Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017) - first impressions

First impressions from the mid-range smartphone Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)

After using the J5 (2016) for more than a year and the J5 (2017) smartphones for almost an year now I would say I am really impressed with the J-series. Samsung really does a great job offering smartphones for under $300 that have very good build quality on one hand and offer more than adequate performance on the other. It is the same story with the Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017) which can be found for less than $250 and believe me, that is one of the best performing 5.5-inch
smartphones on the market today.

First impressions - build quality

Build quality of the J7 (2017) is on a very good level. It's entirely metal unibody design and 2.5 curved screen looks and feels solid in the hand. The J7 is really well made, it doesn't feel heavy, it is just the right size and weight and I am sure most consumers will love its form factor. Samsung offers this phone in few different color choices but I think the black version suits it best. Thankfully Samsung also offers their own TPU cases that fit really nice.

Display

The 5.5 - inch Super AMOLED FHD screen of the J7 (2017) is one of the best in the segment. It is a Full HD screen and it is bright enough even in direct sunlight. I really prefer the Samsung's Super AMOLED display over the IPS screens of the competition because of the great color reproduction and amazing brightness. With 401 ppi density that is definitely one of the better screens out there.

Performance

I will not spend too much on how the J7 performs in real world conditions as this is a first impressions article but I can assure you that the J7 has petty good hardware specs for most smartphone users. Powered by Octa-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53 processor and 3GB RAM this Samsung smartphone performs more than adequately even when multitasking and using some heavy applications. Assuming the J7 should do a bit better than the smaller J5 thanks to the better hardware I really believe that most consumers will be fine with this sub-$300 smartphone.

And yes, it has a 3.5mm headphone jack, micro SD card slot and dual-SIM tray, which are all good advantages over some of J5's competitors.

Cameras
Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017) has 13MP front-facing selfie camera and a rear primary 13 MP, f/1.7 camera with autofocus. There is really nothing to complain from the front camera which has its own LED flash. I really hope that the rear camera in the next generation J7 (2018) would be a bit better than the current one. In good daylight conditions it does great shots but you should always keep the phone steady in your hands otherwise lot of noise shows up. Things may get really bad in darker conditions when the f/1.7  doesn't show its strengths and images are mostly blurry with no clear focus.

Battery
There are no complaints from the 3600 mAh Li-Ion battery whatsoever. It holds charge for more than 2 days of average use.

First impressions - conclusion
Well, compared to some of the recent releases from Huawei and other brands the J7 (2017) looks the underdog of the segment - no dual camera, no 4GB of RAM etc. But that is only on paper. Having tested most of these new releases I can assure you that Samsung's mid-range smartphone has the key components and exceptional build quality that make it stand out from the crowd. So, if you don't want to spend too much on your next smartphone and you are looking for quick and reliable smartphone I would strongly recommend you the Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017).