Samsung Galaxy J2 (2015)

Even if you put together two or three of these phones, the Galaxy J2 won’t be able to compete with flagships and upper midrange devices. That’s fine, really, because the J2 was never designed to compete with midrange or upper midrange devices. It is a budget device, and it sure looks like one.

A 4.7 inch super AMOLED screen, 5 MP rear camera, 8 GB internal storage and 1 GB RAM offer the most minimal of smartphone experiences, enough to get by if you want to watch a video or message your loved ones on WhatsApp.

A simple plastic body and gold and black colour options are what the Galaxy J2 provides to its users. The phone sure feels like a low-end entry-level smartphone, with a plasticky feel and the trademark Samsung designs with the button layouts and other stuff. The phone is pretty light at 130g and houses all basic sensors like the accelerometer and proximity sensor.

The 4.7-inch super AMOLED screen, which is almost a trademark of Samsung, finds its way onto the Galaxy J2 also. The resolution is 960 by 540 pixels, with a 234 pixels per inch screen density and a screen to body ratio of 64.7%. These numbers are on the lower end of the spectrum, as is the device. For what it costs, the phone display performs quite decently, with good brightness and decent viewing angles.

Under the hood, the Galaxy J2 houses a Samsung Exynos 3475 SoC, with a quad-core ARM Cortex A7 processor, clocking in at 1.3 GHz. Couple that with 1 GB RAM, and 8 GB internal memory, the phone packs enough of a punch to deliver a more than decent smartphone experience. There is a dedicated microSD slot to expand the storage up to 256 GB using a microSD card.

The GPU on the device is the Mali T-720, which is a nice budget processor. Do not expect games like Asphalt and Modern Combat to run on this device flawlessly, as the phone just does not have enough juice to power through.

At the back of the Galaxy J2, there is a 5 MP camera, with autofocus and an aperture of f/2.2. This camera is pretty basic in nature, and just gets the job done, nothing else. We would be surprised if you could get pictures even half as good as the ones you get on flagships, but it is what it is. The phone is a budget device and the camera sure acts like it. It can record 720p video in 30 fps.

The front camera is of 2 MP and has the same aperture as the rear camera. It is decent for clicking selfies to share on social media, pictures are fairly clear, and performance is good for the price.

The phone is powered by a 2000 mAh battery, which is not a big one by any standard. It gives enough power to the phone to make it through the daily tasks, without much fuss. You would find yourself looking for a charger by the end of the day, however, even with regular usage. The low capacity of the battery doesn’t help the device’s case in any regard.

The battery is a lithium-ion one and is removable, much to the surprise of the user, considering a fashion of non-removable batteries in today’s smartphones to make them slimmer.

This is probably a great deal if you are looking to get a backup device with barebones specifications, and do not want to spend north of INR 6000-7000 on a device. The Galaxy J2 offers all of those features that you would want in a basic smartphone, at a price that is very competitive. So, if this handset satisfies all your needs, then by all means, go for it.