Introudction and design
Not so long ago, Samsung made itself infamous by flooding the market with cheap and only occasionally cheerful Android smartphones. In a post-Moto G world, however, Samsung has had to raise its low-end game.
The Samsung Galaxy Core Prime might sound like a Transformer, but its actually the Korean manufacturers latest entry-level smartphone champ, with a modest price tag of £110 (US$170) and a competent if unspectacular spec sheet.
But is that enough in a modern market where £250 (US$329) can buy you an outright flagship killer?
Im not so sure that it is, but theres no denying that the Galaxy Core Prime is a perfectly competent entry point for smartphone newbies and those on a strict budget.
Design
The Samsung Galaxy Core Prime is entirely made of plastic. While Samsung has completely overhauled the top and middle of its range with the sweeping use of metal and glass – just look 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 use of plastic neednt be a bad thing. But Samsung isnt as good as Motorola (or the late Nokia) at playing to the materials strengths. By mimicking the style of its high-end metal phones using cheaper materials, Samsung ensures disappointing results.
The Galaxy Core Prime uses a version of the design language set out by the Galaxy Alpha back in 2014. Rather than the cool, sculpted aluminium of that phones straight-edged frame, you get the smooth room-temperature touch of plastic, lacquered with both shiny and matte metal-effect paint. Samsung reckons that it "feels like anodised metal." It doesnt.
From the front and back, the phone is unmistakably Samsung – and not just because of the logos emblazoned on both sides. The company has a well-established series of design cues that mark its handsets out, and all are on display here.
Theres the signature lozenge-shaped physical home key, which is still a relative rarity in the Android world, but a welcome focal point for your thumb. As always, this is flanked by capacitive multitasking and back keys.
Around the back 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 Grey," and its a nice 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-yet-shiny rear cover.
The latter can be peeled away to reveal a removable battery, as well as the tightly stacked microSIM and microSD slots.
While its not a looker, the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime feels solid in the hand. Theres a little flex in that flimsy rear cover, but the phone as a whole is reassuringly creak and rattle-free. While thats no longer unique at this low price point, it shouldnt be overlooked or underestimated.
Part of the comfortable hand-feel is down to the Galaxy Core Primes dimensions. At 8.8mm thick its not skinny, exactly, but nor is it chunky. It also weighs a pleasing 130g, which is about the weight of an iPhone 6.
Besides its proportions, the overall balance of the phone can largely be attributed to its 4.5-inch display. Nowadays, thats viewed as a small screen size, but this is a relatively recent view. Cast your mind back to 2011, and youll find that the Samsung Galaxy S2 (flagship ancestor to the Galaxy S6) came with a "huge" 4.3-inch screen.
The point is, 4.5-inches might be considered below average, but its still big enough for the majority of tasks, which havent essentially changed since the first smartphones rolled into shops eight years ago.
One thing this neatly proportioned screen is not is sharp, however. At 800 x 480, were talking the same resolution as that aforementioned five-year-old Galaxy S2 – and an even lower pixel density of 207ppi at that. With todays HD-optimised web content, browsing the web on the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime shows up some unsightly artifacts and leaves a generally drab impression.
The even cheaper Motorola Moto E comes with a slightly smaller and considerably sharper 4.3-inch 960 x 540 display, so the Galaxy Core Primes visual failings are hard to overlook.
The Samsung Galaxy Core Primes display isnt the brightest around, but crank the appropriate setting right up and its perfectly usable even in broad daylight. Of course, it lacks Samsungs signature Super AMOLED panel technology, but the TFT display gives a reasonable account of colours. Just dont expect your eyes to do any popping.
- Thank you to Carphone Warehouse for providing the review unit
Key Features
One of the Samsung Galaxy Core Primes key selling points is its relatively compact build and display, which some would call small. Samsung calls it "well-balanced," and Im inclined to agree.
The Galaxy Core Primes 4.5-inch screen proves more practical than most for single-handed usage. There remains a certain tactile appeal to pulling out your phone, unlocking it, and firing off a quick email with a single hand and minimal finger contortions.
