There's no doubt that the Galaxy J line has been very good for Samsung. The company has enjoyed a widespread success in the mid range thanks to this brand of phones that has allowed them to stay competitive in a market, even whilst Motorola is still in play with its signature phones.
Now the company has seen fit to renew its "J" lineup and we're very excited about it. However, as times change, so do spec/price ratios which is why today we aim to study the pros and cons of the Samsung Galaxy J5 (2017) and see if it's worth all the fuss the media's been doing about it. Lets get on with it!
Pros and cons of the Samsung Galaxy J5 (2017)
Cons of the Galaxy J5 (2017)
An HD resolution is so 2015
Launching a mid range phone with an HD resolution by mid 2017 has got to be breaking some kind of law. Whilst its true that the display comes with Samsung's very own energy efficient super AMOLED technology, an HD resolution on a 5.2 inch handset seems pretty outdated, even by Samsung's standards.
Sure, the display is of great quality but a push towards a Full HD display would've made this phone all the more attractive when suited against its competitors, especially when you can get a high spec phone with a Full HD display for much less than what Samsung is offering as long as you're willing to go down to the chinese phone market. rd
Just off the top of my head I can think of the recently released Elephone P8 Mini for a prime example. This phone is far cheaper while still presenting a 1920 by 1080 resolution, 4 gigs of RAM, a dual back camera and 64 gigs of storage amongst other amenities.
All on all, this definitely goes down as one of the biggest cons of the Galaxy J5 (2017).
Limited RAM and base storage
We know that Samsung typically works well even when pressed for RAM. That said, this model packs 2 GB of RAM which, while it might be enough to carry Android 7.0, it surely will fall short once Google updates its infamous OS. That means you should expect the phone to lag behind in multitasking performance in a year or slightly above that.
Storage is another issue we need to address in this list of Galaxy J5 (2017) cons, as it comes with a paltry 16 GB of base storage (suitable for expansion). We know by now that 16 GB simply isn't enough storage for most users, the system on its own takes away roughly half the base storage so it was quite a surprise when Samsung didn't just start this phone off with 32 GB of storage.
The battery is not outstanding
We've become so used to the likes of the Oukitel K6000 Plus with its 4 day battery life of the Ulefone Power 2 with the same capacity that finding a phone with a 3000 mAh battery is simply lackluster. Sure, the 3000 mAh battery will allow for over one day of usage thanks to the HD display and AMOLED technology but you should not expect this phone to go all out on a 2-3 day battery binge.
No water resistance
I guess that kind of says it all, the Galaxy J5 (2017) is not water resistant, a feature that we would've appreciated as it would've given us an interesting enhancement to look forward to.
Pros of the Galaxy J5 (2017)
The display has some very vivid colors
While we might give Samsung a hard time when it comes down to display resolution, there's no arguing that super AMOLED panels are amongst the best in the business. It's definitely a pro in its own right that the Galaxy J5 packs a Super AMOLED display, especially when said display extends its diagonal to 5.2 inches, making multimedia viewing utterly more enjoyable.
An Exynos Processor
Samsung has done a pretty bang up job when it comes down to its Exynos CPU lineup. We could argue that these CPU's stand one step above MediaTek processor and one step bellow the high end Snapdragon processors.
Overall, if we consider that MediaTek octa core processors are quite impressive these days, that would translate into the octa core Exynos 7870 being a pretty great CPU for everyday tasks as well as more complex software, something that definietly adds to the experience and improves upon the Galaxy J5 (2017)'s pros.
A good set of cameras
There are two things at which Samsung typically excels when it comes down to phone manufacturing; displays and cameras. We've already rejoiced on the super AMOLED display, now its time to rejoice on the camera options which, in this case, come in the form of a back-end 13 mpx camera with a wide f/1.9 aperture to increase dynamic range and depth of field.
If you're not into photography this basically means that colors will be richer, there will be more shades and you'll be able to shoot photos where the person or object is at the forefront and the back looks blurry. Of course you can shoot images where everything is clear but that takes away from the bokeh effect that most photographers look for (one of the reasons why the iPhone 7 Plus packs a dual back camera).
Up to 256 GB of expandable storage
While a big con of the Galaxy J5 is the limitation to 16 GB on its base storage, a big pro is precisely the fact that you're able to expand storage via a microSD card all the way to an additional 256 GB. This is something worth noting as many models don't really go beyond the 64 to 128 GB microSD option.
It's a Samsung phone
This might not seem like a pro but actually its one of the reasons most people will buy it. Samsung has gained its share of the market and made people trust the brand (despite some unfortunate recent incidents) by delivering good products that people love.
Sure enough these aren't the cheapest phones in the market and you could get phones with better specs at much more competitive price points if you look at lesser known brands but these brands haven't achieved what Samsung already has; an international network, a team of developers working round the clock and a quality control that now -more than ever before- is under public scrutiny which means they'll have to work twice as hard to make sure their phones are top notch.
Wrapping it up
In closing this listing of the pros and cons of the Galaxy J5 (2017) there's no doubt that we're looking at a pretty great handset overall. Sure enough we would've valued an HD resolution on the display as well as more RAM to keep us tied up for a few more Android updates but overall we can say that this is a great phone for those looking to buy a Samsung phone with all the quality that such a purchase entails.