Samsung Galaxy J1 review

Compared to the likes of the S6 and Note 4, Samsung hasn’t put quite as much effort into promoting the Samsung Galaxy J1, which has only a handful of words written about it.

This budget smartphone has a ton of personality and features to match so it’s essential that your read our detailed Samsung J1 review if you are in the market for a budget friendly smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy J1 design

A better display at lower costs

Samsung’s innovation is instantly on display as soon as you power up the J1.

The 4.3” screen, with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, punches out new levels of vividness thanks to Samsung’s latest PLS screen technology.

PLS screens have an advantage over IPS screens which we see more commonly used. Not only do they provide a higher brightness and better colour reproduction at wider viewing angles, they don’t distort as the screen is pressed or a finger is dragged across it.Topped off by lower production costs and we start to see why the Samsung Galaxy J1 offers more for less.

The remaining design elements include rounded edges and a slim chassis of 8.9mm for in-palm comfort, a 4GB internal memory with 128GB MicroSD card slot and a 1.2Ghz multi-core processor for efficient streaming and multitasking.

Samsung Galaxy J1 camera

Do nothing or do it all!

The 5MP camera, which can be launched from the lock screen, lets you shoot in auto, select a shooting mode or go pro and tinker with the Exposure Value, ISO, White Balance and Metering Modes as well as shooting with Grid Lines to easily apply the photographic rule of thirds.

If the weather is good then you can turn on Outdoor Mode for extra screen brightness and shoot using gesture controls on the 2MP Palm Selfie secondary camera. Video can be recorded at a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a rate of 30 frames per second and while this resolution is at a higher definition than that of the Samsung J1’s screen, it is perfectly measured for playback on a PC, laptop or TV.

The aforementioned shooting modes include Beauty Face, Panorama, Continuous Shot, Best Photo (select the best from a burst of images), Night for shooting with no flash and Sports for capturing fast moving subjects/objects.

Samsung Galaxy J1 features

Jack-in-the-box

As we mentioned right as the start, this smartphone is a Jack-in-the-box when it comes to features. When it comes to security, the Samsung J1 employs pattern, PIN or password for your peace of mind. You can also group apps into folders or activate widgets effortlessly.

It should be of no surprise to find the Chrome Browser, Google+, GPS Maps, Play Music, Play Movies & TV, Play Books, Play Games, Google Search, Voice Search and Gmail all pre-installed. Samsung has also thrown in a few apps of its own, the most noteworthy of which is the S Planner for creating events, tasks and reminders.

The quick settings and notifications can be accessed with a finger swipe downwards from the top of the screen and Google Voice Typing and swipe keyboard with auto punctuation is also on hand to help you reply to text messages and emails or to update your status on your favourite social network.

The capacity of the 1850mAh battery is well-balanced for a phone with a 4.3” display and Ultra Power Saving mode gives complete control over the predicted standby. On the Samsung J1 this feature shuts down unnecessary functions but you can add in apps that you want to stay active. So, if you can’t live without Facebook then you can keep it running and still benefit from power saving functions.

The remaining features of note include a FM radio, tethering and mobile hotspot creation, a rear mounted speaker for music playback of up to 40 hours from one charge of the battery, video playback of up to 9 hours and Wi-Fi internet browsing of up to 12 hours.

Of course, the Samsung J1 is not the most ground-breaking smartphone on the market. Yet, for the price you are paying it’s actually pretty decent. It looks slick, it works well thanks to the power of Android, it has an awesome display which is perfect for video viewing and it takes a good photo. So, if you need to cut back on the monthly expenditures, the Galaxy J1 comes well recommended.