Thin Is In With Samsung’s All-Metal, Octa-Core Galaxy A7

Samsung’s Galaxy A7 that we’ve been telling you about for the past few weeks is finally here, and the device brings with it some highs, and some lows. First of all, the design of the Galaxy A7 is impressive, with its aluminum unibody measuring in at just 6.3mm thick. That makes its one of the thinnest smartphone around (for comparison, the 5.5-inch Apple iPhone 6 Plus measure 7.1-thick, and that’s not even counting its protruding camera lens).

Specs wise, the Galaxy A7 doesn’t bring too many surprises with a 64-bit octa-core processor (paired with just 2GB of RAM), 16GB of internal storage, a microSD slot, 13MP rear camera, 5MP front camera, and a 2600 mAh internal battery. It should noted that the standard, single-SIM (LTE) models of the Galaxy A7 come with four 1.8GHz cores and four 1.3GHz cores. Opting for the dual-SIM (LTE/43G) models gives you four 1.5GHz cores and four 1GHz cores.

Where things start to head south is when it comes to the display. We had been fully expecting for the Galaxy A7 to come to market with a 5.5-inch 1080p display — well, the 5.5-inch part was correct, but unfortunately, the display resolution is only 720p. It’s by no means the end of the world, but it’s slightly disappointing for such a large display.

And if you were hoping for Samsung to ship the Galaxy A7 out of the gate with Android 5.0 Lollipop, you’ll be disappointed. The device will ship with Android 4.4 KitKat, and we’re assuming that a Lollipop update will be made available later down the road.

“We strive to develop devices that appeal to a broad range of consumers and are ahead of the next big social trend,” said JK Shin, CEO and Head of IT & Mobile Communication at Samsung Electronics. “Combining both a stunning metallic design and a powerful performance, the Galaxy A7 is stylish while delivering the superior user experience.” 

At this time, there is no word on pricing or when the Galaxy A7 will be available.

Samsung definitely needs a hit, as its smartphone division took a beating during 2014, and a number of high-level executives were jettisoned as a result. The Galaxy A Series (A3, A5, A7) appears to be well primed to tackle the mid-range market in 2015, but the upcoming Galaxy S6 truly needs to be successful for Samsung to bolster its smartphone prospects.