Specifications of the Samsung Galaxy J 3 phone. Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) review: a budget Samsung that could

Design samsung galaxy J3 (2017) is made in a style that has become common to the entire line since 2017. The smartphone received soft, pastel colors and bright silver accents on the front and back panels.

The Galaxy J3 (2017) also has metal body elements, but there are fewer of them than other models in the line. The smartphone, in addition, turned out to be a little thicker than it should be - as a result, it lacks the nobility that the same Galaxy J5 (2017) acquired.

The front panel of the Galaxy J3 (2017) is covered with protective glass. Here, the accents are the Samsung logo, as well as the edging of the touch and virtual buttons at the bottom of the device.

There is a large metal tab on the back panel. You might think that this is a cover that can be removed. In fact, SIM and microSD are installed in the side compartments. Like the older models, the bright silver logo of the smartphone and the same edging of the photomodule stand out against a soft background.

The device is assembled with high quality, the materials are also at the level, but it still leaves the impression of a budget device, even if in its price range it will look better than many competitors. Perhaps a “silver” or black smartphone will look better than the “gold” one that came to us.

Connectors and controls

5-inch devices are quite ergonomic: they are easy to handle with one hand. All connectors and controls are well placed, but there are still exceptions.

On the front panel, under the screen, there is a hardware Home button. The other two Android buttons are touch sensitive. Although the Home button is the same size as the Galaxy J5 (2017) and J7 (2017), it is not combined with the fingerprint scanner. So the protection of the device is weaker.

Above the display is a speaker, a front camera lens and a backlight LED, which is analogous to a flash. You can also see a window with sensors.

On the back of the smartphone, we see a camera and a flash.

On the right sidewall there is a button to turn on the screen, as well as a slot with a speaker grill.

On the left side of the smartphone are two volume buttons. There are also two compartments for SIM-cards and memory cards.

The SIM and microSD slots are separated, so you can use all three cards at the same time. The compartments are opened with a rather long key. Our short video will tell you how to insert cards into Galaxy J3 (2017):

At the bottom we find a microphone, audio jack and microUSB. This arrangement may not be convenient for everyone and not always, especially when you want to listen to music through headphones and simultaneously charge your phone. However, this has already become a commonplace for modern smartphones, which are becoming thinner and thinner.

There is nothing on the top end.

We also note that the device will be easily controlled by both right-handed and left-handed people. The buttons are conveniently located.

Case for Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017)

It is not yet possible to buy a case or cover for the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017), at least at the time of writing this review. However, the company offers three cases at once for the older models of the line. They cost from 890 to 1390 rubles.

It can be expected that with Samsung time will offer accessories for the cheapest Galaxy J. Let's hope that they will cost less than for the "five" and "seven". The picture shows the Slim Cover bumper for the Galaxy J3 (2016). His company offers for 290 rubles.

Samsung Galaxy J3 Firmware Update (2017)

It is clear that the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) will receive an update to Android 8.0. I would even bet that Android 9.0 for the Galaxy J3 (2017) will be released. So a guide to flashing a smartphone will not be superfluous.

So, to flash the Galaxy J3 (2017), you need to do the following:

• and make sure that the smartphone has enough charge;
• enter the smartphone into Download Mode (simultaneously pressing the "off" + "volume down" + "home button" keys), then press "Volume up";
• connect the USB cable to the device;
• in the Odin application on your computer, select files from the archive with the firmware:
• for the PIT column - a file with *.pit extension;
• for PDA - a file whose name contains the word CODE, if there is none, then you should know that this is the heaviest file in the archive;
• for CSC - a file with the word CSC in its name;
• for Phone - a file containing MODEM in the name;
• Note. If the files for the CSC, Phone and PIT graphs are not in the archive with the firmware, then we sew using the single file method only, i.e. indicate the location of the firmware in the PDA column, and leave the rest of the lines empty.

make sure that the checkboxes in Odin are checked in the items "Auto Reboot" and "F. reset time". If the location of the *.pit file was specified, then the “Re-Partition” checkbox will be set automatically;

press the "Start" button and watch how the firmware process takes place. The phone may reboot several times during installation and in no case should you unplug the cable from it until the Odin log shows “All threads completed” or the green information window with the words “PASS!” lights up.

The firmware update process traditionally takes several minutes (from 5 to 15) and if successful, you will be prompted to configure the smartphone according to your preferences. After that, you can get to work.

If suddenly something did not work out, you can ask about it in the comments under the article.

Screen Galaxy J3 (2017)

Samsun Galaxy J3 (2017) received a 5-inch PLS display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels. The pixel density is 294 ppi. Given that other smartphones in the line have the same resolution, but large screen sizes, the display of the cheapest device is ahead in terms of clarity! Naturally, if you close your eyes to the fact that the older Js have a SuperAMOLED screen. However, the difference is small, so you can't call it a miscalculation of the marketing service. Yes, and the version J3 (2017) is delivered to us with a Super AMOLED matrix, and not like the test sample.

However, even the PLS-screen has good, juicy colors, natural blacks and good contrast.

Samsung has limited display settings in the Galaxy J3 (2017). The older models of the line have various screen profiles, including those adapted for watching movies and photos. They are distinguished by a color temperature close to natural - 6500K. Also older Galaxy J have a filter of blue color which supposedly reduces fatigue. The Troika does not have all this.

But the Galaxy J3 (2017) received the "Outdoor" mode. It turns on the brightness of the display to the maximum for 15 minutes. After that, the brightness is reduced. This is the only screen setting. In general, it is convenient, since Samsung does not have an automatic brightness adjustment mode.

The display leaves a good impression, however, there are not enough settings. However, this is understandable. The screen of the cheapest device of the line cannot be better than that of the more expensive ones.

Let's turn to objective tests. The white brightness of the smartphone is 548.41 cd / m 2, black - close to zero, or 0.32 cd / m 2. The contrast is 1713:1. You can count on comfortable work on the street, you just need to turn on the backlight to the maximum.

The color temperature of the Galaxy J3 (2017) is too high, like all smartphones. Only rare exceptions approach 6500K. The J5 (2017) has a dedicated display profile for this. The Galaxy J3 (2017) does not have this setting, so the screen shows "normal" 8500-9000K.

The color gamut of the Galaxy J3 (2017) is slightly more modest than that of the older models of the line, but, as it should be for a normal PLS, it is noticeably larger than the sRGB range.

But the gamma curves flew away. The colors will be lighter. Here, the screen is noticeably worse than other smartphones in the line.

The smartphone recognizes five touches.

From a larger display, the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) looks good. Especially when you consider that a version with a Super AMOLED screen will be sold in our area.

Camera Galax J3 (2017)

Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) received two cameras. The main one has a resolution of 13 megapixels, the front one - 5 megapixels. Both are capable of recording Full HD video.

Galaxy J3 (2017) retained the line's signature feature and received a front-facing flash, or rather LED backlight, which works with both video and photos.

It should be noted that the front camera of the smartphone differs from the Galaxy J3 (2017) not only in lower resolution than in older models. She also received a darker lens with an aperture of 2.2, although other representatives of the J line have this indicator at 1.8 and 1.9. The main camera is the same as the Galaxy J5 (2017).

The camera interface of the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) is standard. In one part of the display are quick buttons, including changing the camera, flash and call settings. You can also add any of the shooting modes there.

On the other side are the shutter buttons for shooting videos and photos. They are on the same screen, you do not need to switch between them. On the one hand, it is convenient, on the other hand, you can accidentally click on the video instead of the photo. Right next to it is a window for previewing images, leading to the Gallery.

The area next to the main shutter buttons is given over to adjusting the skin tone of the face, or other quick settings, depending on the mode.

Swiping right or left opens screens with shooting modes, as well as preset filters. There are fewer modes and filters than in the Galaxy A series devices. You can’t add new modes, but you can arrange them in order, as well as put them on the main camera screen.

The settings apply directly to the individual cameras. They are limited mainly by the resolution of the content being filmed, as well as common functions: descent, geotagging, etc. Shooting options are available on the main screen depending on the selected shooting mode.

The interface of the front camera is the same as that of the main one. The button for the flash is also in place, since it is also on the front side of the smartphone. But here, in the default mode, more settings are available to improve the selfie: skin tone, etc.

The front camera has only two modes, except for the main one: a widescreen selfie will help to fit a landmark in the background, and the second one will record additional sound. The set of filters is about the same.

The maximum resolution of the main camera is 13 megapixels, while the aspect ratio is only 4:3.

