Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime: review, specifications and reviews. Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime: review, specifications and reviews Modes and charging
samsung galaxy grand prime is an affordable smartphone with a large display and optimal technical parameters for sufficient performance and everyday tasks. This phone designed for users who want to get a "large" device with a large display, but they do not care about the most progressive technical parameters.
Appearance
The appearance of the Galaxy Grand Prime is fully consistent with the latest design concept of the line's smartphones: straight body outlines with rounded corners.
The case itself is made of plastic, and its dimensions are 144.8 x 72.1 x 8.6 mm, and the weight is 156 grams. This is not to say that the phone is small, but those who mainly buy it want such a device. There are three color options on the market: black, white and gold.
Screen
Most of the front panel is occupied by a 5-inch display, although this is not an AMOLED matrix, but a TFT screen, so its viewing angles are not so good, however, at an angle the picture is only slightly distorted.
Screen resolution - 960 by 540 pixels with a density of 220ppi. To date, this is not an ideal display, but it is worth remembering that the price of a smartphone is quite democratic.
Iron
The Galaxy Grand Prime received a new Snapdragon 410 chipset - this is a budget "pebble", but it is built on a 64-bit architecture with a 4-core processor (Cortex-A53) with an operating frequency of 1.2 GHz and an Adreno 306 video chip.
Also in the phone 1 GB random access memory. Although this does not give amazing performance, the smartphone copes with all the necessary tasks easily, as well as with “heavy” games at medium graphics settings.
The main memory in the device is 8 GB, of which about 5 GB is available to the user, but you can always expand this amount thanks to the card slot microSD memory up to 64 gigabytes. The 2600 mAh battery should be enough for a full day of active phone operation.
Camera
Despite its almost budget focus, the Galaxy Grand Prime received a 5-megapixel front camera. At the time of the announcement, even the more expensive models of the line could not boast of such a module, so the Galaxy Grand Prime immediately received the title of an inexpensive smartphone for selfie lovers.
Also, the undoubted advantage of the smartphone is the support for work in LTE networks, which makes it even more attractive in the eyes of potential buyers. There is a version with one SIM card slot on the market, as well as Samsung model Galaxy Grand Prime Duos.
Video: smartphone review
Video: Galaxy Grand Prime in games
For owners:
An analysis of the smartphone market showed that Samsung is gradually losing its position in the mainstream segment, yielding to Chinese manufacturers. Models similar in their technical characteristics from China are sold much cheaper, so the company is simply forced to respond to this not only with massive staff cuts, but also with lower prices for its lines.
One of these answers was the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime. The review of this smartphone, of course, should start with the price: for the characteristics that the device offers, it is fully justified. The average cost of a model range on the Internet market fluctuates within 10,000 rubles, which may already be of interest to potential buyers.
The company decided to save on the technical component of the display in favor of the capacity of the battery and the camera of the smartphone. Pixels and screen resolution that could have gone into a display have translated into a 5MP wide-angle front camera that is already recognized as one of the best in the budget smartphone segment.
Grand Prime SM and VE are a great help for both individual and group selfies, while having a camera angle of 85 degrees, while the closest analogues cannot boast of more than 70 degrees. It should be additionally noted that the main camera of 8 megapixels also meets all the declared characteristics and is distinguished by high-quality shooting and review.
As a result, the company launched a kind of “selfiephone” with an impressive battery, an attractive price, a new 64-bit processor from the Snapdragon 410 series, which will allow you to not only surf the Internet without problems, but also play games.
The display turned out to be of average quality: 5-inch with a resolution of 960x540 pixels. The image may not be as sharp, but the IPS-matrix provides high brightness and relatively good viewing angles.
Generally speaking, the Grand Prime smartphone is suitable for those people who need a durable battery and high-quality selfies. You can buy the line in white and gray versions, White and Gray, respectively.
Appearance
In my own way appearance the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime VE model is easily identified as a representative of the Samsung company, even if it did not have a characteristic logo. The line has a typical Samsung design and style: the side frame is made in silver tones, rounded edges, a classic speaker just above the logo and an oval button in the control place.
