Samsung recently unveiled their latest entry-level smartphone called the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Pro 2018. Quite a long name for the model number SM-J250F which in other markets is known as the Galaxy J2 Pro.

It is a PRIME and a PRO at the same time

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The phone’s retail price of Ksh. 14499 puts it in direct competition with other companies who have flooded the market with affordable smartphones and eaten up a big share of a market once controlled by Samsung. One can’t fail to notice that the likes of TECNO and Infinix have now taken over the low-end segment.

But it seems like Samsung is looking to restore their control over this market as they are promising more budget devices in the coming days.

I got the Galaxy Grand Prime Pro after the launch and here are my first impressions.

Display:

I don’t think there’s any other company in Kenya offering a Super AMOLED display for this price. This is the only phone in the market, I am willing to bet with such screen technology for less than Ksh 20,000.

The screen resolution however is a quarterHD. That’s 540×960 which is not good news in 2018. But being a 5 inch display, it isn’t like you’ll be seeing the individual pixels. There’s approx 220 pixels per inch.

Battery:

The phone comes with a removable 2600mAh battery. Though this sounds very small for 2018, remember that this phone runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 Processor and has a Super AMOLED display which in itself guarantees better battery life if compared to a Mediatek processor with an LCD screen.

The promise here is 10hrs on 3G networks, 12hrs on 4G/LTE, 11hrs on WiFi, and up to 14hrs of Video Playback only.

Though I haven’t used it much since I picked it up yesterday, the battery has fallen from 65% to 47% in the last approx 24hrs. That’s with all the setting up of accounts and testing of cameras, and display quality when watching videos.

What I’ve noticed is that I left it at 50% last night and when I woke up 7hrs later it was still at 50%. The standby time is really good.

Cameras:

Samsung said this will be a PRO with selfies. There’s a 5MP front camera and an 8MP back camera. And nope they aren’t the best I’ve seen at this price point. You’ll see samples over my social media and in my full review and be the judges.

What I’ve noticed however is that the preview of a photo looks bad but after photo is taken the quality is better and much more impressive. So hopefully with a little try, one can come up with good pictures. We’ll see.

Also, both front and back cameras have an LED flash.

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Extras:

There’s a one-handed mode for people who can’t use a 5 inch smartphone with one hand.
It supports multi-window mode
It supports dual messenger – if you want to use different accounts on the phone e.g. two WhatsApp accounts
It comes with the new lighter Samsung launcher that I’ve seen on both the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy Note 8.

What I wish was better?

RAM: 1.5GB of RAM only. It’s like holding back knowingly. Its like Samsung knows people expect 3GB RAM in 2018, but they just can’t get themselves to put that on this types of phones, eh?
Storage: Samsung should try and get us at least 32GB storage. We’ve already seen this with smartphones at this range.
Display: Why not even 720p with the Super AMOLED panel?
Screen Size: Why not a 5.5 inch screen size? Why not two models one with 5 inch size and the other with 5.5 inch screen size?
No fingerprint scanner: why?
Bezels – at this point in time we all hate bezels.

For Samsung enthusiasts who’ve been looking for a budget device, this is your best bet right now. It runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat, has a Qualcomm Chipset (even though its dated), and has a Super AMOLED display.

What are your thoughts? Would you get this phone?