The talking point is: screen size over resolution – did Samsung make the right choice? Everyone is going to have their own opinion on this one.
Galaxy J7
Right off the bat, we can say that this has a BIG screen for what has been classified as a smartphone and not a phablet (the Note5’s screen is only 0.2” larger). What’s worrying is that the 720p resolution looks stretched – 1080p would have been a much better decision.
The dual SIM does lend itself to being a great option for someone who travels a lot – the option to have two different plans is useful if your talk time is increased and if you spend much more time using apps such as Skype, Whatsapp than you would, socially.
The battery endurance is not that impressive if you choose to use dual SIM – with a single SIM, the life is great.
Key specs
- 5.5” Super AMOLED screen
- 720p X 1280p resolution
- 13 MP Camera, autofocus with LED flash
- 5 MP front-facing camera, LED flash
- 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 OR Exynos 7580 version: 64-bit chipset, octa-core Cortex-A53 processor (eight cores at 1.5GHz);
- Mali-T720MP2 GPU; 1.5GB of RAM
- Android OS, v5.1 (Lollipop), upgradable to v6.0.1 (Marshmallow)
- microSD dedicated card slot (expandable up to 256 GB)
- microUSB v2.0
- 1.5 GB RAM 16 GB
- Bluetooth v4.1, A2DP
- Removable Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery
- Up to 18 h (3G) talk time
Pros: Dual SIM phone with LTE connectivity; affordable; impressive performance; 4G LTE connectivity; impressive camera
Cons: Resolution seems stretched; very large screen; poor battery endurance (Dual SIM)
Verdict: Score: 7/10
Samsung Galaxy J7 Dual 16GB LTE available from R4,589
