The Samsung Galaxy J7 2017 is the eldest sibling in this year’s J series lineup – one of Samsung’s most successful phone lines. Targeted at people who don’t want to shell out a large sum of money for a decent phone, the Galaxy J7 2017 is priced at Rs. 27,000.

Design

The Galaxy J7 2017 parts ways with the older plastic design of previous J series phones, and instead embraces the more premium feeling metal unibody design. The phone is pretty decently sized for a phablet. The bezels are not big enough to make the phone look ugly but they’re definitely not bezel-less either. Above the screen is the upgraded 13MP camera and earpiece, but no LED notification light.

On the back there are distinctive antenna lines that many manufacturers usually hide but Samsung has decided to make it a design statement. Blending in with the colors of the J7 2017, the antenna lines add to the already aesthetically pleasing phone. On the back, only the main camera resides. The phone is really smooth and comfortable to hold and doesn’t slip out of your hands despite the curved edges. Thankfully, the metal finish on the back is not a fingerprint magnet.

J series goes Super

The screen has seen some improvements over last year’s model, being upgraded from an AMOLED to a Super AMOLED one. Also, the number of pixels have doubled in the same screen size: that is from a 720p screen to a 1080p one, which also increased from a measly 267ppi to a very good 400ppi. The screen is now much more rich in detail and any pixelated icons or images will not be a problem anymore. Akin to AMOLED screens, colors are saturated and nice which add to make visuals more pleasing and viewing angles are superb.

13MP front and back

The cameras on the Galaxy J7 2017 have been upgraded as a whole, in the sense that the front camera is now upgraded to a 13MP, whereas the back camera is the same as last year’s J7. The front camera has an aperture of 1.9 and can record videos in 1080p! The main camera is still a 13MP one with an aperture of 1.7 and can also record videos at 1080p. There is an LED flash along with it to accompany you in low light situations.

Despite these nice specs, the Galaxy J7 performs pretty good in daylight conditions but suffers a lot in more dim areas.

Hardware

The hardware in the Galaxy J7 is not that impressive, but it’s not something we can complain about since it’s an entry level mid-range device. Under the hood we have Samsung’s own Exynos 7870 processor which has 8 cores each running at 1.6Ghz. Couple it with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage and you have the standard recipe for a 2017 midrange device. Even though the screen and processor have been upgraded, the GPU is still the one that was used in last year’s J7, meaning it could have a little trouble handling all those extra pixels. The battery in the J7 2017 is impressive, boasting a capacity of 3600 mAh. Enough to pull you through 2 days of usage.

Galaxy J7 2017 pros:

• It has a huge battery
• The screen is sharper and vivid compared to last year’s model

Galaxy J7 2017 cons:

• The GPU is the same as last year’s, which could cause the phone to strain in some conditions
• Too little internal storage