A slightly protruding lens is located on the back of the smartphone, a backlight is located a little to the left, and a speaker, divided in two by a strip of plastic, is located to the right of the camera.
The power button and volume rocker are located on the sides of the device, as well as the headphone jack and a micro SD card port. In general, the smartphone gives the impression of an attractive and solid gadget.
Dimensions
The device has the following dimensions: 145x72 mm with a thickness of 9 mm. They are very similar to the model Sony Xperia Z3. But with a diagonal of five inches, the case seems too thin and too high. Nevertheless, the smartphone is comfortable to hold in your hand.
The material of the device is plastic, it is assembled quite qualitatively, which is typical for the company's products, in particular for the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime VE. Reviews about the device sound mostly in a positive way, and no serious flaws were noticed: nothing backlash, crunches or bends. The case is collapsible, the cover, under which the battery and SIM slots are located, can be easily removed and also put in place. You can remove the battery or replace the SIM card without any problems, without fear of breaking anything.
Screens of the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime line
The review of the screen should begin with not the most pleasant moments, as the company clearly decided to save on it. The display resolution is 960 by 540 pixels, like on the old mini-flagship, but with a smaller screen. The density of dots per inch is quite low - 220 ppi, and plus there are no light sensors, and at the same time, adjustable brightness.
The only thing that pleases is the lack of a TN-matrix in the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime. User feedback was nevertheless heard, and the line was equipped with an IPS analogue. Although the display of the device does not have sufficient clarity (by the standards of modern smartphones), the viewing angles are quite good.
Among the few advantages of the display, one can note a rather high brightness of 400 cd / m 2, which allows you to work normally with the device during daylight hours in the fresh air. It is worth immediately warning that the display does not have or protective glass, so the screen "collects" fingerprints and small scratches. Be careful and get a cover with an additional film.
Camera
The device is positioned by the company as a device for selfies, which is facilitated by the main 8-megapixel and front-facing 5-megapixel cameras, specially included by engineers in the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime line. The view of the cameras is within 85 degrees, which allows them to take high-quality atmospheric and panoramic shots.
The camera has plenty of opportunities and additional functions, coupled with a variety of modes. The only thing missing, judging by user reviews, is image stabilization systems, otherwise the line pleases with its capabilities and photo resolution (3264x2448). The pictures are of quite acceptable quality, deserving all praise.
The maximum resolution for video formats is 1920 by 1080 pixels with a recording rate of 30 frames/second. The camera has tracking autofocus, together with a microphone, it records sound in stereo mode.
The front row is designed not only for calls, but also for wide-angle selfies. Separately, it is worth noting the group shot mode, where it is possible to create a mini-panorama where your whole company will fit.
Internet
The built-in browsers from the Android and Chrome OS are quite convenient for web surfing. If it is possible to purchase Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime LTE, then browsing the Internet turns into a real pleasure. The connection of the device is stable and does not cause any complaints from both specialists and ordinary users. The gadget is equipped with dual-band Wi-Fi at 802.11 b / g / n points and Bluetooth of the fourth version.
Multimedia
The company in its devices pays a lot of attention to the multimedia capabilities of gadgets, but not in the case of the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime. The review showed that the smartphone plays most of the known video formats without prior conversion and subsequent optimization. But the Grand Prime line could not cope with such seemingly popular resolutions as MKV and MOV, and this is a rather big minus in the direction of the device.
With audio formats, everything is, in principle, standard: the player lost MP3, WMA, WAV and similar resolutions without problems, but the device stumbled on FLAC, it had to be launched by a third-party program.
Offline work
The smartphone is equipped with a lithium-ion battery with a relatively good capacity of 2600 mAh for its price. The device can work almost seven hours with uninterrupted playback of high-format (HD) video at maximum brightness, almost like an "apple" gadget of the sixth version.
