Samsung and Huawei are at it again in a battle to be your next smartphone. This is the mid-range battle of the Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime vs the Huawei P9 Lite.
The Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime is made up of metal unibody with rounded corners. The chin houses the home button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner flanked by two capacitive navigation buttons. The power button is on the right side and above it is the speaker grille. On the other side are the volume rocker, a sim card tray for the primary SIM and another card tray for the second sim and the microSD. Finally, the 3.55mm headphone jack and microUSB port can be located at the bottom.
The Huawei P9 Lite shares the same build except with the plastic backing where the fingerprint sensor can be located. The power button and the volume rocker are found on the right side and on the other side will be the hybrid dual sim card tray. The 3.55mm headphone jack can be found up top and two speaker grilles with the micro USB port can be found at the bottom.
Samsung’s mid-ranger is a tad larger than P9 Lite but both can be utilized single-handedly.
We have to give props to the overall design and build of the J7 Prime even with the absence of an ambient light sensor.
Both units are packing IPS LCD display at 1080p with P9 Lite having higher pixels per inch at 424 compared to 401 ppi on the J7, but the difference is hardly noticeable. The J7 Prime will have a slight advantage here coming in with a 2.5d curved Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. Moreover, J7 Prime produces natural colors while the P9 Lite had a touch of red even with color temperature set to cool.
The J7 Prime wins in the display category.
The 13MP f/1.9 rear shooter of J7 Prime is sharper but tends to overexpose. Lack of clarity is also seen on the indoor shots with decent lighting. On the other hand, P9 Lite’s 13MP shots look natural and has better focus on close objects.
Shooting under low-light is a struggle for both with poor handling on details.
The J7 Prime’s 8MP f/1.9 produces wider portrait photos compared to P9 Lite’s 8MP f/2.0 shooter.
Both can record up to 1080p with the P9 Lite having an Digital Image Stabilization (DIS).
Both mid-ranges are on par with each other and will provide satisfying results but we are giving this one to the P9 Lite by a hair thanks to Digital Image Stabilization and good color reproduction overall.
Benchmark scores reveal Huawei’s mid-ranger edge out J7 Prime with about 7K points. Thanks to its slightly higher clock rate @2.0GHz utilizing the HiSilicon Kirin 650 octa-core cpu compared to J7 Prime’s Exynos 7870 octa-core @ 1.6GHz.
Both are paired with 3GB RAM that should prove sufficient for basic tasks and a few games.
Real world performance and handling indicates that both processors are at par with one another on average daily tasks. Playing graphic extensive games such as NOVA 3, CSR Racing 2, and NBA 2K17 was handled pretty well by P9 Lite on moderate graphic settings while J7 Prime struggled to attain smooth frame rates.
A thing to note, the J7 Prime will be lacking a gyroscope sensor that is required in playing VR applications and racing games that asks you to tilt the device for controls.
The Huawei P9 Lite takes this one.
The Galaxy J7 Prime can last up to 5hrs screen-on-time thanks to the 3300mAh power pack compared to P9 Lite’s 4.5hrs with the standard 3000mAh battery.
The biggest difference can be seen on the charging time with J7 Prime topping up in 2hours and 20mins from 0-100% which is an hour faster than Huawei’s mid-range device.
Clearly, J7 Prime takes this one.
Both performed averagely well on sound testing, though the side placement of the J7 Prime may be found beneficial when viewing in landscape mode.
P9 Lite wins this round with the support of Hi-res audio playback.
Huawei P9 Lite retails at P11,990 ($250) while Samsung J7 Prime will be priced at P13,990 ($281). The 2,000 peso difference provides a phone with better build overall and some key advantages like battery endurance. The P9 Lite proves to be a good phone overall what with the more affordable price-tag.
What do you think of our contenders this round?
Let us know at the comments section below.
Mabuhay, Manila.
Full Specs |
Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime |
Huawei P9 Lite |
| Display | 5.5-inch Full HD 1080p LCD IPS, 401 ppi | 5.2-inch Full HD 1080p IPS LCD, 424ppi |
| Design | Metal casing, 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 4 | Unibody metal, scratch-resistant |
| Chipset | Exynos 7870 (2016 mid-range chip) | HiSilicon Kirin 650 (2016 mid-range chip) |
| CPU | Octa-core Cortex A53 @ 1.6GHz speed | Octa-core Cortex A53 @ 2.0GHz speed |
| Chipset | Mali-T830MP2 | Mali T830 MP2 graphics |
| Memory | 3GB RAM, 16/32GB internal storage, dedicated microSD card slot | 3GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, hybrid microSD card slot |
| Camera | 13 MP, f/1.9, 28mm, autofocus, LED flash | 13MP f2.0, dual tone LED flash, 1080p video |
| Selfie | 8MP f1.9 | 8MP f2.0 |
| Connectivity | Dual SIM, 4G LTE, WiFi n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS | Dual SIM, 4G LTE, WiFi n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, NFC |
| Security | Fingerprint scanner | Fingerprint scanner |
| OS | Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, TouchWiz | Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Emotion UI 4.1 |
| Battery | 3300mAh battery capacity | 3000mAh battery capacity |
| Ports and charging | microUSB 2.0, USB OTG, 3.55mm headphone jack | microUSB 2.0, USB OTG, 3.55mm headphone jack |
| Audio | Mono speaker, standard | Mono speaker, high-res 24bit |
| Release Date | October 2016 availability in the Philippines | June 2016 availability in the Philippines |
| Official price | P13,990 ($281) pesos | P11,990 ($250US) pesos |
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