In general, the camera copes well with different scenes. If desired, you can almost always get a good photo.

The main camera can shoot Full HD video. There is a square video preset for Instagram.

The video is also pretty good.

The front camera can also take a 13-megapixel photo and it will also be 4:3.

The front camera lags behind the main one in terms of image quality, but not fundamentally. With backlight and front flash, you can take good selfies.

The front camera allows you to shoot Full HD videos, as well as square videos.

C video is a little worse. The camera reacts more slowly to changes in light, but in general it is also suitable for shooting yourself. Don't forget the front flash. Everything is much better with her.

Specifications Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017)

The specifications of the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017), like the entire line, have improved significantly compared to the previous generation.

The Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) was a very modest smartphone. Recall that it was released not even in 2016, but at the end of 2015, so its platform was not the newest even at that time, even in its class.

Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) received an Exynos 7570 processor with four Cortex-A53 cores at a frequency of 1.4 GHz. In comparison with last year's model, it was not so much the frequency that was pumped over, but the architecture. In the 2016 version, Cortex-A7 was used. Cortex-A53 is both faster and more economical, so you can expect a noticeable performance boost.

There were no fundamental changes in the graphics compared to the American version, but the main one used the Mali-400 at all. So installing Mail-T720 can give a noticeable boost in games.

The RAM capacity has also increased slightly. Now this is the standard 2 GB. Yes, and 16 GB of memory in the minimum version also looks, although not “ah”, but this is not a miserable 8 GB.

In general, the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) platform is more modest than the J5 (2017). Considering that the younger Galaxy J has the same software, it may work more slowly.

The Galaxy J3 (2017) is more modest from a communication point of view. He only has LTE category 4, other smartphones have a higher one. They have higher bandwidth of fourth generation networks. Also, the Galaxy J3 (2017) does not support Wi-Fi 802.11ac, NFC.

Cameras have improved compared to the previous model. They now record Full HD video. The battery capacity has decreased to 2400 mAh. It remains to be hoped that the new processor is more economical and the autonomy of the device will not worsen.

Performance Testing

Before the start of the test "races" a brief summary: the new Galaxy J3 (2017) has a higher frequency, more RAM and a more advanced architecture. The performance gain over the 2016 model should be very noticeable.

In the first Basemark test, the new J3 brought the old one over 70%.

JetStream shows performance in web applications. Mobile devices have long passed the critical mark when it comes to displaying web pages, even the most complex ones. In this case, this is reflected in the smaller difference between the two smartphones.

In 3DMark, the new Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) turns out to be noticeably faster than its predecessor, but it's worth paying attention to the generally rather small number of points.

A small number of "parrots" in 3DMark is confirmed by another test. The new J3 is again faster, but the FPS is very low.

Let's take a look at how the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) performs in the popular Antutu test.

Comprehensive AnTuTu test equalizes the CPU and GPU of the chipset. Recall that if the architectures of the computing processor of the models are different, then the graphics are almost the same.

Autonomy Galaxy J3 (2017)

Autonomy is the highest achievement of the new model. After our standard set of actions, the new Galaxy J3 (2017) retained 83% of the charge, while its predecessor only 73%. Moreover, the J3 (2016) has a battery capacity of 200 mAh more. As a result, we can safely say that the Galaxy J3 (2017) will last more than a day. True, given the low performance in graphics tests, for greater autonomy it is better not to load it with games. Noticeable battery savings are achieved by ditching the AMOLED screen.

3D graphics consume the most, followed by data transfer. It is better to read the Internet through Wi-Fi if you want to increase the time battery life.

Phone Manager can be found in the settings section Optimize the smartphone settings menu. You can also go there through the Energy Saver icon in the notification bar. There are two power saving modes: medium and maximum. Both can be customized. Allows you to adjust the brightness of the display, the frequency of the processor and the operation wireless networks in the background.

Games for Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017)

In principle, the new processor Galaxy J3 (2017) should be enough to provide acceptable performance in games, but there are some doubts due to the low number of points in 3DMark.

• Riptide GP2: excellent, everything flies;

• Asphalt 7: excellent, everything flies;

• Asphalt 8: good, extremely rare, but slows down;

• Modern Combat 5: excellent, everything flies;

• Dead Trigger: excellent, everything flies;

• Dead Trigger 2: excellent, everything flies;

• Real Racing 3: excellent, everything flies;

• Need for Speed: No Limits: excellent, everything flies;

• Shadowgun: Dead Zone: excellent, everything flies;
• Frontline Commando: Normandy: did not start;

• Frontline Commando 2: excellent, everything flies;
• Eternity Warriors 2: did not start;

• Eternity Warriors 4: excellent, everything flies;

• Trial Xtreme 3: excellent, everything flies;

• Trial Xtreme 4: excellent, everything flies;

• dead effect: excellent, everything flies;

• Dead Effect 2: excellent, everything flies;

• Plants vs Zombies 2: excellent, everything flies;

• dead target: excellent, everything flies;

• Injustice: excellent, everything flies.

• Injustice 2: excellent, everything flies.

And indeed, two games did not launch, one received not the highest rating. All in all, the Galaxy J3 (2017) remains a decent gaming console, but be warned: there may be some nasty surprises.

ON

Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) received Android 7.0, as well as the Samsung Essentials 8.1 interface. We wrote about it in detail in, so here we only list the main points.

The Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) has two home screens and a News Briefing screen. They have search and folders with Google and Microsoft applications. The new interface does not have a menu button. It is called by a gesture if you swipe up from the bottom a little higher than the bottom row of icons. On the second screen, you can see Yandex search.

Home screens now have settings. Here you can choose the grid, set the size and color of the fonts.

In addition to the main mode, a simple mode appeared. It is clearly addressed to the elderly or visually impaired. Larger icons are used here, there is a screen with contacts for quick dialing. There is also a menu button.

The appearance of the application menu is standard. Search is at the top. Applications can be sorted alphabetically. In the menu settings, you can change the color scheme. The selection of Samsung Essentials apps has also gone to the settings.

The set of Google applications is normal. No news. The most recent addition was made last year - the Duo messenger. Microsoft, as usual, is represented by shortcuts to office suite applications. They still need to be installed and, if asked, subscribe. Skype and OneDrive do not need to be installed, unless they are updated.

News Briefing has not changed. Individual news selections, etc. are also possible.

Notification panel and quick settings. The full list of icons is opened by dragging the border between notifications and icons. There is a quick launch of the access point, energy saving.

Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) supports Smart Switch app. With it, you can transfer all personal data from your old phone to a new one. Not only Samsung devices and not only Android are supported.

Samsung applications are folded into a separate folder, though not all of them. There are a few more that are in the main menu.

The Samsung voice recorder is much better than the stock Android one. Here you can choose the quality of the recording, its format, as well as block incoming calls for the duration of the recording.

S Health in the new Galaxy is no longer just a fitness tracker, it's an entire ecosystem with social features, supported accessories, and APIs that work with third-party apps. You can use other trekkers, but the information from them, if desired, will still fall into S Health.

The file manager looks familiar. It is possible to display folders as a list or preview icons. You can send files directly from the manager to a secure folder.

Its own browser, or rather an add-on for Chrome, is tied to a Samsung account, offers cloud links and supports extensions.

Samsung Notes are also multifunctional and convenient. Take notes by voice, by hand, draw, print. Nothing will be lost.

Samsung Members is a support service, a corporate magazine, a Galaxy owners forum and a phone manager all rolled into one. True, some of the functions are available through registration with Samsung.

The Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) lacks biometric identification tools, but this is no reason to leave the smartphone without Secure Folder. You can restrict access to it with a password or a picture. In the folder, you can place personal files, as well as copies of applications that only the owner of the smartphone will have access to.

Samsung also pre-installs a label on the Galaxy J3 with a link to its store. There is another label - Gifts from Samsung. Unfortunately they didn't offer us anything. Apparently test devices are not allowed.

The Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) also has a Yandex app. Here and search, and weather, and news.

Finally, the last "bun" is Ubank mobile banking.

Conclusion

Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) accelerated less than other smartphones in the line. It remains a very budget device. In some cases, it can be seen that the potential of the smartphone is higher. Functionality restrictions are made for the sake of positioning the device on the market.

The unequivocal advantages of the smartphone are the screen and the main camera. Given the chip made on the selfie, the front one could be of a higher resolution, for example, 8 megapixels, not 5.

