We all look for a smartphone that gives us the best value for money, the one that can perform good and at the same time has a body worth flaunting out. Samsung is on a roll lately with their improving Galaxy A and J series smartphones, but with the specifications offered by value-oriented brands like ASUS, Oppo and Huawei they needed to battle out with a best-value smartphone. Hence, welcome the Galaxy J7 Prime their premium design and prime performance smartphone.
Design
No plastic here guys, gone are the days where a mid-range value smartphone inherits a plastic body to lower the cost. The J7 Prime is interesting small for a 5.5” smartphone, its bezels are really thin with 2.5D curved class on the edges which reminds us holding a Galaxy S7. While on the back is a full metal finish without any glass layer found in the A series, the top and bottom has the usual cap cover for the antenna. The sides are tapered in a concave shape making it feel more ergonomic to feel, while flipping our phone around we really remember holding a Galaxy S7.
The screen is a 5.5” Full HD TFT display, it’s disappointing that Samsung didn’t use AMOLED despite their other Galaxy J1, J2, J5 series phones are using one. Despite this the screen of the J7 Prime is still bright, color pleasant though with some noticeable paleness in the screen and more prominent to screen “White” marks as any direct pressure on the TFT screen could leave permanent white marks.
One thing to appreciate is that the camera doesn’t protrude anymore, Samsung went into a flat back approach as the camera lens is lowered a bit to protect it from scratches. It has diamond cut finish on the sides for a pleasant look and paired with a single flash LED.
Available in two colors, the J7 prime’s color is a blueish-black similar to the S7 and a light gold color similar to the Galaxy A7 series. The weight is pretty light at 167g, perhaps one thing to mention is that the speaker grill is located on top of the power button…we are not sure of this why but we think that it’s a necessary move to keep the aesthetics, but we would really prefer this as compared seeing the speakers at the back.
Performance
Powered by an octa-core 1.6GHz Exynos 7870 chip, the Galaxy J7 trumps at 39.4k score in the latest Antutu Benchmark making it a notable all-around smartphone that can do most of the apps today. Paired with a 3GB RAM, it will do multi-tasking with ease like social media, messaging, games with a few browsers on top.
The fingerprint scanner is also the home button, though given the smaller footprint we find the button a tad smaller as compared to other Samsung smartphones. Detection speed of the fingerprint scanner isn’t the same as 0.02 seconds smartphones but it will certainly get the job done.
Storage by default is 32GB with an expandable storage option of up to 256GB Micro SD, take note that the storage is a dedicated slot and separate from the dual-sim 4G slot.
Camera
Similar to our experience with the Galaxy A9 Pro 2016, the camera is snappy and fast. The 13mp with f1. 9 aperture gives it better handling in low light conditions Photos are fairly sharp though the color reproduction isn’t that vibrant, we might be spoiled with the AMOLED screens but upon closer look on a laptop it proves that colors are slightly lighter and noise levels are high in dark conditions.
Still given the f1.9 aperture gives good faded background “Bokeh” effect that you’ll expect from high-end cameras. We will post our camera sample shots once we have played with the unit more.
Battery
The Galaxy J7 Prime has a 3,300mAh battery rated to last around 10-12 hours in heavy internet use scenario, we achieved around 13 hours of on-time while still retaining 46% of the battery life.
Fast charging isn’t present on the Galaxy J7 Prime, so expect around 1 hour to 1 hour and a half for a full charge via a 2.4A charger.
Initial Impressions
The Galaxy J7 Prime can definitely wow you at first sight when we got to hold it we were impressed with the build and small form factor as compared to its similar priced rivals. Though we were disappointed with the lack of Super AMOLED screen, its price range is fairly reasonable enough for its performance, design, and camera. The J7 Prime is available for Php13,990 pesos, this goes head to head with other smartphones like the Oppo F1S, ZenFone 3 5.2”, Huawei GR8 and others alike.
As a delight, starting today October 10 until October 23 /you can now pre-order the device via Memo Xpress, Lazada and Abenson with free gifts of a Samsung Level Active Bluetooth earphones and premium back cover (Not Samsung branded) worth Php4,099. You can get the unit by October 29, which is the official availability of the device. Samsung hopes to elevate the competition with the J7 Prime in the budget category.
*Note that the casing in the photo is for the Note7, the shape will be similar.
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