short video. You can take pictures with the front camera without contacting the camera, using the open palm gesture.

The main, rear 13-megapixel camera has an f/2.0 aperture, autofocus and LED flash. The settings menu is clear and intuitive; it is divided into equal cells, each of which is always visible and interactive. In addition, each cell can be pulled up and made into a shortcut for quick access in a separate top line. The icons are clearly drawn, everything is perfectly visible even in the brightest sunlight, and in general the implementation of the camera control menu in the latest Samsung devices is one of the best on the market.

However, the camera itself is not nearly as rich in capabilities as the cameras of flagship devices: there is no optical stabilization and selective focus mode for blurring the background, there is no slow or fast video recording, and there is no ability to shoot video in 4K or at 60 fps. Of the shooting modes, there are only traditional panoramic, portrait, night, and again, the notorious selfie, which can be taken here with the main camera too; a special auto-selfie mode has been invented for this.

The video camera of the Samsung Galaxy A7 can shoot with a maximum resolution of Full HD 1920×1080 (30 fps); 4K resolution and 60 fps shooting speed are not supported here. The quality of video recording can be judged by the test video.

• Video No. 1 (30 MB, 1920×1080 @30 fps)

	Good sharpness throughout the entire frame, it drops a little in the upper corners.
	Good sharpness in distant shots.
	Details are lost when the shot is removed, especially at the edges, but the sharpness in the central part of the frame is quite good.
	The camera's sharpness problems are noticeable only in the upper left and lower right corners.
	Good sharpness in mid-grounds. At distances it’s noticeably worse, although it’s worth taking snowfall into account.
	Good job with noise.
	The camera works well with shadows.
	The license plates of cars that are not closest can be made out. The tree branches in the central part of the frame are well done.
	The sharpening on the wires is quite noticeable, but not very bright.
	The camera copes well with macro photography.
	The text as a whole is worked out perfectly, only in the left top corner slightly washed out.

We also tested the camera on a laboratory bench using our method.

Overall the camera is of a fairly high standard. It has some shortcomings that do not allow it to be called a flagship, but they do not make it unsuccessful. Rare and not very stable, but good highlighting of details by sharpening the camera can be forgiven. But blur at the edges of the frame occurs quite often and spoils the impression. At the same time, the sharpness in the central part of the frame is excellent in most cases. The advantages of the camera can also be written down Good work noise reduction

Lab testing shows really good sharpness in the center of the frame and acceptable sharpness around the edges. And the very shape of the resolution curve in the center looks quite decent. But still, something is wrong in the cell. And the point here is not even a drop in sharpness towards the edges. Most likely, the algorithms used in software processing are somewhat outdated. But I want something new. At a minimum, you don’t want to see white sharpening stripes on contrasting borders, but at the same time it is desirable to see a good result of its work. Samsung can afford to work on this, but apparently the manufacturer treats this camera in a completely different way than it should treat a flagship one. However, the camera is well suited for documentary and art photography.

Telephone and communications

The smartphone works as standard in modern 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks, and also supports fourth-generation LTE Cat4 networks with a maximum possible speed of up to 150 Mbit/s for reception. In practice, with a SIM card from the domestic operator MTS, the smartphone confidently recognizes and works with 4G networks.

Network capabilities are implemented as standard: there is support for NFC technology, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display, you can organize wireless point access via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels. The Wi-Fi module supports operation in both frequency ranges(2.4 and 5 GHz). Supports connection of external devices to USB port in OTG mode, but there is no support for MHL and DLNA.

The navigation module works with both GPS and the domestic Glonass system, and also sees satellites of the Chinese Beidou (BDS). There are no complaints about the navigation module; satellites are found very quickly. The device is also equipped with a magnetic field sensor, on the basis of which the magnetic compass of navigation programs operates.

The drawing of letters and numbers on virtual keyboards is quite large; for the convenience of quick typing, there is an additional row with numbers at the top. It is also possible to change the size of the entire desktop, or you can separately reduce the block virtual keyboard and even move it to any place on the screen. The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing phone number A search is also carried out immediately using the first letters in contacts. For Swype fans, there is a continuous typing method using a stroke from letter to letter.

The smartphone supports working with two SIM cards, and in general, working with them in the menu is organized according to a familiar principle: you can designate any of the SIM cards as the main one for organizing voice calls, transferring data or sending SMS messages. When dialing a number, you can also select the desired card by calling context menu from the notifications menu. A SIM card in any slot can work with 3G (LTE) networks, but only one of the cards can work in this mode at the same time (the second will only work in 2G). There is only one radio module installed in the device.

