The Meizu M8 Note is a premium budget smartphone for the Chinese market. It follows the growing trend of good internals, matched with equally good design in a very compelling price bracket.
The new Meizu smartphone comes with a brand new Snapdragon 632 SoC from Qualcomm. It’s an octa-core processor with four Cortex A73 and four Cortex A53 ones. The same is paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, but we might see more storage options in the future.
It comes with a 6.15-inch LCD display with FHD+ (2160 x 1080 pixels) resolutions. The display has an aspect ratio of 18:9, can achieve a brightness level of about 450 nits and covers about 83% of the NTSC color gamut.
The back has a dual camera set up just above the rear fingerprint sensor and weirdly below the flash. The two cameras include 12MP+5MP sensors aligned in a vertical position. The front has an 8MP (f/2.0) selfie camera with face recognition support.
The M8 Note runs on Android Oreo with Flyme OS on top. It has a 3,600mAh battery with 18W fast charging that Meizu calls mCharge. Being a budget-friendly smartphone, the port selection includes a micro USB and a headphone jack.
The smartphone is currently available for reservation at Meizu’s official website and offline stores for 1298 yuan or $187. It will officially go on sale on November 1 at 00:00 in China.
The Xiaomi Mi A1 was the first collaboration between Android and Xiaomi. It was Xiaomi’s first take on the Android One platform, and it paid off well for the Chinese company. With the successor MI A2, Xiaomi is trying to emulate the success as its predecessor by offering pretty capable specs at a midrange price. So, let’s find how the Xiaomi MI A2 stacks up against today’s competition.
Connectivity: Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz / 5GHz), Bluetooth 5 LE, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C, no headphone jack
Dimensions: 7×75.4×7.3mm; Weight: 168g
Battery: 3010mAh with quick charge 3.0
Colors: Blue, Gold, and Black
Price: Rs. 30,999 for 4/64GB (free soft case + Type-C Dongle)
Design
Right off the back, I have to say that the Mi A2 feels very premium. The slim, light and sleek body with the metallic back looks great. Now even though its counterparts like say OPPO F9 or Huawei Nova 3i come with glass back or uniquely designed backs, the device has followed the footsteps of the A1 for the back material.
The metal back also has advantages as glass backs are fragile. So, the overall design and the fact that it is really light and thin really impressed me.
Display
Upfront, you get a 6-inch IPS LCD panel. Like with every phone at this price range, you get a Full-HD+ resolution and an 18:9 aspect ratio. The display here is sharp, but since I recently reviewed the Oppo F9 and the Nova 3i, you could easily notice that it’s not quite bright and it obviously suffers under sunlight as well.
Talking about the colors here, well, it is not that accurate and looks a bit dull for me. So, if you are someone who is into the multimedia experience on your smartphone, you might want to look elsewhere. The plus point, however, is the protection. With Gorilla Glass 5 at the helm, it hasn’t suffered from any sort of major scratch during my 1 month of use.
Camera
The camera is the aspect, where the MI A2 truly shines. The phone features a dual camera setup on the back, which is the combination of 12MP and 20MP sensors. The Mi A1 was not that good of a camera phone, and the Mi A2 claimed that it had improved considerably.
xiaomi mi a2 camera sample
1 of 11
I did take plentiful images during my review period. And the images so captured were really great. The Mi A2 definitely comes out on the top on a lot of scenarios, and considering its price tag, the camera performance is impressive. The phone captures quite decent images with great details and sharpness. Dynamic range and color accuracy are also good. The secondary camera on the rear side helps with better low-light images due to its wide aperture. And that’s definitely the case here as the pictures look true to life.
1 of 3
The portrait shots from the rear cameras will also impress you. They have good edge detection and the amount of blur looks natural in them. But, to get better portrait shots, the subject must be at a suitable distance from the camera and there must be a fair amount of light. Portrait images in low light settings lack proper edge detection and overall, images do not look very appealing.
1 of 2
As for the selfie camera, the MI A2 has received a huge upgrade over its predecessor. The phone comes with a 20MP camera, which not only boasts high megapixel count but also promises better quality in the images. And the images captured from the phone speak for themselves. The selfie camera also has a portrait mode which is purely software. However, it is not that great as the back camera it fails to detect the edges properly.