The standard audio mode discharges the smartphone in about 80 hours. Galaxy S5 showed a similar time. General indicators battery life say with confidence that the smartphone in its price category outperforms many peers in the segment.
Modes and charging
In addition, we can mention the extreme power saving mode, which can extend the device's operating time up to one hour with a flashing battery. So you can not only finish an important conversation, but also run to the nearest outlet. Included Charger fills the battery from 220 volts in a little over two hours.
If you charge the battery from a computer, then the 2.0 type port will charge the phone in three and a half hours, and the USB 3.0 interface will take no more than two hours. Charging may not be as fast as similar Sony smartphones, but the company immediately warned about this on the preview of the models.
Summarizing
The Grand Prime line works under operating system"Android 4.4.4" with a proprietary TochWiz interface, which has passed the test of time and comes with expensive devices. Models can support two SIM cards and have special features for people with hearing problems: mono sounds, flash notifications, etc.
All sorts of modes allow you to quickly control the phone, and extreme energy saving will make it possible to end the conversation and continue working with the device for a long time.
The company listened to user feedback about its smartphones and did not "fill" the line with pre-installed software, as a result of which the device became noticeably faster, as was the interface.
Models of the Grand Prime series are worth their money, and they will perform all the functions that are inherent in modern smartphones, if not for the "five", then for sure. The verdict is very positive - we recommend.
First, let's talk about the camera, because the phone was originally created for selfies. That is why it has a camera angle increased to 85 degrees, which allows you to take a widescreen selfie. On the other hand, the power of the front camera is not so great - only 5 megapixels, so it is unlikely that you will be able to boast of a truly high-quality image. But in the main camera, the resolution is 8 megapixels. Also not much, but in the daytime and in good lighting, very good shots are obtained. The main thing is not to get involved in photography at night and in bad weather conditions.
The screen of the Samsung Grand Prime smartphone turned out to be more than budget. Samsung did not waste on high resolution, removed the brightness adjustment sensor from the phone, which calibrates it depending on the illumination, and reduced viewing angles. Therefore, the screen is almost unreadable in the sun. In addition, he did not receive any protection - the user should mentally prepare for small scratches on the display.
But among the obvious pluses, one can note the stability of the battery charge. For example, in medium load mode, for example, when you surf the browser or read, the phone is able to stay in working order for up to 2 days. At the same time, you can safely play on it for about three hours, talk for about an hour and a half and not turn off the screen for 5 hours. Quite good battery life, especially for an Android smartphone.
By the way, here is Android version 4.4.4 in a proprietary shell. The hardware was the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor - 4 cores with a frequency of 1.2 GHz. The amount of RAM was 1GB, and built-in 16GB. But instead of 1 GB of RAM, you will only have 350 MB available. The rest will be occupied by the system and pre-installed programs. Of course, for some functions, the memory will be too small, so you can safely forget about games and watching high-quality videos. The phone can't do this. Multitasking here is also not at the highest level. Thanks to the same RAM, some applications will start to freeze. But, as noted above, this is a phone mainly for selfies, although it performs the main functions of communication. But you will have to be more careful with surfing the Internet, because the smartphone does not cope with all the pages, which can slow it down a bit. But this is not so critical. By the way, unlike the RAM, the built-in memory can always be expanded with a card up to 64 GB.
The device also works on two SIM cards, which, if desired, can be removed and replaced. There are no problems with this - back cover opens beautifully. However, you will need to remove the battery each time. There can be no talk of any LTE here. Only 3G. But the gadget is equipped with GLONASS, GPS and Beidou - a satellite navigation system.
The design came out quite simple and concise. No newfangled materials were used in the creation of the case. Ordinary plastic, which around the perimeter of the screen has acquired a glossy appearance, and on the surface of the lid - matte.
In general, if you adjust for the cost, Samsung turned out to be a pretty good smartphone, as you know, with its own advantages and disadvantages. To take or not to take - you decide.
The average price of Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime at the moment is 9-10 thousand rubles.
