Samsung Galaxy On5 Pro and On7 Pro preview

Design

The Galaxy On5 Pro and On7 Pro are identical looking devices rocking the now all too familiar Samsung design. The phones come in black or gold color that see both the front and back of the phones being painted in the chosen color.

Galaxy On5 Pro

On the front is the display with an earpiece, front camera, and proximity sensor on the top and navigation keys below. The physical home button is flanked by two capacitive keys, which aren't backlit.

The sides of the phone are made out of solid aluminum but it is painted in a glossy paint that makes it look like there is a permanent clear film on it.

Samsung Galaxy On5 Pro

On the right side is the power button and on the left is the volume rocker. On the bottom is the headphone jack and a microUSB port.

Galaxy On7 Pro

On the back there is a removable plastic cover with a faux leather finish. It has a slight rubbery texture to it that's not going to fool anyone but it isn't the worst choice of materials.

Underneath the back cover are the removable battery, the two micro SIM card slots, and the microSD slot.

Samsung Galaxy On7 Pro

The overall build quality is good owing to the metal frame and both phones feel vastly more premium than the J2 2016 edition, even though the On5 Pro actually costs less.

Display

The Galaxy On5 Pro has a 5.0-inch display while the On7 Pro has a 5.5-inch display. Both are IPS LCD with a resolution of 1280x720. The display quality on both devices can be best described as adequate.

Both displays get bright enough indoors but look washed out a bit outdoors. Both displays have saturated colors that try to mimic the look of an AMOLED display, with the On5 in particular being a bit extra saturated. The colors don't look great though and neither displays look as good as those as on the 2016 Galaxy J5 and J7. But for the price, the image quality is perfectly acceptable.

Display settings

What isn't acceptable, however, is the cost cutting. Samsung has once again omitted the oleophobic coating from the screens of both models, and they always look like a smudgy mess that makes it hard to see the contents of the screen especially outdoors. There is also no ambient light sensor on either phone. Lastly, the touchscreens are limited to two point multi-touch so they won't track your fingers properly if you touch the screen on three spots instead of two.

The problem with this cost cutting is that it doesn't seem it would cost the company all that much more to include them but it does seem to make a big impact on the usability of these devices, which really makes you question the company's choices.