In terms of videography, the Xiaomi MI A2 can shoot 1080 and 4K videos at 30 fps. The phone lacks OIS but it does have EIS to make up for it. EIS does a better job while shooting 1080P videos, but fails to work while shooting in 4K.
To check out all the images in high resolution, Click here.
Software
The software here is the pure form of android. Yes, there are some preinstalled Mi apps, but apart from that, the phone looks really clean. This is exactly what I like. It’s currently on Oreo 8.1 and Xiaomi has already promised the Android Pie update. I did receive an update for software improvements, but Android Pie is not yet here. I was expecting the device to be one of the first to receive it, but that has not been the case here.
Performance
Now, the performance. Xiaomi’s smartphones excel in the performance aspect and the MI A2 is no exception. This phone truly rocks with the Snapdragon 660 chipset. Combined with the stock android, it easily handles almost all of the tasks thrown at it. Running and multitasking light apps and games is blazing fast. The apps and games open and load quite fast after you start them.
It can also run high-end games smoothly too. I played high-end games like Dead Effect 2, Overkill 3, Asphalt 9, and Galaxy on Fire 2. And all of them ran pretty well. It also runs PUBG in medium settings, and without any lags or stutters.
And If you compare the Mi A2 against other smartphones of its price range, you’ll see that it excels more than the others, and one of the examples are benchmarks. The GPU also stands out as the Adreno 512 GPU is quite a bit faster than its competitors.
In terms of RAM and storage, there are several variants available. But the review unit I got had 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. And that’s all. Note that it does not have a micro SD card slot. So, you will not be able to expand the internal storage any further. Although 64GB of memory is enough for me, it might not be enough for some.
Connectivity
Also, the phone doesn’t have the 3.5mm headphone jack. So, I was forced to use the USB Type C to 3.5mm headphone jack dongle to connect with my headphone. The dongle which by the way comes with the phone is tiny, so I misplaced quite easily And yes, there’s the hassle of having to carry one at all times.
Other than that, I am fairly impressed with the connectivity on the handset. I did not face any issue while browsing the internet on both the Wi-Fi and the mobile data. And talking about the phone calls, I used both the NTC and Ncell SIM cards on the phone and the cellular reception and the call quality was great.
Battery
Another thing I didn’t like about the Mi A2 is the battery. Massive batteries on its phones are one of the Xiaomi’s fortes. However, that lacked in the MI A1 and it continues in the MI A2, and this time I blame the slim and trim design for it. The phone comes with a relatively smaller 3010mAh battery, which struggles to provide a backup for a day even on the normal use.
Initially, during my review period, the phone used to get drained really fast even when left idle. I found out that this issue was because of the bug on the fingerprint sensor. With this bug, the CPU gets clocked at maximum speed and it consumes more power. After knowing about the bug, I disabled the fingerprint sensor and since then I have not encountered such fast battery draining issue. But still, it has not been able to provide backup for one complete day. And the problem could be fixed with later software updates. For now, there’s no word on it.
And talking about the battery charging time, the phone gets fully refilled in 1 hour and 45 minutes with its 5V / 2A stock charger. As the phone claims to support fast charging, I tried using other fast chargers as well. But I didn’t find any significant difference in charging speeds.
Verdict
To sum it up, the MI A2 is a great phone for its price. The capable chipset, good design and a remarkable set of cameras are the best things about this phone. And the presence of the stock Android is surely the icing on the cake.
That being said, the handset is not perfect by any means. An average display, a smaller battery, no microSD card slot and the lack of 3.5mm headphone are few downsides the phone offers. Other than that, I think for 250 dollars or Rs. 31,000 in Nepal, it’s a great value for money.
So, what do you think about the Xiaomi MI A2? Can you live with its downsides or would you skip this one and choose another? Do let us know in the comments.
A lot of Android devices have been facing one issue constantly over the years – lack of updates. Be it software updates or security patches, lots of manufacturers find it hard to provide the latest and greatest from Google to their customers. This has been one of the reasons why lots of people still stick to iOS. Google looks set to change all of that with an agreement that requires OEMs to provide security updates to its users for at least two years.
According to a contract obtained by The Verge, Google has now made a contract with Android phones and tablet manufacturers that states that the second party must provide four security updates in its first year, and that has been set as the bare minimum. In the second year, manufacturers will be required to provide the updates, but Google hasn’t exactly specified the exact number.
