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Samsung Galaxy On7 Quick Review

Samsung have made its return to the budget market, a segment that they once leaded. The device in question this time is the Samsung Galaxy On7, a phone that bears a lot of ties to Samsung’s customary design in both, hardware and software. While priced at INR 10,990, the new Samsung entrant conforms easily to its intended price bracket. But does it have the oomph to back that up, especially now, when the competition is stepping its game up? Lets find out.

Galaxy On7

Samsung On7 Full Coverage

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Samsung Galaxy On7 Photo Gallery

Physical Overview

Build quality is among the selected checkboxes that the Galaxy On7 ticks off very well. Lets start with the overview first, though. The phone has a 5.5-inch TFT screen that pushes 1280 x 720 pixels. A physical home button, typical of Samsung phones across the board, is present at the bottom bezel, flanked by capacitive multitasking and back buttons.

The side bezels aren’t cumbersome to manage and are actually a good size. The back is made out of the same faux-leather material as seen on previous Samsung phones. The back plate is removable for you to be able to utilise the phone’s dual-SIM setup and insert a microSD card of your liking( up to 128GB in size). The rear also houses the phone’s 13 MP camera, with the LED flash and speaker on either side(a terrible speaker placement). To summarise, using the Galaxy On7 in our testing, reminded us a lot about the Galaxy Note 3, build-quality wise.


Galaxy On7-

Traditional Samsung home button flanked by capacitive back and multitasking keys under the 5.5-inch TFT display.
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The 13 MP camera with the speaker and Flash to either side.

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The rear side holds the microUSB port, headphone jack and the microphone.
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Removing the back panel reveals the removable battery, slots to house an optional secondary SIM card and microSD card.

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Up top, there’s a label indicating the On7’s support for 4G

Galaxy On7-

To the right is the phone’s power button followed by the volume buttons to the left.

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User Interface

As we stated in our introduction, the Galaxy On7 has a lot of elements to it that are traditionally Samsung. The UI of the Galaxy On7 majorly symbolises this fact. It remains, a skinned version of Android 5.1 Lollipop with Samsung’s TouchWiz interface atop it. This means that while the phone may seem snappy and animations/transitions are carried out smoothly initially, as time progresses one and you load the On7 with apps, performance is sure to take a dip. This happens due to the fact that the phone has more work to do, more tasks to manage simultaneously as you install apps, games, services or load media onto the phone. That being said, if you like Samsung’s TouchWiz interface, you will feel right at home here.

Camera Overview

In our camera review of the Galaxy On7 we concluded that the camera performance is decent at best. Let us summarise the contents of our camera review here. The phone’s 13MP-5MP duo are average performers. While the rear camera struggled attaining proper focus, had off-balance colour reproduction and even produced shots in a milky white at times, the front camera had good results.

Now, such performance would have been perfectly acceptable a while ago but seeing how the competition(such as the Coolpad Note 3) are stepping up their game with excellent cameras in this price range, we are definitely left feeling that Samsung could’ve done better here. You will still not feel dejected if you buy this phone, but the camera will certainly not be something you boast off, if you do.

Price & Availability

Samsung has made the Galaxy On7 available for purchase starting today for a price of INR 10,990. For what this phone has to offer, INR 10,990 seems a fair price.

Comparison & Competition

Here’s where the Galaxy On7 starts to take a beating. For what it offers, the On7’s feature-set barely manages to edge out any of its competition. Samsung needs to remember that the Indian market today offers much better smartphones at, usually, cheaper prices. With the likes of the Lenovo Vibe P1m, the Coolpad Note 3 and even the upcoming Letv Le 1S, The On7 brings nothing unique to the table; while the previously mentioned phones stay overall better performers and have some distinct feature to them. That being said, if you value the Samsung brand or are a Samsung loyalist and you value the inclusion of LTE, the Galaxy On7 should be a solid choice for you in the budget-smartphone range.

Conclusion

With the release of the Galaxy On7, Samsung has stuck to its roots and deployed their traditional method of releasing a budget smartphone. The inclusion of LTE is a commendable decision and the build quality of Samsung’s latest is incredibly well done. And while the camera and UI of the phone could still see improvements, buyers of the Galaxy On7 will not feel disappointed in any regard. Its today’s competition in the space that Samsung wants to compete, that makes the Samsung Galaxy On7 an average all-round package.

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Abhishek Bhatnagar

Abhishek Bhatnagar, a known technology blogger & YouTuber from India. A Software Engineer by qualification, now he works as the editor-In-Chief, Webmaster, & Managing Director at Gadgets To Use. He runs a number of other technology websites as well.