The Galaxy J series has been a game changer for Samsung. According to IDC data released in August, the Galaxy J series has been a huge success in the Indian market and Samsung smartphones sold in very high numbers in the second quarter of 2016. Samsung launched the Galaxy J2 (2016), Galaxy J3 (6), Galaxy J5 (2016), and Galaxy J7 (2016) smartphones in this quarter. To maintain this popularity, the company also launched the Galaxy J5 Prime and Galaxy J7 Prime smartphones. Today we will review the Galaxy J7 Prime.
The new Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime is made of metal body. This phone comes with 4G support, has a big battery and fingerprint scanner. The company has also provided ‘smart’ features especially for India in this phone like S Power Planning, S Bike Mode and S Secure. These features have been developed in the company’s R & D center. Today we will know in the full review how is the Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime smartphone?
Look and texture
Samsung users have been complaining about the lack of new design in the Galaxy series smartphones for many years. The South Korean company has made some changes in the design of its premium segment smartphones, but budget and mid-range smartphones largely come with the old Samsung style. Galaxy J7 Prime is also a part of that crowd.
The phone has a physical home button below the display with capacitive recent and back buttons on either side. Apart from the metal rear panel, the new J7 Prime has a sturdy build and its curved rounded edges make it comfortable to hold. Measuring 8mm thick, the Galaxy J7 Prime is a bit thick. However, despite having a 5.5-inch screen, the phone weighs 167 grams. The phone has a 3.5mm audio jack at the bottom and a micro-USB port. The phone has the Samsung logo above the display. Apart from this, the company’s branding is also present on the rear.
The metal body of Galaxy J7 Prime definitely makes it better than other phones in the same price range. The phone has 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass on the front which gives the phone a premium feel. With a screen size of 5.5 inches, using J7 Prime with one hand is not easy and during our review we were able to use it with both hands. The metal rear panel also makes the handset a bit slippery especially when hands are sweaty. The power button is on the right side of the phone and the SIM and microSD card slots are placed right next to it. Samsung has provided separate slots for SIM and microSD card in J7 Prime. This way the user does not have to choose between SIM or microSD card like in hybrid slots.
Galaxy J7 Prime has a camera with LED flash on the rear. It is worth noting that the rear panel of the phone is not made completely of metal and plastic panels have been used on the top and bottom. However, due to the paint, it looks like metal.
The Galaxy J7 Prime has a fingerprint sensor that is integrated into the home button. Fingerprint sensors are always easy to use. They make it quick to unlock the device. Double tapping the home button opens the camera and the camera works even when the phone is locked.
The Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime has a 5.5-inch Full HD (1080×1920 pixels) display that is quite bright. The phone is easily readable even in sunlight. The colours on the phone look good and the black levels are also excellent. The 480 ppi density means that text looks sharp on the screen. The J7 Prime is a great device for watching videos and playing games.
Specifications and software
The new Galaxy J7 Prime has an octa-core Samsung Exynos 7870 processor that runs at 1.6 GHz. The phone has 3 GB of RAM. This phone has 16 GB inbuilt storage which can be expanded up to 256 GB via microSD card. This dual SIM phone comes with two nano SIMs and 4G support. However, 4G can be connected on only one SIM card at a time. This phone has a 13-megapixel autofocus rear camera with aperture F / 1.9 and an LED flash. The phone has an 8-megapixel front camera. The Galaxy J7 Prime has a 3300 mAh non-removable battery. Talking about connectivity, the Galaxy J7 Prime has features like GPRS / EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n / ac, GPS / A-GPS, Bluetooth and GLONASS.
The phone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on top. Samsung has worked a lot on its TouchWiz UI over the years and it is now lighter than ever. Like most of Samsung’s premium smartphones, the J7 Prime also comes with a number of preloaded apps such as Microsoft Word, Excel, OneDrive, OneNote, PowerPoint and Skype. There is a Google folder on the phone’s home screen which has Google apps like Gmail, Chrome, Google Search, YouTube, Drive, Play Music, Play Movies & TV, Hangouts and Photos. Apart from Google and Microsoft, the J7 Prime also comes preinstalled with a number of Samsung apps including the phone’s default mail app and web browser, S Health, Galaxy Apps and S Planner.
Talking about the software, Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime has new S Power Planning and S Secure feature. The phone also has Ultra-Data Saving Mode and S Bike Mode. However, these two features have been given in the previous smartphone as well.