On the whole, it turned out to be a worthy budget model, which can be recommended with a clear conscience and a caveat that you should not expect revelations from the device for such money.

Price Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017)

You can buy Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) for 12 thousand rubles, which is a good price, slightly higher than its predecessor.

Lenovo K6 Power costs 14,000 rubles. It has a Full HD display, though IPS, not AMOLED. It received an 8-core Snapdragon 430 and 2 GB of RAM. The resolution of the main camera is 13 megapixels, and the front camera is 8 megapixels, and most importantly, a 4000 mAh battery.

Xiaomi Redmi 4X with 16 GB of storage costs 13,000 rubles. It has a 720p IPS display, an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor and 2 GB of RAM, 13 and 5 megapixel cameras, and a 4100 mAh battery.

Huawei Honor 6C is also offered for 13,000 rubles. It has a 720p IPS display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. The resolution of the cameras is 13 and 5 megapixels, the battery capacity is 3020 mAh.

It unites all the rivals of Android 6.0 and the fact that they are at least a little thicker than the Galaxy J5 (2017), with the exception of Huawei. In the end, we can say that the AMOLED display and the latest Android 7.0 require sacrifices, if not financially, then in terms of performance. Set your priorities.

pros:

• good body;
• decent design;
• good main camera;
• good screen;
• two separate slots for SIM-cards.

Minuses:

• low resolution front camera;
• relatively unproductive platform;
• lack of a fingerprint scanner, NFC;
• no auto-adjust screen brightness.

Information about the make, model, and alternative names of a particular device, if any.

Design

Information about the dimensions and weight of the device, presented in different units of measurement. Used materials, suggested colors, certificates.

SIM card

The SIM card is used in mobile devices to store data that certifies the authenticity of mobile service subscribers.

Mobile networks

A mobile network is a radio system that allows multiple mobile devices to communicate with each other.

Mobile technologies and data rates

Communication between devices in mobile networks is carried out through technologies that provide different data transfer rates.

Operating system

The operating system is the system software that manages and coordinates the operation of the hardware components in the device.

SoC (System on a Chip)

System on a chip (SoC) includes all the most important hardware components of a mobile device in one chip.

Built-in memory

Each mobile device has a built-in (non-removable) memory with a fixed amount.

Memory cards

Memory cards are used in mobile devices to increase the storage capacity for storing data.

Screen

The screen of a mobile device is characterized by its technology, resolution, pixel density, diagonal length, color depth, etc.

Sensors

Different sensors perform different quantitative measurements and convert physical indicators into signals that are recognized by the mobile device.

rear camera

The main camera of a mobile device is usually located on its rear panel and can be combined with one or more additional cameras.

Front-camera

Smartphones have one or more front cameras of various designs - a pop-up camera, a PTZ camera, a cutout or hole in the display, a camera under the display.

Audio

Information about the type of speakers and audio technologies supported by the device.

Radio

The radio of the mobile device is a built-in FM receiver.

Location determination

Information about navigation and location technologies supported by the device.

WiFi

Wi-Fi is a technology that provides wireless communication for short distance data transmission between different devices.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a standard for secure wireless data transfer between different types of devices over short distances.

USB

USB (Universal Serial Bus) is an industry standard that allows different electronic devices to communicate.

Headphone jack

This is an audio connector, which is also called an audio jack. The most widely used standard in mobile devices is the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Connecting devices

Information about other important connection technologies supported by the device.

Browser

A web browser is a software application for accessing and viewing information on the Internet.

Audio file formats/codecs

Mobile devices support various audio file formats and codecs that store and encode/decode digital audio data, respectively.

Video file formats/codecs

Mobile devices support various video file formats and codecs, which store and encode/decode digital video data, respectively.

Battery

Mobile device batteries differ from each other in their capacity and technology. They provide the electrical charge they need to function.

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

SAR levels refer to the amount of electromagnetic radiation absorbed by the human body while using a mobile device.

The brand positions the J line as First level, even despite the fact that the cost of the top models can reach the mark of 20 thousand rubles. The price range could not but affect the technical characteristics of the devices. The most prominent representatives of the series are gadgets J3, J5 and J7.

The company presents new models as a kind of alternative to the more noble A-series. That is, J-devices are designed for those who do not need advanced, as well as expensive functionality, but want to have a gadget from a famous brand in their pocket, and not some no-name device from China with an unclear warranty and incomprehensible service.

Nevertheless, the abundance of more than competitive "Chinese" makes the younger J-series (J3 / J5) not so attractive. So here we are talking more about buying a venerable brand, rather than functionality and some remarkable features. Let's consider the most attractive option for the domestic consumer - the J3 model, the youngest in the series.

So, the subject of today's review is a smartphone (2017). Characteristics, owner reviews, advantages and disadvantages of the gadget, as well as the feasibility of buying will be discussed in our article.

Positioning

The first step is to clarify some price points that can After all the press releases, where the company presented a brand new model to journalists for 9,990 rubles, a device with slightly different characteristics was supposed to go on sale.

Here we are talking about the AMOLED screen, which is equipped with older models of the series. In fact, the gadget received a TFT matrix, albeit a good one. Conveyor versions of the smartphone (J330F) began to differ not only in terms of “stuffing”, but also in price. In total, the consumer received, in fact, an ordinary gadget for 12 thousand rubles.

Naturally, the "Chinese" from the budget segment look much more attractive. Huawei, Meizu and Xiaomi can offer almost the same thing, but for less money - 9, 8, or even 7 thousand rubles. But if you look at all Samsung models, then the J3 device received minimum price. That is, for 12 thousand rubles, the consumer has a branded smartphone with unique design in a metal case.

Looking at the specifications and reviews of the Samsung J3 (2017) in general, users are, in principle, willing to overpay for a name and more. quality case to the detriment of the matrix. So here everyone has their own preferences and views on this situation.

Equipment

The smartphone is sold in a small cardboard box in a plain design. There are no beautiful landscapes, girls or cars on the packaging - only a blue background and the name of the series with an emphasis on the year of manufacture.

On the reverse side there is a very modest specification and manufacturer's markers. At the ends you can see the accompanying labels and stickers of distributors. The interior decoration is organized quite sensibly and accessories do not "swear" with each other. Actually, there is nothing special to fit there, because the package is budget.

Contents of delivery:

• the device itself;
• network Charger;
• USB cable for synchronization with PC and recharging;
• wired headphones;
• SIM card eject tool
• warranty documentation.

The set is rather meager, but more is not needed here. Any additional accessory adds value to the gadget, and the price already bites. Judging by the reviews Samsung owners J3 (2017), they are quite satisfied with the available equipment. It is very difficult to please the consumer today with regular covers or styluses, so users prefer to buy everything themselves, as they say, to their taste and color.

The accessories themselves look reliable and expensive: the charger is perfectly assembled, the cords are elastic and protected, and the SIM card clip is made of good alloy. In general, it is felt that the device was completed by a venerable brand. This is also confirmed by numerous reviews of the Samsung J3 (2017) in a positive way.

Appearance

The manufacturer didn't bother with color solutions and released the J-series in the usual classic coloring pages. In stores you can find blue gadgets, golden, pink and black. Judging by the reviews of the smartphone (2017) Black, buyers are fed up with black, and a good half of users prefer blue or gold colors. Pink devices are extremely rare, but due to the specificity of the shade, it is almost not in demand, so it is difficult to write down this moment as a minus.

Dimensions of the device can be called acceptable for its diagonal - 143 x 70 x 8 mm. With a weight of 142 grams, the model fits well in the hand and there is no feeling of discomfort even during prolonged use. Reviews about the smartphone Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) in terms of ergonomics are entirely positive: the device is really comfortable and fits perfectly in the palm of your hand.

The body of the device received a metal, but with extensive inserts in the upper and lower parts. Comparing older models with J3, you can see that the brand has saved on design: visually, the device looks like a state employee, and only an expensive case can hide it. Judging by the reviews of (2017) Gold, the “gold” decision saves a little appearance helping to fuse the plastic inserts with the metal body. But upon closer examination, the budget segment of the gadget is still felt.

The next thing the manufacturer saved on was sensors. The smartphone does not have a fingerprint module, as well as an automatic light sensor. The latter costs a penny, and such savings are not well understood. Users in their reviews of (2017) have repeatedly criticized the brand for such a decision. Even frankly cheap Chinese models have a light sensor, and some even have a fingerprint scanner. So here the manufacturer obviously went too far with cutting out the excess.

