Samsung J7 PRO: Still a Decent Device to Use as Your Daily Driver?

Samsung J7 PRO is a smartphone of 2017. But why are people searching for this device even in 2021? I know it sounds weird, but the actual scenario is like this. There is no doubt that this particular smartphone was one of the best gaming devices in 2017 from Samsung with a reasonable price tag. But considering the present market, this device should be included in the obsolete list.
There are many decent smartphones that you can get within the same price tag. But Samsung’s this device still could retain the same dominance, for what people still are searching for this device.
There should be other reasons that worked behind the extensive popularity of this phone. I will talk about it in the last part of this discussion. But before that, let’s get introduced to the in-depth details of this phone first.
What’s in The Box of Samsung J7 PRO?
When Samsung J7 was released, it was 2017. That was the golden time when smartphone manufacturers were not in competition to reduce their box size by removing the charging adapter and the headphone from the box.
For example, many contemporary smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy S21, Xiaomi Mi 11, etc., are not offering any headphones or charging adapter in the box. Considering these things, unboxing Samsung Galaxy J7 PRO will give you a satisfying experience.
As the box contents, you will get-
- The smartphone itself
- A SIM ejector tool
- A USB-2.0 data cable
- A 7.5W charging adapter
- A decent quality Samsung Headphone
- User manual and some other papers (That you will never read)
So, there is no need to spend extra bucks to get a charging adapter and a headphone for yourself. All the necessary things are included in the same box.
The First Impression - Design and Look
The combination of the display panel and the metal unibody frame completed the whole design of this phone. Let me tell you some key points that can give you a clear idea about the phone.
The Front Panel
The screen-to-body ratio of this phone is 73.3%. Side bezels of this phone are extremely narrow, which is good. At the top bezel, the selfie camera, speaker, proximity sensor, and front flash LED is mounted. Then you will find the 5.5inchs Super AMOLED full HD display in the middle portion of the front panel. At the bottom bezel, two navigation soft keys and the home button-cum-finger print scanner is located.
The Back Panel
The back panel is fully metal made and matte-finished, which made the phone non-fingerprint-magnet. Two antenna bands are visible in the top and lower portion of this back panel. A single-lens 13MP camera shooter is placed at the upper part, and the rear-facing LED flash is placed next to it. And the Samsung branding is visible in the middle portion.
Button and Ports
The power button is located on the right side panel. And the volume rockers, SIM card slots, and Memory card slots are situated on the left side panel. The top area is completely blank. But in the bottom area, you are getting a microphone, USB 2.0 port, and the 3.5mm headphone jack.
Physical Overview at a Glance
Therefore, we can express the overall physical overview as follows-
Dimension: 152.5 x 74.8 x 8 mm
Loud Speaker Position: Side-mounted
The volume rocker and Power button position: Side-mounted
3.5mm audio jack: Yes
External SD card: Yes
The device came in two different colors - Black, Golden, Sky Blue, and Pink. But considering the condition of the present market, you may not find all of these variants available for you.
Samsung J7 Pro Specification
General Overview |
|
Brand |
Samsung |
Model |
J7 pro |
Release Date |
Jun 2017 |
Body Type |
Polycarbonate (Plastic) |
Weight |
181g (Approximate) |
Display |
|
Screen Size |
5.5 inches |
Aspect Ratio |
16:9 |
Resolution |
1080 x 1920pixels |
Brightness |
350 nits (Peak) |
Pixels per Inch |
401 |
Protection |
Unknown |
Touchscreen |
Yes |
Hardware |
|
Processor |
SOC: Exynos 7870 |
Clock Speed: 1.6 GHz |
|
Total Core: Octa-core |
|
Architecture: 14 nm |
|
Ram |
3GB |
Rom |
32 GB (extendable) |
GPU |
Mali-T830 MP1 |
Camera |
|
Back Camera |
13 MP, f/1.7, 27mm (wide), AF |
Front Camera |
13 MP, f/1.9, 28mm (wide) |
Sensors |
|
Fingerprint |
Yes (Front Mounted) |
Accelerometer |
Yes |
Gyroscope |
Yes |
Compass |
Yes |
Proximity |
Yes |
Barometer |
NO |
Connectivity |
|
Dual SIM |
Yes |
WLAN |
Wi-Fi 802.11, Wi-Fi Direct, Hotspot |
Bluetooth |
4.1, A2DP, LE |
GPS |
Yes, with A-GPS, BDS, GLONASS |
NFC |
Yes |
Infrared (IR Bluster) |
No |
USB |
micro-USB- 2.0, USB On-the-go |
Platform |
|
OS (Operating System) |
Android 7 Nougat (Upgradable to 9.0 Pie), One UI |
Power Backup |
|
Battery Capacity |
Li-Ion 3600mAh, non-removable |
Charing Type |
25W fast charging support |
Wireless Charging |
No |
Reverse Wireless Charging |
No |
Price |
Around 14000 INR |
Camera Performance
Samsung Galaxy J7 came with a 13MP shooter in both the rear and front panels. Both the camera has LED flash to allow you to capture decent images in low light conditions. But there exist slight differences between both of these. Let’s check the real-life performance of both of the lenses.
Rear Camera
A 13MP shooter is included in the rear area to allow you to capture photos that came with an f/1.7 aperture. This aperture can help you to take decent footage in low-light conditions. In daylight condition, the camera is still good. The colors are not that punchy, sharpness is on point, and the color accuracy is good as well.
But sometimes, it seems this shooter struggles to maintain the accurate white balance while taking photos. The most impressive side of this camera is, it can take outstanding photos in bokeh mode. Edge deception is near too accurate and can take enough details with maintaining the accurate sharpness.
Overall, good shooter!