This contract is applicable for the tablets and smartphones launched after 31st January 2018. Google has made this mandatory for the devices that have at least 100,000 users. After 31st January 2019, all devices that come under the company’s “security mandatory models” will be in line to receive the security updates.
Google recently had to change some of its business and working model in the European Union (EU). According to The Verge, this contract’s terms appear in the same licensing agreement with the EU.
Likewise, the Californian company will also make sure that the updates received by the devices are under 90 days old. Google will be able to “withhold approval of future phones”, which will definitely come as a bummer for the companies.
This move from Google will definitely be welcomed by all Android users. It comes at a time when the Android world is fragmented into bits and pieces, and it’s good that the company has finally taken this initiation.
Almost every smartphone has some sort of Artificial Intelligence (AI) embedded these days. Phones ranging from low-range to high-range price segment come with processors that help run the technology. MediaTek has been making AI-supported chipsets for a while now, and the company has announced its new product that provides a 13% increase in performance all while boosting the AI technology by 10-30%. The new chipset is the MediaTek Helio P70, that is the successor of the Helio P60 which is powering a lot of mid-range smartphones right now.
The Helio P70 has a few updates and upgrades over its predecessor, but it comes in the same 12nm form factor. It has the same octa-core processors with the same four ARM Cortex A73 that has an upped clock speed of 2.1 GHz. The other four Cortex A53 cores have a clock speed of 2.0 GHz.
The Helio P60 is a well-performing chipset by all means. Helio P60 had done an impressive job on the Oppo F7, Oppo F9, Vivo V11, and many other handsets when it comes to real to real life usage. However, the devices powered by it faces a couple of stutters a couple of times while gaming. MediaTek has optimized the P70 to fix all of those issues and improve the overall gaming performance on the phones.
Likewise, the Helio P70 comes with CorePilot 4.0 that conducts thermal management for a cooler user experience. This technology also helps with a better battery life on the smartphones.
In terms of connectivity, the Helio P70 comes with a faster connection speed without a significant decrease in battery life.
The new chipset from MediaTek will let the devices equip dual rear-facing cameras measuring 24-megapixel and 16-megapixel, or just a 32-megapixel single camera. The camera(s) will let users capture better HDR-enhanced photos with extra details.
It looks as though MediaTek is focusing on the Helio P70 now. We could see smartphones running on the new platform in November.
Daraz does not really need much of an introduction these days. It is the leading e-commerce website in Nepal and many other countries like Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and more. In the context of Nepal, it is the go-to station for those, who crave for the online shopping. And this popular e-commerce platform is organizing biggest Sales Day in this ‘Singles Day’/’Anti-valentine’s Day’ or the November 11. And Daraz has promised the online sale to be huge with a countless number of exciting deals and whopping discounts on numerous products.
What is Singles Day/Anti-valentine’s Day?
Basically, the Single day is the day allotted for the celebration of one’s singleness. It started in the 1990s in China as an obscure “Anti-valentine’s Day” celebration among the people who have “single” relationship status. But later, this day spawned into the world’s biggest online shopping day. It takes place in China on November 11 every year.
What to expect from the Daraz biggest sales Day?
Daraz has done quite a commendable job when it comes to online sales and purchases. To woo the offline audience to the online platform and to lure the tech-savvy customers to bring to the online shopping ecosystem, Daraz’s footsteps are really praiseworthy. And in the run, the e-commerce website has brought exciting sales and offers quite a fair number of times. Daraz’s Black Friday is an example. And this time, the website has big plans in the Daraz biggest Sales day.
As mentioned earlier, the November 11 is celebrated with biggest shopping and sales in China. But recently, the Daraz has been acquired by Alibaba, which happened to be the greatest e-commerce website in China. So alike the parenting company Alibaba, this year, Daraz is also organizing the biggest shopping day expecting a similar success here in Nepal.
Although Daraz has not yet disclosed more about the shopping day and types of goodies on sales, discounts on them and the types of offers they would levy on the products. But it has said that every goodie on the shelf of Daraz at that time would be available at an unbeatable price. The e-commerce website vaguely unearthed that some exciting products will also make a debut in Nepal through the Daraz biggest Sales Day.
