Three men, two bags and a Galaxy A7

When smartphones are issued for review, they’re usually loaners that are given out for a couple of weeks or a month at most. During that time, a smartphone is put through their paces in a battery of benchmarks and a practical usage test as we take them as daily drivers through the course of the test period.

While most phones are usually tested within the context of daily use or for work, it’s a rarity to actually have them tested as a companion on a weekend excursion. Until now.

The opportunity was serendipitous: a relative was slated to stay at a luxury beach resort over in the sleepy town of Port Dickson but as Murphy’s Law has it, they had another matter that required their attention on the other side of the globe and who better to enjoy the largesse of a generous relative than moi? A trip is all fun and good but seeing the small – and growing – pile of work stacking up in the office, the prospect of even taking a trip seemed like an unwarranted luxury. I didn’t even realise I was ruminating out loud until a colleague replied.

“Weren’t you supposed to test a phone that was the ideal travel buddy? ” said a colleague who was enjoying lunch at their desk and engaged in a life or death struggle with a bizarre local culinary concoction that emitted the tangy reek of vinegar and which seemed to have a life of its own.

The colleague poured out the contents of a plastic baggie: an odd slurry that vaguely resembled thick egg noodles bathed in a viscous brown goo though the noodles seemed sentient like a yellow octopus, attempting to slide out of the bowl at every opportunity despite ardent prodding from a pair of chopsticks and ardent mastication. A lightbulb went off in my head.

I walked through the aisles of the test lab gazing at the racks of test phones, notebooks and other kit due for review, going past the phones that were labelled as being intended for the suit-and-tie crowd, power users and the like. And there, sitting all by its lonesome on a shelf was a Samsung Galaxy A7. What better way to field test their eponymous travel phone than to embody its maxim to ‘Live Unplanned’ and take it on a weekend trip?

Seeing as they’re touting it as a proverbial gateway and companion to a host of adventures on account of their recent giveaway campaign where acquiring a Galaxy A7 can net you the chance to win exotic holidays, I reluctantly left the safe, neon-lit confines of the office and the comforts of using a Galaxy S7 edge for a weekend with two long-time associates whom I had not seen since uni, two backpacks worth of kit and a fresh Galaxy A7 (2017) as my primary phone for the weekend.

Getting There To Get It On
Even as the skyline of Kuala Lumpur faded over the blurry haze of the blazing hot noonday sun that generated heat eddies across the asphalt of the North-South highway, my associate and current designated driver asked over the rattling din of the overworked air conditioner in the ancient Proton Saga he was driving and a Katy Perry ditty,”Hey, bro, could you fire up Google Maps? Not sure where this place is.” Not a problem.

The 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display proved readable under the unblinking gaze of a late noonday sun and pointed the way forward to paradise with an unblinking red line and the flat, nasal tones of a faux British accent even as the phone perched precariously between the plastic jaws of a phone holder stuck on the dashboard. 

Just when Katy Perry wailed something about being hot and being cold on the car stereo, I realised something that introduced a deep, chilling sense of unease that sent shivers down my spine. I forgot to pack a charger for the phone.

I stared down at the battery life counter on the A7 – it was at full charge and barely ticked even with Google Maps on. My associate shrugged at my dismay, ”Relax, it’s a weekend. You’re supposed to unwind.” Still, using a phone and not having the option of recharging it in the field was distinctly discomforting but it was a true test of the phone’s endurance.

Out of academic curiosity, I enabled the A7’s ‘Always On’ mode that left part of the display on to highlight notifications and the time just to see how long it would last.

Snapped Up
After an hour or so, we arrived at the resort. Like a mirage, it gradually loomed over the horizon as we turned into the driveway and just past it, glinting blue and green preceded by the faint scent of salt and ozone was the sea. For city slickers, it was quite a sight to behold.

After taking in the lay of the land, we checked in and checked out what the place had to offer which included a modestly sized private pool that loomed out over part of the ocean, with waves lapping below. Studded in terracotta, the pool was graced by the sight of a porcelain frog with its mouth gawping and spewing a stream of water while a pair of stone murals flanked the pool. Perfect.

The water resistant nature of the A7 was fortunately up to the task and managed to capture snaps even when the rain hit and it encountered water in liberal amounts. Alas, video was capped to ten seconds when it encountered water. While I was mindful of the remaining battery life, liberal snapping of every single touristy thing in sight didn’t faze the battery much if at all, dropping by 10% or so even after the end of the day.

