Main PageSamsung Galaxy Grand Prime review: Mirror shot
Introduction
The Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime has an ambitious name, but behind it is an ordinary midrange phone. It puts functionality ahead of screen fidelity, throwing all the pixels they could afford at the front facing camera instead. As with other Galaxy Grands, dual-SIM is an option, this one though is the first 64-bit phone in the line.
Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime official images
The Galaxy Grand Prime is headed for developing markets where affordable phones with large screens with underwhelming pixel density are in high demand. In this case we're talking a 5" TFT of qHD resolution (540 x 960px) boiling down to 220ppi. 720p has become common in the midrange these days, but don't let tech geeks and sales people overstate how important it is - most laptops and desktop monitors have half that.
The phone does subscribe to a couple of buzzwords, though neither of them contains "ppi". The front-facing camera has an 85° wide-angle lens and shoots 5MP stills and 1080p videos, while the Snapdragon 410 chipset contains four of ARM's 64-bit enabled Cortex-A53 cores.
Although in most regions the Grand Prime is a dual-SIM package, a single-SIM version is available too. Several regions can get an LTE-enabled version of the device as well.
Key features
- Optional Dual SIM version available
- 5" 540 x 960 TFT display with 220ppi
- Android OS v4.4.4 KitKat with TouchWiz UI
- Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53 processor, Adreno 306 GPU, 1GB of RAM, Snapdragon 410 chipset
- 8GB built-in storage, microSD card slot
- 8MP camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording
- 5MP front-facing camera, 85° lens, 1080p video recording
- 2,600mAh battery
Main disadvantages
- Screen ppi is entry-level
- On the large side for a 5" device
- No screen protection glass
- No automatic brightness
The screen is the major worry here - qHD is stretched pretty thin on a 5" diagonal. 220ppi is nothing to write home about, but Samsung has plans on how the Galaxy Grand Prime can compete with the likes of a Moto G (2014).
First up is a solid camera department, starting with the 5MP/1080p selfie camera. If you open your gallery and most photos have your face in them, this one is for you. The 8MP/1080p back camera is also on the better side of the midrange market.
Next is the new chipset, Snapdragon 410. ARM claims that Cortex-A53 offers a "significantly higher performance" over the A7 used in Snapdragon 400. Meanwhile the Adreno 306 GPU offers power savings compared to the 305 in the older chipset. We'll cover both performance and power usage in detail in a few chapters, but the Grand Prime won't see a return on the 64-bit chipset unless it's updated to Lollipop (which has dedicated 64-bit optimizations).
Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime taking selfies in our office
The main competition for the Galaxy Grand Prime does not come from established players, it's the aggressive pricing of newcomers that is giving Samsung the headaches. Is the Grand Prime the much needed painkiller or an also-ran? Hopefully, you'll find your answer in the next dozen pages or so.
Hardware overview
The Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime measures 144.8 x 72.1 x 8.6mm - relatively slender but also tall and wide for a 5" device. That said, it's about the same size as a Galaxy S5 and smaller than the popular HTC Desire 620 dual sim and the Asus Zenfone 5 (both of which are direct competitors).
At 156g, the Galaxy Grand Prime is not very light for its screen size, though this seems to be the norm for phones of this footprint and price bracket.
We have several Galaxy models currently at ours, including the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime. Let's just say that if they weren't a different size, we'd have a hell of a hard time trying to tell which phone was which. It's no news that Samsung's design team has been pushing for consistency throughout the ranks, but honestly, things have gotten out of control.
Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime looks like almost any other Galaxy
To Samsung's credit, the phone feels very sturdy in the hand. The familiar silvery rim around the phone could pass for metal at a distance, though the front and back material could have been better. And there's plenty of it, the bezels around the screen are thicker than they could have been.
There's an inner black bezel around the display, which makes it look bigger while it's off, but it's plainly visible when the screen is on. The glass covering the screen comes with no official claims of extra durability, so you need to be more careful with it.
Above the screen is one of the key selling points of the Galaxy Grand Prime, the 5MP selfie camera. It matches the main camera with 1080p recording and has a wide-angle lens (85°) so you can fit more people in the frame (technically a groupie).
Also above the screen is a proximity sensor to turn off the display automatically during calls, but there's no ambient light sensor, which means no auto brightness mode.
Below is the usual setup, a hardware Home key with an App switcher and Back buttons (both capacitive) on either side.
5MP selfie camera above the screen • Samsung's usual key arrangement
Around back, it's more of the usual too. The camera protrudes slightly (exposing it to scratches) and it's flanked by the single-LED flash and the loudspeaker grille. The camera itself is an 8MP unit capable of 1080p video capture (at 30fps).