From the appearance of the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime SM-G530h smartphone, it is immediately clear that this is a phone from Samsung, even if it would not have a corresponding logo on it. It has a typical "Samsung" design: a silver side frame, a standard shape with rounded edges, medium-thick side frames, a classic speaker above the logo and buttons (an oval physical home button and two non-illuminated touch buttons). On the back of the Galaxy Grand Prime is a traditional in shape, slightly protruding lens, to the left of it is a backlight, and to the right is a speaker, divided in half by a strip of plastic. In our test sample, the back panel was painted to look like metal. The power and volume keys are located on the left and right sides, respectively, the micro-USB connector is on the bottom, and the headphone jack is on the top. In general, the smartphone looks attractive.
The dimensions of the smartphone are 144.8 × 72.1 mm, up to 8.8 mm thick, approximately the same as the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, and thinner than the Samsung Galaxy S5 mini mini-flagship with its 9.5 mm. Together with a 5-inch diagonal, such a case seems thin, but too high. As for ease of use, the smartphone fits comfortably in one hand, but you will have to manage two.
The main body material of the Galaxy Grand Prime is plastic. The device, in our opinion, is assembled with high quality, which is typical for the company's smartphones - nothing backlash, does not creak or bend. The case is collapsible, the cover can be easily removed, and you can also pull out the battery if necessary.
You can buy Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime SM-G530h in white (White) and gray (Grey) colors.
Screen - 3.5
The display is not the strong point of the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime. On it, apparently, they decided to save money. The display resolution is 960×540 pixels, like on the old mini-flagship with a smaller screen Samsung Galaxy S4 mini. The density of pixels per inch is 220, which is not much. In addition, there is no light sensor, and therefore, adjustable brightness. I am glad that they did without a TN-matrix, an IPS-type matrix is \u200b\u200bused here. The Galaxy Grand Prime's display may not be the sharpest, but viewing angles are good. Among the advantages, we note the high brightness (up to 399 cd / m 2). The minimum is about 10 cd / m 2, this is a comfortable brightness for working with the screen in the dark. In the sun, the information on the display remains readable. However, there is no oleophobic coating or protective glass on the screen, so the display can “collect” scratches and fingerprints.
Camera
The smartphone is positioned as a device for good selfies, it has an 8 MP main camera with LED flash and a 5 MP front camera. The camera has quite a lot of functions, features and modes, as in expensive smartphones, but there is no stabilization system. The maximum photo resolution is 3264×2448 pixels. According to our experts, the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime takes photos of quite good quality. The resolution of the video being shot is 1920 × 1080 pixels, the recording speed is 30 fps, it also shoots with the same parameters. front-camera. The sound in both cases is recorded in stereo mode. There is also tracking autofocus and focus by pressing the display.
The front camera of the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime 5 MP is designed not only for calls, but also for wide-angle selfies. In addition, she can shoot animated GIFs using continuous shooting. Separately, we note the group selfie mode, a sort of mini-panorama, almost your entire friendly company can get into the frame. In addition, as is often the case, the front camera nicely colors and “corrects” the skin tone in the photo. True, the photos are not very clear. Of course, the front camera shoots worse than the main one, and it does not have autofocus by pressing the screen - the camera immediately takes a picture.
Photos from the camera Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime - 3.5
Working with text - 3.0
branded samsung keyboard on a Galaxy Grand Prime smartphone, in our opinion, is convenient. For example, it is possible to choose the keyboard of the "old" format - 3x4 icons. The keyboard supports continuous text input using strokes (Swype). To dial numbers, you do not have to switch to the additional characters window - there is a markup with numbers on the top row. In order for Swype to start working, you need to enable T9 mode. Among the minuses, we note the lack of a button for a comma, and I would like to see additional markup. characters on all keys - the 5-inch display has enough room for it all. The pre-installed keyboard does not have a key to switch between languages, for this you will have to hold down the space bar and swipe slightly to the side.