OS and software

Samsung Galaxy A7, like its brothers in the new line, even after the official release of the fifth version of Android OS goes on sale and works initially on software platform Google Android version 4.4.4, an update to version 5.x has just been promised. The proprietary TouchWiz graphical user interface is traditionally installed on top of the OS interface. The drawing of all elements, the internal arrangement of the shell, the location of menu items, settings sections and pop-up contextual submenus - everything is familiar and very similar to what is implemented in the same Galaxy S5 or Galaxy Alpha, with the exception of some flagship features that are missing in the new smartphone. For example, the Galaxy A7 has a very limited set of supported gestures. The energy-saving mode, privacy mode, the ability to work in two windows simultaneously, and the sidebar of virtual keys remain in place. The function of reducing the working area of ​​the screen is convenient for working with the fingers of one hand, including for left-handed people. Added the Briefing news panel, called up from the left with a side swipe - an analogue of HTC Blinkfeed.

Performance

The Samsung Galaxy A7 hardware platform is based on the latest eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939) single-chip system (SoC). This recently announced 64-bit platform is made using big.LITTLE technology, where four Cortex-A53 processor cores are adjacent to four of the same Cortex-A53 cores, but these “fours” have different maximum operating frequencies. Depending on the nature and degree of load, either 4 “junior” or 4 “senior” (up to 1.5 GHz) cores are turned on, which saves energy. The Adreno 405 video accelerator with a frequency of up to 550 MHz is responsible for graphics processing here. SoC Snapdragon 615 is made using a 28 nm process technology, belongs to the mid-level category, does not differ in particular power and performance, full list characteristics can be found.

The device has 2 GB of RAM. The smartphone doesn’t have a lot of built-in memory - out of the nominal 16 GB internal memory about 11 are available to the user. It is possible to expand the built-in memory: you can install a microSD card in the smartphone, but then the second SIM card will have to be removed. In addition, the device supports the mode of connecting external devices to the USB port (USB Host, USB OTG) - an external flash drive can be connected via an OTG adapter, purchased separately.

According to testing results, the eight-core hardware platform of the Samsung Galaxy A7 showed average results, far from truly top-end modern flagships. The performance of the Snapdragon 615 platform is approximately at the level of the alternative eight-core MediaTek MT6592, or even slightly lower. According to AnTuTu, the performance of the smartphone is at the level of 30K, while for top solutions this value is now 40-45K. There is nothing special to add here; the platform is far in its capabilities from the most productive modern Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 series platforms, just as it is far from the fresh flagship MediaTek MT6595. The destiny of devices with such filling is a confident average level, nothing more. However, the smartphone we are describing today is powerful enough to not have to worry about not having enough power to complete most tasks for some time.

Testing in the latest versions of comprehensive tests AnTuTu and GeekBench 3:

For convenience, we have compiled all the results we obtained when testing the smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks into tables. The table usually adds several other devices from different segments, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry figures). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison it is impossible to present the results from different versions benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” - due to the fact that at one time they passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in 3DMark game tests,GFXBenchmark, and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark, the most powerful smartphones now have the ability to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (which can cause the speed to rise above 60 fps).

Browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for assessing the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowance for the fact that their results significantly depend on the browser in which they are launched, so the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this is possible during testing not always. For Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

Playing video

To test omnivorousness when playing video (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, for example subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern options using processor cores alone. Also, you shouldn’t expect a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a single table.

According to the testing results, the subject was not equipped with all the necessary decoders that are necessary for full playback of most of the most common multimedia files on the network. To successfully play them, you will have to resort to the help of a third-party player - for example, MX Player. True, it is also necessary to change the settings and manually install additional custom codecs, because now this player does not officially support the AC3 sound format.

¹ sound in MX Video Player was played only after installing an alternative custom audio codec; The standard player does not have this setting

Tested video output features Alexey Kudryavtsev.

MHL interface, like Mobility DisplayPort we are in this smartphone We didn’t find it, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Methodology for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices) Red marks indicate possible problems related to the playback of the corresponding files.

According to the criterion of frame output, the quality of playback of video files on the screen of the device itself is good, since frames (or groups of frames) can be output with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without skipping frames. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly along the border of the screen, one to one in pixels, that is, in the original resolution. The worlds show the peculiarities of PenTile - the vertical world through the pixel looks like a grid, the horizontal world with stripes through the pixel has a typical greenish tint. The brightness range displayed on the screen actually corresponds to standard range 16-235 - in the shadows only a couple of shades merge with black, but in the highlights all gradations of shades are displayed. Only in the case of very dark scenes with low average brightness on dark objects can you notice artifacts in the form of increased variation in hue and brightness, which reveals the inevitable scatter in the characteristics of the emitting LED pixels.