After a lot of wait and anticipation, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 is finally here. This is the third iteration of the Mi Mix series and what we can consider as the biggest improvement is the camera performance. Apart from that, the Mi Mix series has always tried to keep the bezels to a minimum, which had created some inconveniences in the first two attempts. But this time, there seems to be another concept employed to minimize bezels.
Like what we saw on OPPO Find X and Vivo Nex have done to keep the bezels to a minimum, the Mi Mix 3 does a similar job but the latter has a magnetic slider while the other two had sliders powered by motors. Xiaomi claims a screen to body ratio of 93.4% in this device which is fairly impressive. As for other specs, the display is 6.4 inches and it’s an OLED screen with 1080p resolution.
There are altogether 4 cameras on this device. The front houses a 24 MP shooter alongside a 2 MP depth sensor and the back comes with two 12 MP wide angle and telephoto lenses. The camera features a night mode that lets you take long exposure shots just like what we saw on the P20 Pro. Additionally, the phone supports 960 fps slow-mo videos with automatic background music feature.
Like other flagship phones this year, the performance is backed by the Snapdragon 845 chipset. The device comes in three memory variants,6GB, 8gb AND 10 GB with either 128 or 256 GB storage. Other noteworthy specs include a 10 W wireless charging support, USB type C and Bluetooth 5.0. The battery size is 3,200 mAh and the device comes supporting Quick charge 4+.
Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 specifications:
Operating System: Android Oreo 8.1 with MIUI 10
Display: 6.4-inches OLED screen with 93.4% screen to body ratio (19.5:9 ratio)
Samsung Galaxy A6s and the Galaxy A9s are two new smartphones from Samsung. Despite their huge infrastructure and resources, however, the A6s is made by a company called Wintech, and not Samsung themselves. A first for the company. And the Samsung Galaxy A9s, which was launched alongside possesses a Quad camera setup at the back just like the Samsung Galaxy A9 2018. So it must be pretty exciting “techtober” for all Samsung fans out there.
Samsung Galaxy A6s
This is a pretty exciting device from Samsung, not only because of it’s ODM nature, but the fact that it sports a Snapdragon 660for a price tag of just $260/€230/CNY1,800. This is probably the cheapest and most feature-packed Samsung smartphone in its category.
The display is a 6″ 1080p+ SuperAMOLED 18:9 panel. It comes with a Snapdragon 660 inside paired with Adreno 512 GPU. Adding to that you also get 6GB of RAM and 64GB or 128GB of storage. The expandable storage comes at the expense of its second SIM slot (Dual Hybrid SIM).
Dual rear camera setup includes a 12MP main sensor aided by a 12MP depth sensor. The front gets a 12MP selfie camera. The rear camera is capable of 4k video recording, a rare feature for Samsung devices at this category.
The Galaxy A6s also gets a fingerprint sensor at the back, right above the Samsung logo. Other features include a 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth 5.0, 802.11ac WiFi, USB-C port, Android Oreo and a 3,300mAh battery. Color options include Black, White, Blue, Pink, and Red.
Samsung Galaxy A6s Specifications:
Display: 6-inch FHD+ (1080×2220 pixels) Super AMOLED Infinity display
Storage: 64GB / 128GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD (Uses SIM2 slot)
OS & UI: Android 8.0 (Oreo) with Experience UI 9.0 on the top
Rear camera: 12MP primary camera with LED Flash, f/1.8 aperture, 12MP secondary depth camera
Front camera: 12MP
Security: Fingerprint sensor, Face unlock
Connectivity: Dual SIM, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2.4/5GHz), Bluetooth 5 LE, GPS with GLONASS, NFC, USB Type-C
Battery: 3300mAh battery with adaptive fast charging
Colors: Black, Red, and Blue
Price: 1799 yuan (US$ 260 / Rs. 30,475 approx.) for 64GB and 2199 yuan (US$ 315 / Rs. 36,920 approx.) for 128GB storage
Samsung Galaxy A9s
The Samsung Galaxy A9s is basically a Chinese version of the Galaxy A9 2018. It comes with the same four-camera setup, 6.3″ SuperAMOLED 1080p+ display, Snapdragon 660 with 6GB/8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
The four cameras on the back include a 24MP (f/1.7) main lens, an 8MP (f/2.4), 120-degree ultra wide cam, a 10MP (f/2.4) 2x telephoto lens and a 5MP (f/2.2) depth sensor. The front holds one 24MP (f/2.0) sensor.
