Samsung Galaxy J6

Samsung Galaxy J6 comes as a mid-range model from the budget J series. Priced at ₹11,990, this handset comes with delightful specifications and excellent workmanship.

The Samsung Galaxy J6 has most of the features required in a mid-level phone. It comes with a great display, robust architecture and a powerful battery. However, it falls short in the camera department which is quite disappointing. Nonetheless, it arrives with the reliability of Samsung and stands out as a wonderful mid-range model.

The Galaxy J6 has a fresh design with a sleek body (only 8.2 mm) and has a comfortable grip. The rear panel is not quite glossy or matte, so while it is comfortable to hold, it does not pick up fingerprint smudges that easily. The phone retains the 3.5mm headphone jack which can be quite a nostalgic addition for this phone. The fingerprint scanner is placed at its rear and is quite ergonomic. However, the phone arrives with a dated MicroUSB port and not with the new USB Type-C port. In spite of that, the overall build of the phone is quite solid and gives a premium outlook despite being a mid-range phone.

The Samsung Galaxy J6 arrives with a 5.45 inch Super AMOLED display with 720×1480 HD+ resolution. Plus, it has a curved-edge 2.5D glass with the aspect ratio of 18.5:9 Infinity Display. Due to the AMOLED screen, the blacks turn out to be deep, and the colours remain quite accurate and crisp. The brightness is excellent, but some might find the resolution disappointing. One of the shortcomings is that the ambient light sensor is missing on this phone and so, there is no auto-brightness, and you have to adjust it manually.

The Galaxy J6 gets its power from the octa-core Exynos 7870 developed by Samsung. It is paired with 3GB RAM. While 3GB is good, it stutters a bit when it comes to long-term use, especially when animations and transitions are taking place. The Bixby Home Screen experiences a lot of stutters even with less content to display. Casual gaming works fine with this handset, with even the heavy Asphalt 8 running without any noticeable sluggishness. The face recognition and fingerprint scanner work quite well on this phone. Benchmark tests put its multi-core score at 3,544 which is pretty decent, though it falls flat when compared to Redmi Note 5 Pro’s 5212 points

The phone comes with a single rear 13MP camera with an f/1.9 aperture. It is quite similar to the Samsung Galaxy On 7. In ideal light, the pictures taken appear quite washed out. The dynamic range is just about average. In macro shots, the colours seem bland and are more noticeable due to the AMOLED screen. Even the HDR mode fails to improve the picture quality to a great extent.

At night or low-light situations, the photos become more grainy, and the details start to get washed out. The quality deteriorates to a great extent.

On the front, the Galaxy J6 boasts of an 8MP camera with an f/1.9 aperture. It has been provided with a selfie light so as to reduce the visual noise captured in low light situations. Despite the selfie light, low light images are quite blurry and not social-media worthy. In daylight, the selfies appear fine.

Video can be recorded in Full HD, that is 1080p, and the autofocus works fine. But the videos may get jerky due to the lack of Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS).

Samsung Galaxy J6 arrives with a 3000mAh battery which may look okay at best, but it does provide quite a lot of efficient usage. On an HD video loop test, the smartphone lasted for about 14 hours 10 minutes which is quite impressive and falls almost near Redmi Note 5 Pro’s 16 hours 36 minutes. It can last for an entire day with light use making it a marvellous mid-range phone. However, the only problem is that it takes a lot of time to charge, going up to 2.5 hours to get from 0% to 100%.

The Samsung Galaxy J6 is a value-for-money phone. It has decent hardware and comes with an AMOLED screen which is not frequently found in mid-range phones. It has good power and an excellent battery paired with a fantastic display and design, making it a great mid-range phone. However, the poor cameras and the long charging time takes away some points from it. Overall, the phone is not unique, but it meets most of the demands of a mid-range user in terms of performance and battery. However, if you are seeking an all-rounder with a great camera too, then, Redmi Note 5 Pro should be considered.