Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime review: Mirror shot

Display

As we already discussed, the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime is part of the size-over-resolution line of phones that have become quite popular recently. That means a 220ppi - not a major deal breaker last year and evidently not this year either (even if 720p has become more common in the midrange).

The display itself is a 5" TFT of qHD resolution - that's 540 x 960px or exactly the quarter of the pixels of a FullHD 1080p display. In terms of functionality this is not an issue, we haven't run across apps that experience issues with this resolution. It's just that you can't fully enjoy the 1080p videos from the Grand Prime's cameras on the device itself.

Text is softer than on higher-ppi displays and readability drops at lower zoom levels. This is more of a comfort issue though, text becomes too small to read before you zoom out enough for it to degrade due to resolution. If you paid top dollar for a phone you don't want any fuzziness, but here we can be more lenient.

Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime

A 21.5" a 1,920 x 1,200px desktop monitor and a 15.6" 1,366 x 768px laptop monitor (both very common) have just over 100ppi pixel density, so even accounting for the different viewing distance, we reckon the Galaxy Grand Prime screen is still good enough.

The TFT specification raised a red flag - it usually means poor viewing angles, but it turned out this is not the case. Color and contrast do shift slightly at extreme angles though it's hard to notice. If you've had bad experiences with low-quality TFTs in the past, you'll be glad to hear this one is not affected.

It's a bit dim for our taste, we kept the brightness slider above the halfway point most of the time. Since there's no ambient light sensor you can't rely on the phone to adjust the screen automatically in brighter environments. This will have an impact on battery life in daily use.

Also, when you push the slider close to 100%, the contrast suffers - the blacks noticeably fade.

Colors are a tad dull (the lower contrast doesn't help), though perhaps we're a bit spoiled by Samsung's Super AMOLED displays.

Display test	50% brightness			100% brightness
Display test	Black, cd/m²	White, cd/m²	Contrast ratio	Black, cd/m²	White, cd/m²	Contrast ratio
Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime	0.25	194	785	0.56	426	756
Sony Xperia M2 Aqua	0.26	247	960	0.44	531	1094
HTC Desire 616 dual sim	0.35	306	880	0.5	487	976
Microsoft Lumia 535	0.26	312	1188	0.45	458	1118
LG G2 mini	0.12	91	752	0.52	398	748
Motorola Moto G 4G	0.42	387	916	0.7	651	929

The glass over the screen is not Gorilla Glass or even an off-brand durable glass, so again go easy on it. It also reflects a lot of light, which combined with the lower maximum brightness hampers the sunlight legibility.

