If you don't expect much from a budget phone, the J7 Prime does a perfectly fine job of surfing the web, taking photos and playing basic games.īut you can get more premium features at this price. That's the case with Samsung's Galaxy J7 Prime, which offers the classic design of the Galaxy S6 for $220 (or even less if you buy a version with more basic specs from MetroPCS).
You don't have to relearn how to use a new interface, and every button is located right where it always has been. Some people find old-fashioned phones reassuring. For more demanding, graphics-intensive runners and first-person shooters, you may want to snag a Moto phone such as the $210 G5 Plus. The J7 Prime certainly isn't sluggish when it comes to lightweight games I played Super Mario Run with ease. Honor's 7X turned in a decent performance, at 11,586.
Other phones in this price range are far more capable - the G5 Plus scored 13,862, while the Blade V8 Pro clocked in at 11,897. In 3D Mark's Ice Storm Unlimited test of graphics performance, the J7 Prime produced a score of 8,140. However, Samsung's budget device isn't the greatest for gaming. Another $200 phone we recently tested, Nuu Mobile’s X5, turned in a paltry 2,623, so you can definitely get more bang for your buck with the J7 Prime's 1.6 GHz octa-core CPU. Samsung's phone clocked a 3,580 score in the Geekbench 4 test of overall system performance, in line with the Moto G5 Plus (3,746) and ZTE'S Blade V8 Pro (3,018). Phones in the $200 to $250 range are upping the ante regarding performance, and the J7 Prime is competitive when it comes to speed and power in a budget phone, thanks to the Samsung-built Exynos 7870 processor inside.
With longevity being one of the key features smartphone buyers look for, the J7 Prime fails to impress. The G5S Plus takes 15 minutes to add an extra 6 hours of battery life. But it'll take you an hour to charge up the budget Galaxy to 50 percent, which is just too long. We wouldn't mind the below-average battery life if the J7 Prime offered a quick-charging option, like the Moto G5S Plus does. MORE: 14 Cheap Smartphones (Under $200) Ranked Best to Worst Opting for a lower-priced phone shouldn't mean compromising on battery life, but in the J7's case, it does. The Honor 7X also offers longer battery life, at 9:21. But the G5S Plus will last you 11 hours and 50 minutes, while ZTE's Blade V8 Pro lasts a whopping 12:08. The smartphone average is 9:50, so the J7 Prime isn't terrible. (Just kidding, but it will be a few days.) Battery Life: Below averageĭespite its sizable 3,300 mAh battery, the J7 Prime lasted a middling 8 hours and 32 minutes in the Tom's Guide Battery Test (continuous web-surfing over T-Mobile's LTE network). I turned every setting on as high as it would go and vowed never to take a photo of myself again as long as I live.
It was even worse when I toggled on the beauty filter, which lets you adjust the shade and smoothness of your skin tone, slim your face and widen your eyes. I'm not much for selfies, anyway, but this low-quality lens made me look like an alien. The 8-MP selfie camera, however, was a different story.
The J7 Prime's 5.5-inch full-HD display isn't the best in Samsung's Galaxy lineup, but the 1080p LCD panel is pretty standard at this price. But we're not docking points for Samsung's old-school design, which still has its fans. The $200 Honor 7X has a more modern 18:9 aspect ratio in a display that extends practically edge-to-edge.
The Galaxy J7 Prime's gold aluminum back and white plastic trim aren't cutting-edge compared with Samsung's newer, glass-covered Galaxy devices, but at this price, who cares?Ī handful of comparably priced phones, such as the $250 Moto G5S Plus, offer dual lens cameras, sleeker finishes and the promise of an upgrade to Android Oreo on the horizon. As a result, you'll miss out on features such as Bixby should you opt for the J7 Prime, but you'll still have access to Nougat features like Google Assistant, quick app-switching and split-screen Chrome browsing. That means you're a generation behind regarding software - the just-announced Galaxy S9 runs Android Oreo with Samsung Experience 9.0, and the Galaxy S8 is in the process of getting the update, too. The J7 Prime runs Android 7.0 Nougat with version 8.1 of Samsung's TouchWiz UI (now known as the "Samsung Experience") layered on top.