GADGET
GIZMO REVIEW SAMSUNG PHABLETS - TOO PRICEY FOR SUCCESS
Samsung's new A series
phablet impresses in looks as well as performance, but is priced too close to
Samsung's more powerful offerings to make a meaningful mark
The A series of smart phones
was introduced by Samsung in 2015. It received a fairly good response from
users. To cash in on the success, Samsung has launched a refresh of the A
series and they have not changed the model name or number: just added `2016' to
the name.
The big change in 2016 for
the A Series is that the devices now have a metal and glass body, quite like
the more premium S6 and S7.T he phone uses Gorilla Glass 4, front and back, for
added durability and scratch resistance. In our use, we did notice that the
glass managed to hold its own against daily wear and tear and even survived a
couple of drops. Like the S6, the new galaxy A7 features a chrome ring around
the home button and camera module plus chamfered edges on the sides. Overall,
the A7 gets full marks for style and build quality.
Samsung does amoleds well.
This one has a 5.5-inch full HD super amoled which impresses with rich colours
and slim bezels. There are various screen modes available (amoled cinema,
amoled photo, basic and adaptive), a useful one hande d o p e r at i o n m o d
e a n d smart stay (screen stays on while you look at it). Under the screen is
the home button with integrated fingerprint scanner and the usual Android
buttons (back and recent). We noticed that the fingerprint scanner on the A7 is
not as good as the iPhone or even the cheaper Coolpad Note 3, Redmi Note 3 and
Le 1s. We feel that Samsung needs to improve the response of their fingerprint
scanners to match up to the experience provided by competitors.
Specifications include an
octa core Exynos processor, 3GB RAM, 16GB storage and a 3,300mAh battery. As
expected from this hardware, the phone zipped through all apps and games that
we tried.There was no issue playing a 4k video or with playing games with
multiple apps in the background. The 3,300mAh battery easily managed to last
over a full day of use. This can be further improved using built-in power saver
modes or by optimising how apps use power -settings that can be accessed in the
battery details section. Plus, it supports fast charging (fast charger is
included in the box) which enables charging from 10% to 80% in less than an
hour.
The 13MP rear camera has an
aperture of f1.9 along with optical image stabilisation and support for
recording full HD video. Image quality is great: the camera captures excellent
details with mini with minimal noise and rich colours in daylight as well as
indoors. Low light images are a letdown though as there is lot of noise and the
images suffer f ro m s of t details. Front camera is a 5MP snapper and while
selfies were good enough for social media, we noticed that it tends to
overexpose the images.
Audio quality of both
earpiece and the loudspeaker is great: loud and clear. We liked the fact that
the phone did not tend to overheat even with heavy usage. It gets a bit warm
but never too hot to hold. The main issue with the Galaxy A7 (2016) is its
price. At `32,500 its too close to the Samsung Galaxy S6 (`33,900) which offers
a better display, better cameras and wireless charging. What's more, the Note 4,
with its pressure sensitive stylus, bigger and better display and better perfor
mance can be bought for just a few thousand more.
|
Karan Bajaj
|
ET30MAR16
No comments:
Post a Comment