Samsung Galaxy J2 Core: Decent entry-level smartphone (Tech Review)

The competition is hot among the smartphone players to offer the best in the low-price segment in India. Keeping this in mind, Samsung India has brought its first Android Go smartphone "Galaxy J2 Core" in the affordable segment.

Android Oreo (Go) is essentially made for entry-level Android smartphones with less than 1GB RAM and hence uses less storage space, less memory and still functions smoothly.

Let's find out if the Rs 6,190 device can make a space in the already crowded affordable smartphone market.

"Galaxy J2 Core" sports 5-inch quad-HD (qHD) LCD display. You will surely find that the display has a good colour reproduction with decent sunlight legibility.

The smartphone comes with the plastic body on the back panel and matte finish on the edges. The glossy look saved the device from having an outdated look.

The volume keys are placed on the right edge while the left side is home to the power button. A micro-USB port along with a 3.5mm headphone jack is placed on the bottom edge of the phone. The speaker is placed on the upper front.

There's a Samsung logo placed below the display.

The device sports 8MP rear camera with a LED flash and 5MP front camera. Both the shooters offer f/2.2 aperture.

It houses a 2,600mAh removable battery. On a normal daily use such as watching YouTube videos, 3G connectivity, calling and texting, the battery lasted for around 10 hours on a single charge.

"Galaxy J2 Core" also comes with hybrid dual SIM support.

The device comes with 1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory which can be expanded up to 256GB. We did not face much lag while toggling from one app to another.

The smartphone is powered by Samsung's proprietary Exynos processor that is specially tuned for Android Oreo (Go Edition).

You will also find a few additional apps such as "Samsung Browser", "Samsung Members", "Samsung Max" and a "Smart Manager" in settings.

This device runs some apps on the phone while other apps -- including Google Maps -- run in the browser.

What doesn't work?

It doesn't have an HD or HD+ resolution.

The cameras are not that great and the pictures clicked from the 8MP rear shooter and the 5MP front shooter lacked details.

The 1GB RAM can be insufficient for the users.

Conclusion: The "Galaxy J2 Core" isn't a bad device but not very strong in comparison to other affordable devices. So you may look for other options in the same price range but if you are a Samsung lover, go for it.

(Vivek Singh Chauhan can be contacted at vivek.c@ians.in)

--IANS

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