An year ago, Chinese manufacturers were sort of revolutionizing online retail space and we witnessed several imposing and monumental debuts, but Samsung seemed to be impervious to and unperturbed by this momentum. The reason wasn’t Samsung’s arrogance, but the relatively small share of online business in India back then.
Today when the online market share has grown to around 15-20 percent of total smartphone business (yup, it is still quite small in comparison to offline space), the South Korean giant is swiftly expanding its ‘online exclusive’ portfolio and the latest additions are Galaxy On7 and Galaxy On5, which will exclusively retail on Flipkart. Before we proceed with our initial analysis, take a look at hardware specifications.
Key Specifications Of Galaxy On7 and Galaxy On5
| Model | Samsung Galaxy On7 | Samsung Galaxy On5 |
| Display | 5.5 Inch, HD 720 x 1280 | 5 Inch, HD 720 x 1280 |
| Processor | 1.2 GHz Quad Core Snapdragon 410 | 1.3GHz Quad Core Exynos 3475 |
| RAM | 1.5GB | 1.5GB |
| Internal Storage | 8GB, expandable up to 128GB | 8GB, expandable up to 128GB |
| Software | Android 5.1 Lollipop | Android 5.1 Lollipop |
| Primary Camera | 13MP, LED Flash | 8MP, LED Flash |
| Secondary Camera | 5MP | 5MP |
| Dimensions and weight | 151.8 x 77.5 x 8.2mm, 171 g | 142.3 x 72.1 x 8.5mm, 149 g |
| Others | 4G LTE, Dual SIM | 4G LTE, Dual SIM |
| Battery | 3000mAh | 2600 INR |
| Price | 10,990 INR | 8,990 INR |
Cut from the same cloth
Keeping specs differences aside for a minute, the two new On series phones feel exactly same from the outside (design) and on the inside (software), except for the difference in size. On7 is scaled variant with a bigger 5.5 Inch display, a bigger rear camera and a slightly bigger battery.
Removing the faux-leather finish plastic back cover (which isn’t as premium as, say, last gen Note series devices, but doesn’t feel cheap either) exposes removable battery and slots for SIM cards and MicroSD card . The side frame is chrome finished plastic, but we are glad Samsung has kept it slim, which wasn’t the case with Galaxy J7 and Galaxy J5 that included chunky side edges resembling dated Galaxy Grand series phones.
On the front side, both On7 and On5 look like most current gen Samsung mid-range and budget phones. Samsung has cut a few corners. The navigation keys underlining the display are not backlit. Also the traditional speaker grill placement next to the camera module on the rear side isn’t ideal in our books either.
All said and done, both phones are reasonably light and are perhaps the best looking under 10K (or even 15k) Android phones from Samsung from design perspective. The Galaxy On5 is more manageable and compact, while the On7 feels significantly bigger and should be more appealing to those who love phablets.
No AMOLED display this time
Samsung is proficient at making good quality AMOLED panels. The Samsung Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J7 managed to deliver surprisingly good screens for their price and this was indeed their main highlight. Recently launched Samsung Z3, running Tizen OS, also offered a decent quality Amoled panel for a lower price, but On7 and On5 make do with IPS LCD panels.
Having said that, the IPS LCD panels on both On7 and On5 are sharp and of reasonably good quality compared to other phones in the same price bracket. we felt that colors were a bit flat. Also, both phones lack auto-brightness so you will have to toggle brightness level manually. An outdoor mode is present which pumps up brightness for 15 minutes to improve sunlight legibility.
Also Read – Samsung Galaxy J7 FAQ – All Your Questions Answered
Samsung continues to steer clear of bloatware
Software is trimmed down TouchWiz, which didn’t feel very snappy. There is very little bloatware on both smartphones. The On7 has only one page in the app drawer, while On5 has more than one as it can fit lesser on the smaller 5 Inch panel.
Samsung has partnered with MixRadio to provide personalized music streaming experience and has also included Ultra Data Saving (UDS) mode which will help consumers conserve precious mobile data. Samsung expects both of these features to be hit among young consumers.
Camera and Performance
The low ambient lighting at the event made it impossible for us to formulate any kind of opinion about the camera performance of both of these devices. But yes, in low light, images clicked from 13MP On7 camera looked sharper when compared to 8MP shooter on On5. The On5 camera app also had a slider to toggle with exposer in auto mode, which seemed to work great. We couldn’t spot this nifty feature in the camera app on our On7 hands-on unit.
The Galaxy On7 features 1.2GHz 64 Bit Snapdragon 410 quad-core chipset, while the On5 features 32Bit Cortex A7 based Exynos 3475 quad-core CPU. The 32Bit/ 64Bit shoudn’t matter much at this stage. There was no UI lag in our time with the device and we expect this to hold in the long run for basic and moderate users. We don’t expect these to be great gaming devices, but that remains to be tested. Out of 8GB storage, around 4.5 GB is free at user end on both devices.
Expectations
Galaxy On7 and On5 do nothing path breaking, but consumers who value Samsung branding and are restricted by an under 10K budget will definitely appreciate them. These new Samsung phones can’t match hardware muscle of recent Chinese offerings, but can effectively leverage brand recognition, associated after sales services, and dignified design to their advantage.
Samsung Galaxy On7 and On5 Gallery
