After weeks of rumors, the Samsung Galaxy A7 smartphone is now official. And it has something the iPhone XS and XS Max lack: a triple rear camera.
Samsung announced the handset in a statement on Thursday (Sept. 20). It comes with a now-familiar design, featuring thin bezels at the sides and slightly chunkier bezels at the earpiece and chin. There's no physical home button on the front, however, so you'll need to use the virtual home button built inside Samsung's Experience software to navigate.
The phone's standout feature is its triple-lens rear camera. The top camera is the "depth" camera and features a 5-megapixel sensor. The bottom lens comes with ultra-wide shooting and has an 8-megapixel sensor. At the center, Samsung has bundled a 24-megapixel shooter with auto-focus.
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According to Samsung, the triple-lens camera system is designed so you "never miss a moment." You can use the ultra-wide lens to capture a large area and use the 24-megapixel and depth lenses to create "stunning photos" with the bokeh effect. In fact, thanks to the depth-lens camera, you can adjust the bokeh effect, or blurring effect behind your subject, on the fly. It's a feature similar to what Apple unveiled last week in its new iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max.
Samsung hasn't skimped on the Galaxy A7's front camera, either. That shooter comes with a 24-megapixel sensor that similarly allows you to use the bokeh effect to create more interesting photos.
Aside from the cameras, Samsung's new smartphone ships with a 6-inch Super AMOLED display with a full-HD+ resolution of 2,220 by 1,080. There's an octa-core processor inside the smartphone and between 4GB and 6GB of RAM, depending on the model you choose. You can also opt for 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage.
On the software side, Samsung has bundled Android 8.0 (Oreo) and says that the handset's built-in near-field communication chip means you can use it for wireless payments via Samsung Pay.
Samsung is launching the Galaxy A7 in four colors — blue, black, gold, and pink — and will start hitting store shelves this fall. The company has yet to announce an exact ship date and price.