Battery life

The capacity of the lithium-ion battery installed in the Samsung Galaxy A7 is not a record, but quite modern - 2600 mAh. Thanks to the far from the most productive and, accordingly, more economical hardware platform, as well as a quite decent amount of built-in battery, the smartphone has proven itself worthy in terms of durability battery life, showing excellent autonomy in most standard usage scenarios. The developers themselves promise that the smartphone is designed for 17 hours of continuous use. telephone conversation in 3G networks, or 13 hours of work on the Internet via Wi-Fi network.

It should be noted that to save energy, the device settings traditionally contain two proprietary energy saving modes: normal and extreme. The maximum energy saving mode significantly reduces the level of energy consumption by turning off non-essential ones and saving vital ones. this moment functions, including converting the image on the screen to black and white.

Continuous reading in the FBReader program (with a standard, light theme) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd/m²) lasted about 22 hours until the battery was completely discharged. When watching videos continuously high quality(720p) with the same brightness level through home network The Wi-Fi device lasted 12 hours. In 3D gaming mode, the device worked for almost 3.5 hours. Full charging time is approximately 2.5 hours.

Bottom line

In the Samsung Galaxy A series of smartphones, a lot of what was previously invented for the Galaxy S line was removed, and the oversaturation of various superpowers suddenly gave way to complete asceticism. It seems that the developers were tasked with simplifying everything possible, and they clearly overdid it. The fingerprint sensor, heart rate sensor are lost, the flashlight, notification sensor, removable battery, water resistance, infrared transmitter are gone, MHL support is removed, and a ridiculous compromise has appeared with the choice between inserted cards. But the most unpleasant thing is that they saved even on the holy of holies - the hardware platform: the smartphone, which is offered in official retail for 32 thousand rubles, did not even receive a decent processor from the Snapdragon 800 series usual for such cases, although at such a price it would be more than justified . And this despite the fact that the same Galaxy S5, which has everything listed above in stock, is offered at retail for 30 thousand rubles, that is, even cheaper! Galaxy A series smartphones are extremely overpriced, their level of technical equipment does not correspond to the level of prices set for them.

If we collect the positive aspects that are present in the smartphones of the new line, we can note a pleasant thin, light and high-quality body, a good bright AMOLED screen, decent sound and long battery life. The camera quality is average, it is worse than that of the Galaxy S5, so there is nothing special to praise in this regard, except that the frontal shooting capabilities have improved. The fundamental characteristics are good, but they are not enough for the level to which Samsung is trying to push the modest line of fashion devices of the Galaxy A series.

Would you like a convenient, functional and relatively inexpensive smartphone, and even a well-known brand? If yes, then we recommend paying attention to the Samsung A7 2017. The device for 20,000 rubles offers the current configuration, which is represented by an eight-core processor and 3 GB of RAM, combined with a fairly powerful graphics chip. This hardware allows you to use the device for a huge number of modern applications, as well as games. As for the cameras, they take pretty good pictures, although they do not have optical stabilization. And the matrix is ​​equipped with high-quality color reproduction and large viewing angles. In general, we will recommend the Samsung Galaxy A7 2017 for a more detailed and intimate acquaintance.

Samsung Galaxy A7 2017: price and specifications

Samsung Galaxy A7 2017: owner reviews

— The shell is thought out to the smallest detail;

— The presence of a screen with perfectly rendered colors and large viewing angles;

— Availability of active protection against water;

— Bright colors;

— Among the advantages, it is worth highlighting the battery capacity of 3600 mAh;

— Fast work fingerprint scanner;

- Nice design. What is characteristic is that it has an attractive effect on others;

— Relatively good cameras;

— Samsung Pay support;

— High-quality communication;

— The cameras do not have image stabilization;

— It will slip in your hands and this must be taken into account;

— Pleasant sound;

— Problems with transferring from the built-in memory to a memory card. By the way, the smartphone supports large volumes from removable media;

— In general, quite fast work thanks to the high-performance processor;

— The case does not collect scratches and fingerprints;

— There is no indicator of missed messages;

— A large number of positive reviews;

— Always-on screen mode;

— Selection of original accessories;

— Supports two SIM cards and a memory card at the same time;

Conclusion

A tempting price-quality ratio combined with functional hardware leaves only pleasant impressions. Don't forget about good cameras, as well as a well-thought-out shell. In general, we will, of course, recommend the Samsung A7 2017 for a more detailed and intimate acquaintance as the device has excellent performance properties and convenience.