Selfie Camera
In the front area, you are getting almost the same shooter to capture your face. But in this case, the aperture is f/1.9, which is not so far from the rear camera shooter. As this shooter will be used for taking your face, so this setup is decent. Another positive thing is, this is a wide-angle lens that will allow you to take selfies with your friends in a single frame.
So you can take almost the same quality selfies with this shooter as well. But as the shooter came with a higher aperture, how many quality photos it can take in the low-light condition is the main concern here.
As per our testing, the phone can take pictures of excellent quality in low-light conditions considering the Samsung galaxy j7 pro price and the time when the phone was released. But lack of details is noticeable in the photos taken by this shooter.
No focus hunting issue is found as well. But in manual mode, sometimes it struggles to detect the focusing object. But considering it as the 2017 smartphone, this is negligible.
Good things of Camera Segment
- The white balance, color tone, and sharpness of this phone is on point
- Rich details in daylight condition
- The neat and clean camera interface
- In bokeh mode, the edge detection is good
- In low light conditions, both of these cameras try to retain enough details in the picture.
The Negative Sides
- In manual mode, the rear camera faces the focus hunting issue
- The rear camera barely struggles to detect the focusing object
Gaming Performance
Though this device came with decent specs considering when it had arrived, now this is not worthy enough to play as your gaming driver. Why am I claiming this? Let’s dit down a little bit.
There are mainly three departments that exist in every phone, that are directly responsible for the overall performance of a phone.
- Processor
- RAM (Random Access Memory)
- GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)
From the specs we can see, Samsung J7 came with Mediatek Exynos 7870 Octa processor, which is still a decent performing processor if you consider it only for multitasking and moderate gaming. But when you decide to play heavy games, the 3GB RAM will struggle to handle it in most cases.
On the other hand, in the GPU section, Mali-T830 MP1 is included, which has OpenGL Rendering support to enhance your gaming experience.
This setup is not bad at all. But considering the time, it has become average. If you want to play games with this phone, in that case, my recommendation will be, play games that are under 400MB, such as GT Racing 2, Need for Speed no Limits, PUBG Lite, The Adventures of Tin Tin, Angry birds fight 2, etc.
Multitasking Performance
Though the gaming experience of this phone is average considering the time you are reading this article. But if you are not a heavy gamer, instead, you prefer multitasking most of the time. In that case, this phone holds the potential to provide you the best.
In terms of performance, it can handle up to 4 heavy online apps such as YouTube, Facebook, etc., without facing any app throttling issue. But in the case of light apps, it can perform more swiftly.
To get decent performance, the following things you can practice-
- Try to use the light version of heavy apps (If available)
- Try not to run any chatting apps in the background while you are gaming
- Try not to use more than three heavy online apps most of the time
Battery Backup
In the battery segment, you are getting a 3600mAh non-removable battery. Considering the specs and overall performance, this backup is decent. According to our device’s testing results, you can pass an entire day if you take your phone in your pocket with fully charged in the morning.
But if you consider heavy gaming with this phone, you may have to grab the charging adapter after the evening.
The mentionable thing is, this phone does not support fast charging. So to be fully charged it takes a significant amount of time. In the case of our testing unit, it took nearly 2 hours and 40 minutes to get the phone fully charged from 0% to 100%.
The Overall Advantages
Considering all of this Infos, the following things should be considered as the phone’s pros-
- Excellent built quality
- Decent battery life
- 5.5 inches Super AMOLED screen with 1080p resolution
- Almost all the necessary sensors
- Heat dissipation is good while gaming, which helps to keep the hardware performance decent.
- Camera performance is decent enough considering the Samsung j7 pro price
tag of the phone
The Disadvantages
There exist some disadvantages too. Such as-
- No notification LED
- No OIS (Optical Image Stabilization)
- There exist physical touch buttons, which is not expected considering the present time.
- RAM management could have been better
- No fast charging support
Why is This Phone Still Popular in 2021?
If you consider the overall details, you will indeed find some significant drawbacks of this phone considering the time and price tag. I can mention some of these, which are boldly noticeable at first glance.
- The display is in 16:9 aspect ratio
- Physical touch button
- Low amount of RAM
- Single-camera
- setup in the rear area
But why are people still searching for this device on the web?
After time-consuming research, I found the following factors that helped Samsung J7 PRO to retain its popularity among a specific group of people.
Factor-1: The phone is a perfect choice for rough and tough use
Factor-2: The super AMOLED Display with 1080P resolution
Factor-3: Decent battery backup for moderate users
Factor-4: The legendary SAMSUNG branding
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q- Does the Samsung J7 Pro support a wireless charger?
- No. You have to charge your phone with the wired charger only.
Q- Is call recording not available on the Samsung J7 Pro 2019?
- No. There is no built-in call recording feature included in this device. But you can record your every phone call using any call recorder apps.
Q- Is Samsung J7 Pro a good phone?
- It depends on user preference. If you are a hardcore gamer, in that case, this phone is not recommendable at all! This phone will be the best match for moderate and light users. Samsung galaxy j7 prime is recommendable in this case.
Q- Is J7 Pro good for gaming?
- As I mentioned multiple times above, If you consider heavy gaming with this phone, this phone is not recommended to you at all.
Ending Line
Samsung J7 PRO is the name of one of the great smartphones, but considering the time, it’s not. You have plenty of choices to get a phone to use as your daily driver at this price range. But if you are a brand lover and need a smartphone that can be used as your daily driver, which can give you a decent battery backup and multimedia experience, you can consider this phone to keep on your checklist.
If you still feel hesitant, you can check out another article on 8GB RAM mobile, where some contemporary smartphone models have been mentioned.
So, considering your needs and all other necessary aspects, choose your device wisely.