Samsung Galaxy J6 review: Greater than the sum of its parts

Samsung'due south been having a hard time giving consumers a reason to opt for its budget smartphones lately, particularly in burgeoning markets like India where Chinese OEMs accept made information technology tough for big brands to compete on the value-for-money front end. Samsung, for its part, has been trying to conjure up software features that give its devices a leg up, similar Samsung Pay Mini or the recently launched Samsung Mall shop for Indian consumers. Simply in that location's also the matter of making certain its upkeep phones offer hardware that's alluring, and the Infinity Display is a major part of that push for the Korean giant.

The Galaxy J6 is the first budget Samsung phone with an all-screen design that maximizes screen estate without increasing the overall size of the device. It'southward likewise the cheapest (around €160/₹12,990), at least for the base variant with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. And, apart from the Infinity display, the spec canvass is as basic as it gets for J serial phones, with the same old Exynos 7870 SoC and a standard 13-megapixel rear camera. The bombardment isn't very big, either, so it falls on the overall user experience to make a case for why the Galaxy J6 would be a good purchase.

Does it stand upwardly to scrutiny, or is information technology another upkeep Galaxy that has no reason to exist other than the fact that Samsung cannot just requite upwardly on this segment of the smartphone market place? That's what we volition find out in this Galaxy J6 review. Don't forget to bank check out our video review embedded below for a brusk and sweet version, so continue on with the written review after the video for a detailed look at what the Galaxy J6 offers.

https://world wide web.youtube.com/watch?five=xsJ3DOG9omM

Galaxy J6 review: Blueprint

I take written virtually information technology before, and I'll say it once again: The Milky way J6 feels very nice to concord and use. The Infinity display makes it look rather attractive, and the polycarbonate unibody adds a premium experience without driving the price up as a metal trunk would. And while the phone tends to option up scratches adequately easily, it's non a fingerprint magnet. The compact size also helps. Thanks to the Infinity brandish, the phone doesn't accept to be so big yet still offers substantial screen estate. It might not exist for people who look for actually large displays on their phones, but Samsung has the Galaxy J8 in the works for those who fall in that camp.

The meaty size also makes it very comfy to reach for the fingerprint sensor on the back. And the fingerprint sensor is quite fast every bit well, which is an added benefit. Of grade, some folks are likely to mutter almost why the visitor didn't put in a removable bombardment when it was going to use plastic for the dorsum, simply that may accept taken away some of the telephone'due south amuse. It all comes together actually well to make the Galaxy J6 feel costlier than it actually is, and it's something that surprised everyone here at SamMobile.

Display

The Infinity display on the Galaxy J6 is a five.6-inch panel that, just similar Samsung'due south other not-flagships with 18:five:9 displays, has plenty of bezel on each side. Only as I said earlier, the screen-to-body ratio is pretty high compared to regular Galaxy phones, which had the hard domicile push button and capacitive back and multitasking keys taking up precious infinite. The Samsung logo has gone from the front equally well, so you have an entirely black front side that lets the brandish have center stage.

And I'thou happy to study that this is a pretty expert display. The colors may non have every bit much dial as you lot would wait from a Super AMOLED panel, just it's yet non equally pale as LCD displays can be on similarly priced Samsung phones. The resolution (1480×720 pixels) is adequate for the screen size, and the pixelation didn't carp me in 24-hour interval-to-day usage. Yous might find it a tad lacking when watching the latest movie trailer on YouTube or catching your favorite show on Netflix, but it's a sensible sacrifice that lets the phone perform better than it would take with a more than pixel-dense screen.

Samsung has also been kind enough to build in full customization options for the brandish. That'south something nosotros're seeing for the beginning time in the company'southward budget lineup. You tin can either change the color balance through the preset cool and warm options, or become even further and manually adjust the ruby, light-green, and blue values. The same goes for the on-screen navigation buttons. The home button isn't pressure level-sensitive like it on the flagships, but you tin change the background color and as well swap the back and recent apps keys if Samsung'due south default implementation doesn't sit well with yous.

Sadly, an ambient light sensor hasn't come up along for the ride. I wonder why Samsung doesn't at to the lowest degree implement a gesture for adjusting effulgence every bit an culling, similar being able to slide left and correct where the status bar would be. I think this was an option on earlier Samsung devices or some of the custom ROMs that you can download on the XDA forums, and information technology would exist a good idea to bring information technology back if the company can't afford to put in an ambient light sensor in its budget smartphones.

To the Galaxy J6′ credit, the display does get sufficiently brilliant outdoors and goes quite dim as well. You get the usual Outdoor mode setting for when information technology'southward actually sunny, but I never found the need to enable that other than when I was taking photos of the phone for this review.

Photographic camera

Firing upwards the camera is the start major reminder that this is a budget telephone yous're looking at. The 13-megapixel rear photographic camera only does well when you are taking pictures outside in the daytime. With adept natural light, noise is kept to a minimum and item is sufficient as long as you lot're not zooming in on a photo. If you switch to HDR mode, you can get slightly ameliorate shots with particular in the dark and vivid portions, though HDR mode isn't as capable here as it is on other Samsung devices.

