sumsung glaxy j5 review

The Samsung Galaxy J5 is something of a dark horse. This budget smartphone has received so little attention that not even Samsung’s own PR team knew about its existence. The company's previous budget offerings have been nothing much to shout about, but this £125 ex VAT handset was surprisingly excellent in more ways than one.
Update 15/08/2016: The Samsung J5 is getting an update to its operating system to fix bugs and patch security holes.
According to a report by Sammobile, Samsung has begun distributing its latest security update to  all unlocked variants of the Galaxy J5, Galaxy J5 (2016) and Galaxy S3 Neo located in Europe.
The 90MB update does not add any new features, rather it brings a slew of Google updates to Android OS as well as some Samsung optimisations, including a patch for an exploit that resulted in the audio service enabling malicious applications to access values in shared memory.

To update, tap on Settings, About Device, Software Update, Update Now or wait for a push notification.

Appearance and casing

Budget phones usually lose out to their more expensive flagship counterparts when it comes to looks and build quality, but Samsung has made a spirited attempt with the Galaxy J5 and pulls it off better than most.
Many of the industrial design cues have been taken from older Samsung flagship phones such as the Galaxy S5, from the pill-shaped home button to the gently curved rear edges and the hate it or love it gold coloured variant.

This lends it a rather distinctive style, especially compared with some of its more plain, boxy competitors in the budget bracket. There's a compromise in terms of build quality as the chassis is plastic rather than more rigid metal, but the backplate is removable. This does have the benefit of giving you quick access to the easily replaceable battery and micro SD slot.
The J5 isn’t waterproof either. Even so it's a very attractive phone that feels well made.

Display

The J5's screen is another area in which Samsung has exceeded expectations. While most of the budget phones on the market use LCD screens, the J5 has raised the bar by fitting the J5 with a 5in Super AMOLED display.
This is the same technology used in the Galaxy S7’s screen and delivers ultra-high contrast as well as rich and vibrant colours. It’s not as bright as other phone screens we’ve seen, but it’s bright enough for all but the most dazzling of sunny summer days.
Its 1280 x 720 resolution isn't as high as the screen resolutions found on Samsung’s other phones, but it's more than sharp enough anyway producing text that is sharp and crisp.

Performance and battery life

Performance was, as expected, merely satisfactory rather than exemplary. The quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor and 1.5GB of RAM are fast enough to keep up with other similarly priced budget phones. It’s quick enough for graphically undemanding games while web page and app loading times were acceptably short.
There was some judderiness when scrolling through particularly complex web pages and documents, but it's not nearly as bad as other budget phones we’ve seen. This phone isn’t powerful enough to grow with your needs over the length of a two-year contract, but it’s good enough today for basic everyday tasks.
Battery life is where the J5 really shines. Despite having ‘only’ a 2,600mAh battery where many modern phones have over 3,000, the lower resolution screen and power efficient processor helped it match the Samsung Galaxy S7 in our video playback battery life test. It lasted just under 18 hours which stands heads and shoulders above its rivals in this test.

Camera

Unfortunately, the J5's camera is the main area in which it falls over. Although it has a 13 megapixel sensor and an f/1.9 aperture - which should in theory be perfectly adequate - the results were often decidedly mixed.
The problem stems from the J5's sensor. If a scene has too much light then it will bleed over and overexpose the photo. But if it's too dark, then most of the detail will be obscured.
Better image processing and a good HDR mode would likely go a long way in fixing this problem, but for now taking photos on the J5 is basically a gamble. When you do get the right conditions, however, pictures can be packed with crisp detail and vibrant colours.

Conclusions

The Moto G series has been the gold standard in budget smartphones, but the Samsung Galaxy J5 is a great alternative thanks to its superlative screen and long lasting battery. It's an excellent choice for anyone who's looking for quality on a budget. Having said all that, it’s worth waiting for the new 2016 Moto G4 (the fourth generation Moto G) which is due any day now. Unless you need a cheap phone right away, it’s worth waiting to see if the now Lenovo-owned Motorola can continue its success streak.
This review was updated on 15/08/2016.

Specifications 

Processor	Quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410
Screen size	5in
Screen resolution	1,280x720
Rear camera	13 megapixels
Storage (free)	8GB (4.6GB)
Wireless data	3G, 4G
Size	142x72x7.9mm
Weight	146g
Operating system	Android 5.1.1
Warranty	One year RTB
Details	www.samsung.com/uk
Part code	SM-J500FN