Just follow our advice and swap out the default Samsung keyboard early doors, OK? Its ugly, theres no readily accessible comma button, and fans of joined-up typing systems will be left frustrated.
The other headline boast from Samsung relates to the Galaxy Core Primes 4G connectivity. At the very bottom end of the market its still common to see 3G-only phones that cant take advantage of the UKs belatedly expanding next-gen (surely current-gen by now?) mobile network standard.
The Galaxy Core Prime accessed my towns 4G network as easily as flagship smartphones worth five times the price, like the iPhone 6S. Both connections are download-munchingly strong in the town centre and barely clinging on for life in the burbs.
Of course, all features great and small should be cast in the context of the Samsung Galaxy Core Primes price. It costs around £110 (US$170) up front, and in the UK Carphone Warehouse is offering it for free on a £13.50-per-month two year O2 contract at the time of writing.
Thats pretty good for whats on offer, but you can do better. Weve already mentioned the second generation Motorola Moto E and its sharper display, and you can pick one of those up for less.
Then theres the WileyFox Swift at £130, complete with a more attractive design and a superior display. Or the sub-£100 EE Harrier Mini with its stock Android OS and Wi-Fi calling provision.
For a little more money, meanwhile, theres the third generation Motorola Moto G for £150 (US$180) – a far better phone in most departments.
While value initially appears to be a big selling point, then, the Galaxy Core Primes price turns out to be nothing to write home about.
Performance and battery life
Performance
Samsung has gone with a pretty common low-end processor for the Galaxy Core Prime in the Snapdragon 410.
Qualcomms entry-level 1.2GHz quad-core CPU is so common because it does the basics competently, and thats pretty much how it proves to be here.
Backed by 1GB of RAM, the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime handles general navigation fairly smoothly. Youll get the odd delay when opening up apps, but the general experience is quite fluid.
You shouldnt bank on strong gaming performance, except for simple 2D games. Dead Trigger 2 runs less than smoothly on medium settings (it wont go any higher), Angry Birds 2 is playable with the odd physics-induced frame rate dip, while Beneath the Lighthouse and Horizon Chase didnt load at all for me.
Ill discuss camera performance in more detail later, but for now Ill say its less than snappy – both in terms of starting up the camera app and actually taking pictures.
Of course, none of these drawbacks are unusual for phones pitched at this level. In fact, the Galaxy Core Primes less-than-sharp display could give it a bit of a performance boost against similarly specced rivals – on paper, at least.
During my time with the phone, it snagged an average Geekbench 3 benchmark test score of 1,710. This puts it ahead of the Motorola Moto E, which could only manage 1421, and the EE Harrier Mini at 1499. Both have sharper displays than the Core Prime.
Of course, both the Moto E and the Harrier Mini balance this out with leaner, faster, and altogether more appealing UIs. This being a Samsung phone, the Galaxy Core Prime gives you the companys stubborn repurposing of Android 5.1.1 out of the box.
This is a similar TouchWiz skin to the one found on the rest of Samsungs recent releases dating back to the Samsung Galaxy S6, which means its actually a big improvement on how things used to be.
Samsung has scaled right back on the needless duplicated apps, pointless animations, and gaudy UI elements. But its still an unnecessary obfuscation of the excellent stock Android OS.
The drop-down notification tray is a restyled effort, though it fulfils a similar role, with various settings toggles and a brightness slider alongside swipable notifications. More of those toggles can be accessed by scrolling right, but I found this to be a less elegant solution than the two-swipe expansion system found in stock Android.
Google Now wont be found with a swipe to the right, nor with a hold-and-swipe of a virtual home key (there is none), but rather a press-and-hold of the physical home button. I actually like this tactile approach quite a lot, and it mimics the tight implementation of Siri on the iPhone range.
While the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime has access to faster 4G networks, its worth highlighting that its Wi-Fi performance isnt up to the standard of most mid and top-range phones. As with the Moto E, you cant access the faster, less-congested 5GHz band. Its something to keep in mind if your home networks 2.4GHz band is frequently jammed up.
