Early in the week, Samsung released the new Galaxy J7 (& J5) in India.
The new Galaxy J7 is said to be the Samsung's answer to feature-rich phablets launched recently by the domestic and Chinese smartphone vendors.
Though Samsung is still the top smartphone-seller in India, its market share has been on decline for the past one year. With the release of mid-range phablet Galaxy J7, the company hopes to claw back its lost share.
Read more: Samsung Launches Galaxy J5, J7 Series in India; Price, Specifications
Galaxy J7 comes with a sub-₹15,000 price tag and it is in a direct fight with Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML) and Xolo Black as they fall in the same mid-range phablet category.
To provide a better perspective on how these phones stack up against each other, we have briefly described the key specifications of Samsung Galaxy J7, Xolo Black and Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML).
Display:
Xolo Black and Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML) sport a full HD (1,920x1,080p) screen with a pixel density of 401ppi (pixels per inch).
Both the devices come with additional Gorilla Glass 3 protection on top.
On the other hand, Galaxy J7 features 5.5-inch HD (1,280x720p) screen, it may sound Samsung phone's display is sub-par. But, many studies have reportedly stated that the human eye cannot note difference in pixel density beyond HD (720x1280p), so we can be rest assured that anything beyond HD resolution is just a gimmick used by companies to sell the device.
Moreover, Galaxy J7 boasts super AMOLED display, which is more energy efficient compared to other screen materials. It uses very little power and also give enriched viewing experience during video playback.
Processor, RAM and Storage Capacity:
All three phablets house 64-bit class SoC (System on Chip), but differ in processor type.
Asus Zenfone 2 -ZE551ML (2GB RAM model) houses an super-fast 1.8GHz Intel Atom processor Z3560 respectively. It is backed by with PowerVR G6430 graphics engine and 2GB RAM.
Xolo Black ship with Qualcomm made Snapdragon 615 Octa-core, backed by Adreno 405 GPU and 2GB RAM.
On the other hand, Galaxy J7 ships with Samsung's proprietary Exynos 7580 Octa-core with Mali-T720 MP2 GPU and 1.5GB RAM.
Technology blog GSMArena, citing GeekBench performance benchmarking results, has claimed that the Exynos 7580 is said to be more superior than the Snapdragon 615 series.
All three devices come with 16GB inbuilt memory with an option for expansion via microSD card.
[Note: Galaxy J7 launched in China features Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Octa-core processor with Adreno 405 GPU, More Details, HERE]
Camera:
On paper, Samsung's Galaxy J7 and Xolo Black come with enticing camera features.
Samsung phone boasts feature-rich 13mp camera with LED flash, f/1.9 aperture, auto-focus and on the front, it houses a a 5mp 85-degree wide-angle camera which can extend up to 120-degree . To further enrich the photography experience, Samsung has incoporated a LED flash to get perfect selfie under low-light condition.
Whereas, Xolo Black comes loaded with a dual camera on the back, featuring a 13mp main camera and a 2mp secondary camera to provide better user experience.
The additional camera sensor besides the main camera module of Xolo Black is used to capture detailed in-depth information of the scene enabling user to re-focus objects on the photos, which are already taken via Ubifocus application.
On the front, it houses 5mp snapper with smart LED flash to get good quality photos under low-light condition.
On the other hand, Zenfone 2 is no less of a competitor. It sports a similar 13mp camera on the rear side, backed by proprietary PixelMaster technology, Backlight (HDR) mode, f/ 2.0 aperture, .
On the front, it houses a 5mp snapper with 88-degree field of view and also comes with ZenUI Selfie Panorama mode, which can capture panoramic selfies with up to a 140-degree field of view.
Mobile Operating System:
All three devices stand even as they run on the ubiquitous Android mobile OS platform. Only difference is that they feature custom skin of their own on top of the primary OS.
Asus Zenfone 2 and Xolo Black run on Android 5.0 Lollipop with Zen UI and Hive UI respectively.
On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy J7 runs on the latest Android 5.1.1 Lollipop OS with TouchWiz skin on top.
Price:
Xolo Black is the most affordable phone among the lot. It comes with ₹12,999 price tag.
Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML) and Samsung Galaxy J7 will set you back by ₹14,999. All three smartphones are exclusively available on Flipkart.
Honorable mention:
Meizu Note M1 and Lenovo K3 Note too pack pretty cool features and come with sub-₹12,000 price tag. They are cheaper alternatives to Galaxy J7, Xolo Black and Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML).
Read more: Lenovo K3 Note vs. Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML) vs. Meizu Note M1: Which Full HD Phablet Suits You Best?
Key Specifications of Samsung Galaxy J7, Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML) and Xolo Black:
| Models | Samsung Galaxy J7 | Xolo Black | Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML) |
| Display | 5.5-inch super AMOLED HD screen with 1280x720p resolutions | 5.5-inch full HD (1920x1080p) IPS screen with OGS (One Glass Solution) technology
|
|
| OS | Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with TouchWiz UI | Android 5.0 Lollipop with Hive UI | Android 5.0 Lollipop OS with custom Zen UI |
| Processor | 64-bit class Exynos 7580 Octa-core | Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Series Octa-core (1.7GHz quad-core ARM Cortex A53 + 1.0GHz quad-core A53) CPU | 2GB RAM/16GB/1.8GHz Quad Core Intel Atom Z3560 |
| GPU | Mali-T720 MP2 | Adreno 405 | PowerVR G6430 GPU |
| RAM | 1.5GB | 2GB LPDDR3 | 2GB |
| Storage Capacity | 16GB, expandable up to 128GB | 16GB, expandable up to 32GB | 16GB/32GB/64GB/ 128GB (+ 64GB via microSD card) |
| Camera |
|
Main: (13mp + 2mp) dual camera
Front: 5.0-megapixel camera with 5-element lens, f/2.0 aperture, front flash and 81-degree angle lens
|
|
| Battery | 3000 mAh;
|
3200 mAh (Lithium polymer) with optimization feature, which helps phones to last 20% longer than conventional phones
|
3000 mAh;Comes with fast-charge technology where-in phone can get re-charged close to 60-percent battery capacity within 39 minutes |
| Network | 4G-LTE | 4G-LTE | 4G-LTE (Cat 4: 150/50 mbps |
| Add-ons | Dual-SIM card slot, Bluetooth v4.1, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz) GPS/GLONASS, USB 2.0, | Breathing light (on power button) for notifications ,dual-SIM slots, Comet browser, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), USB v2.0, USB OTG, microSD card slot, GPS/GLONASS, | Wi-Fi (802.11ac), Bluetooth, DSDA (Dual SIM Dual Active) SIM slots (type: micro) |
| Dimensions | 152.2 x 79.1 x 7.9 mm | 155.5 x 76.6 x 7.3 mm | 152.5 x 77.2 x 3.9 ~ 10.9 mm |
| Weight | 168 g | N/A | 170 g |
| Price | ₹14,999/- | ₹12,999/- | 2GB RAM/16GB memory model (ZE551ML): ₹14,999/- |