Sunlight contrast ratio

Nokia 808 PureView
4.698
Samsung Galaxy Note 4
4.033
Apple iPhone 5
3.997
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
3.997
Apple iPhone 6
3.838
Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
3.799
Samsung Galaxy K zoom
3.675
Nokia Lumia 930
3.567
Apple iPhone 5s
3.565
Samsung Galaxy S5
3.549
Nokia Lumia 735
3.547
Alcatel Idol X+
3.527
Apple iPhone 5c
3.512
Samsung Galaxy Alpha
3.509
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
3.487
Motorola RAZR MAXX
3.42
Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
3.419
Samsung Galaxy S5 Active
3.406
Nokia Lumia 925
3.402
Gionee Elife S5.5
3.386
Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4
3.352
Samsung Omnia W
3.301
Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
3.174
Samsung I9000 Galaxy S
3.155
Samsung Ativ S
3.129
Samsung I9190 Galaxy S4 mini
3.127
Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom
3.118
Nokia N9
3.069
Apple iPhone 6 Plus
3.023
Samsung Galaxy Note
2.97
Samsung Galaxy Premier
2.958
Sony Xperia Z1
2.95
HTC One S
2.901
Samsung I8730 Galaxy Express
2.861
BlackBerry Q10
2.856
Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II
2.832
HTC Desire Eye
2.815
Gionee Elife S5.1
2.812
Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
2.801
BlackBerry Z30
2.79
Sony Xperia ZR
2.672
Huawei Ascend P1
2.655
Sony Xperia Z3
2.618
Sony Xperia Z3 Compact
2.616
Sony Xperia T3
2.609
BlackBerry Passport
2.595
Nokia Lumia 900
2.562
Motorola Moto G 4G
2.546
HTC One Max
2.537
Nokia Lumia 720
2.512
HTC One
2.504
Motorola Moto G
2.477
Sony Xperia Z
2.462
Xiaomi Mi 4
2.424
Samsung Galaxy S III mini
2.422
Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
2.416
LG G Flex
2.407
HTC One (M8)
2.371
Motorola RAZR i
2.366
Meizu MX4
2.366
Sony Xperia ZL
2.352
Samsung Galaxy Note II
2.307
HTC One (M8) for Windows
2.291
Oppo Find 7a
2.279
Alcatel One Touch Hero
2.272
Apple iPhone 4S
2.269
HTC Desire 600 dual sim
2.262
Nokia Asha 311
2.25
LG Nexus 5
2.228
Nokia Lumia 820
2.193
HTC One (E8)
2.185
Nokia Lumia 920
2.17
HTC One X
2.158
Nokia N8
2.144
Nokia Lumia 620
2.142
Nokia 515
2.134
HTC Desire 500
2.129
Xiaomi Redmi Note
2.119
Sony Xperia acro S
2.119
Nokia Lumia 1020
2.103
Oppo Find 5
2.088
Sony Xperia SL
2.078
Nokia Lumia 630
2.056
BlackBerry Z10
2.051
Huawei Ascend Mate7
2.024
Samsung I9295 Galaxy S4 Active
2.022
Apple iPhone 4
2.016
HTC One mini
2.003
Xiaomi Mi 3
2.001
Huawei Ascend P7
1.992
LG G2
1.976
OnePlus One
1.961
Oppo R819
1.957
Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
1.955
Sony Xperia Z2
1.944
Sony Xperia E3
1.943
Nokia Lumia 1320
1.941
HTC One mini 2
1.94
Samsung Galaxy Camera
1.938
Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
1.935
Sony Xperia J
1.932
Acer CloudMobile S500
1.931
LG Nexus 4
1.926
LG G Pro 2
1.922
Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
1.913
Nokia Asha 308
1.911
HTC Butterfly 2
1.905
Sony Xperia T
1.894
Nokia Lumia 830
1.887
HTC Desire X
1.878
HTC Windows Phone 8X
1.873
HTC Butterfly
1.873
HTC Butterfly S
1.867
Huawei Ascend P6
1.865
Huawei Ascend Mate
1.845
LG G2 mini
1.838
LG G3
1.82
Nokia Lumia 1520
1.813
HTC Desire 616 dual sim
1.797
Sony Xperia V
1.792
HTC Desire 816
1.783
Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
1.772
HTC Desire 700 dual sim
1.769
Sony Xperia U
1.758
Meizu MX3
1.754
LG Optimus G
1.753
Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
1.74
Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
1.735
Sony Xperia SP
1.733
Oppo Find 7
1.691
LG Optimus 4X HD
1.691
HTC One V
1.685
BlackBerry Q5
1.682
LG Optimus Vu
1.68
Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
1.672
LG Optimus GJ
1.666
LG Optimus 3D Max
1.658
HTC Desire V
1.646
Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
1.632
Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
1.622
Jolla Jolla
1.605
Sony Xperia Z Ultra
1.578
Sony Xperia go
1.577
Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 I8160
1.566
Samsung Galaxy Core
1.563
LG Optimus G Pro
1.552
Motorola Moto E
1.545
LG Optimus 3D
1.542
Nokia Asha 302
1.537
BlackBerry Curve 9320
1.488
Sony Xperia M
1.473
Oppo N1
1.47
Meizu MX 4-core
1.462
Nokia Lumia 610
1.432
Samsung Galaxy S Duos
1.4
Microsoft Lumia 535
1.393
Sony Xperia M2
1.393
Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo
1.393
Samsung Galaxy Grand 2
1.38
Sony Xperia E1
1.372
Nokia Lumia 625
1.371
Gigabyte GSmart G1355
1.361
Sony Xperia L
1.351
Xiaomi Redmi 1S
1.35
Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8
1.35
HTC Desire 510
1.34
Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
1.331
Sony Xperia miro
1.324
Samsung I9082 Galaxy Grand
1.321
Samsung I8530 Galaxy Beam
1.315
HTC Desire C
1.3
Nokia X
1.291
Sony Xperia C
1.283
Nokia Asha 503
1.281
Nokia Asha 501
1.27
LG Optimus L7
1.269
Nokia Lumia 510
1.268
Samsung Galaxy Fame
1.245
LG Optimus L9
1.227
Meizu MX
1.221
Samsung Galaxy Young
1.22
Sony Xperia E
1.215
Nokia XL
1.204
Sony Xperia E dual
1.203
Asus Memo Pad 7 ME176C
1.198
Samsung Galaxy Pocket
1.18
Nokia Asha 305
1.178
Nokia Asha 306
1.175
Sony Xperia neo L
1.169
Sony Xperia tipo
1.166
Nokia Lumia 520
1.161
Samsung S6802 Galaxy Ace Duos
1.148
Samsung Galaxy mini 2
1.114

Connectivity

The Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime is available in both single and dual-SIM versions. Both feature quad-band 3G, while the second SIM slot getting 2G connectivity only (again, quad-band). Some single-SIM versions of the device are LTE-enabled.

Locally, there's single-band Wi-Fi b/g/n with Wi-Fi Direct support, but no DLNA. There is built-in screen mirroring though, for compatible HDTVs. Bluetooth v4.0 is also on board.

Wired connectivity is handled by a microUSB 2.0 port, which lacks MHL, leaving wireless mirroring as the only TV-out option.

The Galaxy Grand Prime has an advanced support for global positioning thanks to its Qualcomm chipset - A-GPS, GLONASS and Beidou are all supported (the latter is used in China, one of the target markets for the Grand Prime).

Next Page » 4. User interface

3. Display, connectivity

Reviews Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime reviewPage 3