Classic Galaxy back with 8MP camera, LED flash and loudspeaker
The back is removable, which gives you access to the 2,600mAh battery and the card slots. The Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime that we're using for this review is a single-SIM model, which fits both the microSIM and the microSD cards in a stacked slot. For dual-SIM versions, there's an additional slot for the second microSIM to the left.
Taking out the 2,600mAh battery • a stacked card slot
The sides follow the traditional pattern as well. The singular mic is on the bottom, near the microUSB 2.0 port, and there's a 3.5mm audio jack on top. On the left is the Power key, on the right the volume rocker.
No changes in the ports and buttons arrangement
In developing markets phablets have gained a lot of popularity since they effectively replace small (and cheap) tablets. The Galaxy Grand Prime sits between those and smaller devices (~4.5" or so, like the Galaxy Core Prime).
The Grand Prime sits well in the hand - we would have wished for smaller bezels, but those usually come with a steeper price tag. The weight didn't bother us, it strikes a good balance between a solid feel without being too heavy.
Galaxy Grand Prime should be okay for one-handed use for most people
The material on the back is not matte and not glossy either. It hides fingerprints well enough, even if it doesn't feel premium (we've seen some good plastic in the midrange).
Display
As we already discussed, the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime is part of the size-over-resolution line of phones that have become quite popular recently. That means a 220ppi - not a major deal breaker last year and evidently not this year either (even if 720p has become more common in the midrange).
The display itself is a 5" TFT of qHD resolution - that's 540 x 960px or exactly the quarter of the pixels of a FullHD 1080p display. In terms of functionality this is not an issue, we haven't run across apps that experience issues with this resolution. It's just that you can't fully enjoy the 1080p videos from the Grand Prime's cameras on the device itself.
Text is softer than on higher-ppi displays and readability drops at lower zoom levels. This is more of a comfort issue though, text becomes too small to read before you zoom out enough for it to degrade due to resolution. If you paid top dollar for a phone you don't want any fuzziness, but here we can be more lenient.
A 21.5" a 1,920 x 1,200px desktop monitor and a 15.6" 1,366 x 768px laptop monitor (both very common) have just over 100ppi pixel density, so even accounting for the different viewing distance, we reckon the Galaxy Grand Prime screen is still good enough.
The TFT specification raised a red flag - it usually means poor viewing angles, but it turned out this is not the case. Color and contrast do shift slightly at extreme angles though it's hard to notice. If you've had bad experiences with low-quality TFTs in the past, you'll be glad to hear this one is not affected.
It's a bit dim for our taste, we kept the brightness slider above the halfway point most of the time. Since there's no ambient light sensor you can't rely on the phone to adjust the screen automatically in brighter environments. This will have an impact on battery life in daily use.
Also, when you push the slider close to 100%, the contrast suffers - the blacks noticeably fade.
Colors are a tad dull (the lower contrast doesn't help), though perhaps we're a bit spoiled by Samsung's Super AMOLED displays.
| Display test | 50% brightness | 100% brightness | ||||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | |||
| 0.25 | 194 | 785 | 0.56 | 426 | 756 | |
| 0.26 | 247 | 960 | 0.44 | 531 | 1094 | |
| 0.35 | 306 | 880 | 0.5 | 487 | 976 | |
| 0.26 | 312 | 1188 | 0.45 | 458 | 1118 | |
| 0.12 | 91 | 752 | 0.52 | 398 | 748 | |
| 0.42 | 387 | 916 | 0.7 | 651 | 929 | |
The glass over the screen is not Gorilla Glass or even an off-brand durable glass, so again go easy on it. It also reflects a lot of light, which combined with the lower maximum brightness hampers the sunlight legibility.
