Samsung Galaxy E5 and E7 Hands-on, Photo Gallery

While Samsung has been recently taking chances with some metallic framing and back panels, the job is not done, according to them. It was all metal in the Galaxy A series, and now, there is an E series, with some compromises to the materials used and keeping the specs almost the same. Is that something one would look forward for? yes, may be, if they had the pricing factor in mind. The Samsung Galaxy E5 and Galaxy E7 are two new smartphones, powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor and the other internal specs being almost the same as the “A” series counterpart.

After having used over a dozen smartphones from Samsung in the past, each for considerable amount of time, I never feel Samsung is overdoing stuff with the design. It keeps the size at a perfect point, where the comfort is all there, and there is rarely something one would want to complain about – except for the way it always look the same, even if you choose an entry level device or a premium one from the company.

Galaxy E7 Unboxing and Hands-on

The Galaxy E5 and E7 can be cheaper alternatives to the premium A5 and A7 smartphones, as Samsung has chosen to use polycarbonate material for the back covers, while keeping the side framing metallic with a brushed aluminum look, thus not throwing everything away. The devices are unibody ones, and thus, you see the SIM card and MicroSD card slots on the side panel. The battery is not user-replaceable, kind of a deal breaker for some.

Samsung Galaxy E7 Photo Gallery

Talking of similarities between the two, the E5 and E7 are both powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 410, quad-core processors at 1.2 GHz, and both have the same 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Now, the differences – the E5 has a 5-inch HD display, compared to the 5.5-inch HD display in E7, and while there is a 8-megapixel camera on the rear side of Galaxy E5, the larger E7 houses a 13-megapixel shooter. The battery is different as well, as the E5 comes with a 2400 mAh battery, while the E7 has a 2950 mAh battery packed in.

While the white unit (we had the white E7) looked and felt much similar from the back, to the A5, the black unit had some smooth matte finish, and both are utilizing the polycarbonate material. While in a way, the white one with the chamfered shining edges looked better, the comfort and smoothness on the black one seemed better while holding the device in hand.

Both the devices run Android 4.4.4 KitKat OS, with the TouchWiz UI and there is no big difference in the interface as even the applications pre-installed are the same. TouchWiz has been quite good and responsive on the initial use, and has showed its sluggishness as the time passes on. Themes is the new section that Samsung has introduced recently in the A3, A5 and A7. That is there here as well, but it is still limited to the few themes that are pre-loaded, and the user cannot download more themes.

Samsung Galaxy E5 Photo Gallery

The Galaxy E5 resembles the Galaxy S4 a lot, with that metallic rim on the edge that runs around the screen part on the front, but the ditched bottom part makes it different and better in looks. The second SIM card slot can act as a MicroSD card slot, so you cannot really call these devices as Dual SIM ones, if you aren’t happy enough with the given 16GB internal storage (of which, about 11.5GB is available).

Where the Galaxy A and E series are taking a lead over the others for the youth, is with the 5-megapixel front-facing camera, that has some support on the software side as well. Gestures, modes and improvements are provided by Samsung in the camera app. While we appreciate everything, Samsung hasn’t given the options of auto brightness, indicating the absence of sensors that detect and change the brightness.

Galaxy E5 Unboxing and Hands-on

Overall, both, the Galaxy E5 and E7 are quite worth it on the initial use for a day, but that is what Samsung devices have always been – swift and great to begin with, but slowing down with time. Let’s see how they fare during the couple of weeks of usage.