Interfaces

On the front panel there is a familiar Samsung physical button, and two touch keys are located on the sides. They work perfectly and respond well, but they are completely devoid of backlighting - again, savings.

In the upper front part there is a front camera eye with a flash. On the left side is the volume rocker, and on the right - the power button. The speaker is also located on the end just above the power button. This decision caused a mixed reaction in the reviews of the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) smartphone.

On the one hand, the speaker does not cause any problems and even looks original. But on the other hand, his vociferousness has noticeably decreased. And if other gadgets from Samsung differed not only in high-quality sound, but also in a good volume level reserve, then here we have only a solid average.

The bottom end is reserved for a standard 3.5 mm mini-jack and a micro-USB interface for synchronization with a computer, peripherals and recharging. Slots for SIM and SD cards are located on the left side: one for the nano format, the other for an external drive or the same SIM card.

Assembly

As for the build quality, there are no complaints. Users in their reviews of the Samsung J330F Galaxy J3 (2017) smartphone did not note any squeaks, backlashes, gaps and other shortcomings that are typical of budget segment gadgets.

All parts are tightly fitted to each other and the device looks monolithic. So here we have a solid five: the gadget's belonging to a noble brand is still felt.

Display

The device received an ordinary screen on the same unremarkable TFT-matrix. The maximum that it is capable of is HD-distribution. Judging by the reviews of the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017), almost the only thing that pleased the matrix was good readability of data in the sun, and nothing more.

There is no automatic adjustment of brightness and contrast, but there are several presets for different operational scenarios. For example, the included "Outdoor" mode twists the brightness to the maximum value and the screen becomes easy to read even in direct sunlight.

There are no specific settings for the screen. In general, users in their reviews of the Samsung J3 (2017) are perplexed about this. Yes, the smartphone did not get the best TFT-matrix, but it is also capable of some tricks. And why the manufacturers did not include the appropriate tools in the firmware is not entirely clear.

There are minor complaints about the viewing angles, and only a mediocre TFT-matrix is ​​to blame for this. Therefore, flipping through photos and watching videos in the company of friends will not work: when you change the angle, the picture begins to distort, losing saturation and colors.

Performance

Responsible for the performance proprietary set of chipsets Exynos 7570, running on four cores with a frequency of 1.4 GHz. 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal memory is enough for ordinary needs. The interface does not slow down and quickly responds, and all tables and icons are flipped and work as intended. If the internal storage is not enough, then it is possible to increase the volume using external SD cards, up to 256 GB.

Judging by the reviews of the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) SM J330F, users are generally satisfied with the performance of the gadget. Basically, what you pay for is what you get. There are no questions about the work of standard applications, but some problems may arise with serious third-party programs. 2 GB of RAM is not enough for “heavy” and modern toys, so sometimes you have to reset the graphic presets to an average, or even a minimum value (if the application starts at all).

cameras

The main camera received a 13-megapixel matrix with autofocus and no flash. The output photos are not bad, but only in good lighting. The capabilities of the camera can be compared with the same "Chinese" - nothing outstanding, but there is nothing particularly to reproach.

Users, judging by the reviews of the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) Black, are generally satisfied with the capabilities of the matrix. Yes, in the dark, there is practically no sense from the camera, but the budget gadget was bought for the most part as a phone, and not as a camera.

The front camera has more modest capabilities with a 5-megapixel matrix. There is no autofocus here, but there is a flash and a variety of modes. The camera is perfect for taking selfies and further processing the latter right on the spot. Fortunately, there are enough tools for this, as well as embellishments in the stock firmware. If we analyze the reviews on the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) J330F, we can see that the main consumer of the gadget is young people. So the brand did not fail by adding a similar functionality for selfies to their device.

Communications

For the sake of savings, the manufacturer equipped the gadget with a single-band Wi-Fi module. Users in their reviews of the Samsung J3 (2017), especially urban residents, have repeatedly complained about this decision. In large cities, the air is packed to the maximum, and normal operation will not work with one range.

In addition, the device lacks ANT +, and even today it does not have the necessary NFC module. There are no complaints about the Bluetooth wireless protocol: version 4.2 works as it should and transfers data quite quickly. The GPS module, one might say, functions as standard, and there are no questions about it either. The only thing worth noting is that he “eats” a lot of battery, so you shouldn’t get carried away with it.

As for the usual cellular communication, then, judging by the user reviews of the Samsung J3 (2017), there are no problems: the reception is stable, no interruptions or sagging were noticed. The Internet also works well, including LTE, and packets are not lost. So, if the connection began to fail or behave strangely, then it is to blame mobile operator, not a device.

Platform

The smartphone runs on Android operating system version 7.0.1. In the firmware, in addition to the standard set of applications, the manufacturer has finally included an intelligent FM radio. Previous versions of the latter were so buggy that they caused a whole storm of negative emotions among users. In the latest versions of the platform, the holes were patched up, and now everything works as it should.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the KNOX function, where the user has the opportunity to install any application in two copies at once. This is very convenient if you actively use instant messengers like WhatsApp on your work and home SIM cards.

But, as usual, the brand stuffed its device with proprietary software. A good half of the applications are either advertising through and through, or simply useless. It is quite difficult to remove all these “useful” programs from the stock firmware, so you have to resort to the help of third-party utilities that cut out all unnecessary software at the root. As one of the options, you can immediately take care of changing the firmware to an amateur one. Fortunately, there are a lot of them on specialized forums, and some are even marked by the manufacturer as recommended or approved.

Offline work time

The gadget received a 2400 mAh lithium-ion battery. For the gluttonous "android" brotherhood, this is clearly not enough. The unspoken minimum in the budget segment ranges from 3000 mAh, and here we have a very modest battery.

If you use your smartphone specifically as a phone or messenger and, with rare exceptions, allow yourself to play games or watch high-quality videos, then the charge will last for two or even three days with a margin.

Fans of games and other multimedia entertainment will be sorely lacking in battery life. The device in this mode is barely enough for daylight hours, and closer to dinner, it begins to “ask” for an outlet. So autonomy is one of the weakest features of the model.

Wireless charging, like the older generation, is not here, but for most users this is not critical. But what I wanted to get was a quick recharge. The owners in their reviews have repeatedly complained about the manufacturer due to the lack of it. With such a modest indicator of autonomy, such a necessary thing as instant recharging is simply necessary. In normal mode, the battery is recharged in 2.5-3 hours.

Summarizing

As for the phone, there are no complaints about our respondent: the connection is good, the vibrating alert is noticeable, the subscriber is heard very well, just like you. The volume of the speakers is at an average level, but you can’t call the device quiet.

The smartphone is suitable for those who need a phone gadget. For those who often surf the Internet and like to play games or watch movies, J3 is far from the best option. Here we have a mediocre TFT-matrix and the same performance. All this is perfectly optimized for regular tools, but, alas, it will not pull something really serious. Yes, if it pulls, it will not serve more than an hour with such a modest battery.

J3 is the youngest model in its series and costs about 12 thousand rubles. The next generation (J5 / J7) has more serious components and costs 15 and 18 thousand rubles, respectively. If you are looking for a normal gadget in the mainstream segment, then the J5 and J7 models are very good options, which cannot be said about the J3. It is difficult to attribute it to the budget category because of the price, but it does not reach the average in terms of its characteristics.

If you are not an ardent fan of the Samsung brand, and you need an intelligent device up to 10 thousand rubles, then it is better to pay attention to the solid “Chinese” from Meise, Huawei and Xiaomi. They dominate the budget segment and offer really high-quality and inexpensive gadgets.

Screen technologies in 2015-2016 have advanced significantly. You won’t surprise anyone with an IPS matrix, they are even in budget smartphones. However, now a new trend has emerged - AMOLED screens are coming to the segment of inexpensive devices, where Samsung has been and remains the leader. If once such matrices were installed only in flagships, now they have reached affordable products.

Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) is a budget smartphone with good screen Super AMOLED. It is about him that will be discussed in this review. The handset is interesting primarily for its display, since analogues can only offer an IPS screen of average quality.

In general, Super AMOLED began its “hike to budget” back in 2015, when not the most expensive one was released. A little later, the even cheaper Galaxy J2 was introduced, which is a step below our Galaxy J3 (2016). And yes, an AMOLED display is also installed there, but of worse quality. However, there is the Galaxy J1 (2016) smartphone, which will be one of the cheapest Samsung products in 2016, but with a Super AMOLED screen.