Sunlight contrast ratio
- Nokia 808 PureView
4.698 - Samsung Galaxy Note 4
4.033 - Apple iPhone 5
3.997 - Samsung Galaxy Note 3
3.997 - Apple iPhone 6
3.838 - Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
3.799 - Samsung Galaxy K zoom
3.675 - Nokia Lumia 930
3.567 - Apple iPhone 5s
3.565 - Samsung Galaxy S5
3.549 - Nokia Lumia 735
3.547 - Alcatel Idol X+
3.527 - Apple iPhone 5c
3.512 - Samsung Galaxy Alpha
3.509 - Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
3.487 - Motorola RAZR MAXX
3.42 - Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
3.419 - Samsung Galaxy S5 Active
3.406 - Nokia Lumia 925
3.402 - Gionee Elife S5.5
3.386 - Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4
3.352 - Samsung Omnia W
3.301 - Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
3.174 - Samsung I9000 Galaxy S
3.155 - Samsung Ativ S
3.129 - Samsung I9190 Galaxy S4 mini
3.127 - Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom
3.118 - Nokia N9
3.069 - Apple iPhone 6 Plus
3.023 - Samsung Galaxy Note
2.97 - Samsung Galaxy Premier
2.958 - Sony Xperia Z1
2.95 - HTC One S
2.901 - Samsung I8730 Galaxy Express
2.861 - BlackBerry Q10
2.856 - Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II
2.832 - HTC Desire Eye
2.815 - Gionee Elife S5.1
2.812 - Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
2.801 - BlackBerry Z30
2.79 - Sony Xperia ZR
2.672 - Huawei Ascend P1
2.655 - Sony Xperia Z3
2.618 - Sony Xperia Z3 Compact
2.616 - Sony Xperia T3
2.609 - BlackBerry Passport
2.595 - Nokia Lumia 900
2.562 - Motorola Moto G 4G
2.546 - HTC One Max
2.537 - Nokia Lumia 720
2.512 - HTC One
2.504 - Motorola Moto G
2.477 - Sony Xperia Z
2.462 - Xiaomi Mi 4
2.424 - Samsung Galaxy S III mini
2.422 - Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
2.416 - LG G Flex
2.407 - HTC One (M8)
2.371 - Motorola RAZR i
2.366 - Meizu MX4
2.366 - Sony Xperia ZL
2.352 - Samsung Galaxy Note II
2.307 - HTC One (M8) for Windows
2.291 - Oppo Find 7a
2.279 - Alcatel One Touch Hero
2.272 - Apple iPhone 4S
2.269 - HTC Desire 600 dual sim
2.262 - Nokia Asha 311
2.25 - LG Nexus 5
2.228 - Nokia Lumia 820
2.193 - HTC One (E8)
2.185 - Nokia Lumia 920
2.17 - HTC One X
2.158 - Nokia N8
2.144 - Nokia Lumia 620
2.142 - Nokia 515
2.134 - HTC Desire 500
2.129 - Xiaomi Redmi Note
2.119 - Sony Xperia acro S
2.119 - Nokia Lumia 1020
2.103 - Oppo Find 5
2.088 - Sony Xperia SL
2.078 - Nokia Lumia 630
2.056 - BlackBerry Z10
2.051 - Huawei Ascend Mate7
2.024 - Samsung I9295 Galaxy S4 Active
2.022 - Apple iPhone 4
2.016 - HTC One mini
2.003 - Xiaomi Mi 3
2.001 - Huawei Ascend P7
1.992 - LG G2
1.976 - OnePlus One
1.961 - Oppo R819
1.957 - Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
1.955 - Sony Xperia Z2
1.944 - Sony Xperia E3
1.943 - Nokia Lumia 1320
1.941 - HTC One mini 2
1.94 - Samsung Galaxy Camera
1.938 - Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
1.935 - Sony Xperia J
1.932 - Acer CloudMobile S500
1.931 - LG Nexus 4
1.926 - LG G Pro 2
1.922 - Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
1.913 - Nokia Asha 308
1.911 - HTC Butterfly 2
1.905 - Sony Xperia T
1.894 - Nokia Lumia 830
1.887 - HTC Desire X
1.878 - HTC Windows Phone 8X
1.873 - HTC Butterfly
1.873 - HTC Butterfly S
1.867 - Huawei Ascend P6
1.865 - Huawei Ascend Mate
1.845 - LG G2 mini
1.838 - LG G3
1.82 - Nokia Lumia 1520
1.813 - HTC Desire 616 dual sim
1.797 - Sony Xperia V
1.792 - HTC Desire 816
1.783 - Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
1.772 - HTC Desire 700 dual sim
1.769 - Sony Xperia U
1.758 - Meizu MX3
1.754 - LG Optimus G
1.753 - Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
1.74 - Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
1.735 - Sony Xperia SP
1.733 - Oppo Find 7
1.691 - LG Optimus 4X HD
1.691 - HTC One V
1.685 - BlackBerry Q5
1.682 - LG Optimus Vu
1.68 - Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
1.672 - LG Optimus GJ
1.666 - LG Optimus 3D Max
1.658 - HTC Desire V
1.646 - Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
1.632 - Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
1.622 - Jolla Jolla
1.605 - Sony Xperia Z Ultra
1.578 - Sony Xperia go
1.577 - Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 I8160
1.566 - Samsung Galaxy Core
1.563 - LG Optimus G Pro
1.552 - Motorola Moto E
1.545 - LG Optimus 3D
1.542 - Nokia Asha 302
1.537 - BlackBerry Curve 9320
1.488 - Sony Xperia M
1.473 - Oppo N1
1.47 - Meizu MX 4-core
1.462 - Nokia Lumia 610
