What is the best mid-range Samsung mobile? Turn for analysis of the Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016), a terminal that boasts performance, stands out for its good rear camera and the camera flash pra selfies and seduces the public for its good value for money.
A mid-range for all audiences
Price is one of the decisive elements when buying a mobile. That’s why the battle between manufacturers has been sharpened in recent times to get a smartphone that brings together the best features at the lowest possible price.
Samsung’s new mid-range for 2016 comes in three distinct versions to seduce all types of users. In this analysis of the Galaxy J7 (2016) we will analyze the model of higher format, designed for lovers of the largest screens who tend to consume multimedia content.
This is a serious candidate to become the best mid-range mobile, pointing directly at the Huawei P9 Lite, Moto G4 Plus or bq Aquaris X5 Plus, is it worth buying? How good is your camera?
Metallic and functional design
The Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) surprises at first glance with its appearance. And we have become accustomed to polycarbonate within the mid-range, but here the South Korean manufacturer has succeeded in raising the bar.
We are talking about a smartphone with metal frame, very elegant and quite ergonomic in the hand. Despite having a 5.5-inch screen, it’s not too big or heavy when you stop the scale at 169 grams.
The front is dominated by the immense panel that we will talk about later, flanked on the sides by reasonable frames that do not reduce too much the premium feel of the device.
The Samsung logo sends on top where we also have the front camera, LED flash and main speaker. At the other end, just below the screen, we have the buttons: the Home button is physical and the other two are capacitive.
The entire side frame is completely metallic except for the physical buttons: the on/lock button is located on the right side and the button to control the volume on the left side.
The top is completely bare and at the bottom we have both the USB connector and the minijack for the headphones and the main microphone. Antenna bands are visible on both edges, although their arrangement is quite discreet.
The plastic dominates on the back where we have the Samsung logo, the main camera sensor that protrudes slightly from the carcadasa, LED flash and main speaker.
The polycarbonate housing is removed through a slit on the left side that gives us access to the battery and allows us to insert a SIM card (microsim) and a microSD. because despite having two slots it is not dual SIM.
A large but upgradeable screen
Mid-range cutouts come out especially in the section of the screen. This Galaxy J7 2016 features a 5.5-inch panel that only offers HD resolution (1,280 x 720p) so it clearly sits a step below some of its competitors.
Small format terminals may not be as necessary, but as we get closer to the terrain of phablets it does seem necessary to have Full HD panels. In fact, the high-end of some of the major manufacturers have uploaded a rung with QHD displays.
Numbers aside the experience is positive. It should not be forgotten that we are in front of a Super AMOLED screen, a technology that is usually much more striking in the eyes of users for its more vibrant colors and its deepest blacks compared to ipS panels that today are majority.
The contrast is noticeable, above other mobiles in the same price range, reasonable viewing angles although below THE IPS panels and the brightness level exceeds with slack the approved one. But this is the end of the good news. To start the J7 2016 does not have an ambient light sensor, so we won’t be able to put the brightness in automatic mode.
Instead, let’s consider activating a strange «outdoor mode» that will increase the brightness of the screen but only for a limited time. On the other hand, the screen lacks olephobic protection against fingerprints so we will have to clean it over and over again.
Finally lights and shadows in terms of color reproduction. You cannot calibrate the color temperature of the display manually but you have to use one of some predefined modes that can be eye-catching but not too realistic. The most exquisite in this section should be content with the basic mode that does not over-distort.
Sufficient performance for almost everything
The vast majority of users do not need to have a state-of-the-art processor or a monstrous amount of RAM for their day to day, something manufacturers have perfectly understood by offering within the mid-range terminals that work smoothly in the most everyday scenarios.
Samsung bets on this terminal for an Exynos 7870 – in other markets it is marketed with a Snapdragon 617 – of eight cores, a chip with architecture of 14 nanometers presented earlier this year. At your best we have 2 GB of RAM, a configuration that in practice is enough.
The performance of the Samsung Galaxy J7 2016 is remarkable in most situations. During our analysis we have not encountered too significant problems when it comes to managing multitasking and we have also not excessive lag when running demanding video games like Asphalt 8. Of course we’ll be running them at half-gas by the screen resolution.
Performance tests and benchmarks such as AnTuTu or GeekBench put the terminal at the height of some of its most direct competitors, without standing out for good or bad for example in front of the Huawei P9 Lite or the Moto G4 Plus.
Another point in favor of the Galaxy J7 2016 is that the mobile does not suffer significant overheating problems. The temperature rises when it should but does not do so excessively and takes very little time to return to normal values, which speaks very well of the 14nm processor and the assembly process of the South Korean manufacturer.
What is a handicap is that it has no fingerprint reader, a feature that today begins to be a common element among the most iconic mid-range mobiles on the market. In short this Samsung meets at the hardware level and will be enough for most users, but it stays far from shining even if we compare it with terminals of the same price range.
Android Marshmallow with TouchWiz
Although the smartphone was first launched to the Chinese market with Android Lollipop the Galaxy J7 2016 landed in Spain back in April already with Marshmallow as standard, which is fantastic news especially in terms of consumption.
The user experience, as usual on Samsung terminals, is far from the ‘stock’ by TouchWiz, a layer of customization that in this case does seem well implemented.
We found some pre-installed apps from the factory apart from the traditional Google ones. For example, we have the Microsoft suite, which in this range does not seem to make much sense, the Samsung app store, Flipboard as news feed and Sherpa as a personal assistant.
The phone notification area is quite extensive but fully customizable, just like home screens either with your own wallpapers or through Samsung store themes, both free and paid.
On the other hand of the 16 GB of internal storage available to the phone the user has at its disposal about 9 GB, with the good news that we can expand memory via microSD and that we can also move the apps from the phone’s memory to the microSD.