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

Battery Life & Conclusion
The J5 2016’s large 3,100mAh battery and HD display work in it’s favour in terms of battery longevity, offering it excellent endurance in the field. On a full charge, the phone is able to easily last a full day’s worth of natter time with light gaming, website browsing and social media thrown in with the screen set on moderate brightness. If needs must, you can fire up an Ultra Power saving mode to eke out extra battery life by turning the display to black and white and keeping things running to a small array of apps. This usually doubles what you have left though your mileage may vary.

Overall, this year’s refresh of the J5 doesn’t offer any new surprises with a feature set that has  incremental improvements over its predecessor though those on a tight budget and who are still keen to get in on a Samsung phone will appreciate what it has to offer. If you have a bit more cash to spend you might opt for the J7 (2016) which has a better Snapdragon 617 processor, a larger HD display and a slightly larger battery for RM200 more.

The J5 is the middle sibling in terms of price and features in this year’s refreshed J-series line-up (From left: J1, J5 and J7 2016 edition phones)

What We Liked Ultra Data Saving mode, good battery life, removable battery, vibrant Super Amoled screen
What We Didn’t Rear camera lacks a HDR mode, bundled headphones could be better
What We Say The refreshed 2016 edition of the J5 offers a solid workhorse design with Samsung’s usual solid build quality along with incrementally improved features from its 2015 predecessor that include a novel Ultra Data Saving Mode, making it worth a gander for those eager to acquire a budget Samsung phone.


Specifications
Price RM849
Screen 5.2-inch Super AMOLED, 1280 x 720 pixels, 282ppi
Processor Qualcomm MSM 8916 Snapdragon 410
OS Android 6.0.1
Memory 2GB RAM/ 16GB + microSD card
Camera 12.8-MP rear with LED flash + 5-MP front
Battery 3,100mAh battery
Size/Weight 145.8 x 72.3 x 8.1 mm / 159g
* Review unit courtesy of Samsung Malaysia