Samsung Galaxy J5 review: A cracking budget handset

Samsung J5 review: Design & looks

The Samsung Galaxy J5 looks very much like a classic Samsung phone. It's available in Black or White, and has a familiar but attractive rectangular style with rounded corners. It's very slim for a mid-range phone, measuring under 8mm in thickness, and weighing in at a solid yet not too heavy 146g. The phone feels good in the hand, and isn't too big to use single-handedly.

The screen is a very nice size for a mid-range phone. Measuring 5 inches, it's large enough to enjoy photos, videos and games, yet not so big that you struggle to slip it into your pocket. It's a HD display with a pixel density of 294ppi, making it fairly nice and sharp. It's one of Samsung's high-quality AMOLED screens, with plenty of brightness and contrast too.

Design-wise, this is exactly what we want from a mid-range phone, and the trade-off between size, screen quality and materials used is just right.

Good mid-range specs

Running Android 5.1 Lollipop, the J5 has a Quadcore Snapdragon 410 processor as its beating heart. This runs at 1.2GHz and has 1.5GB of RAM available, giving it good mid-range performance - significantly better than the Samsung J1.

Perhaps less impressive is the meager 8GB of built-in storage, which doesn't offer a lot of room for apps, videos and music. You can add a microSD memory card for up to 128GB of additional storage, but we feel that the basic 8GB is rather tight for comfort.

13 megapixel camera

The standard camera configuration for a mid-range phone in 2015 seems to be 13 megapixels with HD 1080p video recording, and that's exactly what the J5 has. It's a competent camera that does what most other smartphones at this price also do.

The front camera has a 5 megapixel sensor, and is just right for selfies and video chat.

4G connectivity

No surprises here. The J5 has all the connectivity options that every similar smartphone has - 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB and a headphone jack. To find your location, the phone has access to A-GPS, GLONASS and Beidou positioning.

Impressive battery life

The phone has a large 2,600mAh battery, which can provide up to 18 hours of talktime and ought to be good for two days of moderate use. It's an area that many low-end phones get wrong, and the J5 seems to get it right.

Conclusion - solid performance at a low cost

The price of the Samsung J5 is competitive, and it does what a mid-range smartphone ought to do, without any nasty surprises, making it a very safe choice.

One of its best features is its slim, elegant design, and if you've used a Samsung Android phone before you'll feel immediately at home. The screen is a good size and is of good quality. The camera takes decent pictures, and the processor is up to the job. Battery life is strong. The one area of compromise is the 8GB of storage, but you can extend this at low cost with a memory card.

Samsung Galaxy J5 features include:

• Android 5.1 Lollipop
• 13 megapixel camera with LED flash, autofocus, 4x digital zoom, 1080p HD video recording
• 5 megapixel front video camera
• Display: Super AMOLED, 16 million colours, 5 inches, 720 x 1280 pixels
• Music player and radio app
• A-GPS, GLONASS and Beidou positioning
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, instant messaging, email, chat
• Processor: Quad-core 1.2GHz, 1.5GB RAM
• Memory: 8GB plus microSD memory card slot
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, 3.5mm audio jack
• 4G LTE, 3G HSPA, quadband GSM
• Size: 142.1 x 71.8 x 7.9 mm
• Weight: 146g
• Battery: 2,600mAh battery
• Talk time: 18 hours