It comes with Android 8.0 Oreo, Fingerprint sensor at the back, Bluetooth 5.0, 802.11ac WiFi, USB Type C with fast charging, and a 3,800mAh battery. The smartphone is available for pre-orders today in China for CNY 3,500, roughly $505 or €440. For comparison, the Galaxy A9 is priced at, again roughly $684. Color options include Caviar Black, Lemonade Blue, and Bubblegum Pink.
Samsung Galaxy A9s Specifications:
Display: 6.3-inch (1080×2220 pixels) Full HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity display
Storage: 128 GB Internal Storage, expandable up to 512GB via micro SD card (Dedicated slot)
OS & UI: Android 8.0 (Oreo) with Experience UI 9.0 on the top
Rear camera: 24MP with LED flash, f/1.7 aperture, 10MP wide-angle lens with f/2.4 aperture, 8MP 120° Ultra Wide camera with f/2.4 aperture and 5MP f/2.2 depth camera
Xiaomi updates its gaming smartphone with the new Black Shark Helo. The key features being a powerful hardware, cooling system, and aggressive pricing.
The Black Shark Helo features a 6-inch FullHD+ (2046 x 1080 resolution) AMOLED Display. The refresh rate is still 60Hz, unlike other gaming phones like Asus Rog & Razer Phone 2 that sports a smoother 120Hz. The display is, however, HDR10-complaint and with a dedicated mobile chip by Pixelworks, the SDR contents are converted to HDR in real time.
Internal includes a Snapdragon 845 which is the top of the line chipset on Android smartphones in 2018. There are 2 memory versions: One with 6 or 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage and the other with 10GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The back sits a dual camera setup of 12MP and 20MP, a similar setup seen on Xiaomi’s flagships Mi Mix 2s and Mi8. There’s also a fingerprint sensor below the rear cameras. The back looks like a gaming phone with a glowing logo which you can customize to the colors of your choice. Also, there’s a LED strip on both sides of the phone.
The front houses a dual stereo speaker and a 20MP selfie camera. Sadly, both the headphone jack and a microSD card slot is missing. There’s a 4000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 Support.
Since it’s a gaming phone, thermals are taken care of by a Vapor Chamber Cooling that uses dual heat pipes near the CPU area to dissipate heat. Xiaomi claims that such a setting can reduce the CPU core temperature by 12 degrees, and then the temperature of the entire phone will be more uniform and feel more comfortable.
The base variant of 6 or 8GB RAM comes with a single Bluetooth game controller, while the higher end 10GB version gets a dual Bluetooth game controller.
Software-wise, it’s running on Android 8.1 (Oreo) with a customized Joy UI layered on top. There’s a Game Studio app with which you can change hardware settings as per the game.
Xiaomi Black Shark Helo specifications
Display: 6.01-inch (2160×1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 display, 100% NTSC color gamut
Memory: 6GB / 8GB RAM with 128GB storage / 10GB RAM with 256GB
OS: Android 8.1 (Oreo) with Joy UI
SIM: Dual SIM (nano + nano)
Back Camera: 12MP with f/1.75 aperture, 1.25µm pixel size, dual-tone LED flash, 20MP secondary camera with f/1.75 aperture, 1.0µm pixel size
Front Camera: 20MP front-facing camera with 1.0µm pixel size, f/2.2 aperture
Security: Fingerprint sensor
Audio: Dual Smart PA, Hi-Fi Audio, Dual Front Speakers
Dimensions: 160×75.25x 8.7mm; Weight: 190g
Connectivity: 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11ac dual-band, Bluetooth 5, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou, USB Type-C
Battery: 4000mAh with Quick Charge 3.0
Xiaomi Black Shark Helo Price & Availability
The 6GB/128GB version of the Xiaomi Black Shark is priced at US$460, the 8GB/128GB version costs US$504 and the 10GB/256GB version is priced at US$605. Sadly, its only available in China and there’s no news on its availability elsewhere.
?? Vivo V11 Dashain Giveaway ??Get a chance to win a brand new #VivoV11 smartphone. How to Participate in this giveaway: ☑️ Enter here: https://gleam.io/IuiJp/vivo-v11-giveaway ☑️ Tag (mention) three of your friends in the comments. ☑️ Share this video on your profile publicly. ➡️Winner will be announced live on Oct 26, 2018.