With S Power Planning, the user can make the remaining battery last longer. The company has provided a new battery management system, it is named S Power Planning. The company says that it gives you many facilities when the battery is low, keeping in mind your needs. If the battery of your phone is getting low, then you can reserve the battery for important calls and messages. This is possible by reducing unnecessary background activity. In case the battery runs out, with the help of this feature, you will be able to forward all your incoming calls to a specific number.
The company has introduced a new feature S Secure with this handset. With its help, you will be able to lock and hide any specific app. Apart from this, you will be able to keep any content private and secure. Apart from this, the fingerprint scanner gives you additional security. Through App Lock and Hide, you will be able to put a virtual lock on any app. And it will also be possible to hide them. Galaxy J7 Prime also has Secure Wi-Fi, which encrypts the data during public Wi-Fi hotspot.
Apart from this, the S Bike mode given in J7 Prime was earlier seen in Galaxy J3 (6). The S Bike mode feature has been designed keeping in mind that the two-wheeler rider should not face any trouble due to incoming phone calls. Once this feature is activated, the user will get to know about the incoming call through a feature called ‘Smart Reply’ in the phone. Along with this, the user can also activate this mode by tapping the Galaxy J3 (6) with the NFC tag that comes with the retail box. The company says that the NFC tag can be pasted on the bike’s petrol tank or helmet, so that the user can easily activate and deactivate this mode. During riding, the caller will get to know from a pre-recorded message that the user is on a two-wheeler at this time and is not able to receive the call. While this mode is active, the user will not be aware of the incoming call nor will he face any kind of trouble due to no vibration or ring at the time of the incoming call. However, people calling Galaxy J3 (6) users will be able to call directly by pressing 1 in case of an emergency.
Keeping user convenience in mind, Samsung has made S Power Planning, S Secure, Secure Wi-Fi and S Bike Mode by default in the quick settings panel.
Camera
The Galaxy J7 Prime sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with an aperture of f/1.9 and LED flash. The large aperture lets in more light in each shot, resulting in detailed photos during the day. Most photos taken with the phone’s camera are crisp and have good colors. We noticed that focusing was easy with this handset.
On the other hand, Galaxy J7 Prime takes crisp pictures indoors or in low light. However, the pictures become a bit blurry when zoomed in to full size. Overall, the performance of the J7’s rear camera is quite good. The phone only records videos in full-HD resolution.
The J7 Prime’s 8-megapixel camera and aperture f/1.9 take detailed selfies. In low light, the front camera takes photos with a little noise. The camera app on the J7 is easy to use and launches quickly.
Performance
During our review process, the Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime was able to handle almost every task with ease. The octa-core processor provided in the phone works very well and we have no complaints about it. Games like Dead Trigger 2 run smoothly on the phone. Multitasking is good in the J7 Prime and apps also launch quickly.
While using this device, we noticed that about 1.3 GB of memory was free at all times, which is quite good. Watching videos and playing games on the 5.5 inch screen is a pleasure. The sound quality from the speakers is quite good and we did not face any problem even at high volume. Samsung did not send us headphones in the box, so we tested the audio quality with our headphones and we found it to be quite good.
However, the fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy J7 Prime disappointed us a bit. Most of the time it works well but sometimes the phone unlocks after pressing the home button multiple times. We have seen better and faster smartphones priced lower than the J7 Prime.
During our review, we didn’t face any issues with 4G connectivity on the Galaxy J7 Prime and we were able to use the 4G Vodafone SIM quite well at all times.
The Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime returned pretty decent results in our standard benchmark tests.
battery life
Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime has a 3300mAh non-removable battery. In our video loop test, the handset lasted for 14 hours and 50 minutes continuously, which is not bad. On a single charge, the Galaxy J7 lasts for about 36 hours with medium usage.
Samsung isn’t touting any kind of fast charging on the Galaxy J7 Prime. But we did see the phone charge from 0 to 40 percent in just 30 minutes. It took just two hours to charge the phone from zero to 100 percent.
Our verdict
Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime has been launched in India for Rs 18,790. The phone is available for purchase at various retail stores. This metal body phone has a 3300 mAh battery. Apart from this, there is S Power Planning and Superb Screen. S Power Planning and Secure Folder add new features to the software. Despite the 5.5 inch screen, J7 Prime is easy to use.
This new handset of Samsung’s J series will definitely give a tough competition to smartphones like Moto X Play and Lenovo Vibe X3. Galaxy J7 Prime can also face competition from Lenovo Z2 Plus which has Snapdragon 820 processor. Lenovo Z2 Plus is priced at Rs 17,999.