Introduction
The smartphone jungle can be confusing, but the Samsung Galaxy J7 is surprisingly easy to decipher: J for "affordable price" and 7 for "big screen". This is the lite version of the Galaxy A7, offering semi-premium features but confined to the midrange. Another way to look at it is as an E7 Plus.
The attention-grabbing features start at the 5.5" Super AMOLED screen (Samsung's latest units have all had accurate colors and great sunlight legibility). There's also a 64-bit octa-core processor, a selfie camera with a dedicated LED flash and a main camera with a wide f/1.9 aperture and Pro mode.
The Galaxy J7 is one of those phones that care more about the size of the screen than its resolution and so it settles for 720p. The difference to Galaxy A7's 1080p screen is for the most part cosmetic but the practical difference is quite big - you get 20% more space for apps and web pages on the A7.
Key features
- Dual-SIM phone with LTE connectivity
- 5.5" Super AMOLED of 720 x 1,280px resolution, ~267ppi
- Snapdragon 615 version: 64-bit chipset, octa-core Cortex-A53 processor (four cores at 1.5GHz and four at 1GHz); Adreno 405 GPU; 1.5GB of RAM
- Exynos 7580 version: 64-bit chipset, octa-core Cortex-A53 processor (eight cores at 1.5GHz); Mali-T720MP2 GPU; 1.5GB of RAM
- Android 5.1 Lollipop with TouchWiz, theme support
- 13MP camera capable of 1080p video recording, 5MP front-facing camera, 1080p video
- 16GB of built-in storage
- Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS/GLONASS, Bluetooth 4.1, ANT+, NFC (Exynos version only)
- 3,000mAh battery
Main disadvantages
- The design was tire1stretched a bit thin on the 5.5" screen
- No fingerprint, no NFC on some models and certainly no Samsung Pay
- No MHL (but USB OTG is supported)
The main camera is a 13MP unit - a pretty standard choice for the midrange - but the f/1.9 aperture elevates it above average and will make a difference at low-light scenes. The J7 is well-equipped for low-light selfies too, with a dedicated LED flash to help the 5MP front-facer.
The Galaxy J7 is a dual-SIM phone, Samsung didn't bother with a single-SIM version. No huge loss if you ask us, unlike the A-series this one has separate slots for two SIMs and a microSD. Fast LTE data can be used on either card, making the J7 practical for travel or getting the most out of two data plans.
Samsung Galaxy J7 official images
The Galaxy J7 comes with one of two distinct chipset models - Snapdragon 615 in some regions, Exynos 7580 in others. Both versions run Android 5.1 Lollipop on 1.5GB RAM (a bit of a tight fit), but the Exynos has a CPU clock advantage. We'll also find out how the different GPUs perform, both are OpenGL ES 3.1-enabled though so they'll be ready for new games to come.
The Samsung Galaxy J7 will lose to the Galaxy A7 in a beauty pageant but, after the novelty wears off, the A7 will have a fight on its hand. Well, time to kick the Galaxy J7 out of the nest and see how well it flies.
Note that the Samsung Galaxy J7 comes with either an Exynos 7580 or a Snapdragon 615 chipset. We're reviewing the Exynos version.
Display
The Samsung Galaxy J7 comes with a large Super AMOLED display. In recent years, these have become known for their accurate colors, great sunlight legibility and excellent quality though this particular 5.5" screen has only 720p resolution.
The 267ppi is enough from a practical standpoint, text remains legible even with small, thin type. It helps that this is an RGB type matrix rather than PenTile. Most of the time you may not notice the slight jaggies on diagonal and curved lines though you will spot the difference.
The colors are very accurate and again you have a choice of Basic, AMOLED photo and AMOLED video modes. We found that Basic gives the most accurate results, though many will prefer the other two modes - they combine a boost in saturation with enhanced contrast, which makes any image pop.
Viewing angles are very good, though the typical blue/green tint at extreme angles can be seen.
In general use, the display is dimmer than the best Super AMOLEDs but matched the pricier Galaxy A8. The Galaxy J7 screen managed around 360nits in normal mode though outside you can boost that to a more impressive 500nits for a short period (it automatically turns off after a while to preserve the screen and the battery).
In broad daylight, the screen remains perfectly legible. It's as good as say a Galaxy Alpha or a Galaxy S4. You can boost that even higher with the Outdoors mode, which lifts the Galaxy J7 screen to one of the best we've tested in this category.
Sunlight contrast ratio
Connectivity
The Samsung Galaxy J7 only comes in a dual-SIM flavor and has 4G LTE. Both cards are the larger, microSIM standard. It's a dual-standby device.
Locally you get Wi-Fi b/g/n (on 2.4GHz only) and Bluetooth 4.1. You can also count on support for ANT+ sports trackers. NFC is region-dependent. However, even with NFC and KNOX on board you shouldn't expect Samsung Pay on the J7.
Interestingly, there's FM radio, which we don't see on many Galaxy phones these days.
Standard microUSB 2.0 handles the wired connectivity and charging. It does not have MHL or SlimPort TV out but you can attach USB accessories with USB On The Go.
Positioning is handled by GPS and GLONASS, Chinese Beidou is present on some versions as well (that system doesn't have worldwide coverage yet).
Battery life
The Samsung Galaxy J7 comes with a solid 3,000mAh battery, that's the same capacity as the Galaxy Note5. Of course, there's no high-resolution screen to worry about and the Cortex-A53 processor cores are quite efficient.
Note that we're testing the Exynos 7580 version of the Galaxy J7 rather than the Snapdragon 615. Also, this is a dual-SIM phone.
With just one SIM card active, the J7 lasted an impressive 91 hours, essentially matching the Galaxy Note 4 and Note5. It also improves the Galaxy E7 time by quite a bit. With a second SIM active the standby power draw increases, but you still get just over three days of standby.
The 18 and a half hours of talk time were not very impressive - with this battery it could have easily been 25+. Web browsing is pretty solid at 9 hours, a couple of hours behind the last two generation of Note flagships but excellent for a midrange phone.
Finally, the video playback is highly impressive, one of the best we've tested. The screen was set at 150nits (darker than usual).
As a reminder, we test standby power draw, which is taken into account for the Endurance calculation.