Just a few days after the announcement of Nokia 7.1, Nokia has announced the Nokia 7.1 Plus. It’s also called the Nokia X7 in China. It shares similar specs to the Nokia 7.1 or the last gen Nokia 6.1 Plus (Nokia X6).
Like the Nokia X6, the Nokia X7 also has the same display size of 6.18-inch FHD+ notched display. However, the display is now HDR 10 complaint with better brightness at 500 nits and 96% NTSC color gamut coverage and DCI-P3 support.
It’s also made up of glass on the back and an aluminum frame. Powering the phone is the latest Snapdragon 710 chipset which is a big upgrade from the SD 636 seen on the X6. There are three memory options: 4GB of RAM with 64GB of storage, 6GB of RAM with 64GB of storage, and 6GB of RAM with 128GB of storage. It’s running on Android 8.1 (Oreo) and will be upgraded to the latest Android Pie later this year.
Cameras are also upgraded on the X7 with the Sony IMX363 primary sensor that comprises of 12MP lens with f/1.8 aperture and 1.4micron pixel. The secondary lens is a 13MP f/2.4 depth sensor. The selfie camera is a new 20MP lens that sits in the notch.
Other features include a 3500mAh battery with quick charge 3.0 support, a 3.5mm headphone jack, rear-facing fingerprint scanner, and a dual hybrid SIM slot.
Color Options: Night Red, Dark Blue, Magic Night Silver, Night Black
Display: 6.18-inch (2246 × 1080 pixels) Full HD+ Pure display with 18.7:9 aspect ratio, 500 nits brightness, 96% NTSC Color gamut, DCI-P3, 1500:1 Contrast ratio
Chipset: Snapdragon 710
Processor: 2 X 2.2GHz Kryo 360 + 6 X 1.7GHz Kryo 360
GPU: Adreno 616
RAM: 4/6GB LPPDDR4x
ROM: 64/128GB (eMMC 5.1) storage, expandable memory up to 400GB with microSD
SIM: Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD)
OS: Android 8.1 (Oreo), upgradable to Android 9.0 (Pie)
Back Camera: 12MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, Sony IMX363 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, 1.4μm pixels, OIS, 13MP secondary rear camera with f/2.4 aperture
Front Camera: 20MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture
Security: Fingerprint sensor (rear facing)
Connectivity: 3.5mm audio jack, Dual 4G VoLTE, Dual Band WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C
Few smartphones as of date have stepped into the Triple Camera territory. Huawei P20 Pro started the trend, and now some other smartphones are following suit. The LG V40 which was recently unveiled has the triple camera as well. And now, I guess, it’s Samsung’s turn. But while other smartphones are putting those triple cameras on their flagships, Samsung decided to experiment with it on its mid-range device, which is the Samsung Galaxy A7 2018. But let’s also see what else it’s got besides the triple camera setup.
Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 Specifications:
Design: Glass back and front in Aluminum Frame, Corning Gorilla Glass protection
Display: 6.0″ Super AMOLED, Full HD+ resolution (2220 x 1080) pixels, 410 PPI pixel density
Rear Camera: Triple cameras, 24 MP primary lens with f/1.7 aperture & PDAF + 5 MP depth sensor + 8 MP Ultra-Wide Angle lens with f/2.4 aperture, capable of 1080p videos @30 fps with EIS
Front Camera: 24 MP lens with f/2.0 aperture
Chipset: Exynos 7885
CPU: Octa-core 2.2 GHz Cortex A-53
RAM: 4 GB
Storage: 64 GB internal, expandable up to 512 GB via microSD (dedicated slot)
Battery: 3300 mAh
Price: Rs.42,990
Design
Samsung devices have the kind of design that literally scream Samsung. Slightly rounded corners on a sleek looking body, and bezels on the front. So, the A7 2018 sports a similar design. It has glass front and back that sandwiches an aluminum frame in between. The phone, although having a glass back, doesn’t quite have the heft to it, i.e. feels kind of light on the hands. I was surprised due to this, because it’s lighter than the Nokia 6.1 Plus even, which is smaller in size. And it also makes me feel like it’s plastic, but it’s so much glass like, that I think it is a glass back.
And the phone is a fingerprint magnet, and it’s slippery too. The glossy finish at the back looks premium, but due to its light weight, it doesn’t feel that way.