Indoors, things have a plow for the worse, with the Milky way J6 struggling to maintain focus at times and also smudging up item. You can, all the same, have some proficient photos if you lot play effectually with the exposure (by borer something on the screen so using the slider that shows up) in artificial lighting or use the defended Nighttime manner. Low-low-cal shots are where the camera fails miserably, with lots of noise and lack of detail in pictures. The LED flash becomes a necessity here, and you also need to hold the telephone quite steady to avoid camera milk shake.

The 8-megapixel selfie camera can take racket-costless selfies in daylight, but the photos come up out rather soft. Indoor photos are soft too, and they also suffer from camera shake, as you can run across in the samples beneath. Depression-light selfies require the front LED wink to be enabled. The wink helps considerably, and Samsung has added the option to choose from iii varying levels of brightness for the wink and so you can avoid being blinded when taking selfies. Photographic camera shake is as well a problem with the wink on, though, which ultimately becomes the Achilles heel of the selfie experience on the Galaxy J6.

There'south also a bokeh manner for selfies chosen Selfie Focus. The phone takes a couple of seconds to procedure these selfies, and results are pleasing enough with sufficient lighting. The camera doesn't always separate the head from the remainder of the scene, merely the few selfies I took with Selfie Focus enabled didn't accept any glaring artifacts. If but selfies didn't mostly come out so soft on the J6, as that doesn't allow the defocused background to shine as much as it would if the face in focus had more than sharpness and item.

Here'southward a comparing of a selfie taken with background mistiness and the same moving-picture show taken in regular fashion (slide left for the regular selfie, right for the Selfie Focus shot):

← SLIDE →

The camera app on the Galaxy J6 is the latest iteration that Samsung introduced on the Galaxy S9. And then y'all swipe left or correct to access the various shooting modes, and swipe upward or down to switch between the rear and front camera. This is when the phone is held in portrait mode, though. The camera interface doesn't completely rotate if y'all hold the phone in mural, so the gestures for switching between cameras and irresolute camera modes is reversed.

As for camera modes, there's aught noteworthy here. For the rear camera, y'all have a defended beauty mode and also a dedicated stickers style that lets you add funky stickers to faces detected in the scene. There'southward a basic Pro fashion with exposure, ISO, and white balance controls. For the front photographic camera, Selfie Focus is joined by Wide Selfie, which is a panorama mode for taking selfies with a big number of people in the frame, and a dedicated stickers mode like the rear camera.

Performance

This is where the Milky way J6 surprised me. I've always been critical of the performance of Samsung'southward budget smartphones, only for the outset fourth dimension, I have more than positive feelings than I expected. Now, don't get excited. The J6 can throw some lag and stutter at you from time to time. Just the amount of lag and stutter is considerably less than what you lot would have seen on previous J serial devices. There are a few instances where switching to one app from another will make the phone skip a few frames, or pressing the abode push may non react equally apace equally y'all would similar.

But overall, in regular usage, the J6 performs admirably. Apps open quick, animations are smooth for the most function, and the phone rarely delayed the activity of unlocking and waking upwardly the screen when I touched the fingerprint sensor. The depression screen resolution helps, as I mentioned in the display section, and y'all tin can only expect significant lag when a few apps are being updated via the Play Store in the groundwork or if the phone has been in use for long periods of time without the screen being turned off. The latter should be less of an issue on the 4GB RAM model, but that makes it even more impressive that performance isn't defective on the model with only 3 gigs of RAM.

When it comes to gaming, you can play some high-finish games, such as Asphalt eight, with a smooth frame rate. Heavier titles such as Modern Gainsay 5 won't run so well, simply simpler games such as Disharmonism of Clans should have no trouble offering a smooth gameplay experience. I would even so recommend clearing out all apps from retention from the contempo apps screen before launching a game, though, if yous're going to buy the 3GB variant. And that's probably the variant virtually people will buy. It would exist especially true in markets like India, where the 4GB model is priced a tad as well high to exist good value.

Now, a few words about facial recognition on the Galaxy J6. It's rather accurate outdoors and in well lit indoor environments, and takes around a second to work. But if y'all're in a nighttime room or out on the streets at night, you're better off using the fingerprint reader. In fact, unless y'all want to take a look at notifications on the lock screen, information technology's best to just tap the fingerprint sensor so you lot tin can go directly to the habitation screen or any app was running when y'all locked the device. Face recognition is dainty to have, simply not good enough as the master means of unlocking the phone.

Software

The Galaxy J6 runs Android eight.0 Oreo with the Samsung Feel 9.0 UX, which was introduced on the Milky way S9 earlier this twelvemonth. It's less feature-packed on the Milky way J6, but you get functionality such as themes, one-handed mode, Secure Binder, fingerprint gestures for opening the notification shade, and the Dual Messenger feature that lets you lot use two accounts in social networking apps even if an app doesn't officially back up multiple accounts.

