Samsung Galaxy J7 Max preview: A closer look

Camera

The Galaxy J7 Max has a 13 megapixel f/1.7 rear camera with LED flash and 1080p video recording.

Camera app

The camera application has been redesigned as part of the Samsung Experience 8.1 update. The new UI is cleaner, with fewer elements on-screen. You have your shutter button, which you can slide up or down to zoom without having to adjust your grip. You can swipe left on the viewfinder to find all your modes, including a Pro mode that lets you adjust your ISO and white balance manually (but no shutter speed or RAW capture), or you can swipe right to access color filters. Underneath the settings, you can adjust the resolution, aspect ratio and other basic things.

Sample images

The camera quality is actually quite decent. Daylight images have good color, contrast and detail. The images don't have an overprocessed, oversharpened look, and the level of noise in the images is well under control. In low light, you can use the Night mode to further clean up the images. The only major weakness with the images is the poor dynamic range that blows highlights in almost every shot. The HDR mode works really well to bring the details back in both the highlights as well as the shadows, but the resultant images often look unnatural.

HDR samples

The 1080p video looks okay. You can't really do much about the poor dynamic range here and the lack of any kind of image stabilization is apparent.

Verdict

The Galaxy J7 Max is a somewhat disappointing showing from Samsung. While we liked the general sturdy feel of the device, overall camera performance and battery life, the rest of the device feels lackluster in comparison.

While the company has a lot to offer at the high end of the segment, the truth is that it simply cannot compete against the price-to-performance factor of the Chinese brands, many of whom are either offering the same performance for less money or a lot more for the same price. The Samsung branding means you are likely to get way better customer service experience, but when it comes to actual device experience, we suggest you look elsewhere.