Galaxy J2 is another Exynos quad core powered smartphone from Samsung Mobiles that comes with dual SIM slot and sails on Android Lollipop 5.1.1. The Samsung Galaxy J2 sports a 4.7 inch screen and the key highlight is that its a super AMOLED Screen.
J2 Unboxing
Inside the colorful box pack you will find the J2 smartphone, removable battery of 2000 mAh capacity, quick start guide, warranty card, standard quality earphone and travel charger attached to micro USB pin.
Design
This handset has got a similar design as seen on the recently launched Galaxy smartphone, specially the slightly bent top and the bottom sides (check video review). I got the golden colour J2 for the review.
The back panel has got textures that look great. Build quality and finishing is very good, body is made of plastic, sides have silver metallic finishing and front panel and back are golden color that blends well.
It is a small handset that will fit comfortably in your hand. Weight with battery is 130 grams and dimensions are 68.92 x 136.54 x 8.31 (mm). Power button is on the right, volume rocker is on the left, audio jack is on the top side and micro USB port and single mic is at the bottom.
This is a dual SIM handset – there are two micro SIM slots + a micro SD card slot (overlapping). You can use 2 x micro SIM as well as a micro SD card all together. Both the SIM slots support 4G.
There is no LED notification and this handset comes packed with two sensors – accelerometer and proximity.
Display
As mentioned this is a small handset and it sports a smaller screen of 4.7 inches supporting qHD – 960 x 540 pixels resolution. And it’s a super AMOLED screen. Color reproduction, viewing angles and touch response are very good.
However, even though the J2 is using a super AMOLED screen the icons and fonts look pixelated, not that sharp.
Also there is no light sensor you will need to manually adjust the brightness.
Memory, Storage and OS
There is 1GB RAM and 8GB of internal storage space. On the first boot you will get 3.5GB free internal storage space and around 352MB free RAM. OTG is supported and apps are getting installed on internal storage – though there is an option to move selected apps to external storage.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy J2 houses a 32 bit Samsung Exynos 3475 cortex A7 quad core chipset clocked at 1.3GHz coupled with Mali T720 GPU. Performance is smooth, did not find the handset lagging. Handset hardly heated up. Gaming performance was smooth but occasionally there was a mild noticeable lag.
Benchmark
Quadrant – 9122
Antutu (32 bit) – 1st time 21660, 2nd time 21788
Nenamark 2 – 59.4fps
Internal storage Speed – Read (107 MB/s), Write (30MB/s)
Multi Touch – 5 Point.
Gaming
I played Asphalt 8, got installed on the internal storage. Game was playable in high visual quality mode but after a while I could clearly see the lag that happened occasionally. The lag was still there even when I played the game in lower visual quality mode.
Camera
The J2 has a 5MP AF camera on the rear and a 2MP on the front. Rear camera comes with LED flash support. Camera quality is average. This handset can shoot HD (720p) videos. Do check the sample images and videos at the end of this review.
Others
Sound is loud and clear. No issues found with network signal and the in-call sound was also pretty good. 4G, 3G, WiFi, GPS (instant lock) and Bluetooth worked well.
Battery
The 2000 mAh removable battery does an impressive job. Thanks to the super AMOLED screen of 4.7 inch size you can expect 5 to 10 hours of continuous moderate to heavy usage. For mixed usage I got 2 days of battery backup on a single charge.
Battery Performance
- Ran Benchmark for 12 minutes battery % dropped by 2 and battery temp was 34 degrees.
- Played Asphalt 8 for 20 minutes battery dropped by 7% and temp was 35 degrees.
- Watched FHD video with full brightness (WiFi on) for 26 minutes battery dropped by 5% and temp was 32 degrees.
- Handset charging (wall charge) for 1 hours 38 minutes (58% to 100% / battery temp 32 degrees). For a full 0% to 100% charge estimated charging time will be under 2 hours 45 minutes.
Verdict
The Galaxy J2 is a good handset that gives a good performance and hardly heats up. Camera quality is average. The super AMOLED screen looks good but the fonts / icons are not that sharp (pixelated). It’s dual SIM and the battery backup is really, really good.
Not a bad buy if you are looking for a known branded phone, but there are better options available for this price tag.
Samsung Galaxy J2 is available for ₹8,499.
Image Gallery
Rear Camera Sample
Front Camera Sample
Video review