Samsung’s smartphone family grows steadily: The Korean manufacturer currently offers 41 different models
– not even including its famous phablets. One reason for this is that
Samsung barely ever removes any smartphones from the market, thus
offering models for almost every niche ranging from rugged outdoor
phones to juvenile phones.
We are testing the mid-range Samsung Galaxy Express which currently costs around $450 (RRP: $599). Its name supposedly derives from its LTE capability. Other unique selling points are its AMOLED-Plus display and its large 2000 mAh battery.
Mid-range Android smartphones are a dime a dozen. One potential competitor of the Galaxy Express might be the HTC One SV, which is also LTE-capable, using the exact same system-on-a-chip as Samsung. A non-Android alternative is the Nokia Lumia 820 running on Windows Phone 8. Most other devices in this price range do not come equipped with LTE, for example the Google Nexus 4 which offers a great value-for-money ratio. The Sony Xperia T and the Huawei Ascend D1
are two more mid-range competitors. Let us see, whether its LTE
capabilities turn the Samsung Galaxy Express into a bargain buy.
As mentioned before, the case of the Samsung Galaxy Express resembles closely that of the Samsung Galaxy S3.
Only the speaker moves down a bit on the back, while both the front
camera and the ambient light sensor are shifted to the other side on the
front. In addition, the screen of the Galaxy Express is 0.3 inches
smaller than that of the Galaxy S3, yielding a reduced device height and width. Still, the Galaxy Express is thicker by 0.5 millimeters and also heavier by 5 grams.
Our test device is currently only available in white. It is definitely a slick smartphone: As with the Galaxy S3, a chrome-colored frame
runs along its sides and its round, almost organic shape helps set its
design apart from Apple. Its surface feels great, even though the
backside acts as a fingerprint-magnet.
Build quality is very good, despite
Samsung's choice of materials (plastic). The rear panel can be removed
completely. It is very thin, light and can be bent, but this is not
noticeable once it snaps back onto the base unit. Indeed, the Samsung
Galaxy Express feels very sturdy and cannot be bent out of shape.
Connectivity
The Samsung Galaxy Express is powered by a Qualcomm system-on-a-chip which includes a Snapdragon S4 MSM8930 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz as well as an Adreno 305 GPU. The same SOC has been used in the HTC One SV, being classified by us as offering mid-range performance.
The Galaxy Express comes with 8 GB of flash storage, but only 4.69 GB of it is available
for the user. This might be too little for some users, especially if
many apps are to be installed. Still, hidden beneath the back panel lies
a micro SD card slot so that up to 32 GB of external memory is
possible.
The volume rocker can be found on the left side
of the smartphone. At the top, there is a 3.5mm Line In/Out port, on
the right, the On/Off/Standby button can be found while the micro USB
port sits at the bottom.
Software
All Galaxy series smartphones rely on Google's Android platform - including the Galaxy Express, which comes with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
preinstalled. Despite the availability of Android 4.2, Samsung has not
yet managed to use the newer software version in most of its devices.
Much of the operating system remains unchanged
apart from Samsung's typical TouchWiz interface and a few interesting
apps and widgets: Flipboard arranges the user's messages from all
activated social media (and other) accounts within one magazine-style
app and comes with a widget. S Voice is Samsung's version of Siri, working almost as well as Apple's counterpart. AllShare Play allows the user to send content effortlessly to connected devices such as TVs or notebooks.
Unfortunately, there is also much unnecessary bloatware,
apps, which have to be bought after an initial test phase or which can
only be used with a subscription-based video streaming service. This
quickly becomes annoying even after booting for the first time - Samsung
should think twice about whether it wants to continue with such a
disservice.
Communication & GPS
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There is nothing to complain about with the numerous connectivity options the Galaxy Express offers. Most importantly, of course, it supports superfast LTE networks. With the right contract, up to 100 Mbit/s downstream and up to 50 Mbit/s upstream can be reached. The Galaxy Express supports all four GSM frequencies.
Thus, it can be used in almost every single country in the world to
make telephone calls. Its Wi-Fi modem supports both the 2.4 GHz and the
less common 5 GHz bands. NFC and the new Bluetooth 4.0 standard are also on board.
The GPS sensor is very reliable and fast
in finding enough satellites for a precise location. Of course, this
only works outdoors - when no satellites can be found, the smartphone
falls back to its mobile signal and Wi-Fi-based location services.
Telephone Functions
The telephone app of Google Android works very
well, so why change it? Accordingly, all Samsung does is to tweak some
colors. People who are used to Android will immediately feel at home
here, but even newcomers won't have any trouble making their first
call. All contacts stored within the user's Google account will be
loaded automatically.
