Samsung’s Galaxy A7 has three rear cameras and a sub-R10k price tag

Earlier this week we brought you rumours doing the rounds that Samsung would bring two new mid-range smartphones to market, one with three rear cameras, another with four. We were only expecting the devices to drop in October… but the first of them, the Galaxy A7, has been announced today, along with pricing and availability. It’ll arrive in November, with a recommended retail price of R8,500. Which makes it the cheapest triple (rear) shooter we’ve seen yet, and an unexpected rival to Huawei’s excellent P20 Pro.

Sharp shooter

The A7 packs a decent array of specs, but it’s the cameras that are sure to be the main drawcard for most buyers. First up, there’s an 8MP sensor with an ultra-wide f2.4 lens (the field of view is 120°). Next there’s a 24MP + 5MP combo (f1.7 and f2.2 respectively), which allows for Samsung’s Live Focus feature (where users can create shots with the subject crisp and sharp and the background creamy and dreamy).

Samsung’s also chucked in the intelligent “Scene Optimiser” it included on the Galaxy Note 9, which recognises what you’re pointing the camera at and optimises the setting accordingly.

Up front there’s another 24MP shooter and an adjustable LED flash, and the front-facing camera also supports Samsung’s AR emoji feature that lets users create animated versions of themselves to send as stills or GIFs (another feature previously limited to its flagship handsets), along with shooting modes like Selfie Focus and Pro Lighting Mode.

Screen your calls

To let you check those selfies there’s a 6in super AMOLED display, complete with the curved edges also usually limited to Samsung’s top-end Galaxy S devices which Samsung calls its ‘Infinity Display’. The A7 also supports Dolby Atmos audio (via headphones only), includes a fingerprint sensor on the side, packs in Samsung’s digital assistant Bixby, and even squeezes in Samsung Pay (which is good news for Absa or Standard Bank customers).

The device will run Android 8.0 (Oreo), have 64GB of storage (expandable via microUSB by up to an additional 512GB), 4GB or RAM and a 3,300mAh battery.

Want to know more? We’ve included the full specs below. Samsung says it’ll still be holding an event on 11 October 2018… so maybe we’ll see a quadruple-camera-laden Galaxy A phone then after all. Until then, the A7 sounds like a seriously stacked sub-R10k device, and one that’s definitely looking to give customers who usually go for Huawei’s Lite devices something else to scratch their chins over.