Samsung Galaxy On5 Review

Few days back, Samsung announced a new series of Galaxy phones after the J series. The company announced two new devices in the On series, the Galaxy On7 and On5. The Samsung Galaxy On5 comes with 5 inch HD display (720P) and is powered by 1.3GHz quad-core Exynos 3475 processor with 1.5GB of RAM.

The phone comes with 8GB internal storage which is expandable via micro SD card. The On5 also comes with an 8MP rear camera and 5MP front camera. Here is the detailed review of the phone.

Related Reading: Samsung Galaxy On5 Unboxing

Design and Build:

Samsung has been maintaining the same design for almost all of its budget and mid-range phones and same is the case with Galaxy On5. The device looks dated in terms of the design and the build quality also looks average. It has almost similar design as that of Galaxy J5. The phone comes with chrome finishing on the sides similar to the J series. The power button is located on the right side while the volume keys are on the left panel. The audio jack and micro USB charging slot are located at the bottom. The front panel houses the 5-inch display, three buttons with the physical home button.

The rear panel has faux leather like finishing which was first found on Note 3. The 8MP rear camera, flash, and speaker is located on the rear panel. The phone comes in gold and black variants. While the device is pretty good to hold for the form factor, the design and build quality is pretty average considering the competition is offering better design and build in the price point.

Display:

The phone comes with a 5 inch HD display (1280 X 720p) with a TFT LCD panel instead of the regular IPS LCD panel found on most of the phone today. The TFT panel provides a decent display for the device. While the brightness levels are sufficient, the colors are not impressive, particularly when you see the AMOLED display on Galaxy J5. Samsung has opted for the cheaper TFT panel and the display looks out-dated. There is no additional protection offered on the display. The touch response is also not as good as the Galaxy J5. Similar to J5, the On5 also misses out on ambient light sensor and it comes with an outdoor mode.

Software:

Samsung Galaxy On5 runs on Android 5.1.1 which is the latest version of Lollipop and has the custom Touchwiz UI from Samsung. The skinned UI offers a good amount of features including a custom notification center which is customizable. The phone comes with an app drawer and Samsung has not bundled any bloatware with the phone and hence you don’t have unnecessary apps taking up space or running in the background. The UI is pretty similar to what we see on other Samsung devices.

Unlike the J5, the On5 does not come with theme manager app. Samsung has also included few useful apps like calculator, Memo, voice recorder, radio, S Planner and Smart manager.

The phone also comes with Smart Manager which can manage the battery storage, RAM and also make the device secure. The phone also comes with easy mode which makes the device easy for elderly people. Easy mode has a simple home screen layout which is again customizable. Overall, in the software, the phone offers decent features for the price.

Performance:

The Samsung Galaxy On5 runs on Exynos Quad core processor with 1.5GB RAM. The overall performance of the device was fairly good on moderate usage, but if you push the device with heavy memory consuming apps or games it struggles in performance. We did experience some lags which running apps or switching between apps. The gaming performance of the device was not that great and we encountered lag and frame drops when playing graphic rich games. The heat generated while playing games was considerably low.

Related Video: Samsung Galaxy On5 Gaming Review

Multi-tasking was decent on the phone, we ran multiple apps in the background including games and there was close to 400MB of RAM available.

The phone supports 4G LTE and has dual SIM card support. The call quality on the phone was decent and we didn’t notice any issues with calls. The speaker output was decent for a mid range phone.

The phone comes with 8GB of internal storage and out of which close to 4.5GB was available in first boot. This is one of the biggest issues with the phone. While you can expand the storage via micro SD card, but you cannot install apps directly onto the SD card. But having said that there is an option to move apps to the SD card. So if you install too many apps which are not movable to SD card, then you might have issues managing the storage.

Camera:

While most of the OEMs are concentrating on providing great camera experience even in budget segment with 13MP camera, Samsung has opted for an 8MP sensor for the rear camera and a 5MP front-facing selfie camera. The camera interface is exactly the same as that of J series and comes with auto mode, pro mode, panorama, continuous shot and beauty shot.

You can also take photos with effects. The interface offers decent features for a budget smartphone.

Talking about the camera performance, the On5 camera is a surprise performer and has good quality overall in the daylight shots which we took. The colors have come pretty good and so is the sharpness and overall detailing of the photos. Even when you zoom in there isn’t too much loss of clarity. Overall, the daylight photos are decent and the camera performs well. The phone has an issue with focusing and even though there is touch to focus, you might end up with out of focus images when you hit the capture button. Coming to the indoor shots (or low light), it struggles to keep the same clarity and photos have noise and not really comparable to the competition which offers much low light abilities. The phone can record videos in 1080P and the quality is again average.

Battery Life:

Samsung Galaxy On5 features a 2600mAh battery and this is good capacity for a 5 inch device in the mid-range segment. The phone does give good battery life in normal usage which includes calls, browsing, email, casual gaming and social networking apps. We tested the battery on multiple instances and found that if you are an average user, you can easily get a day or more with the battery on this device.

Verdict:

Priced at Rs 8,999, is the Galaxy On5 value for money? It is tough to recommend the Galaxy On5 at 9k pricing when the competition offers much better devices in the form of Yureka Plus, ASUS Zenfone 2 Laser, Lenovo K3 Note and also the Coolpad Note 3. Samsung has downgraded various aspects on the On5 including the TFT display, lack of sensors, lower MP camera and also poor build and design. If you are looking for a Samsung phone below Rs 10,000, then the Galaxy On5 is worth buying, else you should be looking at better options.