Sam Oliver
South Korean electronics giant Samsung has officially unveiled the Galaxy A7, the latest entry in the company's premium all-metal Galaxy A series that brings a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display, 2 gigabytes of RAM and an 8-core application processor.
Aside from the all-metal construction — Â an effort by the company to appease critics of its plastic Galaxy S flagships — Â the A7's most notable feature is under the hood. Samsung says that the octo-core processors are actually an amalgamation of two separate quad-core chips, "enabling users to quickly and easily perform data intensive tasks."
As before, the Seoul-based firm is shipping separate chipsets depending upon the specific model: the A7's single-SIM variant receives Samsung's own Exynos 5430, while the dual-sim version comes with Qualcomm's Snapdragon MSM8x39. The Exynos chip consists of one quad-core Cortex A15 at 1.8 gigahertz and one quad-core Cortex A7 at 1.3 gigahertz, while the Snapdragon brings two quad-core Cortex A53 processors at 1.5 gigahertz and 1 gigahertz.
Buyers will also receive 16 gigabytes of on-board storage alongside a 2,600 mAh battery. A 13-megapixel camera sits on the rear, while a 5-megapixel front-facing camera adds "advanced selfie features" like "auto selfie" mode, in which users can trigger the shutter with a voice command or by waving their hand.
On-board sensors include an accelerometer, proximity sensor, geomagnetic sensor, RGB sensor, Hall effect sensor, ambient light sensor, and an RGB sensor. The entire package weighs in at 141 grams and is just 6.3 millimeters thick, 0.8 millimeters thinner than Apple's iPhone 6 Plus and 31 grams lighter.
The Galaxy A7 will be available for approximately $600 in pearl white, midnight black, and champagne gold later this spring.
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Andrew Orr
99 Comments
Hey the softwares a dog, let's throw 8 cores at it!
Just a personal note: I'm running with the 4s and really appreciate Apple supporting it as far as most of the features of iOS8. It is noticeably heavier than the 5s but I do like the size compared to the 6 and 6 Plus which feel a little oversized to me.
As much as I like to keep things simple and minimize the number of devices I own and carry, I think I'm going to get an iPad 3 Mini and wait and hope Apple introduces a smaller iPhone than the 6 with all the latest chips, etc. I carry and use the iPhone 90% of the time and am happy to carry and use the Mini sometimes.
P.S. No way would I buy a Samsung/Android product. Uggh.
Best
8 Cores. Still can't beat Apple.
And seriously, you named it A7? Can Samsung do anything but copy Apple?
Eight cores?? Also, what's a "hall effect sensor", what's an "RGB sensor", and why is that listed twice at different places in the same sentence?
What the article fails to mention is the new A7 comes with Kit Kat. So you are basically buying a new phone with a 15 month old OS. Nice.