This year, Samsung decided to make a drastic order in its portfolio and even though it has already managed to present a considerable number of phones, when you arrive at the Slovak Samsung website, you will find that it no longer has 5 pages of phones on offer, but we only have some 19 devices in total, of which only some are among this year's. The company really cleaned up and mainly created a system. Series models are now on sale Galaxy A, Galaxy Note, Galaxy With such a novelty is also a series Galaxy J. It entered the market with the J1 model, which was quite criticized for low parameters at a price that could have been lower. So Samsung is trying to fix it with a model Galaxy J5, which is a larger model at a price below €200. But it has something to surprise.
Design
Samsung has started introducing different types of design for its phones this year, and while the high-end boasts aluminum and glass (ideally curved), the mid-range features an all-aluminum back cover and angular shapes. Finally, there is the lower end, the category of affordable phones with a plastic body. That is also the case Galaxy J5 that looks like a classic Samsung from the older years. So expect a glossy frame with a metallic color and a removable, matte back cover. It feels like smooth paper to the touch, which is quite pleasant. The cover is relatively thin, almost like on other Samsungs, but despite this, the phone feels solid and you get the impression that it won't break so easily. That this may not be far from the truth is also supported by the fact that the glass is slightly embedded in the body and does not protrude from it. For a change, the side frame is shaped to distinguish Samsungs from the competition. It's no different here, the frame is thicker on the sides of the phone, while it gets thinner at the bottom and top. The thickest is at the corners, which could help keep the display in place should the phone accidentally fall out of your hand.
Display
And why am I talking about those falls anyway? This is primarily due to the fact that Galaxy The J5 has a 5-inch display and I personally have a problem with holding large phones in one hand. Due to the roundness of the phone, this barrier is at least partially removed and keyboard control was not a problem for me, but I still preferred to hold it with both hands. The display itself has an HD resolution, so the density is not the highest, but what to expect from a lower-middle class phone, or rather, from a low-end device. If you focus on the display or use the mobile close to your face, then you are able to distinguish the pixels. But when you use it like you do every other day, you don't realize the lower resolution and you don't even notice that it's not as sharp as on the S6. As for the brightness, the display is very easy to read, even without the "Outdoor" mode turned on, which will increase the brightness to the absolute maximum just so that you can read it well in the sun. However, you can turn on the mode at any time in the top bar. Surprisingly, there is no automatic brightness setting, so the display always lights up as you set it.
Hardware
Another important aspect of the hardware is what's inside the phone. You will find a quad-core, 64-bit Snapdragon 410 clocked at 1.2 GHz in combination with an Adreno 306 graphics chip and 1,5 GB of RAM. But what Samsung undermined the potential of the processor is that it installed a 64-bit version on a device with a 32-bit processor Androidwith 5.1.1 Lollipop, which will also affect performance when playing games and using more demanding applications such as the benchmark. When I mention it, the mobile got a score of 21 in the test, so it is decently ahead Galaxy S5 mini. As it looks, the phone is not built for games, and in the graphics demo of the AnTuTu benchmark, the FPS did not exceed 2,5 frames per second, but it increased to 15 fps in a less demanding scene. When I tried to play Real Racing 3 here, it ran surprisingly smoothly, but then again, it's true that this game has been around for a year, but it still has quite high-quality graphics and looks satisfactory even on the J5. I also noticed that even when playing, the phone does not heat up so much that it would fall out of your hand.
The phone also has an insufficient 8GB of storage, of which the system eats up 3,35GB, leaving you with only 4,65GB of space for your content. It is true that the mobile phone is intended more for students, who will use it for taking photos and chatting, but they also want to listen to music, and if it is about photos and videos, they have no problem taking up 4GB in a very short time. So, from my point of view, it requires a memory card and it's only good, isn't it Galaxy J5 has this support. These are microSD cards with a capacity of up to 128GB, so if 64GB is not enough for someone, there is still an option for much more space. It is very pleasant from a lower middle class mobile phone.