Cameras & Multimedia
There is both a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash
on the back and a 1.2 megapixel front camera for video calls. This is
on par with most mid-range devices, still, the HTC One SV's front camera
offers a slightly higher resolution.
Pictures made by the main camera are quite sharp at a first glance, but lack some punch in terms of color rendition.
Zooming in reveals some fuzziness, somewhat mitigating the initial
impression of its sharpness. The front camera also yields slightly dull
and blurry pictures. The main camera is capable of taking videos with a
nominally smooth frame rate of 25 fps, but they stutter during swift
panning motions.
The Samsung Galaxy Express is capable of
handling a large variety of video formats, both streamed from the
internet and stored locally. Jumping to a different part of the video rarely causes noticeable delays.
The high contrast ratio and vibrant colors of the screen in combination
with more than decent speakers result in a joyful video experience.
Accessories
The smartphone ships with nothing but the
obligatory headphones. There are many accessories on Samsung's website,
however, the website is confusingly designed. Apart from
replacement batteries and the new universal docking stations (which also
work with non-Samsung devices thanks to their micro USB connections),
numerous headsets, car device cradles, bags and much more can be bought,
though it might be prudent to compare their prices with those of
third-party offerings.
Warranty
The Galaxy Express ships with 24 months
of warranty. In case of a malfunction, the device must be returned to
the vendor. Alternatively, Samsung's hotline may be utilized. An
overview over authorized Samsung service partners for repairs can be
found on Samsung's website. No warranty extension for smartphones is offered from Samsung itself.
Input Devices & Controls
The virtual keyboard is just Google's standard design.
If this is deemed unsatisfying, many alternatives can be found in the
Google Play Store. Still, even the standard keyboard offers many
settings and we felt that typing was fast and unproblematic. Switching between the landscape and portrait modes of the keyboard was also rather swift, leading to a satisfying workflow.
Display
Samsung has been using AMOLED displays
in its smartphone lineup for ages. These screens consist of many
organic light emitting diodes which don't rely on any background
lighting, yielding better contrast ratios, more saturated colors and
decreased power consumption. The main disadvantage of AMOLED displays
lies with their shorter lifetimes and a reduction in luminance over time - still, with typical smartphone lifecycles of around 2 years this shouldn't have any significant effects.
The AMOLED display of the Galaxy Express offers a resolution of 800x480 pixels
(thus sporting an aspect ratio of 16:9) and a screen size of
4.5-inches. Its resolution is the same as those of some other mid-range
phones such as the Huawei Ascend D1, the Nokia Lumia 820 or the HTC One SV, while both the Google Nexus 4 and the Sony Xperia T offer a resolution of 720p for the same price.
AMOLED displays are almost never as bright as classical LED displays (accordingly, the Samsung Galaxy S3 was a lot dimmer than the iPhone 5 for example), and the Samsung Galaxy Express is no exception to this rule. Actually, it is worse off than all of its competitors, achieving 258.2 cd/m². The best by far among the direct competition is the Sony Xperia T with an average brightness of 470.1 cd/m².
Contrast is usually a strong suit of AMOLED displays, since they are capable of simply turning pixels off, rendering a true black
without any backlighting. Accordingly, the black levels of the Samsung
Galaxy Express are formidable with just 0.04 cd/m², yielding a contrast ratio of 6450:1. Only other OLED-devices like the Nokia Lumia 820 come close. At least nominally, even high-end devices such as the iPhone 5 fall behind.
During real-life usage, colors were vivid,
contrast was strong and blacks were indeed very dark. Everything is
very sharp and quite brilliant - if we didn't know about the resolution
of 800x480 pixels, we would grade it higher than it actually is.
Below, we have posted screenshots of our color
analysis done with CalMAN software and a colorimeter. Reds have the
worst color accuracy. Blues are strongly under-saturated - this
is probably done on purpose to guarantee a long-time steadiness of image
quality, since blue pixels age faster than their green and red
counterparts.
Thanks
to its great contrast ratio, outdoor usage of the Samsung Galaxy
Express is no issue despite its low brightness. Everything remains well recognizable, at least on a cloudy day. In direct sunlight, the reflective display makes matters worse, strongly reducing outdoor readability.
