The specifications of this new Samsung phone match the Samsung Galaxy On Next and the older Galaxy J7 Prime to a great extent. But this time the company has shifted its focus towards software by giving features like Samsung Pay Mini and Samsung Mall. The Samsung Mall feature has already been launched with this phone. The price of the phone starts from Rs 12,990. Because of this, Galaxy On7 Prime is challenged by many phones of the company’s own Galaxy J and Galaxy On series. Let’s try to find out how different and powerful this new model is…
Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime Design and Build Quality
The metal unibody of the Galaxy On7 Prime gives a feeling of sturdiness. This phone with 8 mm thickness is slim and its grip is good in the hands. The texture of the metal back is smooth and it does not get fingerprints. But this does not happen on the glass on the front panel. Knowingly or unknowingly, you will clearly see a glimpse of the Galaxy J7 Prime in its design, which was launched in 2016 itself. Except for the newly styled capacitive buttons, both the phones look almost identical.
The 2.5D curved glass makes the phone look great from the front. In Galaxy On7 Prime, the company has decided to give a screen with 16:9 aspect ratio, which means you will miss the current trend of 18:9. The 5.5-inch screen has Full-HD resolution. Because of this, pictures and text look quite sharp. Colors also look accurate thanks to the PLS TFT LCD.
The surprising thing is that there is no ambient light sensor in this phone. This thing came to light when we used the phone in the dark. The absence of features like NFC and Wi-Fi ac at this price can be ignored. But it is disappointing if basic features like ambient light sensor are not given. Because of this, we had to manually control the brightness of the display.
Above the display is the 13-megapixel selfie camera, notification LED, and earpiece. At the same time, there is a physical home button at the bottom which is also a fingerprint sensor. There are capacitive buttons on either side of this sensor. The sensor will quickly recognize your fingers. The display becomes active only with a light touch of the home button. The capacitive buttons are not backlit, which is also a disappointment.
On the left, the volume buttons are on top and below it are the dual SIM and microSD card slots. The primary SIM card can be placed in the first slot. The secondary slot has space for a second SIM and a microSD card up to 256GB. The speaker and power button are on the right side of the phone. Micro-USB port and 3.5mm headphone socket have got place on the bottom. In the box you will get travel adapter, data cable, sim eject tool and other necessary documents.
Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime specification and features
The octa-core Exynos 7870 chipset has been used in the new Galaxy On7 Prime. Samsung has been using this processor since 2016 in its budget and mid-range devices. We have reviewed the expensive variant of this phone with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage. But it also has a cheaper variant with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage. Other connectivity features include Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, GLONASS and Baidu for navigation, FM radio, and USB-OTG. ,
Samsung has not given many sensors in this phone. You will get proximity sensor and accelerometer only. Apart from the ambient light sensor, there is no compass or gyroscope in the phone. There is support for VoLTE along with 4G. There is also an option of Wi-Fi calling in the phone. You will also be able to enjoy this feature after the telecom companies make this service available.
You will get Android 7.1.1 Nougat. Regrettably, the Android security patch has not been updated since August last year. The phone runs on Samsung’s Experience UI 8.5, which is used in Samsung Galaxy On Max and other recently released phones of the company. After swiping right on the first home screen, you will reach the Bixby screen. Here you’ll find cards for weather, schedules, reminders, and notifications from your social feeds. You can decide which apps are allowed to send notifications or updates to Bixby.
Samsung Mall is the specialty of this phone. It is a one-stop destination for multiple online shopping platforms and integrates Bixby’s visual search feature. Currently Samsung has partnered with Jabong, Amazon, Tata Cliq and Shop Clues. Whenever you search about a particular product in this app, this mall shows the search results of these websites to the user. You will need to log in with a Samsung account before purchasing anything.
Your payment or delivery related information is not stored in the Mall app. If you want to buy a product, the app redirects you to the web checkout page of the selected shopping site. For example, if you want to buy a product available on Amazon, the app will direct you to the web interface of Amazon India, even if you have the Amazon app installed on your phone. In this app you will see basic product description. You will be redirected to the page of that shopping website for complete details.
