The Galaxy J7 (2017) is the latest annual edition of an already popular phone. The J series has already shaped up as a home to some solid midrange propositions, and the Galaxy J7 (2017) is meant to spice things up even further. The newcomer is blurring the lines between the J series and the A series.
The J phones have been enjoying a killer key-selling feature, and that's Samsung's Super AMOLED screens. The Galaxy J7 (2017) is no different; this time around it's a high-tier screen with 1080p resolution, but Samsung didn't stop the upgrades there. The new model builds on the 2016 model with a premium-looking unibody, splash resistance, a high-res selfie camera with a flash, more RAM, and a newer Android.
The Exynos 7870 chip was the only part which was passed up for promotion, still stuck in 2016. It's still a nicely power-efficient 14nm chipset, so it should surely provide great battery life. Either Samsung built a great chip ahead of its time, or they just felt confident that the rest of the value-adding upgrades would make up for this omission.
Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017) key features:
Body: Aluminum unibody
Screen: 5.5" 1080p Super AMOLED screen (401ppi); Always On Display
OS: Android 7.0 Nougat; Bixby virtual assistant.
Chipset: 14nm octa-core Exynos 7870 (8 x 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53 cores)
Memory: 3GB of RAM; 16/32GB storage, dedicated microSD slot for expansion
Camera: Primary 13MP, f/1.7, LED flash; Secondary 13MP, f/1.9, LED flash
Video: 1080p at 30fps
Connectivity: nano SIM (dual SIM version available); LTE (Cat. 6); dual-band Wi-Fi ac; Bluetooth 4.2; FM Radio; microUSB; 3.5mm jack
Battery: 3,600mAh
Misc: Fingerprint reader, IP54 certification for dust and splash resistance, Samsung Pay
Main shortcomings
> > Same GPU as the J7 (2016), yet twice as many pixels on the screen
> > Low grade water resistance
> > microUSB port is getting outdated
> > No quick charging
Price and Where to buy
Galaxy J7 (2017) is available on Aliexpress.com with the price around 400 USD. Aliexpress is an online shop that sells many products and they ship to any country of the world.
Design and Overview
Samsung has been trying out the premium metal build across different segments of its portfolio. The J series finally gets a taste, and hopefully we'll see it in even more of Samsung's midrange devices.
The Galaxy J7 (2017) is a well-built device with a sturdy 2.5D glass at the front and metal all across the rest of the body. The seamless aluminum unibody is an instant eyecatcher, along with the signature antenna strip design which Samsung has gone for.
Above the 5.5" AMOLED screen is the earpiece flanked by the new 13MP selfie camera and the front LED flash. A couple of sensors are also placed nearby, but those are barely visible on the black model.
Samsung brought back the good ol' clickable Home key for the Galaxy J7 (2017), while the Task Switcher and Back keys are touch only. The always-on fingerprint scanner is incorporated within the Home key surface and works quite well.
The left side of the Galaxy J7 (2017) is quite busy - there are two ejectable trays below the independent volume keys. The first one holds the primary nano-SIM card, while the one to follow has places for another nano-SIM card and a slot for expanding the storage with a microSD card. We are glad Samsung found a way to fit all three slots in to the Galaxy J7 (2017) instead of choosing the hybrid option.
The loudspeaker grille and the power/lock key are on the right side of the Galaxy J7 (2017). While the speaker placement isn't that new - the 2017 A series has the speaker at the same spot - you have to be mindful of it so that you don't muffle it accidentally, especially in landscape orientation.
There is nothing of interest on the top of the Galaxy J7 (2017). The bottom has the microUSB port, the audio jack, and the mouthpiece.
Finally, the new 13MP main camera with f/1.7 bright lens is on the back coupled with a single LED flash. Unfortunately, the new J7 has lost all access to the battery due to the design change towards unibody.
Display
Just like most of the recent Samsungs, the Galaxy J7 (2017) sports a Super AMOLED panel. It upgrades over the (2016) model with higher 1080p resolution and thus offers an adequate (if not flagship-worthy, right, OnePlus?) 401ppi density. The AMOLED matrix is based on the familiar Diamond Pixel arrangement.
Naturally, Samsung has included several display modes. The "punchy" kind of color palette is achieved with the default Adaptive color. There is also Basic mode, where colors are most accurate with deltaE below 2 for almost every hue, but you also get a somewhat washed-out, drab look. The AMOLED Photo mode is perhaps a nice compromise as the screen is relatively accurate but remains nice and contrasty at the same time.
The the Galaxy J7 (2017)'s display is perfectly usable under bright sunlight - its contrast ratio is typically high at 3.812.
Battery life
Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017) utilizes a sealed 3,600mAh Li-Ion battery, which is a 10% increase in capacity over the J7 (2016). The phone does not support fast charging, and its 1.55A charger fills only 24% of a depleted battery in half an hour.