But back to the Galaxy J3 (2016). This product is at the junction of the middle and budget class, equipped with a 5-inch AMOLED screen. That is, in terms of its dimensions and weight, the handset is close to the 5-inch Galaxy J5, but their characteristics differ markedly - the J3 is noticeably limited in certain parameters. What is this smartphone and why is it good - let's figure it out!

Video review Galaxy J3 (2016)

As always, at the beginning, we suggest looking at the phone in question in our video:

Design

When Samsung started making smartphones out of metal, its handsets became noticeably easier to distinguish. Now everything is clear and understandable: the flagships and the Galaxy A fashion line are metal, and the Galaxy J series of affordable devices is plastic. And even in this most budgetary Galaxy J series, there have been noticeable changes in terms of design.

We have long been accustomed to the fact that Samsung phones are such “remnants” with rounded corners, a characteristic body shape and controls. But 2015 showed that it is possible to vary the appearance of smartphones, and in 2016 the company went even further - just look at the Galaxy J3 (2016).

When we first happened to see the Galaxy J3 (2016), it turned out to be difficult to recognize the very “typical Samsung” in it. It seems that the shape of the case is ordinary, but on the front side we see a combination of white and black colors - the panel with buttons is made white, and the screen frame and the entire upper part are left black. At the same time, the side ends are silvery, and the back cover is white. That is, we had a white version of the Galaxy J3 (2016) smartphone.

The handset has become completely unrecognizable - Samsung had nothing of the kind, and other manufacturers have never seen anything similar. It may not look “supermega” stylish, but at least it is fresh and original – it is commendable that the company decided on such a redesign for the budget lineup. But keep in mind that all phones of this line will get a similar design. At least the Galaxy J1 (2016) looks exactly the same. It should also be noted that there is a completely black version of the Galaxy J3 (2016) black and there is simply no such “originality” for obvious reasons.

If you look at the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) from the back, then there are no changes here - this is the same “remnant” that I have seen many times. At the same time, the back cover has a shape sloping on the sides and rounded ends, which makes the phone very comfortable to hold in your hand. The lid is pleasant to the touch, it has a high-quality matte finish.

Despite belonging to the budget class, Galaxy J3 (2016) has a small thickness of 7.9 mm and a weight of 138 grams. The smartphone does not pull the hand at all, it is comfortable to use it and there is no need to often transfer it to the other palm. From this point of view, everything is excellent here. Another thing to note is the excellent build quality - Samsung has always been good in this regard.

Total new Galaxy J3 (2016) distinguished itself refreshed original design, which over time will clearly become typical, at least for 2016. But in any case, the effect of novelty does not negate it.

Connectors and controls

In terms of placement of controls, the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) is a classic. More precisely, this means that the company did not apply individual “modern” solutions. There is nothing wrong with this, but more expensive tubes offer slightly improved ergonomics in some areas.

Above the screen are a speaker, front camera lens, light and proximity sensors. Moreover, there is no indicator of events here - some strange trend went to Samsung in 2016 and she removed it even from the Galaxy A fashion line.

Below the screen are the traditional buttons for the list of recent applications, Back and Home. The latter is mechanical, and the first two are touch-sensitive, and lack backlighting. They are applied with silver paint and are clearly visible, but not in the dark.

Behind the top is the rear camera lens, LED flash and an external speaker.

On the left side there is a volume rocker - here is its traditional place, if we talk about Samsung smartphones.

The power button is placed on the right end - its location is also not changed by the company.

A 3.5 mm mini-jack for headphones and a headset was placed on top. It was located here on all Samsung products until 2015 - from that moment on, many models, including the mentioned Galaxy J5, offered a more convenient option for placing the audio jack on the bottom. But for the inexpensive Galaxy J3 (2016), they decided not to leave this option.

Below are the microUSB port and the microphone.

Samsung's top products have been impossible to disassemble for the second year already, but in relation to affordable smartphones the company still leaves the possibility of self-change battery.

In the same way, budget handsets still remain true to the microSIM card format, although, perhaps, it would be wiser to transfer all phones to nanoSIM - the leapfrog with different SIM card form factors will stop faster. To install the cards, you will have to remove the battery. If you have any problems with this, our short video will help solve them:

Total Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) in terms of ergonomics is no different from typical smartphones of the company. It did not move the audio connector to the bottom end for greater convenience, but this does not cause serious problems.

Case for Galaxy J3 (2016)

The body shape of the smartphone in question is quite typical, so it is not so difficult to buy a cover or case for the Galaxy J3 (2016).

For example, such a beautifully designed flip case for the Galaxy J3 (2016) is available for about 1400 rubles.

Here is such an overlay on the back cover is even more expensive - about 1800 rubles.

There are also other options for covers, since the Galaxy J3 (2016) is an inexpensive model, and therefore popular.

Screen

From the title of the article, it is quite clear that the screen is the main feature of the Galaxy J3 (2016). If you recall the past, Samsung used AMOLED in all of its "Google flagships", but such displays went to a more affordable segment in large numbers in 2015. To some extent, the Galaxy J5 can be called the first sign, and the Galaxy A3 of the first generation is also not so very expensive and advanced. And now we are dealing with an even cheaper Galaxy J3 (2016).

Are there any "features" of the touch screen in an inexpensive South Korean smartphone? Obviously, the manufacturer will not install the latest generation matrix in an affordable product. This is still the same Super AMOLED, the picture on which looks rich and bright, although if you put something like next to it, it will immediately become clear who “rules the ball”. But in comparison with analogues on IPS-screens, the difference is instantly visible to the naked eye. It's simple different level technologies, especially since in this price category no more than “average” IPS matrices are used.

In turn, the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) is still distinguished by deep blacks and wide viewing angles of the display. True, there is something about it that confuses us. For example, the screen is not protected by mineral glass, which fits into the "non-flagship" logic. Another not very pleasant moment is the lack of automatic brightness control. Yes, yes, there is no such thing, although advanced screen brightness control has become one of the Android 5 chips. The limitation is purely artificial, designed to widen the gap with more expensive handsets with OLED screens.

As for the resolution, at least they didn’t save on this - the Galaxy J3 (2016) offers 1280x720 pixels, which with a diagonal of 5 "gives a dot density of 294 ppi. In its class, this is a typical value. Let's say more - Samsung could easily have stopped at the option of 960x540 pixels out of a desire to “belittle” the apparatus, but this would be completely “beyond”.

Meanwhile, the data of objective measurements indicate a maximum brightness of 437.65 cd / m 2, which is generally quite decent. But here there is a nuance - we got a similar indicator by turning on the "Outdoor" mode, after which the brightness "jumped" somewhere by 60-70 cd / m 2. And not only she "jumped".

As you can see, in normal operation, the Galaxy J3 (2016) screen showed a gamma curve very close to the 2.2 reference curve, but “outdoors” it is noticeably higher. This means that not only the brightness of the display has increased, but the whole picture is displayed brighter than necessary. That is, a certain distortion was allowed, and this is precisely such an “idea” in order to enhance the effect of increasing the brightness.

Meanwhile, the color gamut of the Galaxy J3 (2016) screen easily blocked sRGB and approached Adobe RGB - this is a typical result for Super AMOLED matrices with an “adaptive” profile.

The color temperature is, as always, too high, and in the case of the Galaxy J3 (2016) by a relatively decent value of 1400-1700K. The image is colder than we would like. However, this is imperceptible, unless you know how the picture should look with the correct white balance.

Another artificially imposed limit is the number of simultaneous touches that the display recognizes. There are only two of them, although for Super AMOLED we are used to seeing a “full ten”. But this is on flagships, while here we have a “simpler” device.

The settings look very poor. As you can see, there is really no automatic brightness control. As well as there is no way to choose a work profile - Samsung also retained this feature for more expensive handsets.

In total, the screen of the Galaxy J3 (2016) shows an excellent picture, bright and saturated, with the deepest blacks. It has wide viewing angles, an excellent margin of brightness - it is clearly better than most IPS displays. But in order to “lower” the smartphone against the backdrop of more expensive own models, Samsung went to some purely artificial restrictions: mineral glass is not used, there is no automatic brightness adjustment, you cannot select work profiles, only two simultaneous touches are supported. But in general, for its class, everything looks very decent.

Camera

Samsung smartphones are famous for their cameras. Even the Galaxy J5 excelled in this regard - it not only has two cameras that shoot decently, but the front one also got a separate flash! Galaxy J3 (2016) is a simpler phone, which means that the sensors are not so advanced. Their resolution was 8 MP for the rear and 5 MP for the front.

