Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro and J7 Max launched: Yes, they are worth the buzz
South Korean tech giant Samsung, riding on the success of the Galaxy S8, has brought in two new entrants to the market: Galaxy J7 Pro and Galaxy J7 Max.
The smartphones have been priced at Rs 20,900 and Rs 17,900, and are being offered in two colours — black and gold. The J7 Max will be the first to go on sale starting June 20, while Galaxy J7 Pro will be available starting July.
The company also announced a toned-down version of the Samsung pay service, Samsung Pay Mini, and a new "Social Camera" for the phone. The latter enables the use of filters from the phone's camera directly for social media apps like Facebook.
The new #GalaxyJ2017 devices, #GalaxyJ7Max and #GalaxyJ7Pro will be available at a price of Rs. 17,900 & Rs. 20,900 respectively. pic.twitter.com/Ut6GuTEfJs
— Samsung Mobile India (@SamsungMobileIN) June 14, 2017
Galaxy J7 Pro
The J7 is the same device that was announced last week in Europe.
The phone sports a 5.5-inch full HD Super AMOLED display at the front with 2.5D curved glass that merges seamlessly into its metal frame. There's also a home button at the front, which houses a fingerprint scanner. Under the hood, a 1.6Ghz Exynos 7870 octa-core processor paired with a 3GB RAM runs the show. It also brings with it 32GB of internal storage, which can be expanded using a microSD card.
The J7 Pro comes on board with a 13MP camera at the front and the back, both with LED flash, for capturing images in low light.
The phone is powered by a 3,600mAh battery. In terms of connectivity, it's got the standard specs covered: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, USB Type-C port and slots for two SIM cards.
Galaxy J7 Max
As the name suggests, the device comes with a slightly bigger 5.7-inch full HD display. The processor on board is an Octa Core MediaTek processor clocked at 1.6GHz. The SoC is paired with 4GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage, which is expandable via a microSD card.
Its camera units are the same as the J7 Pro, packing the same connectivity options. However, the battery on the phone has been downgraded to a 3,300mAh pack.
What's there to be excited about
The launch event saw the South Korean phone maker introduce two very good phones in the highly-competitive Rs 20,000 mid-budget phone segment. The Galaxy J7 Pro and the Galaxy J7 Max backed by Samsung should give competition to phones like Xiaomi Mi Max Prime and the Moto G5 Plus, which are better performers in the segment.
The two phones come with reasonable specs, and the inclusion of LED flash on the front and the back of the phones to support the 13MP shooters looks like a good decision. However, a slightly lower price for the new entrants – especially the J7 Pro – could have made them more appealing options.
Another high point of the launch was the announcement of the Samsung Pay Mini, the pay platform for the two phones. Unlike Samsung Pay, which is available on select Galaxy devices, the Pay Mini works on all Android smartphones as long as they have a display running at 720p or a higher resolution.
The payments platform allows users to use the app to tap and pay on the go with their registered debit or credit cards.