The 14nm chipset manufacturing process used for the chipset means solid battery life.
Samsung promises the J7 (2017) can last a day on 3G calls, 18 hours on video playback, or 16 hours when browsing on Wi-Fi.
Software Overview
Android 7.0 with Samsung UX
Just like the Galaxy S8 and S8+ pair, the J7 (2017) runs on Android Nougat and basically offers the same heavily-customized Samsung UX. It now goes by the simple Samsung UX slogan - the Grace UX name from the Note7 has seemingly died with the phablet itself.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017) is running on the Exynos 7870 chipset, which, although incredibly power-efficient, is the same as on last year's model. We certainly wouldn't have minded getting the higher-grade Exynos 7880, which is utilized in the Galaxy A5 (2017).
While the 7870 chip has a decent octa-core Cortex-A53 processor clocked at 1.6GHz, its Mali-T830MP2 GPU maybe somewhat disappointing. While this dual-core Mali was perfect for the 720p screen on the J7 (2016), having twice as many pixels on the 2017 model will probably be tougher on the GPU.
Camera
13MP snapper
The similarities between the Galaxy J7 (2017) and last year's Galaxy J7 Prime run pretty deep, so much so that both devices use the Sony IMX258 sensor for their 13 MP main cameras. However, this time around it is positioned behind a much brighter f/1.7 lens. While the particular sensor is rather uncommon within Samsung's own lineup, it is fairly popular overall. It powers a few pretty strong camera experiences, like the LG G6, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 and Sony Xperia XA.
Rounding out the package is a simple single LED flash - perfectly adequate for a budget (somewhat) device. It you were hoping for OIS to eventually trickle down to the lower end of Samsung's lineup, the J7 (2017) hasn't managed to break that barrier. Come to think of it, even this year's A-series Galaxy devices lacked the stabilization of their predecessors, so we can't really expect miracles from the J7 (2017) in this respect.
What has trickled down, however is the new UX, which includes the camera interface. There are a few changes here and there, but nothing really substantial. The traditional Samsung quick-launch, home button double-tap is still present and is now complemented in the usability department by new swipe gestures.
Swiping down will switch between the front and back camera. Left brings up a panel with filters (no download option, though). Right lands you on a shooting mode selector. All pretty convenient, at least at first glance.
There is an issue worth noting here, and it has to do with HDR. For one, it can only be turned ON or OFF manually. An auto HDR mode would have been greatly appreciated. Even worse, toggling its state requires a swipe and a tap, since the main camera interface only has a flash shortcut.
Selfie shooter
The Galaxy J7 (2017) has a pretty impressive 13MP selfie shooter up on offer, on paper at least. It is a f/1.9 unit, which does, overall, look deceptively similar to the rear one in numbers alone. However, as you can imagine this is not the case. For one, the front-facer lacks autofocus. This is quite normal and typically a non-issue on most devices, since they are intended to focus at roughly an arm's length.
Galaxy J7 (2017) Full Specifications
NETWORK
Technology: GSM / HSPA / LTE
LAUNCH
Announced: 2017, June
Status: Available. Released 2017, July
BODY
Dimensions: 152.5 x 74.8 x 8 mm (6.00 x 2.94 x 0.31 in)
Weight: 181 g (6.38 oz)
SIM: Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) - IP54 certified - dust and splash resistant
DISPLAY
Type: Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size: 5.5 inches (~73.1% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution: 1080 x 1920 pixels (~401 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch: Yes - Always-on display
PLATFORM
OS: Android 7.1 (Nougat)
Chipset:Exynos 7870 Octa
CPU: Octa-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU: Mali-T830MP2
MEMORY
Card slot: microSD, up to 256 GB (dedicated slot)
Internal: 16 GB, 3 GB RAM - Global
32 GB, 3 GB RAM - SWA/SEA/LATAM
CAMERA
Primary: 13 MP, f/1.7, autofocus, LED flash
Features: Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, panorama, HDR
Video: 1080p@30fps
Secondary: 13 MP, f/1.9, LED flash, 1080p
SOUND
Alert types: Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker: Yes
3.5mm jack: Yes
COMMS
WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth: 4.1, A2DP
GPS: Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
NFC: Yes
Radio: FM radio
USB: microUSB 2.0
FEATURES
Sensors: Fingerprint (front-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Messaging: SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
Browser: HTML5
Java: No - ANT+ support
- MP4/WMV/H.264 player
- MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+/FLAC player
- Photo/video editor
- Document viewer
BATTERY
Non-removable Li-Ion 3600 mAh battery
Talk time: Up to 24 h (3G)
Music play: Up to 91 h
MISC
Colors: Blue, Pink, Gold, Black
SAR EU: 0.57 W/kg (head) 1.33 W/kg (body)