The Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime launched today may not have the best design, but it brings an innovative AR-based shopping experience.
When you think of mid-range phones, Samsung isn’t always the first brand that comes to mind. It used to, but not anymore. Chinese players like Xiaomi, Moto and the likes have flooded the market with one phone after the other, and Samsung has some catching up to do. It’s previous mid-range devices under the Galaxy On7 series lacked a compelling reason to sell more than what these spec-heavy Chinese players bring to the table.
Enter the Galaxy On7 Prime. Samsung’s selling point? An AR-based shopping app called Samsung Mall. The app essentially scans objects like clothes, gadgets and shoes that you see other people wearing or using, and uses neural networks to recognise them and allow you to buy them off e-commerce stores directly from the app. It’s a pretty cool way to use AR in a country obsessed with online shopping and Samsung might just have hit the bulls eye here. That is, if the app works as advertised.
Nevertheless, the Galaxy On7 Prime, which starts from Rs 12,990, will face tough competition from the newly launched Honor 9 Lite and the well-established Xiaomi Mi A1. Based on our initial impressions, the phone could be convincing enough to grab the attention of mid-range phone buyers.
Samsung Mall
The marquee feature of the Galaxy On7 Prime is the Samsung Mall app. Just shoot and search visually for products available online. The app uses augmented reality and neural processing to identify clothes, shoes, gadgets and more. It displays the e-commerce listings for the same and allows you to buy the products directly from the app. The app also has an universal shopping cart that houses products you have selected across multiple ecommerce stores for you to review and checkout from one place. The app was made by Samsung’s R&D team based out of India and currently supports Amazon India, Jabong and Shopclues.
For the limited time we tested the phone, the app performed perfectly. It recognised dresses people were wearing around us and displayed it on the app without much of a delay. In a frame with multiple dresses, we even had the option to select the dress we wanted and the app complied.
Design
First things first, the Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime doesn’t seem too keen to keep up with changing times, at least in terms of design. The phone is basically a rectangular block of aluminium crafted for durability. You can’t blame Samsung. The Honor 9 Lite which is currently the most attractive phone is also most damage prone. And in that sense, the design makes sense. It is built to last longer. The body has a brushed aluminium finish and the camera unit is flushed to the body.
Display
The Galaxy On7 Prime features a full HD (1080×1920 pixels) 5.5-inch IPS LCD fitted into a 8-inch body. This isn’t a bezel-less 18:9 display you would expect from OEMs like Huawei or Vivo. It’s more conventional and reliable as not all apps are currently calibrated for taller display. For the limited time we used the phone, the display looked quite vibrant and bright. We will delve deeper into it in our detailed review.
Performance and Software
The Galaxy On7 Prime is powered by an Exynos 7870 chipset which is made in-house by Samsung. It is an octa-core processor clocked at 1.59GHz and features eight 14nm Cortex A53 cores. The chipset is built using the 14nm FinFet process which improves power efficiency without compromising on the performance. The phone is offered in either 3GB RAM and 32GB storage or 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. For the short time we had the phone, there were no significant lag in performance. We used the camera, installed a couple of apps, shot some photos, used the pre-loaded Samsung Mall app and it ran quite smooth.
The On7 Prime is still on an older version of Android though.The phone runs on Samsung’s new Experience UI based on Android 7.0 Nougat. Well, Samsung’s flagship Galaxy Note 8 and the Galaxy S8 have not yet received the update to Android Oreo yet, so we’re assuming Samsung kept the latest version for its upcoming Galaxy S9. There is also the Bixby AI assistant pre-loaded on the phone which can be accessed by swiping right on the home screen. We'e not sure if the phone supports the "Hey Bixby" command, but it thankfully doesn't have the Bixby hardware button.
Camera
The On7 Prime features 13-megapixel cameras on both the front and the back. Both cameras have f/1.9 aperture and phase-detection autofocus. If the specs of the camera sound pretty average to you, that’s because it is. While there was minimal shutter lag, the camera failed to focus perfectly. We also were not impressed by the quality of the image it took. But we will reserve our verdict till we objectively test the imaging performance.
Battery
The Galaxy On7 Prime is powered by a 3,300mAh battery which is at par with what the competition offers. The Xiaomi Mi A1 offers a lesser 3,080mAh battery while the newly launched Honor 9 Lite also has a lesser 3,000mAh battery. Ideally, the phone should outlast both its rivals, but since we didn’t get enough time to test it, we can’t give our opinion on this one. A pet peeve we had with the phone is that it uses a micro-USB to charge. It’s unlikely the phone supports fast charging but Samsung does claim it intelligently allocates memory to make the phone last longer.
How it compares
The Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime will take on established rivals like the Xiaomi Mi A1 and the Moto G5s Plus. The newly launched Honor 9 Lite will also give tough competition to the phone. In its favour is the new AR-based shopping app that could be a hit or miss. While most of its rivals have a maxed-out spec-sheet with dual cameras and 18:9 display which is likely to appeal to a broader audience, an AR-based shopping app will mostly attract shopaholics or urban dwellers who keeps filling up their shopping carts on online stores. At its price of Rs 12,990, the Galaxy On7 Prime seems like a decent offering, but we will reserve our verdict in our detailed review.
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Subhrojit Mallick
Eats smartphones for breakfast. View Full Profile
