Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime 4G First Look: 4G Power At Affordable Price Tag

The Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime 4G is a medium range smartphone that make sense for people who want to stay away from ridiculously priced Android smartphones.

With the Galaxy Grand Prime 4G, Samsung delivers a phone that may not have the superphone goodness; still it's refreshing to see a smartphone manufacturer like Samsung has produced a capable device without feeling the need to scrimp on the specs. Unlike the Galaxy Grand Prime, this is no disappointing mid-range phone.

In several aspects the Galaxy Grand Prime 4G is a good deal. Even though Samsung hasn't announced the phone's retail price, we're expecting the device to carry very modest price.

We had an opportunity to play around with the Galaxy Grand Prime 4G at the recently concluded Samsung Forum 2015. Without any further ado, let's take a look!

PROS

• Speedy Performance
• Decent camera
• Large Battery Pack

CONS

• Low Resolution Display
• Expected Price
• Dated Android 4.4 KitKat OS

Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime 4G: Form Factor, Design, Display and Operating System

The Galaxy Grand Prime 4G is encased in plastic -- with a polished metal frame around the edges of the device. While the Galaxy Grand Prime 4G doesn't share a great deal design-wise with Samsung's latest Galaxy A series, it does have the company's trademark design.

The Galaxy Grand Prime 4G has a plastic back, which easily pops off to give you access to the battery. The phone is obviously on slim at 8.6mm. It feels light on the hand, thanks to its rounded corners and mid-size ensures that it doesn't feel too sharp. All thanks to Samsung's smart designing, the handset felt smooth in the hand.

The weight is actually 156g and you get a sense of how light that is when you consider that the much larger Sony Xperia Z Ultra weighs in at around 200g.

The Galaxy Grand Prime 4G has a 5-inch 960 x540 pixel screen. This is about as the same size as the Lenovo A600 - the cheapest 4G LTE smartphone in the country.

The screen quality is not great - it seemed to be an average affair. The screen doesn't close to matching the display of the Lenovo A6000. So, what's basically wrong? First of all, resolution is slightly low. Viewing angles aren't all that good, and colours are slightly undersaturated.

The device is powered by Android 4.4 KitKat -- not the latest 5.0 Lollipop -- with Samsung's unique TouchWiz UI on top. The software is very much familiar, though we'd be happy if we get to see updated UI in the near future.

Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime 4G: Processor, RAM and Connectivity

Aside from an uninspiring UI, the biggest selling point of the Galaxy Grand Prime 4G is its fitted processor. The handset uses a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 processor (64-bit). In theory, at least, the processor should be fast and zippy in nature. My experience with the device was pretty satisfactory, as I got to play some heavy on the device. At times the phone would pause between switching apps. Nevertheless, the phone felt might powerful.

The phone packs 1GB of RAM and 8GB of native storage. There's a microSD card slot to expand that storage. You do get 4G here, but at the time of writing you can't get 4G in places like Delhi and Mumbai. This is a dual-SIM phone.

Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime 4G: Camera and Video

The main camera in the Galaxy Grand Prime 4G is rated at 8-megapixels, and it's a good all-round performer. Samsung's camera interface is also nice and simple to understand.

Unsurprisingly the camera is great at capturing believable shots in good conditions outdoors, but you'll see noise creeping in when you're indoors. At 5-megapixels, the front-facing camera is just for quick selfies and video calls.

The rear camera is fully capable to capture Full HD videos. It's a pretty high-grade resolution that means videos are worth taking a look.

Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime 4G: Battery and Early Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime 4G has a 2600mAh battery, which is a decent size for a handset with a low-resolution screen. Plus, you also get to access the fitted battery.

Samsung aims to promote the Galaxy Grand Prime 4G is an affordable 4G LTE smartphone. While the phone is not bad, there are a couple of options available in the Indian handset market that offers LTE support. Lenovo A6000 and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G are some of the few notable LTE smartphone you can purchase under Rs. 15,000.

With inputs from Akansha Srivastava