1.432 - Samsung Galaxy S Duos
1.4 - Microsoft Lumia 535
1.393 - Sony Xperia M2
1.393 - Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo
1.393 - Samsung Galaxy Grand 2
1.38 - Sony Xperia E1
1.372 - Nokia Lumia 625
1.371 - Gigabyte GSmart G1355
1.361 - Sony Xperia L
1.351 - Xiaomi Redmi 1S
1.35 - Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8
1.35 - HTC Desire 510
1.34 - Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
1.331 - Sony Xperia miro
1.324 - Samsung I9082 Galaxy Grand
1.321 - Samsung I8530 Galaxy Beam
1.315 - HTC Desire C
1.3 - Nokia X
1.291 - Sony Xperia C
1.283 - Nokia Asha 503
1.281 - Nokia Asha 501
1.27 - LG Optimus L7
1.269 - Nokia Lumia 510
1.268 - Samsung Galaxy Fame
1.245 - LG Optimus L9
1.227 - Meizu MX
1.221 - Samsung Galaxy Young
1.22 - Sony Xperia E
1.215 - Nokia XL
1.204 - Sony Xperia E dual
1.203 - Asus Memo Pad 7 ME176C
1.198 - Samsung Galaxy Pocket
1.18 - Nokia Asha 305
1.178 - Nokia Asha 306
1.175 - Sony Xperia neo L
1.169 - Sony Xperia tipo
1.166 - Nokia Lumia 520
1.161 - Samsung S6802 Galaxy Ace Duos
1.148 - Samsung Galaxy mini 2
1.114
Connectivity
The Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime is available in both single and dual-SIM versions. Both feature quad-band 3G, while the second SIM slot getting 2G connectivity only (again, quad-band). Some single-SIM versions of the device are LTE-enabled.
Locally, there's single-band Wi-Fi b/g/n with Wi-Fi Direct support, but no DLNA. There is built-in screen mirroring though, for compatible HDTVs. Bluetooth v4.0 is also on board.
Wired connectivity is handled by a microUSB 2.0 port, which lacks MHL, leaving wireless mirroring as the only TV-out option.
The Galaxy Grand Prime has an advanced support for global positioning thanks to its Qualcomm chipset - A-GPS, GLONASS and Beidou are all supported (the latter is used in China, one of the target markets for the Grand Prime).
A slimmer TouchWiz
The Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime runs on the latest available Android 4.4.4 KitKat customized with a stripped down version of TouchWiz. Here's a quick video to get things started.
The lockscreen is the default in TouchWiz - a simple screen with just the time and a camera shortcut (which can be disabled). The usual Swipe, Pattern, PIN and Password security modes are available.
A regular lockscreen
The homescreen is also base TouchWiz, with a 4 icon dock on the bottom and no Briefing/My Magazine pane. You can have up to 5 homescreens, panes can reordered and one is set as default.
A basic homescreen with no special panes
The notification area is similar to what we've seen on recent Galaxy devices but it too has some functionality missing. The Quick Connect and S Finder shortcuts won't be missed but there's no shortcut to open all toggles, even a two-finger swipe doesn't work. This means you have to swipe the row of toggles until you find the one you need. At least there's still a way to reorder the toggles.
Anyway, below the quick toggles is a brightness slider and below that the notifications. The brightness slider can be disabled.
Trimmed down notification area
The settings menu is a vertical list of apps divided into categories. The handy search function is gone, which can slow down inexperienced users until they learn where each setting goes.
Settings menu
Unlike Samsung's premium devices, the Galaxy Grand Prime uses the standard KitKat app switcher (with minor tweaks). This means it shows a vertical list of apps with their icon, name and screenshot. Three to almost four apps fit on the qHD screen. There's a shortcut to kill all apps, but the task manager is gone.
Task switcher
TouchWiz had become a leviathan through years of feature bloat, full of useful features though often hard to find or useful only to a select few. Recently Samsung took a hatchet to its Android skin and really trimmed down the cruft. The Galaxy Note 4 and Edge are running some of the best mobile software, even if we still have some complaints about cosmetics.
The Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime software is even more simplified and we actually miss some of the functionality - things like the customizable quick toggles, motion gestures were handy tools. After going through the pre-installed apps, we found that plenty have been cut in favor of AOSP/Google alternatives.
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