Samsung Galaxy J7 Max

Almost eight months back, we reviewed a mid-range smartphone of Samsung – the J7 Prime.  Faring pretty well in the market, it became one of the best sellers of Samsung this year. Inspired by this success, Samsung brought out several other variants of J7. The one we are reviewing today is J7 Max, a hulked up version of J7 Prime.

First impressions

The phone is targeted for mid-range buyers and it reeks that very message throughout its design. It comes in a typical aluminium based metallic body. The size is a bit big for one handed operation even if you have gigantic palms like mine. The back has a camera with smart glow light around it. This very tech was borrowed from another successful entry-level smartphone of Samsung-  the J2. To some, this glow might seem tacky but it serves its purpose by lighting up in a variety of colours when a specific notification arrives or you have missed attending certain important calls. The phone has typical Micro USB charging jack with a 3.5mm audio input.

Display

The phone comes with a run of the mill 5.7 inch PLS capacitive screen that looks a bit washed out in terms of colours. If you are used to AMOLED or Super AMOLED screens, then you are definitely going to feel the difference. But that doesn't mean, the display isn't bright or provides good viewing angles, because it does. With medium brightness, the screen was usable under sunlight as well. Interestingly, this phone's screen isn't protected by any Corning Gorilla Glass or Atashi Dragon Age- making it vulnerable to scratches.

PERFORMANCE

Performance is the segment where the phone falls short, compared to the competition. For the price-tag it comes with, you are very likely to find much better-performing phones from Chinese competition. The MediaTek Helio P20 processor is a mediocre processor that isn't powerful enough to process heavy apps or demanding games. The RAM however, being a 4GB module, helps a lot with browsing with multiple tabs open. I am the kind of person who uses 20-25 tabs simultaneously yet I didn't get a moment of stuttering.

As mentioned earlier, we downloaded Asphalt 8: Airborne and tried playing here. It started to bog down the processor a lot when we tried to run it in highest settings. But it ran smoothly when we toned down the settings to medium.

Battery

The phone comes with a 3300 mAh non-removable battery. For a phone of 5.7 inch screen, you might think this isn't enough, right? WRONG. Three reason why this battery is good enough for a phone this size. Firstly, the screen doesn't sport a battery-hogging AMOLED or Super AMOLED screen. Secondly, the phone doesn't have a demanding processor so it won't sip the battery every now and then. Lastly, you can use the phone on ultra-saving mode so that the last few percentages of charge last more than hours. I used the phone daily for a couple of weeks and it lasted a full work day. Being an extreme user who keeps the internet on the entire day- it's actually pretty decent.

Camera

The phone comes with one of the best cameras to take snaps in low light- something we didn't expect at this price-range. The photos we took on broad day light were crisp, sharp and vibrant. The selfie camera took pretty good selfies. Upon inspecting the spec, we realised why the phone was taking such excellent snaps. The phone comes with a 13MP camera on the rear with f/1.7 aperture. The white balance of the photos taken after the evening is good in most parts. In some blogs, we saw writers attributing the enhanced night mode to Galaxy S8's low light algorithm.

Other tweaks

For security, the phone comes with a fingerprint scanner. Unlike most of the Samsung devices, it's in the front. Takes nearly 0.4 seconds to open up the phone. Smart glow is another unique feature, about which we mentioned earlier.

SPECS

Display: 5.7 inches 1080X1920 Pixels

CPU: Octa-core 2.4 GHz Cortex-A53

RAM: 4 GB

ROM: 32 GB

Back Camera: 13 MP, f/1.7, autofocus

Selfie Camera: 13 MP, f/1.9,

Battery: 3300 mAh 

OS: Android 7.0 (Nougat)

Price: Tk 25,900/-

VERDICT

Galaxy J7 Max is Samsung's attempt to recreate a device that can easily make its way to the hands of consumers who are looking for a mid-range phone with a big screen. The Android 7.0 coupled with an awesome camera is indeed a good deal – only if the price of the device was a bit lesser. For the price-tag of J7 Max, you can easily get devices that are better speced- at least on paper. But if you are looking for a phone with decent battery life and good camera then certainly this one is worth considering.

Photos: Shahriar Rahman