Pros:

• The shell is thought out to the smallest detail;
• The quality of the pictures is at a high level;
• Matrix with revolutionary display technology;
• Attractive appearance;
• Fast fingerprint scanner;

Minuses:

• No optical stabilization;
• Some problems with transferring information from internal memory to SD card;
• Slips in your hands;
• Some minor bugs;

In contact with

Specifications

• Android 4.4.4, TouchWiz shell
• Screen 5.5 inches, SuperAMOLED, 1920x1080 pixels, 401 ppi, light and proximity sensor
• Metal, non-separable body
• Supports two SIM cards, one radio module (A700F)
• Front camera 5 megapixels, main camera 13 megapixels with autofocus, video recording 1080p (30 frames per second)
• Chipset Snapdragon 615 – MSM8939, four cores A53 64 bit, frequency up to 1.5 GHz, plus four cores up to 1 GHz, Adreno 405 – model A700F with two SIM cards
• Exynos 5 Octa 5430 chipset – eight cores, 4 Cortex A15 cores up to 1.8 GHz, 4 Cortex A7 cores up to 1.3 GHz, Mali T628 MP6
• RAM 2 GB, internal memory 16 GB, memory card up to 64 GB
• LTE cat. 4, GPS/A-GPS/Glonass
• BT 4.0 LE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, USB 2.0, microUSB, NFC
• FM radio, supports all audio and video codecs out of the box
• Battery Li-Ion 2600 mAh
• Dimensions – 151x76.2x6.3 mm, weight – 141 grams
• Color options - Pearl White, Midnight Black, Champagne Gold

Contents of delivery

• Telephone
• Charger with USB cable
• Instructions
• Pin for opening the SIM card tray
• Wired stereo headset

Positioning

IN Samsung review A3, we looked into the reasons for the appearance of this line of devices, its positioning within Samsung, and also why it can be considered created to compete with the iPhone of previous generations. I see no point in repeating myself; I refer you to the appropriate section of the review.

With the positioning of the A7, Samsung turns out to be more interesting than the younger models. On the one hand, this is a senior A-series device, as a result, it has the most powerful chipsets for this class of devices, but it does not live up to the flagships, and this is a conscious decision. On the other hand, the A7 should act as one of the phablets that will flood the market before the fall of 2015 and will overshadow the existing Note 4, which remains the flagship without any discounts and the most interesting model in its class. But it so happens that not all people need top-end characteristics, the presence of a stylus and additional features– for many, the first priority is a pleasant design, case materials, and an adequate price, and any price lower than that of flagships, with formally similar characteristics, is considered as such.

Among the models large manufacturers, presented in retail chains throughout the country, it is the A7 that can lay claim to being a fashion device with a lower cost than the flagship. It came as a complete surprise to me that both readers and potential buyers showed such interest in the previous A5 model. But they paid much less attention to the A3. It is completely unclear what will happen with the A7, since in Russian realities there was a cheap Note 3 from MegaFon, and it certainly confused all Samsung cards. But since the fall of last year it has not been on sale, and the changes that have taken place on the market do not allow us to say that any new model will be perceived well, especially taking into account the new price level. The release of the A7 for Russia will take place at a bad time for the market, so assessing any sales, prospects and the like for this model before the beginning of summer is a pointless exercise.

From the point of view of positioning and selection of this device, I advise you to look at it as a phablet version without a stylus, with a camera typical in its class and a certain image charge. This is by no means the most cost-effective offer; you can find similar solutions from other companies for less money, however, we’ll talk about this at the end of the review.

Design, dimensions, control elements

The design of all A-series devices is absolutely the same, there is no difference. There are no complaints about the build quality and materials.

The metal frame goes around the body, everything here is similar to the Samsung Alpha or Note 4, the edges are exactly the same, they play in the light the same way. But the entire back panel is made of metal, although it is painted in the color of the body. It has several recesses for antennas, but they are not visible due to uniform painting. This is a conscious decision, since the same iPhone uses either a plastic insert (like the iPhone 6) or an insert on the back panel (like the iPhone 5/5s), which stands out from the design of the device. Samsung considered that the appearance of the device should be uniform, and achieved this with this approach.

The colors for the A7 are typical: white, black and gold.

The white color has a pearlescent tint, it is not matte, and plays well in the light. An attempt to deliberately scratch it shows that scratches appear, but they are not visible unless you look closely.

