A few days prior to Black Friday, my fiancé happened to see an ad from Boost Mobile. They were offering free phones when you switch to their service. At the time, I had been using the dreaded Straight Talk and he was on Verizon prepaid. We headed to the Boost store near us the day before Thanksgiving and learned that we would actually save thirty bucks a month by doing a joint prepaid account with them – everything unlimited, even! – over what we had been paying for our other services… AND get new phones! Score! SOLD!
What Phone Did We Choose From Boost?
The phones we had wanted were out of stock and not due in store again for a week. We could have waited for them, but the services we currently had would have had to be paid/renewed in two days, meaning we would have ended up paying double that month in order to swap. We took a look at the other phones they had in stock that were included in the plan… and both decided on the Samsung Galaxy J7 Refine devices. Nearly two months later, I am still quite happy with my choice! This may not be a top of the line phone (they retail for about $180) but it sure as heck is awesome! I’m extremely happy with it thus far. Let’s dive into the technical side of this device and how well it runs for me.
Processor, Screen and Camera Specs
The Samsung Galaxy J7 Refine runs via a 1.6GHz octa-core processor. The 5.5 inch screen has HD-720p definition, which may not be the highest there is, but does the job for me. Our phones have a 13-megapixel camera installed both front AND back, which takes really great photos of my grandkids and the gorgeous scenery out on the Connecticut coast where my oldest daughter lives. Considering most of the other mid-level price-point phones out there having just 8-megapixel cameras, I’m happy with this one!
Memory and SD Cards
Our devices have 32GB of internal storage memory and the capability to add up to 400GB of external storage via an SD card. I’m sporting a 250GB card right now and have more than enough space for everything – including the hundreds of photos and videos on my phone and about 20 apps I have installed. The phone still runs just fine with zero slow-down going on and no freezing at all!
Android Operating System Information
Another cool thing about this device is that – unlike most other mid-price-range phones – it comes with dual-band WiFi and NFC. Having NFC allows you to share things like websites, images and contacts with other NFC-enabled phones and lets you make a purchase or payment right from your device at any location which has NFC support!
What are Bixby Home and Bixby Vision?
The phones comes preinstalled with the Bixby Vision and Bixby Home experience. To be honest, I have not really made use of either one, as the past couple of months have been busy and full of unexpected change in our personal life. I simply have not had the time to play with these to learn their full capabilities. I do know that Bixby Vision can do many things, such as help you translate text in a language you do not understand simply by pointing your camera at the text and using Bixby to let you know what it says. It can help you shop – point your camera at an item you love and Bixby will tell you where all you can buy it and how much it will cost! Bixby Vision can also tell you more about a place you are visiting (or passing through!) and even find similar photos online to an image you just shot and saved. I admit it has a LOT of awesome functions – I just need to find time to truly play with it myself.
Bixby Home does a lot of awesome things, as well. It is basically a personal assistant of sorts, and learns all about the things you do and what you like. Swiping right on your home screen to open Bixby allows you to check your weather, see the photos you have taken today and more – without having to open any other apps. Bixby automagically will learn your daily routine as you perform your normal tasks on the device. This way, you will have the right content when you need it – again, without opening any apps or performing searches. Bixby Home watches the patterns in your app usage and can then predict what you will look for. This page on the Samsung website has an excellent overview of everything you can do with Bixby Home.
Samsung Galaxy J7 Refine Opinion
Overall, both Rob and I are quite happy with these phones. Obviously, if we could afford higher-end models we would have them. But for the mid-range price point, these devices are proving to be excellent for us. We have not experienced the “robotic sounding” calls that some users report, nor any connectivity issues anywhere we may be. The batteries last us all day and the facial unlock and recognition has come in quite handy many times.
Do you have a Samsung Galaxy J7 Refine? What has your experience been with it thus far? Do you have any other questions about this particular phone for me? Leave me a comment here and I will help you in any way that I can!
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