Battery life
The Samsung Galaxy Core Prime uses a compact 2000mAh battery. That might sound small, but remember that the phones display is less taxing than most.
As a result, I found the phones stamina to be perfectly decent. Very good, in fact. Following the standard techradar stamina test – a 90-minute 720p video with the screen brightness cranked right up to max – I recorded an average of 79% left in the tank. Thats about the same as the Moto E, which features a much larger 2390mAh battery to account for its sharper screen.
I found that the Core Primes battery performed even better in general usage. After a full 24 hours of very light use (with airplane mode activated overnight), the Galaxy Core Prime was left with 84% of its charge. Increase that usage and youll still be good for the best part of two days.
Samsung also offers a decent selection of battery-saving tools, such as an optimisation function that will scan for seldom-used apps and scale back the frequency of their background operations.
Theres also an Ultra Power Saving mode that strips your phones UI and operation back to near feature phone level, resulting in potentially weeks of standby time.
Camera
£100 (US$100) might get you a decent smartphone these days, but what it still doesnt get you is a decent camera. Sure enough, the Samsung Galaxy Core Primes camera doesnt have an awful lot going for it.
Its a 5-megapixel unit with an f/2.6 lens, an LED flash, and autofocus capabilities. Not all cheap phones come with a flash (for example, the Moto E), so thats a notable plus. The Galaxy Core Prime can capture 720p video.
Thats about it for features. While its a 5-megapixel camera, the default setting will get you 3.9-megapixel shots. This is so that you can obtain a wider 5:3 aspect ratio that fills the display, rather than the squarer 4:3 aspect ratio that the full 5-megapixel setting requires.
Actually taking shots on the Galaxy Core Prime is a slow process, with the autofocus system taking an age to obtain a lock once youve pressed the shutter button.
It can also take a while to jump to the camera app from the lockscreen shortcut.
The quality of the images youll obtain is mediocre at best. The camera doesnt cope well with large differences in light and dark (high dynamic range) and theres no HDR mode to compensate for that.
Meanwhile the shots I took on a slightly overcast day were murky and noisy, whether taking a close-up of a flower or a landscape shot.
Returning to that initial point, though, you dont buy a cheap smartphone expecting to get a good camera. All you can ask is that the camera takes reasonably accurate, reliable shots for social media sharing and capturing unexpected moments. For that, the Galaxy Core Prime just about does the job.
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Core Prime is a low cost smartphone with a robust design and a screen thats well suited to one-handed usage. But it joins a crowded sector of the market with some very strong entry-level rivals, and Samsungs latest effort simply doesnt do anything sufficiently well to stand out from the crowd.
We liked
The Samsung Galaxy Core Primes 4.5-inch display is just the right size for comfortable single-handed usage, which is quite rare in the Android world.
Its battery life, too, is strong, and can get you through two days of moderate usage. A nicely balanced 4G phone for a wallet-friendly price.
We disliked
While the Galaxy Core Primes display is nicely proportioned, it really isnt sharp enough – even at this price point.
Samsungs usual design approach of replicating its premium phones with cheaper materials continues to underwhelm. Plastic neednt feel cheap, but it does here – particularly with that metal-effect rim.
Finally, while we dont expect great things from entry-level smartphone cameras, the Galaxy Core Primes really isnt much cop. In particular, it seems quite slow to focus.
Verdict
While theyre still full of compromises, entry-level smartphones no longer need to be a case of simply making do. The Moto E and the EE Harrier Mini both have stand-out features that lift them above their modest price tags.
In offering absolutely nothing to write home about, the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime falls into a samey pack. Its built well but looks a little cheap, while its display simply isnt up to the standard of its low-cost rivals.
In short, its yet another "good enough" low-end phone from Samsung. And "good enough" is no longer good enough.
First reviewed: January 2016
- Thank you to Carphone Warehouse for providing the review unit
from www.techradar.com