The A7’s rear 16-MP camera has an F/1.9 aperture and held up extremely well with some pretty good night shots and otherwise great shots under daylight conditions veering a bit on the saturated side.Its inherent water resistance meant that there was peace of mind taking it everywhere including the pool.

Having the Munchies

The next day started out right, with a hearty repast and further exploratory dives in the pool and expeditions around the resort though we inevitably gravitated back to the pool near the end of the day. Amidst the faint droning wail of jets flying overhead every few hours, one associate floated a question over the lapping edges of the pool they were basking in.”Coffee! I. Need. Coffee. Stat!,” they wailed.

I languidly pointed at the foil packs of instant coffee on a table nearby as I flipped through another page of a Charles Stross e-novel on the A7.

It proved pleasantly serviceable with crisp text and a deft flip of the fingers turned a page in less time than it took to blink. Don’t knock it but try reading a good e- book while relaxing in a pool with a mojito. It’s quite an experience. Those with less literary aspirations will appreciate the fact that you could game with the A7 in the pool. Asphalt 8 while floating in the water is certainly something novel.

“No, that won’t do. None of that instant stuff. It tastes awful,” he wailed. My other companion answered in my stead. “Then what do you want?” I rolled my eyes. The answer was unfortunately as evident as the sun blazing down on our skulls seeing the huge stack of loyalty cards the person had lying around at all times in their wallet and pack. Starbucks.

The run out to the nearest Starbucks in town was without incident bar the fact that I left my wallet back at the resort. Fortunately, I was able to pay after a fashion seeing as I had fortuitously preloaded my credit card via Samsung Pay on the A7 on it when I got it.

One swipe at the counter and an Americano-to-go was mine. There’s something to be said having the ability to pay stuff on your phone and having it around was a handy ace in the hole. Past sundown, the A7 still showed a reasonably healthy 60% or so charge even with heavy use of the camera, the ‘Always On’ mode activated on the display, liberal reading of quite a few e-books and even a couple of quick games of Asphalt 8 in the bargain.

The day passed quickly, with the usual bandying about of manly stories along with a quick bite and a pint of cider. Over the starlit night sky and the regular passing of airliners overhead like clockwork stars flashing red in the night, I called it a night while the other two continued their talk over a card game.

 

End Run
I woke up at a leisurely time a couple of hours past dawn to find my two other companions snoring away in an untidy heap as if they simply crashed there the moment they got through the door. One fellow comically still held a yellow rubber fish toy in his fist like a talisman.

The breakfast line at the resort closes at about 10.00AM and it was near nine o’clock as it is. Despite some teeth rattling shaking, they both remained oblivious to the world. Desperate times call for desperate measures and I filled a cup with cold water straight from the tap and poured it straight onto their heads. The results were immediate and gratifying with both blearily swearing vengeance in half a dozen languages, one of which I firmly believed was Greek. “The breakfast line is closing lads – time to hustle.”

Half shambling and half crawling over to resort’s breakfast bar, they filled me in on what exactly had them moving about as shambling wrecks. Both wandered off to the resort’s onsite bar last night, engaged in a snooker match with a trio of Danish women and liberally enjoyed all the beverages on offer at the establishment. In alphabetical order, though they seemed to have lost the plot halfway through J and started back at A just to be thorough. That would explain their present state of being.

I passed by the place earlier after dinner last night and while it seemed lively, I was hardly the sort to party but the whole place looked like it had an interesting history, if the plastic skeletons hanging overhead like sad reminders of a Halloween gone by were any indication. While they nursed their hangovers I perused my A7.

Three days on in with casual use of the camera and a bit of web surfing and it still had enough juice for Google Maps to get us back to civilisation. The fact that it had decent cameras, a large screen and water resistance made it quite a travel companion indeed. Not bad. Not bad at all as phones went for a three-day weekend without a single recharge. If you’re keen to see how the Galaxy A7 fares in more formal settings, swing by our review here.

If this has got you fairly chuffed, now’s as good a time as any to score one as buying the Galaxy A7 (2017) or A5 (2017) can get you a dream holiday courtesy of Samsung Malaysia  by simply posting your YOLO moment on Instagram with the hashtag #myGalaxyA2017 and tagging @samsungmobilemy. Swing by their site here for more details.