Review Samsung Galaxy Express GT-I8730 Smartphone

As mentioned before, the case of the Samsung Galaxy Express resembles closely that of the Samsung Galaxy S3. Only the speaker moves down a bit on the back, while both the front camera and the ambient light sensor are shifted to the other side on the front. In addition, the screen of the Galaxy Express is 0.3 inches smaller than that of the Galaxy S3, yielding a reduced device height and width. Still, the Galaxy Express is thicker by 0.5 millimeters and also heavier by 5 grams.

Our test device is currently only available in white. It is definitely a slick smartphone: As with the Galaxy S3, a chrome-colored frame runs along its sides and its round, almost organic shape helps set its design apart from Apple. Its surface feels great, even though the backside acts as a fingerprint-magnet.

Build quality is very good, despite Samsung's choice of materials (plastic). The rear panel can be removed completely. It is very thin, light and can be bent, but this is not noticeable once it snaps back onto the base unit. Indeed, the Samsung Galaxy Express feels very sturdy and cannot be bent out of shape.

Software

All Galaxy series smartphones rely on Google's Android platform - including the Galaxy Express, which comes with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean preinstalled. Despite the availability of Android 4.2, Samsung has not yet managed to use the newer software version in most of its devices.

Much of the operating system remains unchanged apart from Samsung's typical TouchWiz interface and a few interesting apps and widgets: Flipboard arranges the user's messages from all activated social media (and other) accounts within one magazine-style app and comes with a widget. S Voice is Samsung's version of Siri, working almost as well as Apple's counterpart. AllShare Play allows the user to send content effortlessly to connected devices such as TVs or notebooks.

Unfortunately, there is also much unnecessary bloatware, apps, which have to be bought after an initial test phase or which can only be used with a subscription-based video streaming service. This quickly becomes annoying even after booting for the first time - Samsung should think twice about whether it wants to continue with such a disservice.

Accessories

The smartphone ships with nothing but the obligatory headphones. There are many accessories on Samsung's website, however, the website is confusingly designed. Apart from replacement batteries and the new universal docking stations (which also work with non-Samsung devices thanks to their micro USB connections), numerous headsets, car device cradles, bags and much more can be bought, though it might be prudent to compare their prices with those of third-party offerings.

Warranty

The Galaxy Express ships with 24 months of warranty. In case of a malfunction, the device must be returned to the vendor. Alternatively, Samsung's hotline may be utilized. An overview over authorized Samsung service partners for repairs can be found on Samsung's website. No warranty extension for smartphones is offered from Samsung itself.

The virtual keyboard is just Google's standard design. If this is deemed unsatisfying, many alternatives can be found in the Google Play Store. Still, even the standard keyboard offers many settings and we felt that typing was fast and unproblematic. Switching between the landscape and portrait modes of the keyboard was also rather swift, leading to a satisfying workflow.

Samsung has been using AMOLED displays in its smartphone lineup for ages. These screens consist of many organic light emitting diodes which don't rely on any background lighting, yielding better contrast ratios, more saturated colors and decreased power consumption. The main disadvantage of AMOLED displays lies with their shorter lifetimes and a reduction in luminance over time - still, with typical smartphone lifecycles of around 2 years this shouldn't have any significant effects.

The AMOLED display of the Galaxy Express offers a resolution of 800x480 pixels (thus sporting an aspect ratio of 16:9) and a screen size of 4.5-inches. Its resolution is the same as those of some other mid-range phones such as the Huawei Ascend D1, the Nokia Lumia 820 or the HTC One SV, while both the Google Nexus 4 and the Sony Xperia T offer a resolution of 720p for the same price.

AMOLED displays are almost never as bright as classical LED displays (accordingly, the Samsung Galaxy S3 was a lot dimmer than the iPhone 5 for example), and the Samsung Galaxy Express is no exception to this rule. Actually, it is worse off than all of its competitors, achieving 258.2 cd/m². The best by far among the direct competition is the Sony Xperia T with an average brightness of 470.1 cd/m².

The graphics chip has already demonstrated its laudable performance during our review of the HTC One SV, but again, it does not beat the Google Nexus 4. Rather, it remains on par with the HTC phone, staying slightly ahead of both the Sony Xperia T and the Huawei Ascend D1.

More demanding benchmarks like 3DMark or GLBenchmark 2.7 end in a stuttering mess. During GLBenchmark 2.7 our test device didn't manage to exceed an average of 12 frames per second, while the benchmark ran much more smoothly on a Google Nexus 4 with 20 fps. Luckily, most applications and even games shouldn't put such a strain on the GPU.

Synthetic browser benchmarks also place the Samsung Galaxy Express in the upper mid-range. Browsing the web felt fast and smooth, with another potential speed increase if alternative browsers are downloaded from the Google Play Store.

Its flash memory, which is one of the faster varieties, is second to none but (again) the Google Nexus 4.

As mentioned, the Qualcomm Adreno 305 is a mid-tier graphics solution which should be sufficient for most recent mobile games. Despite failing the more demanding 3D benchmarks, casual games such as Angry Birds: Star Wars or Temple Run run smoothly. We didn't even notice any lag in action games such as Zombiewood or Shadow Gun: Dead Zone, a sophisticated 3D shooter. Gamers will also be glad to hear that touchscreen reaction was both fast and reliable.

In the case of smartphones, the case temperature is even more important than with notebooks or tablets, since the device is almost exclusively held in its user's hands. Samsung has delivered very good work in this regard: Even under full load, temperatures never exceed 33.6 °C, while next to no temperature increase (up to 29.2 °C) occurs when the smartphone remains idle.

A comparison with its competitors reveals a considerable difference. None of them get uncomfortably hot, but still, the Nokia Lumia 820 for example reaches 48 °C under full load with none of the other smartphones staying below 38 °C.

The Samsung Galaxy Express offers very good voice quality, directly via the phone's speaker as well as when using the included headset. Speech can always be understood well without being distorted by ambient noise.

12:30 hours while idle is just average. The true strengths of the Samsung Galaxy Express are revealed in the Wi-Fi test which comes close to actual usage, with new websites being opened once or twice per minute. It takes 10:30 hours until the battery finally dies. This is superb, and far better than what most of the competition achieve. Only the Nokia Lumia 820 exceeds these 10:30 hours, running up to 12 hours. But it gets even better, especially so for mobile gamers: Under full load, the Samsung Galaxy Express manages to squeeze up to 5:33 hours out of its battery, much more than all its competitors.