Viewing angles are superb, as always with AMOLED displays. Full readability of all screen content is guaranteed up to extremely sharp angles, with a minor bluish cast being the only image distortion.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy Express comes equipped with a Qualcomm SOC which includes a Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8930
with two cores and a CPU clock speed of 1.2 GHz as well as an Adreno
305 graphics chip. With these components, the Galaxy Express manages to
secure a place in the upper mid-range of our competitors. It is not as fast as the Google Nexus 4, but we noticed neither any stuttering nor lags, thus the Express moniker of Samsung's smartphone seems well-deserved.
The graphics chip has already demonstrated its laudable performance during our review of the HTC One SV, but again, it does not beat the Google Nexus 4. Rather, it remains on par with the HTC phone, staying slightly ahead of both the Sony Xperia T and the Huawei Ascend D1.
More demanding benchmarks like 3DMark or
GLBenchmark 2.7 end in a stuttering mess. During GLBenchmark 2.7 our
test device didn't manage to exceed an average of 12 frames per second, while the benchmark ran much more smoothly on a Google Nexus 4 with 20 fps. Luckily, most applications and even games shouldn't put such a strain on the GPU.
Games
As
mentioned, the Qualcomm Adreno 305 is a mid-tier graphics solution
which should be sufficient for most recent mobile games. Despite failing
the more demanding 3D benchmarks, casual games such as Angry Birds: Star Wars or Temple Run run smoothly. We didn't even notice any lag in action games such as Zombiewood or Shadow Gun: Dead Zone, a sophisticated 3D shooter. Gamers will also be glad to hear that touchscreen reaction was both fast and reliable.
Emissions
Temperature
In
the case of smartphones, the case temperature is even more important
than with notebooks or tablets, since the device is almost exclusively
held in its user's hands. Samsung has delivered very good work in this regard: Even under full load, temperatures never exceed 33.6 °C, while next to no temperature increase (up to 29.2 °C) occurs when the smartphone remains idle.
A comparison with its competitors reveals a considerable difference. None of them get uncomfortably hot, but still, the Nokia Lumia 820 for example reaches 48 °C under full load with none of the other smartphones staying below 38 °C.
Speakers
The tiny speaker on the lower backside offers decent sound quality. Only at maximum volume do high-pitched sounds begin to roar, otherwise music and videos sound rich and lush. Hands-free call quality is good enough to easily understand one's counterpart.
Voice Quality
The
Samsung Galaxy Express offers very good voice quality, directly via the
phone's speaker as well as when using the included headset. Speech can
always be understood well without being distorted by ambient noise.
Energy Management
Power Consumption
Despite its decent performance, the Samsung Galaxy Express is not very power-hungry. Exactly the opposite is true: Power consumption levels are less than they are for all its competitors. Power consumption levels of up to 2.2 watts under full load are less than for all its competitors - a nice surprise since the HTC One SV (which is equipped with the same CPU and GPU) uses at least 40% more power
in all situations. This difference is probably due to the AMOLED
display used in the Samsung Galaxy Express. Thus - in combination with
the extra-large battery - these low power consumption levels should help
the Galaxy Express to excel in terms of battery life.
Battery Runtime
12:30 hours
while idle is just average. The true strengths of the Samsung Galaxy
Express are revealed in the Wi-Fi test which comes close to actual
usage, with new websites being opened once or twice per minute. It takes
10:30 hours until the battery finally dies. This is superb, and far better than what most of the competition achieve. Only the Nokia Lumia 820
exceeds these 10:30 hours, running up to 12 hours. But it gets even
better, especially so for mobile gamers: Under full load, the Samsung
Galaxy Express manages to squeeze up to 5:33 hours out of its battery, much more than all its competitors.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Express offers a lot of what we like to see in a smartphone: A brilliant display, great battery life and high application and gaming performance.
Many of its competitors can’t keep up with the Galaxy Express, although
some are ahead in terms of build quality and screen resolution.
There are still just a few LTE-enabled devices out there, letting the Galaxy Express stand out even more. In the same price range, only the HTC One SV and the Nokia Lumia 820
offer similar data transfer speeds. Those who don’t want to switch to
the also rather intuitive Windows Phone 8 OS can only choose between the
HTC One SV and the Samsung Galaxy Express. The HTC’s build quality is better,
but the Galaxy Express offers a larger display and slightly superior
battery life. Still, these differences are just marginal so that it
ultimately comes down to personal preference.
The only counterarguments against the Samsung Galaxy Express are centered on its low display resolution
and its color choice – only a white model is available at the time of
writing. Still, if LTE is deemed important and if money is tight, then
it doesn’t seem possible to go wrong with this smartphone – in this
case, we can recommend the Samsung Galaxy Express full-heartedly.
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