Samsung Galaxy A9 2018 vs Galaxy A7 2018: Specs Comparison

We currently have both the Galaxy A7 (the triple camera phone) and the Galaxy A9 (the quad camera phone) in Techlekh. So, I thought why not do a specs comparison? Surely people would want to read that.

Design and Build Quality

I held the Galaxy A7 first before the A9 in my hand. At that time, the phone felt light. But, after I held the Galaxy A9 in my hands, the Galaxy A7 felt flimsy. Not that the Galaxy A9 has got an amazing build quality or anything, it just has got the right amount of heft. Also, the chamfered edges of the A9 makes the phone feel thinner than it actually is. Overall, I felt more comfortable holding the Galaxy A9 in my hand even though it is larger than the Galaxy A7.

The top and bottom bezels on both these phones are huge. But the side bezels on the Galaxy A7 are particularly atrocious. I mean phones that cost around 16K have a similar design. What is Samsung doing? After testing phones in the same price category like the Oppo F9, Nova 3i, and Nova 3, this kind of sloppiness in design is disappointing.

Display

The displays on both these phones are FHD+ SuperAMOLED displays with the resolution of 1080 x 2220 pixels. These displays look identical to my eyes. They have that signature punchy colors of an AMOLED display and they get searingly bright. I had no problems viewing them outdoors. One thing’s for sure, these phones have the best displays in their price range.

Performance

The Samsung Galaxy A7 is powered by an Exynos 7885 chipset. The performance of this chipset falls between Snapdragon 636 and Snapdragon 660. So, it is a capable mid-range CPU. Combined with 4GB RAM, this CPU will have no problem will normal multitasking.

Samsung Galaxy A9 has within it Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 660 processor. This is the best mid-range chipset of the Snapdragon 600 series. Combining this with 6GB RAM means no complaints about multitasking and app-switching. In terms of sheer specs, the Galaxy A9 wins this round. However, the difference in the real world is much less noticeable. I felt like the Galaxy A9 was slightly smoother and faster but that difference is barely noticeable. If you don’t put these phone side by side, you’ll be happy with the performance with any of these phones.

Storage

This one’s simple. A7 has 64GB internal storage expandable up to 512GB using micro-SD card. A9 has 128GB internal storage expandable up to 512GB using micro-SD card. A9 wins this round fair and square.

Battery

A7 has a 3300 mAh battery. While the A9 has a 3800mAh battery inside its frame. As we haven’t used these devices extensively, we don’t know how good these phones are at batter management. The battery size is typical of the size-group of this phone.

Cameras

Samsung Galaxy A9 has 4 cameras at the back – a 24 MP f/1.7 main shooter, an 8 MP f/2.4 ultrawide lens with a 120-degree FOV, a 10 MP f/2.4 telephoto lens with a 2X optical zoom, and a 5 MP f/2.2, depth sensor. These are a lot of sensors and lenses. The primary sensor on the A9 uses pixel binning to combine four pixels into one. Also, it can recognize up to 19 different scenes and optimize color settings according to the situation.

Samsung Galaxy A7 is not a slouch either. There are 3 rear cameras on the Samsung Galaxy A7. They are a 24 MP f/1.7 main shooter, an 8 MP f/2.4 ultrawide lens, and a 5 MP, f/2.2, depth sensor.

As for selfies, the Galaxy A9 (2018) features a 24-megapixel sensor with a f/2.0 aperture at the front. It comes with features such as selfie focus, pro-lighting, and AR Emoji. The Galaxy A7 (2018) also bears a 24-megapixel fixed-focus camera sensor at the front along with a f/2.0 aperture and an LED flash.

We will probably do a full review of these cameras. So, stay with us to find out how the photos look.

Miscellaneous

Though these phones look similar, there are several oddities among them that separates these phones apart. For one, Galaxy A7 has a micro USB port instead of a USB C port found on the Galaxy A9. Like why? Why would someone put a micro USB in their phones in 2018? But this is not a Galaxy A7 specific problem.

Also, the speakers of the Galaxy A7 sound tinnier than the ones on the A9. Both the phones have a mono speaker setup. So, none of them are particularly good but if I had to pick a winner it would be the Galaxy A9 for its fuller sound.

The fingerprint sensor on the A7 is on the sides while it is at the back for the Galaxy A9. Most importantly, there is a Bixby button on the A9 while that is thankfully absent in the A7.

Conclusion

So, you saw how these two phones stack up against each other. The A9 is obviously more powerful and more feature packed than the A7. Galaxy A9 has larger RAM and larger storage. But the A7 gives a tough competition to the A9. The camera on both these phones turned out to be, to put it mildly, average. So, the ultimate choice between which phones you should buy comes down to price. The Galaxy A9 is currently available at Daraz for Rs. 54,999. The Galaxy A7 costs Rs. 42,990. Is the Galaxy A9 worth 12K more than the A7? That’s for you to decide after reading this article.