The back houses the triple cameras on the side, which protrudes out ever so slightly. The speaker is on the bottom right, which is quite easy to muffle out while gaming or watching media. So, it’s a good thing that there’s also a secondary speaker on the ear-piece. Also, there’s no fingerprint sensor at the back. And that’s because it’s embedded in the power button, which is on the right. The volume rockers are also right above it, so, all buttons are on the right.
In addition, this time, Samsung seems to have skipped the dedicated Bixby button, which, I think is a good decision actually.
Display
Upfront, the display seems to be the best part about this phone. It has a large 6” Super AMOLED Full HD+ display with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio. There’s about 410 PPI pixel density, which makes for a sharp and crisp display. Colors are vibrant, and punchy and the pictures come out quite detailed. You can also view the contents pretty well even in bright sunlight. The touch sensitivity is also better than one found on midrange phones.
And Samsung is one of the very few smartphones to not include the notch on their displays. And due to this reason, even though the A7 2018 has a chin down below, I can live with it. But what I don’t like is that even with a bezel on top, there is no LED notification light. When you have a bezel up top, is it so hard to put a tiny notification light? Plus, the side bezels are also not as minimal as it could’ve been.
But besides that, I have no complaints. There’s also the Always On display option, that, when turned on, can make up for the absence of LED lights. But that will drain your battery, however. Other aspects of the display did impress me. And that’s why, I think that the display is the best thing about this phone.
Cameras
So, there are 3 cameras at the back, which is the major focus of this phone. The triple camera setup consists of a 24 MP primary lens with f/1.7 aperture, a 5 MP depth sensor and an 8 MP ultra-wide sensor with f/2.4 aperture. With these three cameras, I expected quite a lot from this phone. But, I think, I had too high of expectations from this one. I was thoroughly impressed by the triple cameras on the Huawei P20 Pro and expected similar results, but it doesn’t nearly meet those standards. Of course, it is unfair of me to compare this mid-range with an expensive flagship, but Samsung is also known for great cameras.
Regular Camera Samples
1 of 17
Image quality from the main camera is good, and really good in some good lighting conditions. There’s good contrast and colors seem accurate enough. Details are well preserved and there’s vibrancy in the images. However, the pictures didn’t impress me as much as I thought it would. In low light, it’s even worse. There’s noticeable loss in details, quite the amount of noise and images are jittery. But images in well-lit indoor conditions are good enough.
Low Light Samples
1 of 3
Samsung’s Scene Optimizer that makes colors pop in some scenarios makes its appearance here as well, but it doesn’t seem as good as on the Galaxy Note 9. The Portrait mode, which Samsung calls Live Focus, is again, typically Samsung. Edge detection on human subjects can produce good results most times. Whereas, on other objects, it’s a hit or a miss condition. When they do work, they can produce excellent results, but this is an aspect Samsung really needs to work on.
Regular vs Wide Angle
1 of 4
Regular
Wide Angle
Low Light
Low Light Wide Angle
The Ultra Wide lens is the extra sensor on this phone. The new addition is definitely welcome, but the pictures from this camera, are again, not that great. Its 120-degree field of view helps you capture sceneries easily. An 8 MP resolution means you won’t be able to zoom in really well, but if you’re taking a wide angle shot, you won’t need to zoom, would you? Also, the f/2.4 aperture makes it more or less, unusable in low light, which is a downer. But hey, ultra wide images of natural landscapes do look great. Again, since ultra wide images are processed differently, there will be some color shifts in the pictures, but it won’t be anything to fret over about.
Selfie Camera samples
1 of 5
Regular selfie
Portrait selfie
Regular selfie
Regular selfie
Portrait selfie
The selfie camera does a really good job. As usual, it is the same story, well lit conditions equals impressive shots, but low light images…not so much. Your facial details are well represented but the absence of backlit HDR causes blown out lights in sunny environments. Portrait selfies are purely software here, but to my surprise, it did a better job than the back camera. There’s also a Wide Selfie option that enables you to include more people in your selfies, which is a good touch.
As for videos, this phone is not able to take 4K videos, but only 1080p videos @30fps. Videos have EIS, but the Auto Focus is quite slow. It can be annoying, but having said that, the videos are better than some of the phones at this price range. There’s also Slo-Mo, and Samsung’s Slow-Mo are always good enough.