The camera application is standard, like all Samsung devices. Everything here is extremely simple and clear. On the right are quick shooting options, including filters and metering modes; on the left you can call up a list of available shooting modes.

In Pro mode, you can adjust the white balance, ISO sensitivity and exposure compensation.

The maximum resolution is achieved at a frame aspect ratio of 4:3.

Pictures from the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) come out very decent, especially for its price class. If there is enough lighting around, then everything looks very even: good sharpness, correct white balance, no noise. However, if there is little light, then noticeable noise appears, the clarity of the image drops - the usual behavior in such cases.

The video is shot in Full HD resolution, which is the norm for such a device.

The video looks good too, especially if during the day and on the street: the frames are sharp, with good colors.

The front camera has a couple of shooting modes.

The resolution of the face sensor is 5 MP and it is achieved with an aspect ratio of 4:3.

The front camera shoots noticeably worse than the back, which is logical. And in comparison with the Galaxy J5, everything is not so decent. The frames are smeared, although their white balance is basically correct.

Video is captured with Full HD resolution, which is nice - they did not introduce an artificial limitation here.

The video from the front camera looks surprisingly better than the photo.

Main Galaxy camera J3 (2016) made us very happy - during the day it takes great pictures. The face sensor is worse, but there's nothing to be done - high quality left for more expensive models.

Specifications Galaxy J3 (2016)

The Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016), also known as the SM-J320F model, passed through our hands - a mid-budget product of 2016. In theory, it will take place between the Galaxy J2 and Galaxy J5 (2016), but compared to the "first" Galaxy J5, its characteristics look pretty good. Recall also that the Galaxy J1 (2016) still exists and, apparently, the Galaxy J7 (2016) will be released - this is the entire range of affordable Samsung smartphones for 2016.

The parameters of the Galaxy J3 (2016) do not look like “ah”, but it’s hard to call them bad. There are a lot of questions for them, although, if you think about it, compared to the Galaxy J5 from 2015, the “regression” is not very significant.

The processor specifically raises a lot of questions for us. The relatively new Spreadtrum SC9830 chipset introduced in the spring of 2015 is used here. This is not the first time Samsung has turned to this “rare” manufacturer - a tablet from its own production also received a tablet at one time. Moreover, in the first case, a dual-core processor was used, made according to the 40 nm process technology. Together with half a gigabyte of RAM, such a “design” noticeably slowed down.

But what is SC9830? Let's rejoice - this is the first Spreadtrum chipset with LTE support! Yes, yes, even little-known processor developers are beginning to master this standard. However, the processor did not switch to 64-bit Cortex-A53 cores, like all new MediaTek products, but remained on not the fastest and already somewhat outdated Cortex-A7. Fortunately, there are four of them and they operate at a frequency of up to 1.5 GHz. And, here's another thing - the 28 nm manufacturing process is used, so the tube does not differ in increased power consumption and heating.

Do you think the "retro technology" in the SC9830 is over? Not at all - there is still an old and not the fastest video card Mali-400 MP4. It's good that four, and not two as before, computing clusters are involved there. However, the accelerator is really ancient, from the time, that is, 2012. In principle, all games work on it, and they don’t slow down from more, but there is no support for OpenGL ES 3.0 and higher. So in the future, if your Galaxy J3 (2016) is suddenly delayed, something may not start.

With the amount of RAM, we decided to do it right - it is installed 1.5 GB, like the Galaxy J5 of the first generation. In the price category where the Galaxy J3 (2016) is positioned, this volume can be assessed as “above average”. Smartphones with a gigabyte of RAM are still very common here, but there are separate models for 2 GB, and Samsung decided to stop at an intermediate option. Built-in flash memory has 8 GB, which is also the norm for such a phone. Although, again - individual handsets offer 16 GB each - the Galaxy J3 (2016) is compared with this in the next section.

The remaining characteristics of the device in question are not something out of the ordinary. We described everything in detail above about the screen and cameras, and as for communication, here we have LTE Cat.4 - not the fastest option, but again typical for a product of this level. Wi-Fi only supports 802.11n.

In general, the characteristics of the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) correspond to the concept of a mid-budget smartphone in 2016. Everything is more or less balanced, not very fast, but functional: there is LTE, a decent amount of "RAM", more or less cameras and a Super AMOLED screen with certain artificial limitations.

Performance Testing

To evaluate the speed of the Galaxy J3 (2016), we chose a smartphone. This handset has a configuration very close to the Galaxy J5, but was released later and is still on sale. In addition, the Galaxy J3 (2016) will just have to compete with similar phones.

Inside the Lenovo A6010 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor, with a lower frequency than the Spreadtrum chip from the Galaxy J3 (2016), but with a more advanced architecture. In short, in the overall system speed, we see an approximate parity with a slight lead over the Chinese device. But in 3D graphics, Lenovo is the undisputed leader.

The latest version of Antutu intended the Galaxy J3 (2016) to be faster, albeit slightly. However, keep in mind that the modern 3D test with OpenGL ES 3.0 simply did not run on a Samsung phone.

The browser in the SunSpider benchmark definitely functions better on the A6010, although the gap is small. The difference will not be visible to the eye.

In the ancient three-dimensional test Nenamark2 Galaxy J3 (2016) managed to lag behind Lenovo - the video card of our smartphone is really "no".

And here is a serious 3D benchmark - 3DMark clearly gives victory to the A6010 and its Adreno 306 video core. As we said, the accelerator in the Samsung smartphone is very weak.

Due to the incorrect measurement of the remaining battery charge on the Lenovo A6010, we will compare the autonomy of the Galaxy J3 (2016) not according to how we usually do it, but according to the Antutu Tester utility. As you can see, the Samsung phone works noticeably longer. In general, efficient power consumption is a feature of all South Korean devices, including inexpensive ones. But don't let the diagram fool you - such a gap is also associated with the basically poor autonomy on the Lenovo A6010. According to our methodology, the Galaxy J3 (2016) left 73% of the charge after completing all the tasks, which is an above-average result - very decent for such a handset.

As always, the maximum energy consumption fell on surfing the Internet and 3D games. In general, most of the energy is spent on those tasks that require the included screen. And unexpectedly, a call through the mobile network spent a lot - something is wrong in the communication module, since for smartphones this has not been the most voracious operation for a long time.

Another nice thing about the Galaxy J3 (2016) is the presence of an extreme power mode. As a reminder, it uses the features of AMOLED screens, which work most efficiently if a lot of black is displayed. Samsung may well have left this feature out of a low-cost device, but it's still there.

Games on Galaxy J3 (2016)

Games on mobile devices behave completely differently than on computers - they adapt to the capabilities of the device, and then set the level of graphics that it can pull. So even the Galaxy J3 (2016) with its “cramps-video card” does not particularly slow down.

• Riptide GP2: prominent some delays;

• Asphalt 7: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Modern Combat 5: Blackout: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• N.O.V.A. 3: some delays are visible;

• Dead Trigger: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Dead Trigger 2: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Real Racing 3: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Need for Speed: No Limits: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Shadowgun: Dead Zone: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Frontline Commando: Normandy: some delays are visible;

• Frontline Commando 2: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Eternity Warriors 2: excellent, the game does not slow down;
• Eternity Warriors 3: not available in the Play Store;
• Eternity Warriors 4: not supported;

• Trial Xtreme 3: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Trial Xtreme 4: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• dead effect: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Dead Effect 2: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Plants vs Zombies 2: excellent, the game does not slow down;

• Iron Man 3: some delays are visible;

• dead target: excellent, the game does not slow down.

As you can see, nothing really slows down. But about Eternity Warriors 4 they wrote clearly and clearly: not supported. What does it mean to be incompatible with new version opengl.

Samsung Galaxy J3 Firmware Update (2016)

Android 6 for Galaxy J3 (2016) may be released, but not immediately - towards the end of 2016. It is also impossible to exclude the possibility that this will not happen. But, of course, updated firmware will continue to be included, so this guide will not be superfluous.

So, to flash Galaxy J3 (2016) you need to do the following:

1. and make sure that the smartphone has enough charge;
2. enter the smartphone into Download Mode (simultaneously pressing the "off" + "volume down" + "home button" keys), then press "Volume up";
3. connect the USB cable to the device;
4. in the Odin application on your computer, select files from the archive with the firmware:

• for the PIT column - a file with *.pit extension;
• for PDA - a file whose name contains the word CODE, if there is none, then you should know that this is the heaviest file in the archive;
• for CSC - a file with the word CSC in its name;
• for Phone - a file containing MODEM in the name;
• Note. If the files for the CSC, Phone and PIT graphs are not in the archive with the firmware, then we sew using the single file method only, i.e. indicate the location of the firmware in the PDA column, and leave the rest of the lines empty.