The control elements are located traditionally, the paired volume key is on the left side, and the on/off button is on the right. There are also two slots for nanoSIM cards, one slot also has a combined holder for a microSD card. The device has two microphones, they are located at the ends. At the bottom end there is a regular microUSB connector, as well as a 3.5 mm jack for a headset or headphones.

The front camera is located above the screen, and there is also a light sensor and a proximity sensor. Below the screen there are two touch buttons and one mechanical button.

The phone dimensions are 151x76.2x6.3 mm, weight is 141 grams. Quite thin, fits well in the hand, a little smaller than the same Note 4. This format of device is convenient for me because of my large hand, but you’ll have to try it. But I note that you get used to the large screen almost instantly, and the thin body makes the model convenient for everyday use.

Display

Screen with a diagonal of 5.5 inches and FullHD resolution (401 ppi), superAMOLED. There are all modes for adjusting colors on the screen, as on older models.

If you compare the picture quality with the same Note 4 (below), you will not see much of a difference; it is felt in the fonts, but is invisible to the eye, unless, of course, you have built-in microscopes.

An excellent screen from all points of view, a maximum number of settings for every taste. If you want to get bright colors, you can do it; if you want more natural colors, this is possible. Good screen behavior in the sun. In its segment, this device has one of the highest quality screens, and for the current generation of devices its capabilities are sufficient, plus there is a reserve for several years. The same QHD screen in the Note 4 is redundant, although pleasant. The transition from the screen in the A7 to the Note 4 will not be as noticeable an improvement as the company would like to show.

Battery

The Li-Ion battery built into the case has a capacity of 2600 mAh, which is relatively small. Video playback time is about 8.5 hours (in A5 - 12.5 hours), Samsung usually targets 10 hours. This indicator confused me, I thought that the total operating time would be noticeably shorter, but the reality turned out to be completely different - the phone lasts a long time (we tested the Qualcomm version).

With actual use of the phone, you can achieve two days of reliable operation with an hour of calls, two dozen messages, a couple of hours of listening to music. Under a very heavy load, the device will only work for one day, but for example, under the same load, the S5 will run out at about one o'clock in the afternoon. The use of an optimized chipset makes itself felt; this is a new generation device in terms of improved operating time. Although it all depends on what and how you use it, how you configured all the parameters.

The total battery charging time is just under two hours. Fast charging technology, like in Note 4, is not supported here.

The phone has a proprietary technology for maximum energy saving, when the screen switches to displaying shades of gray, and this way the device can work much longer.

Memory, RAM, chipset and performance

The phone is available in two versions, on the Qualcomm chipset and on the Exynos. Chipset Snapdragon 615 – MSM8939, four cores A53 64 bit, frequency up to 1.5 GHz plus four cores up to 1 GHz, Adreno 405 – model A700F with two SIM cards. Exynos 5 Octa 5430 chipset – eight cores, 4 Cortex A15 cores up to 1.8 GHz, 4 Cortex A7 cores up to 1.3 GHz, Mali T628 MP6. Users will not have a choice of model options as such; each market will have one or the other modification, but not both. The question of which is better remains open - for example, the operating time on the Qualcomm chipset in mixed mode is a little longer (by about 10 percent), but the performance on Exynos is higher.

The amount of RAM is 2 GB, built-in memory is 16 GB, of which approximately 12 GB is available to the user. Memory cards are supported up to 64 GB, which will be enough for most.

The A-series devices are unusual in that it is impossible to use two SIM cards and a memory card at the same time. The second slot can accommodate either a memory card or a SIM card, but not both at the same time. Therefore, you will have to determine what is more important to you - this should be kept in mind when you choose a device.

In synthetic tests, the device has typical performance for its class. At the same time, you won’t see any brakes in the menu.

Communication capabilities

Everything is quite typical, USB version 2, there is support for NFC, Ant+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, built-in LTE modem supports LTE Advanced Cat.4.

Camera

The front camera does not have autofocus, but has a resolution of 5 megapixels, which is not bad.

The main camera is 13-megapixel, its characteristics are similar to the cameras that were in last year’s flagships, it produces good picture quality, as you can see for yourself. But in the dark, the camera, like previous models, does not shoot very well.

Software

The device has the last one Android version 4.4.4, with the TouchWiz shell, it is also the latest version, like on the company’s flagships. There are almost no differences from the same S5, so I refer you to the corresponding part of the review.

Unlike top models, there is a built-in FM radio, which looks like a nice bonus.