Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Plus G532

TechRadar Verdict

In an increasingly competitive depression-end smartphone field, the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime number fails to stand up out or excel in any way. It will see your twenty-four hour period-to-day demands, but you lot can exercise amend for the money.

Pros

+
Solid build
+
Low price
+
Easy to use with one manus

Cons

-
Cheap faux-metal rim
-
Screen isn't sharp enough
-
Camera is poor

Not so long ago, Samsung made itself infamous by flooding the market with cheap and merely occasionally cheerful Android smartphones. In a mail-Moto Chiliad globe, however, Samsung has had to raise its depression-stop game.

The Samsung Milky way Cadre Prime might sound similar a Transformer, but it'due south actually the Korean manufacturer's latest entry-level smartphone gnaw, with a small-scale cost tag of £110 (U.s.$170) and a competent if unspectacular spec sail.

Merely is that enough in a modernistic market where £250 (US$329) can buy you an outright flagship killer?

I'm not so sure that it is, only in that location'southward no denying that the Milky way Core Prime is a perfectly competent entry point for smartphone newbies and those on a strict budget.

Blueprint

The Samsung Galaxy Core Prime number is entirely fabricated of plastic. While Samsung has completely overhauled the tiptop and middle of its range with the sweeping use of metallic and glass – just wait at the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy A5 – such materials remain off limits for the budget brigade.

As Moto G users will no doubt attest, the heavy utilize of plastic needn't be a bad thing. But Samsung isn't every bit good as Motorola (or the late Nokia) at playing to the material's strengths. By mimicking the style of its high-stop metallic phones using cheaper materials, Samsung ensures disappointing results.

The Galaxy Core Prime number uses a version of the design language set out by the Galaxy Blastoff dorsum in 2014. Rather than the cool, sculpted aluminium of that phone's directly-edged frame, you lot get the smooth room-temperature impact of plastic, lacquered with both shiny and matte metallic-effect paint. Samsung reckons that it "feels similar anodised metal." It doesn't.

From the forepart and back, the phone is unmistakably Samsung – and non simply because of the logos emblazoned on both sides. The company has a well-established serial of blueprint cues that marking its handsets out, and all are on display hither.

There'southward the signature lozenge-shaped physical home cardinal, which is nonetheless a relative rarity in the Android earth, just a welcome focal betoken for your thumb. As e'er, this is flanked by capacitive multitasking and back keys.

Effectually the dorsum of the device you get that familiar centrally-placed and somewhat square camera unit, which bulges out from the body like a blister.

My model was a colour Samsung calls "Charcoal Greyness," and information technology'southward a overnice alternative to the usual black or white options. This colour is applied to both the area surrounding the screen (overlaid by the screen glass) and the subtly textured, matte-nonetheless-shiny rear comprehend.

The latter can be peeled away to reveal a removable battery, as well every bit the tightly stacked microSIM and microSD slots.

While it's non a looker, the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime number feels solid in the hand. There's a little flex in that flimsy rear cover, but the phone every bit a whole is reassuringly creak and rattle-gratuitous. While that's no longer unique at this depression cost point, it shouldn't be disregarded or underestimated.

Part of the comfortable hand-feel is downwards to the Galaxy Core Prime number's dimensions. At eight.8mm thick it's not skinny, exactly, but nor is information technology chunky. It also weighs a pleasing 130g, which is about the weight of an iPhone half-dozen.

Besides its proportions, the overall balance of the phone can largely be attributed to its 4.five-inch display. Nowadays, that'due south viewed as a minor screen size, but this is a relatively recent view. Cast your mind back to 2011, and you'll find that the Samsung Galaxy S2 (flagship ancestor to the Milky way S6) came with a "huge" 4.iii-inch screen.

The signal is, 4.5-inches might exist considered below boilerplate, but it'south even so big plenty for the bulk of tasks, which oasis't substantially changed since the first smartphones rolled into shops eight years ago.

1 thing this neatly proportioned screen is non is sharp, all the same. At 800 x 480, we're talking the aforementioned resolution equally that same five-year-old Galaxy S2 – and an even lower pixel density of 207ppi at that. With today's Hard disk drive-optimised web content, browsing the web on the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime shows upward some unsightly artifacts and leaves a generally drab impression.

The even cheaper Motorola Moto E comes with a slightly smaller and considerably sharper 4.iii-inch 960 x 540 display, so the Galaxy Core Prime number's visual failings are hard to overlook.

The Samsung Galaxy Core Prime's display isn't the brightest effectually, but creepo the appropriate setting right up and it's perfectly usable even in broad daylight. Of course, it lacks Samsung's signature Super AMOLED panel technology, but the TFT display gives a reasonable account of colours. Merely don't look your eyes to do whatsoever popping.

Cheers to Carphone Warehouse (opens in new tab) for providing the review unit of measurement

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