The firmware update process traditionally takes several minutes (from 5 to 15) and if successful, you will be prompted to configure the smartphone according to your preferences. After that, you can get to work.

If suddenly something did not work out, you can ask about it in the comments under the article.

ON

Galaxy J3 (2016) cannot be better than the next flagship, and therefore it did not receive Android 6.0 out of the box - only Android 5.1. In the meantime, Android 6.0 for the Galaxy J3 (2016) can, in theory, come out, although it’s difficult to vouch for it - after all, the handset is inexpensive, and even Samsung doesn’t always update them.

Samsung, as always, installed its TouchWIZ shell on top of the system. It is presented in the same form as the smartphones of the company in the second half of 2015 - everything is familiar and convenient.

If desired, you can customize the appearance, including installing one of the downloaded or purchased themes.

The notification bar and task manager have been changed in a certain way. The first was "improved" more and the second - less. Recall that the notification panel differs from the standard quick settings - Samsung does not pull them down, but is displayed statically at the top.

Among the pre-installed applications there is a complete set from both Samsung and Microsoft. However, the epithet “basic” should be added to the “set from Samsung”, since the flagship products offer a slightly wider list of programs, as well as a subscription to various services.

Smart Manager is a familiar aggregator of functions for clearing memory, power saving and security modes.

From Microsoft there is a traditional set of office applications, and those that are installed themselves from the Play Store, and then take up a decent amount of space in memory. Let's hope that this was a feature only of our non-final firmware!

In another way, the Papergarden utility, designed to read periodicals, or rather magazines, “clucked” into the list of programs. It is possible that the retail version of the Galaxy J3 (2016) will not have it.

All other applications are the same "necessary minimum" that is on any smartphone. Of course, here they are presented in the edition from Samsung. Here, for example, is a file manager.

Beautifully designed Clock app with alarm clock, world clock, stopwatch and timer.

The S Planner calendar has a user-friendly interface and a good set of features.

In principle, the interface and the shell do not slow down in any way on the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016), even despite the not the fastest processor and video card. Of course, Android 5.1 here is 32-bit in effect disabilities chipset. However, this does not affect usability in any way.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) is a well-executed budget smartphone with below average specs. More precisely, “lower” here is the processor and a particularly outdated video card, and “average” here is the amount of RAM and flash memory. Although in this price category you can increasingly find 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of flash memory - these are the parameters that the South Korean handset will have to compete with.

The most interesting thing is that she has something to offer in response to competitors, namely the screen. The one in the title may not be the best possible, but in any case, a very good Super AMOLED display with good color reproduction, high brightness, wide viewing angles and the list goes on. Yes, it does not have auto-adjustment of brightness and color profiles due to the budget of the device, but it is already very good without it - it is noticeably better than most of the "consumer" IPS that have flooded the market.

We have already mentioned the build quality, but it's time to say about autonomy again - for a smartphone of the Galaxy J3 (2016) class, it is very decent. And the main camera takes relatively good pictures. Another, albeit not the most important, but pleasant moment is the refreshed design, which has not yet become boring, but is relevant only when choosing a light version of the tube design. And now let's figure out how much the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) costs.

Price Galaxy J3 (2016)

It was not possible to buy the Galaxy J3 (2016) at the time of writing, but, obviously, the handset will be sold as an alternative to products such as the Lenovo A6010, with which we compared its speed. In other words, we are talking about the price level of 12-14 thousand rubles.

As a reminder, the Lenovo A6010 offers a more modern processor with a better graphics card inside than the Galaxy J3 (2016). It also has more RAM and built-in memory. But the screen is definitely better on a Samsung phone, as is the camera. And there is nothing to say about autonomy - the A6010 works surprisingly little.

This is another very serious competitor with decent parameters. It costs closer to 13 thousand, offers a good 64-bit MediaTek processor, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of flash memory, a 13 MP camera and a 5-inch IPS screen.

ASUS Zenfone 2 Laser ZE500KL for 12,500 rubles also looks very interesting. It has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chip, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage, and at the same time a good camera with laser autofocus, as the name implies.

Pros:

• high-quality Super AMOLED screen with HD resolution;
• good autonomy for its class;
• excellent assembly;
• refreshed design;
• good quality daytime shooting;
• There is support for LTE.

Minuses:

• slow video card in the processor;
• no LED indicator for events;
• touch buttons are devoid of backlight;
• There is no automatic screen brightness adjustment.

As a rule, a budget smartphone is something unattractive and bulky made of cheap plastic, but you can’t say the same about the Galaxy J3. Of course, you can’t confuse it with the flagship Samsung Galaxy S6, but it also looks pretty.

Dimensions and weight are at a good level - 142.3 × 71 × 8.4 mm and 138 grams, respectively. So, it is lighter and more compact than the popular Asus Zenfone 2 Laser, it is quite comparable with the "sophisticated" Huawei P8 Lite, besides, it fits comfortably in the hand. The phone recognizes the company's typical "soapy" design, so it looks like any other company's budget phone, for example, the 5-inch Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime, both front and back. The only differences are in the side ends, which the Galaxy J3 has become more pretentious (as if they were once again walked over with a file), and in the colors of the front panel - the top frame and a thin strip around the screen will always be black, regardless of the color of the case.

The bezels of the phone are skillfully camouflaged in black and side ends slightly rising above the display, which makes them seem thin. But in fact, they are not so narrow, the ratio of screen area to device area is about 68%, this is an average figure. Back panel it turned out to be rather faceless, it has only the Samsung logo, the DUOS inscription at the bottom, the speaker grille, the camera lens and the backlight LED. Everything is the same as other state employees of the company.

The smartphone received a collapsible case - both the cover and the battery are removed. Today, when manufacturers are chasing all-metal cases with might and main, this is even unusual. The build quality of the Samsung Galaxy J3, according to our experts, is at a good level, the phone does not bend under pressure. The lid fits snugly, only the latches on which it rests are inconvenient - when assembling the smartphone, you will have to press each one separately.

The Samsung Galaxy J3 is available in three colors: white, black and gold.

Screen - 4.0

The display of the Samsung Galaxy J3 turned out to be of high quality thanks in large part to its AMOLED matrix. It provides wide viewing angles, sufficient brightness and infinite image contrast.

The phone received a 5-inch screen with HD-resolution (1280 × 720 pixels), which today is rather the norm, not a luxury. The pixel density is at a good level - 294 per inch, this is more than enough for a clear picture. Viewing angles are wide, but not maximum, they are noticeably at same as the same flagship Galaxy S7. If you watch the same video on two phones at an angle, you can see that on the Galaxy J3, skin tones and other colors begin to fade, but this does not happen on the company's top phone. Separately, we note that the screen quickly collects fingerprints, but wipes off quite easily.

The measured screen brightness ranges from 4 to 256 cd/m 2 , which is low, comparable to the Asus Zenfone 2 Laser results. But, firstly, in the case of the Samsung J3, this is an AMOLED display, which, even with nominally low performance, does not look dim. Secondly, it has a special "Outdoor" mode, with which the brightness increases to 435 cd/m2. It is curious, but the phone does not have an auto-brightness function, apparently, the manufacturer decided to save on the light sensor. The color rendition of the screen turned out to be normal, especially compared to the simply “violent” screen of the Samsung Galaxy J1 (2016).

In the display settings, you can see the already familiar image modes - "Adaptive", "AMOLED Movie", "AMOLED Photo" and "Basic". In the first three, the color gamut corresponds to the wider Adobe RGB standard, which makes the picture seem too oversaturated, even screaming. In the "Basic" mode, the color gamut is "compressed" to the sRGB standard, in which the colors look more natural and familiar.

Performance - 1.8

In daily use, the Samsung Galaxy J3 works quite smoothly, but periodically "thinks" and slows down when solving many tasks. For heavy games and those who like to run several applications at once, this is not the best option.

