Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro detailed review

Samsung has been polishing rough edges from its products for some time now. The company has streamlined its phone lineups with Galaxy S, A, C, J, Z and on-series devices. Of course, the popular Galaxy Note lineup is also set to return this year. So, while Samsung still makes a lot of phones, it seems to have identified the ideas that consumers are buying.

Samsung is hitting different market segments and its devices are now well defined. The S series is its flagship class, while the A series represents a premium range just below the flagship. On, J and Z series devices are budget-centric, while the Galaxy C series (which we are concerned about today) is for those who prefer the big screen. We also recently reviewed the Galaxy S8 (Review) and S8 + and two Galaxy A series phones. But unlike any of these devices, the Galaxy C7 Pro is aimed at budget-conscious buyers who still want a bigger screen. With a 5.7-inch display, it’s a fairly small device, but smaller than the Galaxy C9 Pro.

Build and design: stylish and sturdy
To better define its phone lineups, Samsung is using the same build and design (across devices in each range). Subsequently, there is no difference in design or build quality between C7 and C9 Pro, except for their size. Like the C9 Pro, the C7 Pro is built with a hard metal exterior (aluminum) and a nice 2.5D curved glass display on the front. The rear camera is aligned in the center and does not flush with the body, which some may not like. Except for that little swallow, I like the design.

Even with the 5.7-inch display, the phone is almost ergonomic, thanks to the thin bezel with the phone’s slim, curved body. The design has some similarities with the Oppo F3 Plus of the same price.

The phone is quite well made. In fact, I can personally confirm for it, because while reviewing it I accidentally dropped the phone from about four feet. Fortunately, it landed on the metal edge and survived the fall with a slight injury. I do not advise you to try the same, but it is still advisable.



Display and UI: Customizable
Being a Samsung phone, the AMOLED panel is not surprising here. The resolution is still kept across 1080p, 5.7-inches, so it’s not crazy sharp, but sharp enough. Also, being an AMOLED, the contrast ratios are great and the display is well calibrated out of the box to offer vibrant colors in almost all lighting conditions. Although there are some settings to change this further, the default settings do the job well. You get the always-on display here and I like it quite a bit because I put the phone in the nightstand, which also makes it a beautiful watch.

As for the UI, there is nothing new here and it looks and works exactly like what we saw on Samsung Galaxy A5 (Review) or Galaxy C9 Pro (Review). It is based on Android 6.0.1 which I think is unforgivable on a phone today. When the phone started ringing with Naugat. Duration.

Still, Samsung maintains a nice balance between a clean interface and extra functionality, which makes navigating fairly easy. There are some granular settings for security and other features, but you may have to dig deeper for them. I should also add that unlike the Galaxy A5, there is no problem with the display’s touch response and the fingerprint scanner is quite fast. However, it doesn’t work every time, especially if you change the orientation of your finger.



Performance: Reliable
Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC and 4GB of RAM, the phone is quite smooth in daily activities and at times relieves a bit of laziness. I didn’t find any problems on the phone when streaming content, calling or making general use easier. If you run a game or run many (25+) apps in the background, it starts to lag behind. While 4GB of RAM is enough to hold all your open apps, laziness is seen when switching between them. All these observations are comparative and based on the same usage with OnePlus 3.


However, if you are coming from a budget device, you will not notice laziness. That being said, Samsung has optimized the processor well and has no problem maintaining heavy tasks like gaming. You won’t get the best graphics possible and you may experience occasional frame drops in heavy games. We tried Injustice 2 and Wayne Glory on the device and both worked well, the game load time was higher than on devices like the OnePlus 3, but the overall gaming experience was worth playing.

Battery life: Enough for one day
The 3300mAh battery of the phone has enough juice that can hold a heavy user all day long. It easily lasts for 12 hours on a single charge with some heavy use including 30 minutes of gaming and two hours of video streaming. Once, I used the device as a 4G hotspot for over 4 hours and the phone was still left with a charge of over 40%. Moreover, the battery life of the device can be customized in the settings menu. Samsung has presets for optimizing the battery to get the most out of it. With the supplied charger, the phone is fully charged in an hour and a half.

Camera: Good, not good
Like the Samsung Galaxy A5, the C7 Pro has a 16MP front and rear camera and both have f / 1.9 aperture. The rear camera creates decent images with good details and colors, though with a bit of vitality and contrast. Overall sharpness is quite good, as is the dynamic range. The camera manages to capture the finer details in all light situations. However, when taking pictures with strong light sources, it brightens the overall frame to provide better light in dark spots. As a result, most of the highlights are clipped and some details are bleached.

That being said, the phone handles sound quite well and this noise-reducing algorithm works overtime in low light images. It tends to create a softer image, but at the end of it you get a cleaner image. You don’t loose some sharpness, but that’s the only compromise here.

The 16MP front-facing camera is also good and can compete with most selfie-centric smartphones. The images have decent details and the source is close to the skin tone. Also, you get beautify mode and customizable settings.

The camera app itself is easy to use and most settings, modes and functions can be reached by swiping left or right. Going to the camera settings gives you control over the camera grid, quick launch toggles and you can turn on the floating camera button.



The last row
Simply put, the Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro is a less expensive alternative to the Galaxy A7. The phone may not have a premium glass finish, but the metal-clad phone looks good and there is no reason to complain. Performance, battery life and display are significant, but it’s not a particularly powerful phone. The camera is quite good even due to its small flaws.

Enthusiasts may complain about the performance, but if you’re not into gaming and looking for a big screen phone with a good user experience, the Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro is one of our recommendations.