Internet - 3.0
Browsers in the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime, in our opinion, are convenient for browsing the Internet: the smartphone comes preinstalled with the standard Browser from Android and Chrome. It is possible to scale pages to a pre-selected text size, there is no separate reading mode. But in Chrome, you can synchronize tabs with the desktop version of the browser, and in the standard browser there is a "Laboratory", which has a quick control function. If you turn it on, then, when you swipe your finger along the left or right edge, icons for one-handed control will appear around the finger in a semicircle - access to settings, bookmarks, "forward", "back" and many others. This will be convenient for those who have a second hand.
Interfaces
The smartphone supports the most common wireless interfaces: dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP support, A-GPS, as well as work with GLONASS and the Chinese BeiDou navigation system. By the way, versions with LTE support are sold in China, there are also versions with an NFC chip, but, unfortunately, a “simple” version without NFC and only with 3G is sold in Russia. Galaxy Grand Prime Duos has two slots for Micro-SIM cards, however, it has only one radio module. For charging and data exchange, a Micro-USB connector is provided, but without MHL support or connecting peripherals to a smartphone.
Multimedia - 1.4
At Samsung, as a rule, much attention is paid to the multimedia capabilities of smartphones. However, in the case of the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime, everything turned out to be a little different. So, in our tests, the device played most video formats without prior conversion, but failed, for example, with MKV and MOV video formats. With audio playback, everything is standard: MP3, WAV, AAC, WMA, etc., but FLAC had to be launched through the file manager. On the other hand, you can always install any desired player from Play market. In addition, the built-in video player can play and display the texts of external subtitles.
Battery - 3.2
The smartphone has a removable lithium-ion accumulator battery with a good, for a low price, capacity of 2600 mAh. The battery passed two of our standard battery life tests: the device was capable of playing HD video at maximum brightness for 6 hours and 45 minutes (nearly the same as the iPhone 6), and the music mode drained it in 78 hours (almost the same as ours). The battery life of the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime is good for its price point and better than most of its direct competitors. In case the smartphone is about to run out of power and you need to stay connected, turn on the extreme power saving mode. Charging at 1A fully charged the smartphone in a little less than two and a half hours.
Performance - 1.9
The Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime SM-G530h smartphone uses a new Qualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410 mid-range processor (64-bit, by the way) with four cores running at up to 1.2 GHz and with an Adreno 306 graphics subsystem. 1 GB. We have not yet met with such a "stuffing", the more interesting it was to see it in action. We tested the performance of the chipset in synthetic tests, games and everyday use. Thanks to good optimization and “lightening” of the TouchWiz shell, the Galaxy Grand Prime works quickly. As for the use as a gaming platform, everything is not so simple here. It is enough for most games, but the "stuffing" will not allow you to enjoy the game at high graphics settings. For example, Asphalt 8 ran smoothly at medium settings in our tests, but at high settings it was already starting to slow down. You can play on it, but sometimes you have to be limited in the choice of games or graphics settings. With active browsing, the device almost does not slow down, only sometimes it "stuck" when scrolling large pages, which is not critical, given the price of the device.
In benchmarks, the smartphone received average results comparable to mini-versions of the flagships Samsung, HTC, LG and so on: 4533 points in the Ice Storm Unlimited test from 3DMark and 20933 points in the AnTuTu benchmark.
Memory - 3.0
The amount of built-in memory in the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime is 8 GB, of which about 4.5 GB is available to the user. The smartphone is equipped with a memory card slot that supports cards up to 64 GB. Hot-swapping of memory cards is not supported - the slot is blocked by the battery.
Peculiarities
Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime runs on Android 4.4.4 with a proprietary interface TouchWiz (if earlier TouchWiz really “slowed down”, then recently it still began to be corrected). The smartphone supports two SIM-cards, special features for people with hearing problems - flash notification, mute, mono sound, etc. There is an extreme power saving mode, like on the latest Samsung flagships, and a number of pre-installed applications. Note that the pre-installed software on Samsung smartphones becomes smaller over time, and the interface itself becomes faster.