The triple cameras on the Samsung A7 2018 are not very impressive, but it certainly is interesting. After all, it’s not always that you get three cameras on a mid-range device.
Performance
We mostly criticize Samsung for their poor choice of processors on their mid-range smartphones. The J6, J8, and A6+ we recently reviewed all had an average chipset, but that’s not the case with the A7 2018. It is powered by Exynos 7885 chipset which offers powerful Cortex A73 cores. Combined with its 4 GB RAM, the phone performs accordingly. Transitions are quite smooth, and multi-tasking is breezy. Regular web browsing and app usage work pretty well.
Light gaming works pretty well too. As for PUBG, you can play it good enough in Medium settings, but there will be slight stutters. But, the jitters stayed even in Low settings while I was playing it. Other games like Dead Trigger 2 work good enough. Thermals are pretty good, as even with a couple sessions of PUBG, the phone didn’t go over 38-degrees.
The phone runs on Android 8.0 Oreo with Samsung Experience 9.0. Now, Samsung phones get updates quite late, but the fact that it’s still running on Android 8.0 and not 8.1, or even Samsung Experience 9.0 and not 9.5 bothers me a little. Yes, that doesn’t make that much of a difference, but the latest is always better.
OS Screenshots
1 of 10
lockscren
homescreen
notification shade
app drawer
bloatware
finder
my files
settings
about device
gallery
Samsung’s UI also comes with quite the bloatware, and the very first one that comes to mind is Bixby. Yes, there’s no Bixby button, but if you swipe left on the home screen it’ll sneak up on you. There are some nifty additions like swiping down anywhere on the home screen to drag down the notification shade. And for someone with small hands, it’s a good quirk to have.
The fingerprint sensor on the side works well enough, but having one on the side has its own set of inconveniences. For example, if you are left-handed, then, you’ll probably have to think about which finger to unlock it with. Plus, a sensor on the side means the position of your finger has to be just right to unlock it. There’s also Face Recognition, but as it is with Samsung devices, it’s not the fastest we’ll see.
Overall, the performance on this phone is just good, no more than that. If you’re into high end gaming, maybe you should pick something else, but it does a commendable job on other fronts.
Battery and Storage
As for storage, it comes in options of 128 GB with 6 GB RAM and 64 GB with 4 GB RAM options, but in Nepal, we only have the 4 GB variant available in Nepal. 64 GB option is quite enough, and there’s also a dedicated microSD card slot to expand your memory up to 512 GB.
As for battery, the A7 2018 has a 3300 mAh battery. Now, that is like the standard battery capacity in 2018. And it is also enough to last you through the day in regular usage. Heavy users, however, will need to carry around a charger with them. Also, if you’re a heavy user, you would be better off turning off the Always on Display, but with the absence of those notification lights, you’ll be in a dilemma.
It’s sad to see Samsung still employing a microUSB port. And the absence of Fast Charging adds more to its woe. The phone will take well over two and half hours to fully charge.
Conclusion and Verdict
I feel like the Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 is an ambitious mid-ranger. The three cameras at the back is the major focus of this device, but the areas it has cut corners are clearly visible. Despite having 3 cameras, the image quality is nothing extra ordinary and it fails to keep par with Samsung’s flagship cameras even..
Also, it cuts corners in design with the thick bezels. Plus, the absence of LED lights despite having a bezel up top bothers me. Also, the older Android version and Samsung’s own UI is something to think about. Furthermore, lack of fast charging is also something you need to live with.
But Having said that, the price of the phone is around $400 internationally or Rs.43000 in Nepal. When it comes to international and local pricing, Samsung does a commendable job. For this price, you are getting a AMOLED display, a good enough design, good enough set of cameras, and a full day battery life. Also, on the performance front, Samsung has added some improvements compared to its other predecessors.
If you’re looking for better cameras, there are options like Oppo F9, and Huawei Nova 3i is still the winner in terms of design. But this phone provides some unique quirks, and that additional camera is interesting. It’s not really a killer by any means, but is certainly a good buy…especially with the brand value that Samsung provides.
Like the Nokia X6, the Nokia X7 also has the same display size of 6.18-inch FHD+ notched display. However, the display is now HDR 10 complaint with better brightness at 500 nits and 96% NTSC color gamut coverage and DCI-P3 support.