Conversation-over-video is an interesting new feature, though information technology may be exclusive to the Indian market. It allows you to reply to letters in the SMS app and WhatsApp while watching videos. When you get a message, you get a round floating notification over the video. Tap this notification and the app will open in a pocket-size window along with the keyboard while the video continues playing in the groundwork (even if it'due south a YouTube video). If you are using Samsung's default keyboard, the keyboard is transparent then the video isn't completely hidden.

Chat-over-video is a great thought, merely what irritated me was the fact that every bulletin y'all become on WhatsApp becomes a floating icon that doesn't go away fifty-fifty when you end watching the video and open some other app. Basically, Samsung has expanded the Popular-up View multitasking functionality its smartphones accept had for a long fourth dimension for Conversation-over-video and added a keyboard to the mix, so you will have to manually remove those floating icons one past ane once you lot're done watching a video.

For Indian users, the Galaxy J6 also comes installed with Samsung Pay Mini, which supports wallet (Paytm, Mobiwik) and UPI payments. Samsung Mall comes preloaded also. Information technology's an app that lets you buy products from dissimilar retailers through the same app and also lets y'all aim your phone camera at a product to search for similar products online. Another proficient idea, just the problem here is that for each production in your cart, Samsung Mall opens the retailer's website in an internal browser then y'all tin can make the payment, so using the official app for retailers like Amazon and Flipkart makes more sense.

Audio, call quality

The only highlight in terms of sound features on the Galaxy J6 is Dolby Atmos support. It works with earphones and Bluetooth audio (including the stereo in your auto). Dolby Atmos doesn't go a chance to truly shine if you use the bundled earphones, though, which are equally bones as they come up. The one do good with enabling Dolby Atmos is increased overall book in videos and also some sound tracks, simply that's almost it. You tin switch betwixt Pic, Music and Vocalism modes, though the Auto fashion is more than than capable of detecting the type of content beingness played.

The loudspeaker on the Galaxy J6 is skilful enough for the occasional YouTube video or Television set episode on Netflix. It lacks thump in the lower frequencies (bass) merely is more than than acceptable to let the higher frequencies (treble) shine through, equally these single speakers on Samsung'due south budget phones usually are. Book levels could do with existence higher than they currently are, peculiarly for videos, which is where Dolby Atmos and earphones come up in handy.

I faced no problems with calls over either of the two SIM cards I had on the Milky way J6. Voices came in conspicuously and the person on the other side of the call could hear me without distortions. Signal forcefulness was besides quite adept in fifty-fifty low-signal areas similar a basement parking. As far as making calls and connecting to mobile networks is concerned, you volition have no complaints.

Battery Life

The Milky way J6 makes good use of the three,000 mAh battery inside. That's cheers to the combination of the Exynos 7870 SoC and not-so-high screen resolution. You can get to the end of a 24-hour interval with usage that includes watching a few video clips on YouTube, sharing memes on Facebook, playing a game or ii, and checking WhatsApp messages every few minutes. Of course, the mileage yous get is better on a Wi-Fi network, but even on a mobile data connection bombardment life remains solid.

With lighter usage, the Milky way J6 can easily last till the afternoon on the second day. Yet, you would need to accuse it again before you can prepare out for the 24-hour interval'south work. There's no fast charging support here, and so the phone tin take upwardly to 2.5 hours to go from 0 to 100. Thankfully, even getting ten to 20 percent of the accuse back can allow you to employ the phone for a couple of hours, so the slow charging speeds shouldn't bother anyone but the most demanding of customers.

Determination

Samsung's budget phones are probably e'er going to have limitations. But with the Galaxy J6, it's easier to ignore those limitations because some of the things that work are quite good. Those would be the Infinity brandish, the design, and the phone'due south performance. These combine to make the Milky way J6 experience more premium than its price tag would propose and allow it to stand alpine amid a sea of value-for-money smartphones, particularly in markets like India. I wasn't too bothered past the lack of auto brightness or the mediocre camera functioning in my time with the J6, and that's down to the fact that the phone feels and so nice to utilize in general.

Of course, some of you will look at the Galaxy J6 specs and want more bang for your buck. On that front end, it is far from the best budget smartphone you lot tin throw your money on. But if yous're looking for an affordable smartphone that'due south compact while having a fairly large display, performs well in solar day-to-twenty-four hours tasks, and gets y'all through a busy work twenty-four hour period without making yous accomplish for a charger, the Galaxy J6 fits the neb. Samsung has finally made a budget phone that punches above its weight, and that makes us hopeful for what the company will bring to the table in the future.

Pros	Cons
Blueprint feels quite premium	No ambience low-cal sensor
Infinity display is of high quality	Cameras are mediocre
Performance is surprisingly good	No fast charging
Solid battery life	Dolby Atmos only for wired and Bluetooth audio
Dolby Atmos back up	Bezels are however somewhat large
Quick fingerprint reader

Source: https://www.sammobile.com/2018/06/14/samsung-galaxy-j6-review

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