Specifications of this new Samsung phone Samsung Galaxy On Next And they are very similar to the old Galaxy J7 Prime. But this time the company has focused its attention towards the software by providing features like Samsung Pay Mini and Samsung Mall. Samsung Mall feature has been launched with this phone. The price of the phone starts from Rs 12,990. Because of this, Galaxy On7 Prime faces competition from many phones of the company’s 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 it a sturdy feel. The 8mm thick phone is slim and has a good grip in the hands. The texture of the metal back is smooth and does not leave fingerprints. But the glass on the front panel does not. Knowingly or unknowingly, you will clearly see the reflection of the Galaxy J7 Prime in its design which was launched in 2016. Apart from the new style capacitive buttons, both the phones look almost the same.
The 2.5D curved glass makes the phone look great from the front. In the Galaxy On7 Prime, the company has decided to give a screen with 16:9 aspect ratio, meaning you will miss the current trend of 18:9. The 5.5-inch screen has full-HD resolution. Due to this, images and text look very sharp. The colors also look accurate due to the PLS TFT LCD.
Surprisingly, this phone does not have an ambient light sensor. This became apparent when we used the phone in the dark. At this price, the lack of features like NFC and Wi-Fi AC can be ignored. But it is disappointing that basic features like ambient light sensor are not provided. Due to this, we had to control the brightness of the display manually again and again.
There is a 13-megapixel selfie camera, notification LED and earpiece above the display. At the bottom, there is a physical home button which is also a fingerprint sensor. There are capacitive buttons on both sides of this sensor. The sensor will quickly recognize your fingers. The display becomes active by just touching the home button lightly. The capacitive buttons are not backlit, which is also disappointing.
On the left side, the volume buttons are on the top and below it are two SIM and microSD card slots. The first slot can accommodate the primary SIM card. The secondary slot has space for a second SIM and a microSD card up to 256 GB. The speaker and power button are on the right side of the phone. The micro-USB port and 3.5mm headphone socket are located at the bottom. In the box, you will find a travel adapter, data cable, SIM eject tool and other necessary documents.
Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime Specifications and Features
The new Galaxy On7 Prime is powered by an octa-core Exynos 7870 chipset. Samsung has been using this processor in its budget and mid-range devices since 2016. We reviewed the higher-end variant of this phone with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. But there is also a cheaper variant with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. Other connectivity features include Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, GLONASS and Beidou for navigation, FM radio, and USB-OTG.
Samsung has not provided many sensors in this phone. You will only get proximity sensor and accelerometer. Apart from ambient light sensor, there is no compass or gyroscope in the phone. There is support for VoLTE along with 4G. The phone also has the option of Wi-Fi calling. You will also be able to enjoy this feature after telecom companies make this service available.
You will get Android 7.1.1 Nougat. Unfortunately, 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 will find cards of notifications from weather, schedule, reminders and your social feed. You can decide which apps are allowed to send notifications or updates to Bixby.
Samsung Mall is the main feature of this phone. It is a joint home of many online shopping platforms and has integrated Bixby’s visual search feature. Currently, Samsung has partnered with Jabong, Amazon, Tata Click and Shop Clues. Whenever you search for a particular product in this app, this mall shows the search results of these websites to the user. Before making any purchase, you have to log in with your Samsung account.
The mall app does not store your payment or delivery details. If you want to buy a product, the app redirects you to the web checkout page of the chosen shopping site. For example, if you want to buy a product available on Amazon, the app will redirect 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 descriptions. For complete details, you will be redirected to the page of that shopping website.
You don’t have the option to search for a product just by typing. You can also search for products by voice or images. There are buttons for these below the search box. You can also search for a product in the mall app using a photo by clicking on the shopping bag icon in the photo gallery. There is also a ‘Samsung Mall’ option in the camera app. Voice search works through Google and visual search works through Bixby.
Our experience with visual search was not very good. The feature did not work correctly at times. For example, instead of identifying the Galaxy Note 8, the mall app returned Samsung tablets and other phones as results. That’s not to say the feature never worked. At times, it did identify the product correctly.
The phone also supports Samsung Pay Mini. With its help, you can make transactions through UPI and other online payment wallets like Paytm-Mobikwik. These work well. But due to lack of credit card integration, payment options are limited.
Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime performance, camera and battery life
In general use, the On7 Prime works fine, but we feel the interface should have been smoother. There is a slight delay in switching between portrait and landscape orientation in apps. We sometimes found that the touch response did not register properly. Let us be clear, this shortcoming was not seen often. But there were times when the smartphone was used poorly during the review. The screen brightness is sufficient for outdoor use, but you will have to control it yourself. The lack of a compass means that you will not be able to know which direction you are facing while 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 hot which is a good thing. Benchmark performance was also not impressive. Casual games run well, but games with powerful graphics like Asphalt 8 do not have smooth frame rates.
The Galaxy On7 Prime had no issues playing 1080p videos. The speakers aren’t great. It doesn’t produce enough sound for media files.
Now let’s talk about the camera. The phone has 13 megapixel sensors with f/1.9 aperture on the front and rear panel. The autofocus of the rear camera does not work fast, that too in good light. It is not easy to capture a moving subject. The details in landscape shots are good. But the camera sometimes fails to get the right exposure. Due to this, sometimes some parts of the shot look burnt out. There is also an HDR mode but the results are not very good. In close up shots, good depth of field is obtained due to the wide aperture lens. But the colors are not very accurate.
Tap on the images to see camera samples of Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime
The performance in low light is also below expectations. Landscape details are not good and autofocus is slow. You will be able to record videos up to 1080 pixel resolution. The quality of the recorded videos is also very average. Please note that there is no electronic image stabilization in the phone. There are some shooting modes in the camera app, but these are not for videos.
The front camera is also 13 megapixels and it also has f/1.9 aperture. The front camera works fine in daylight. But it does not work in low light. It has a screen flash, but it is not very effective. The selfie focus feature tries to give a portrait mode effect, but the results are not very good.
The camera app also has a social sharing feature. With its help, you will be able to quickly share any photo on Facebook and WhatsApp.
Battery life is good for a 3300mAh battery. With normal use, we were able to use the phone for a full day on a full charge. The battery level does not drop too quickly even when using powerful apps. The screen brightness drops to the minimum level when the battery power is less than 5 percent. You can also increase it if you want. There is no fast charging support. It will take about 3 hours to charge the phone with the charger provided in the retail box.
Our verdict
After spending enough time with the Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime, we realized why Samsung launched the Samsung Mall feature with this handset. Because without it, there is nothing special in the Galaxy On7 Prime. The variant we reviewed is priced at Rs 14,990. This is very expensive, especially when some very basic features like ambient light sensor have not been provided in it. 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 doesn’t excite in any other department. Samsung Mall is a good idea, but it is still in its initial stages. The visual search feature that Samsung is promoting so much needs a lot of work. If you want a Samsung phone under Rs 15,000, then the Samsung Galaxy On Max is a better option. Moto G5S Plus ,Review) And Xiaomi Mi A1 ,Review) is a more profitable deal for you.