Why should you buy this phone?
Since you’re reading this review, I am assuming that you’re in the process of finding out the best phone within a budget of 10K. You want to get the best bang for your buck and you might be a little confused whether you should go with this device or perhaps the Redmi Note 3, LeEco Le 1s, the Asus Zenfone Max or maybe the Honor series of phones. Let me try and make this easier for you.
Phones of brands like MI, ASUS, LeTV, Honor etc provide a ton of features within a very affordable budget. The phones work decently as well. However, with these brands, the biggest issue you would be facing with the after sales support. God forbid, if your device goes faulty, you might have to wait for anything between a few weeks to a couple of months to get your phone back. Also it costs a lot to repair phones of these brands. After sales service is where these brands make the most profit.
Don’t believe me yet?
I had owned an MI3 which was a fantastic device. However, after about a year of usage, the screen broke and it costed me Rs 6500 to repair the screen(with one month waiting time). A couple of months later, the motherboard died and the service center quoted me a price of Rs 9000 to replace the motherboard. All this considering that the price of the phone itself was Rs 13.5K
Samsung sells the highest number of Android devices globally and has a robust after sales service network in place, something you won’t be getting with MI or other Chinese brands. So unless you can afford to buy a new phone or shell out a fortune and wait for a long time to get your device repaired, I would suggest you to go with Samsung.
Now let’s see if this phone is for you or not:-
PROS
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Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 Chipset - It’s a 1.3 Ghz 64 bit chipset from Snapdragon which is perfect for normal to moderately heavy operations.
720p TFT LCD Screen - It isn’t as sharp as Super AMOLED, but it’s good enough to watch HD(720p) videos.
Build Quality - The phone is built with high quality plastic and has a premium look-n-feel to it. Doesn’t look or feel cheap at all.
2 GB RAM - This is enough to carry your day to day operation with ease. No lag or stutters with moderate usage.
16 GB ROM - Enough storage for installing all essential apps and files.
Micro-SD Support - This phone has dedicated Micro-SIM slots and a Micro SD slot. You can use a Micro SD up to 256 GB.
VoLTE Support - The phone comes with VoLTE support out of the box and it works flawlessly with Reliance JIO.
Network Reception - The network reception is top notch. No dropped calls or muddy calls experienced so far.
3000 mAH battery - Easily lasts one full day with moderate to heavy usage.
Temperature Control - Despite using the phone for extended hours, the heating was minimal. You’d be surprised at how less this phone heats if you have been using a Chinese made phone so far.
TouchWiz UI - Even though I have not been a fan of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI, I was pleasantly surprised this time. The UI is butter smooth and has no lag whatsoever. Samsung has also cut down largely on the bloatware and you will now only get the Galaxy Apps, My Galaxy, Opera Max and an USB transfer app. The phone also comes with the Smart Manager, powered by CleanMaster which will help you free the memory and kill background processes at the single touch of a button.
Theme Support -This device comes with an inbuilt Theme Store from where you can download free and paid themes to customize your phone.
Power / Data Saver - These are useful features which will help you extend the battery life of your device and also helps to cut down on your data usage through data compression.
Brand Value - You will be holding a device from a Tier 1 brand and can rest assured that your after sales support will be properly taken care of. Unless you can afford to buy a new phone every few months, after sales service is an important factor to consider.
CONS
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No quick-charging - The charging is slow. Without putting your phone to the Airplane mode, it will take around 2.5 - 3 hrs to fully charge the battery.
No Fingerprint sensor - The device doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor. It wasn’t a deal breaker for me anyway, but just worth mentioning in this review.
No IR Blaster - The phone doesn’t have an IR blaster as well. So you will still have to continue using the respective remote controls of your appliances.
No FULL HD Screen - The display is just 720p. However, because of this lower resolution, you get a better battery life. The screen is very good for watching videos btw.
No LED Notification light - This was a little disappointing to me as the previous phones I had used had LED notifications on them. Samsung could have easily included an LED notification light on this device.
Lack of Sensors - This is a BIG drawback of this device. This phone doesn’t have Magnetic Sensor(Compass) and Ambient Light Sensor. This means, it won’t adjust the brightness of the display automatically with ambient light and GPS navigation won’t be as seamless as on a device with a magnetic sensor. The phone doesn’t have Gyroscope either, which means no VR experience with it.
No Gorilla Glass - The display doesn’t have a Gorilla glass protection and doesn’t have an Oleophobic coating either, which means the screen is a fingerprint magnet and you should use a good quality Tempered glass on top of it. I suggest going with the Nillkin Amazing H Anti-Explosion Tempered Glass Screen Protector for Samsung Galaxy On7 for this device.
GAMING
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This phone sports a 1.3 Ghz Snapdragon 410 chipset along with the Adreno 306 GPU which is adequate for most common games. The combination of the 1.3 Ghz CPU with Adreno 306 and 2 GB of RAM will let you play even graphic intensive games like Riptide GP2, Asphalt 8, Mortal Kombat X etc with ease. However, with some games with a higher level of graphic activity like the Nova 3 and Modern Combat 5, you might experience slight frame drops occasionally while playing at high graphic settings. With low to medium graphic settings, these games will play absolutely smooth.
CAMERA
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The phone has an 13 MP, f/2.1 rear camera with autofocus and LED flash and a 5 MP, f/2.2 front facing camera. The rear facing camera is capable of shooting videos in Full HD(1980 x 1080). No Optical/ Digital Stabilization present on this camera.
The camera is good for the price range and takes decent shots in outdoor conditions and even indoors during the day. The focusing isn’t the fastest and the Dynamic Range isn’t great either but unless you’re a pro photographer, you shouldn’t have much complaints with the shots taken with the camera of the Samsung On7 PRO
I have attached several shots captured with this phone for review. If you’re a photography enthusiast, then I’d suggest going with another model, especially one having a SONY sensor, but if you’re a general user and want a decent camera, then you can surely go with this phone.
Please note that this camera doesn’t have in built HDR mode. There is a PRO mode available which lets you manually control the exposure, ISO and all that.
SPEAKER
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One of the concerns I had before buying this phone was with the volume of the loudspeaker as Samsung phones are known to have a low speaker output. However, the loudspeaker is loud enough and unless you’re in a too noisy environment, you shouldn’t have a problem with the volume of the loudspeaker.
Charger
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The phone comes with a standard charger but the charging cable is a little short.
Verdict
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Within a budget of 10K, if you’re looking for high end specifications - then this device is not for you. There are a lot of other devices which will give you better specifications at the same budget. However, if you’re looking for a decent phone that can do most of the day to day operations with ease and will have no problem getting after sales support, then blindly go with this device.
Hope this review helps you make an informed decision. For any further clarification, please feel free to leave a comment below.
Thanks for reading.