The Samsung Galaxy J3 uses the Spreadtrum SC9830 chipset (4 cores, frequency up to 1.5 GHz). It is far from the most productive, but it supports LTE. The smartphone cannot be called very productive, but at least once again it does not irritate when working. So, when going to different menus, settings or when launching applications, he often thinks for half a second, but this is not so critical for a state employee. As for heavy games, this is definitely not for him - the phone launches them, but they do not work very smoothly. Even the mediocre Thumb Drift slows down at high graphics settings, which becomes critical at high speeds and sharp turns. We checked to see if the Galaxy J3 overheated during operation - it turned out that it didn't. For half an hour of racing games, the case temperature did not exceed 37 degrees.

In various benchmarks, the phone received low budget scores:

• Geekbench 3 (CPU test) - 1169 points, lower than the four-year-old flagship;
• Ice Storm Unlimited by 3DMark (graphics) - 3662, more than a thousand less than the state employee ZTE Blade X5;
• AnTuTu (mixed test) - 25123 points, several thousand lower than the Huawei Honor 4C Pro.

Looks funny, but in some Samsung tests The Galaxy J3 (2016) scored lower than its smaller brother, the Galaxy J1 (2016).

Cameras - 3.1

The 8 and 5 MP Samsung Galaxy J3 cameras can be called good for their resolution, but they are noticeably inferior to the same Samsung Galaxy J7. It is quite possible to take a good selfie on them, capture your friends or photograph the necessary document.

The camera application has received a clear interface, you may be annoyed only by the constant sound of the shutter when shooting - there is simply nowhere to turn it off, only if you turn off the sounds of the system itself. In the settings there whole line modes:

• "Auto"
• "Pro"
• "Continuous Shooting"
• "Panorama"
• "Retouch"
• "Sport"
• HDR
• "Sound and Photo".

The purpose of the latter seemed strange - you take a photo, and immediately after that a 9-second audio clip is recorded. This is interesting, but it is not clear to whom such a regime can be useful. Interestingly, compared to the Galaxy J1 (2016), the phone has an HDR mode, but the manual (“Pro”) mode turned out to be poorer in terms of adjustable parameters. You can set up in Pro mode:

• Exposure (-2 to +2)
• ISO (100 to 800)
• White balance (automatic or one of four to choose from).

The number of adjustable parameters and setting ranges are not impressive. Most phones already know how to change ISO up to 1600, and adjust the exposure from -3 to +3.

The image quality is good for 8 MP, the level of detail is not bad. The camera focuses accurately, but for quite a long time, on the order of a second or longer. In good lighting conditions, the phone will be able to take a good passing shot, but will not replace the camera. In the dark and indoors, photos no longer look so attractive due to noise.

The Galaxy J3 camera can shoot video in no more than HD resolution (1280 × 720 pixels) at 30 frames per second and with tracking autofocus. Why there is no Full HD video is unclear. Perhaps these are chipset limitations, or the manufacturer decided that a device with an HD display is enough to shoot with the same quality.

The front camera is fine for outdoor selfies, but the photos come out with a slight cool cast. Indoors, the result does not look so good anymore due to the ubiquitous noise. In addition, whatever one may say, the front camera is inferior to the main one.

Photos from the camera Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) - 3.1

Photos from the front camera Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) - 3.1

Working with text - 4.0

The Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) comes preloaded with the company's signature keyboard. One of its features is the ability to switch to a 3×4 format with large icons, as was the case in old push-button phones.

Working with such a keyboard is quite convenient, there is predictive input, you can adjust the size of the keyboard and set text shortcuts for long words or whole phrases. There is no markup of additional characters here, only a number of keys with numbers. But it supports continuous word input (Swype). It's a little sad that there was no separate icon for the comma. We also did not like switching between languages, which occurs by holding the spacebar and “swiping” to the side.

Internet - 3.0

Initially, the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) has Google Chrome browsers and simply "Internet". The first has the function of changing the text size to a pre-selected one using a double tap and synchronization with the desktop version. There are no special functions in the Internet browser, everything is quite typical. Although earlier it also had an automatic adjustment of the text to the width of the screen, but for some reason they decided to remove it. When working with several heavy pages, the phone starts to slow down and “stick” when scrolling through sites.

Communications - 2.6

Smartphone Samsung Galaxy J3 received a standard set of communications:

• simple Wi-Fi b/g/n with Wi-Fi Direct support
• Bluetooth 4.1 with A2DP profile
• LTE support
• FM radio (earphones required)
• A-GPS with GLONASS support.

The phone supports two micro SIM cards. For charging, a regular MicroUSB 2.0 connector is used. Surprisingly, it supports USB On-the-Go for connecting peripherals. As a rule, more expensive devices, for example, Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016), use this “privilege”. Also pay attention to the version of the phone - for example, the SM-J320H / DS modification does not work in LTE networks. During the tests, we did not really like the work of the GPS module. It took more than a minute and a half to start it cold - usually smartphones cope with this faster.

Multimedia - 3.6

As a rule, the company takes seriously the support of audio and video formats by devices. Samsung Galaxy J3 is no exception, but it cannot be called omnivorous. So, the phone plays music in FLAC, but, like most mobile devices, it cannot cope with AC-3. From the video, he did not want to run 2K, 4K videos and RMVB format.

A typical audio player is preinstalled on the smartphone. Google Play Music". This is not just a player, but also a whole music service from Google with an equalizer and a bunch of services. If you pay for a subscription, you can save your favorite tracks, listen to them offline, and get rid of ads. To watch the video there is a proprietary video player without any special features. True, except for those, the ability to show subtitles, send video and listen to the sound from the video via Bluetooth.

Battery - 3.4

We rated the smartphone's autonomy as decent, it is quite high for the Galaxy J3's moderate price. We calmly had enough smartphone for a day of work and even more.

The battery capacity of the smartphone can be called average - 2600 mAh. But do not forget that the main items of its consumption are the screen and the processor, and in this case they can be called economical. So, the phone lasted 11 hours and 10 minutes when watching HD-video at maximum brightness ("Airplane" mode). This is close to record holders for autonomy like Lenovo Vibe P1m and others. It's even funny that the cheaper Samsung Galaxy J1 (2016) lasted a couple of hours longer, though at the expense of a small and fuzzy screen. But in the audio player mode, the miracle no longer happened - a constant small load drains the battery relatively quickly, 50 hours and you're done. This is comparable to the results of Huawei Honor 5X or Sony Xperia E4.

In an hour of running the GeekBench Battery Test, the battery lost 15% of its charge, the result is slightly better than average. An hour in mid-range games consumes 18%, you can expect that on the Samsung Galaxy J3 you can play about 5 hours. Shooting a 10-minute HD video took only 4% of the battery, one of the best results.

Yes, in some tests the smartphone shows incredibly high autonomy, but in daily use it is not such a record holder, it lasts for a day of work and a little more. In principle, this time is enough, and this "slightly more" will be a reserve when the phone's battery starts to deteriorate. However, in this case, you can easily replace it with a new one, because it is removable.

The Samsung Galaxy J3 comes with a 1A charger. It takes just over two and a half hours to fully charge the device.

Memory - 3.5

The amount of permanent memory in the Samsung Galaxy J3 is small - only 8 GB (4.3 GB is available to the user), while Chinese (and not only) competitors have long been flaunting 16 GB on board. But this is not so critical, because the volume can be expanded using a MicroSD memory card (up to 128 GB). Moreover, the slot for it is separate, and not combined with any of the SIM-cards. It is located near the battery, but to install a MicroSD card, it is not necessary to remove it, because it does not interfere with putting the card inside - a trifle, but nice. Most applications are installed only on the internal memory of the device. After that, only part of the software data can be transferred to the card. Sometimes this leads to funny things. For example, the 3DMark application takes up 55 MB in the device’s memory, but if you start moving it to MicroSD, you will see that it began to take up about 42 MB on the card and 29.3 on the phone, that is, almost one and a half times more in total.

Peculiarities

Apparently, Samsung decided that the latest Android is not allowed for state employees, so the Galaxy J3 is running the 5th version of the system and its own TouchWiz interface. As usual, quite a lot of different and not everyone needs software is preinstalled on the phone - not only from Google and Samsung, but now also from Microsoft. In principle, this can be useful to someone, but the whole catch is that they are not deleted from the phone just like that. The interface is still heavy and a little confusing with an abundance of settings, which, moreover, are scattered rather strangely. For example, they are grouped under the names "Connections", "Device", "Personal" and "System" and it is not always possible to guess in advance where the item you need will be located. The features of the device include the use of an AMOLED screen, a removable battery, support for LTE and two SIM cards. However, the last two points are not so special today.