Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) review: Stride across

Performance

The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) in our office has a Snapdragon 615 chipset. Inside are eight Cortex-A53 cores next to an Adreno 405 GPU. They are connected to 3GB of RAM, a bump over the A5 (2016) and the old A7. It's still essentially the same chipset, though.

There's a version with Exynos 7580, which has the same basic setup, except a Mali-720MP2 takes over the GPU duties.

Again, we're testing the Snapdragon 615 version.

Unsurprisingly, AnTuTu 5 reports overall performance is very similar to the old Galaxy A7. The A7 (2016) also matched the Moto X Play, which uses the same chipset, while the Lenovo K3 Note and Sony Xperia C4 (both with MediaTek MT6752, a chipset similar to the Exynos 7580) pull ahead.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  69465
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  68324
• LG G4
  49295
• Meizu MX5
  48915
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)
  47816
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  46307
• Lenovo K3 Note
  46283
• Motorola Moto X Play
  37020
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  35710
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  31436

You can see it in the CPU-focused Geekbench 3, where the Redmi outperforms the G4 and is well ahead of its S615-powered competitors.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  5158
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  5124
• Meizu MX5
  5110
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)
  4537
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  4242
• Lenovo K3 Note
  4067
• LG G4
  3509
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  3039
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  2880
• Motorola Moto X Play
  2608

The new GPU doesn't have much of an impact, though, the Galaxy A7 (2016) doesn't score very high on our 3D gaming tests. The Adreno 418 in the LG G4 does much better (Snapdragon 808 would also have been a great pick for the A7).

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  25
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  21
• LG G4
  14.9
• Meizu MX5
  10
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)
  8.5
• Lenovo K3 Note
  6.1
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  6
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  5.8
• Motorola Moto X Play
  5.8
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  5.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  15
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  15
• Meizu MX5
  9.5
• LG G4
  9.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)
  7.9
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  6.4
• Lenovo K3 Note
  6.1
• Motorola Moto X Play
  6.1
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  5.8
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  5.7

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  26333
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  26281
• LG G4
  15090
• Meizu MX5
  10403
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)
  8540
• Lenovo K3 Note
  5656
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  5210
• Motorola Moto X Play
  5032
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  4802

Games have two ways to cope with a weaker GPU - reduce the frame rate or reduce the graphical fidelity (some do both). So what happens depends on the game, but the Galaxy A7 (2016) will offer a reduced gaming experience compared to the pricier phones. That's for bleeding edge 3D games, though, casual games will look and run exactly the same as on the bigger guns.

Other than games, the Galaxy A7 (2016) scores lower than an S6 edge+ and some others, but in daily use, you won't notice a difference. With 3GB of RAM even split-screen multitasking works without a hitch.