Samsung Galaxy J4+ review: Not a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 killer

Brand: Samsung
Product name: Galaxy J4+
Price: ₹10,990
Rating: 2.5/5

Even as Xiaomi has gained big chunk of phone market share in India, Samsung is on a course correction to make a big comeback. The Korean giant has already revamped its premium segment lineup with phones like Galaxy A7 and Galaxy A9. The company has also refreshed its budget Galaxy J-series.

The latest offering from Samsung is Galaxy J4+. Priced at ₹10,990, Samsung Galaxy J4+ competes with the likes of Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and Realme 2 and top-end model of Xiaomi Redmi Y2.

Samsung Galaxy J4+ sports a large 6.0 True HD+ TFT display. The phone has 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor coupled with 2GB of RAM and 32GB built-in storage. It is powered by a 3,300mAh battery.

The large screen on Samsung Galaxy J4+ may appeal to users who want more screen real estate to watch videos and play games. It also has Samsung's Infinity Display (which means higher screen-to-body ratio). The phone, however, has fairly large bezels, especially chin. The display quality is good enough to watch high resolution videos. It's bright and vibrant and delivers good legibility indoors and outdoors.

Design wise, Samsung's new phone is bit underwhelming. It's quite thick and bulky. The glass-like finish on the back is smudge and fingerprint magnet. It also does not have a fingerprint sensor unlike many other Android phones in this price category. Users, however, can set up face recognition to unlock the phone and verify in apps.

Samsung Galaxy J4+ uses inferior Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor with 2GB of RAM. The phone does well on normal usage like browsing and watching movies or even playing games like Temple Run. But it really struggles when using graphic intensive applications like PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9.

The UI also does not seem to be well optimised as it lags a lot when switching from one application to another. The phone delivers full day battery back on medium to light usage which includes basic browsing, social networking and small sessions of gaming and watching videos online.

Only thing that is going for Galaxy J4+ is the camera. The smartphone delivers quality results in daylight conditions. The selfie camera is also quite impressive. It comes with a dedicated selfie focus mode for depth mode-like effect. The lowlight performance, however, is bad for both rear and front cameras.

Verdict
At ₹10,990, Samsung Galaxy J4+ seems overpriced and doesn't really have anything unique to offer. It also doesn't really outshine Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 which delivers far better performance and experience for almost similar price.