samsung galaxy a7 (2018): Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) review: Stands out with its triple camera setup

Putting in more cameras in the smartphone is the new trend. As it stands, it's a great way to overcome the limitations of smartphones while giving you more camera features. Huawei had the first triple camera phone (the premium P20 Pro) but Samsung is now offering a triple camera setup.

The triple cameras are vertically stacked along with a LED flash. You get a 24MP primary sensor with f1.7 aperture, 5MP f2.2 depth sensor and an 8MP f2.4 ultrawide sensor. The camera takes excellent pictures in daylight – good details, rich colors and great dynamic range. Even in lowlight, the images captured had good details and suffered from minimal visible noise. We also loved the bokeh mode – edge detection is great and so is the amount of bokeh in photos. One of the things you get is ultrawide – a 120-degree field of view.

This really expands what you can do with your smartphone camera. It's a lot like an action camera – you do not have to use the panorama mode. But like any ultrawide lens, images have a visible distortion (curve effect) on both sides of the frame. The ultrawide lens is also fixed focus, which means no tap to focus. We found this article in the wrong way because it was not enough to get 8 out of 10 times. In theory, the triple camera does not work anymore. Front camera works great in daylight and more in soften details. It also has a selfie focus feature for bokeh effect in selfies which delivers good results – keep it in mind

Being a mid-range device, the A7 follows the premium design style of Samsung phones we have seen in 2018. It has a metal frame with glass on the front and back – while this gives the device a premium feel and appearance it also makes it a fingerprint and dust magnet. Within a week of use we could see tiny scratches on the edges of the phone One thing we did not like the design of the fingerprint scanner (integrated with the power button on the side). For starters, this position makes it very uncomfortable for left handed users. Even for right handed user, front or rear placement is more ergonomic.

The phone has a 6-inch super amoled display with a resolution of 2220 x 1080 pixels in an 18.5: 9 aspect ratio. As always, we were very impressed by the screen – it has excellent brightness, punchy colors and wide viewing angles. It also has the Always on Display feature to show you notifications and other widgets.

The A7 is powered by Samsung's Exynos 7885 octa core processor which is roughly at 635 in with Snapdragon in overall performance. Combined with 4GB RAM, the phone works smoothly for most day-to-day tasks and even runs. However, we did notice that there are several apps running in the background, the phone tends to start becoming sluggish. Battery life is as expected – the 3,300mAh battery lasts from 9am to 9pm with around 15% battery to spare.

Android 4.0 out of the box which is disappointing. You also have a look at this feature at your fingertips. Even after few days of use, it did not improve. That makes it unreliable as a primary option in our opinion.

For a mid-range offering, the Samsung Galaxy A7 stands out of the crowd with a triple camera setup. Camera enthusiast will love the ultrawide lens even though it is not worth using in low light. If you're not interested in ultrawide, there are better options available from Xiaomi (Mi A2), Vivo (V11 Pro) and Oppo (F9 Pro) that you can consider for roughly the same price.