You do not have the option of just typing to search for a product. If you want, you will also be able to search the product through voice or pictures. There are buttons for these below the search box. If you wish, you can search the product in the Mall app by clicking on the shopping bag icon in the photo gallery with the help of a photo. There is also an option of ‘Samsung Mall’ in the camera app. Voice search works with Google and visual search with the help of Bixby.
We haven’t had a great experience with visual search. This feature did not work properly many times. For example, instead of recognizing the Galaxy Note 8, the Mall app returned results for Samsung tablets and other phones. Not that this feature has never worked. Sometimes it also identifies the product correctly.
Samsung Pay Mini is also supported in the phone. With its help, you can transact through UPI and other online payment wallets like Paytm-MobiKwik. They work well. But the lack of credit card integration limits the payment options.
Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime performance, camera and battery life
In general use, the On7 Prime works well, but in our opinion the interface should have been smoother. There is a slight delay in switching between portrait and landscape orientations in apps. At times we found that the touch response didn’t register properly. Make it clear that this deficiency did not come to the fore again and again. But many times during the review, the experience of using the smartphone was definitely bad. The screen brightness is adequate for outdoor use, but you have to control it yourself. Not having a compass means you won’t know which direction you’re facing when using Google Maps.
One thing we liked about this phone is that it does not heat up quickly. Whether playing games or using the camera outdoors, it rarely got warm which is a good thing. Benchmark performance was also not impressive. Casual games ran well, but the frame rates were not smooth in games with powerful graphics like Asphalt 8.
There was no problem in playing 1080p videos in Galaxy On7 Prime. Speakers are not very good. This doesn’t produce enough sound for the media file.
Now let’s talk about the camera. The phone has 13-megapixel sensors with F / 1.9 aperture on the front and rear panels. The rear camera’s autofocus isn’t fast, that too in good lighting conditions. Capturing moving subjects is not easy. The details are fine in the landscape shot. But the camera sometimes fails to get the right exposure. Due to this many times some parts of the shot appear burnt out. There is also an HDR mode but the results are not very good. Due to the wide aperture lens in the close up shot, good depth of field is available. But the colors are not very accurate.
Tap on the images to see camera samples of Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime
Even in low light the performance is below expectations. Details don’t come out well in landscape and autofocus is slow. You will be able to record videos up to 1080p resolution. The quality of recorded videos is also very average. Please tell that there is no electronic image stabilization in the phone. The camera app also has a few shooting modes, but these are not for video.
The front camera is also of 13 megapixels and it is also of F / 1.9 aperture. The front camera works well in daylight. But this does not happen in low light. There’s a screen flash, but it’s not very effective. Selfie focus feature tries to give portrait mode effect, but the results are not very good.
There is also a social sharing feature in the camera app. With its help, you will be able to quickly share any picture on Facebook and WhatsApp.
Battery life is good for the 3300mAh battery. After full-charging the battery in normal use, we could use the phone for a whole day. The battery level doesn’t drop too fast even when using powerful apps. When the battery power is less than 5%, the screen brightness goes to the minimum level. You can also increase it if you want. There is no fast charging support. Charging the phone will take around 3 hours with the charger provided in the retail box.
our decision
After spending enough time with the Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime, we also realized why Samsung launched the Samsung Mall feature with this handset. Because without this there is nothing special in Galaxy On7 Prime. The variant we reviewed is priced at Rs 14,990. It is very expensive, especially when it misses out on some very basic features like ambient light sensor. It is certain that Samsung will soon make the Mall app a part of its other handsets as well.
Apart from good battery life, the phone does not excite in any other department. Samsung Mall is a great idea, but it’s still in its early stages. The visual search that Samsung has been touting heavily needs a lot of work. If you want a Samsung phone under Rs 15,000, then the Samsung Galaxy On Max is a much better option. If seen, Moto G5S Plus (Review) and Xiaomi Mi A1 (Review) are more beneficial deals for you.