Drums
Another important aspect is the battery. The performance/battery capacity ratio is very good here. Although it is true that with intensive use it can last for about 4-5 hours of continuous use, at night the mobile practically does not discharge at all and it will last you just fine for those 2 days. And if you really only use your phone occasionally, getting by for 3 days is no problem, and that's saying something in today's smartphone world. Therefore, if you are looking for a mobile phone with a longer lifespan and plan to use it only for basic activities such as writing on FB or taking occasional photos, I would definitely go for it. On the one hand, the newest takes care of longer durability Android 5.1, which includes some optimization and battery management improvements, and even if that's not enough for you, then there's an option to activate the Extreme Battery Saving mode. That is, Ultra Power Saving Mode. When charged to 45%, the mobile told me that the mobile still had 46 hours of use ahead of it. Due to the length of time I had the phone available for the review, I could not measure the complete endurance in Ultra Power Saving Mode, but I can say that it is really decent and you can handle the three-day Topfest with it just fine on one charge, and you too a few percent of the battery remains, so you can drive home to Bratislava without any problems.
Camera
The camera is practically an integral part of every modern phone. And it also applies in the case Galaxy J5, which has, on paper, really decent cameras. To be specific, you will find a 13-megapixel camera with an aperture at the back f/1.9 (which, in my opinion, is really decent for a 200-euro phone) and a 5-megapixel selfie camera on the front. And watch out, for the first time we see an LED flash on the front too! This is of course used to improve the quality of photos at night. However, it also has its own problem. It's the first time you'll have a flash in the front, and that's why it will hurt your eyes in the first few days when you try it out. Just from the principle that you really shine only a few centimeters from your face. But it's definitely an interesting new feature, considering that until now night selfies have looked really bad because you could see… well, nothing.
But how is the quality of the photos? Although the front camera has a 5-megapixel module, in terms of quality it can easily be compared to cameras with a lower resolution. But considering that it is a cheap mobile phone, we had to count on the team that Samsung will not use the latest Sony Exmor here. Well, the quality of the rear camera is much better, and I was surprised that the quality of the photos on this 200-euro mobile easily equals the quality of the photos on Galaxy S4, which was the flagship. How the photos taken by the rear 13-megapixel camera look like Galaxy J5, you can see below. Let me remind you that while at 13 megapixels the photos have an aspect ratio of 4:3, Galaxy The J5 also supports 8-megapixel photos with a 16:9 aspect ratio. In terms of quality, there is no difference; but what you should pay attention to at night is stability. It happened to me that the photos I spontaneously took at night were blurred and their quality was better only if I stood still and held the mobile firmly in my hands. During the day, however, the camera had no such problems. We also attach samples of 1080p videos shot at 30fps.
software
Finally, there are also some software tricks. If we consider that you will find the pre-installed applications OneDrive, OneNote and Skype from Microsoft on your phone, you will also find one nice function here - Radio. You probably remember the days of the Nokia 6233 and others that wanted to impress you by allowing you to listen to music from sources other than a memory card. And because at that time the mobile internet was not as advanced as it is now, the only alternative source was the radio. Well, it came back here too, to Galaxy J5. This way, you have the opportunity to listen to music even when you have a weak signal or minute data, which is definitely pleasant. Otherwise, you need to connect the "antenna", i.e. the headphones, again to start the radio. Thanks to their wire, you can listen to all possible stations and you will even find out that there are several radio stations that you didn't know existed. In the settings of the application, which otherwise has a very clean user interface, you can turn on the detection of song titles on the radio. In addition, you can save songs to your favorites and even record broadcasts.
summary
Finally, I just have to ask myself a question. Is this a €200 mobile phone? If so, then I was pleasantly surprised by what Samsung was able to put into an affordable device. In addition to a fairly decent performance, which is on the level Galaxy S5 mini, because there is a pair of cameras with high resolution. However, the number of megapixels is not everything, and the quality of the front camera will convince you of this, which could have been better, especially indoors and at night. On the contrary, the rear camera pleasantly surprised me with its resolution, and I think its quality will please people who are looking for a cheaper device with a good camera, especially if they want to take photos during the day. Why else would I recommend it? Definitely because of the battery life, because it is really high here. There is a level battery inside Galaxy Note 4, but the phone is much less powerful and therefore you have no problem using it for 2-3 days on a single charge. And if that wasn't enough for you, there's always the option to turn on the extreme battery saving mode, with which the phone can really last a lot. After all, just for the sake of interest, if you have 45% of the battery and you turn on the mentioned mode, the mobile will assure you that there are still a pleasant 46 hours left until it runs out. So to sum it up, it's an affordable phone with decent performance, a commendable camera and a long battery life. And I bet that the third reason is why it will be a sought-after product.
