[Review] Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016) – The Fifth Element Revisited

Performance and Camera
In terms of the hardware running under the new J5’s hood, there isn’t much difference between the hardware for this year’s incarnation and it’s predecessor. Both the older and newer J5 pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor with a 1.2GHz Cortex -A53 paired with Adreno 306 graphics. This is augmented by 2GB RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. Where it differs is that the current gen J5 runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box while the older J5 runs Lollipop though there is a Marshmallow update in the works. That aside the updated J5 also enjoys  a tad bit more RAM; the older J5 had 1.5GB RAM to work with and every little bit counts.

Overlaying this is their latest take on TouchWiz UI that has an interesting new setting unique unto the J-series phones – an Ultra Data Saving mode that in theory significantly saves on data usage by up to 50% . How this works is that it shunts data via the Opera Max client which compresses all the usual data chomping suspects – videos, images and the like – down to viewable but data friendly sizes. Another interesting feature is the addition of a rather unusual S Bike mode that – surprise – works if you’re riding a bike. Once activated, urgent calls are shunted to a voice message unless it is especially urgent and if you so choose to take a call, the phone only lets you do so after the bike has come to a safe stop.

These two novel features aside, the J5 (2016) otherwise has a modest amount of bloatware – a preinstalled shortcut to several of Microsoft’s apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the like) and Samsung’s Galaxy Life loyalty app. The phone ran in a relatively lag free fashion and the menus get you about without too much fuss or confusion. The Snapdragon 410 processor  is a bit long in the tooth though it does the job in an able fashion. Web browsing was a smooth experience as was light gaming. It was able to even handle Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade albeit with some performance compromises and load times measuring at a minute or so between levels though it was still able to run the shooty bits without too much trouble. GeekBench rendered a modest score of 1,432 for multi-core performance and 474 for single core performance.

The current gen J5 comes with a 5.2-inch 720p Super Amoled display which is slightly larger than the last gen J5’s 5-inch 720P display. Colours are appreciatively punchy and vibrant with decent viewability under daylight. Text onscreen is pleasantly legible with good contrast along with pleasingly deep blacks. One area where corners are cut is the lack of an adaptive light sensor – you can only tweak the brightness of the display manually and trigger an ‘Outdoor’ mode that makes it temporarily brighter than even the brightest display setting and which lasts for 15 minutes at a time before requiring reactivation. If the colours onscreen don’t appeal, you can still tweak them somewhat with four preset viewing modes. The built-in speaker was decent and served well for simple listening of a video clip or two though the bundled headphones were unfortunately uncomfortable to use for extended periods of time and had middling audio quality.

The rear camera for the J5 is otherwise similar to it’s predecessor in terms of hardware in the form of a 13-MP snapper with an F/1.9 aperture and the ability to shoot 1080p video. The front is an equally modest 5-MP snapper that also has an F/1.9 aperture. Shots at full resolution from the rear snapper are in 4:3 aspect ratio.

Like it’s highest end flagship S-series siblings, the J5 fortunately has the ability to rapidly fire up the camera by double pressing the home button key twice. The camera modes cover the basics for a point-and-shoot snapper. There is a Panorama mode, a Continuous shot mode for firing off bursts of snaps when you hold down the trigger, a Beauty face mode to fix aesthetically challenged mug shots from the rear camera, a Sound and Shot mode that captures a live video vignette and a Sports mode. Discerning users will likely gravitate towards the J5’s Pro mode though it is somewhat basic at best and pared down from what is seen on flagship phones as it only allows you control exposure, ISO and white balance though for most users it’s plenty. 

Like most midrange phones, the J5 delivers pretty good shots in ideal light conditions with good colour accuracy and decent details on the rear snapper along with serviceable 1080p video for both the front and rear cameras though it fares worse in dimly lit conditions with quite a bit of noise. It’s otherwise a solid showing, more so for what you pay for.