Samsung Galaxy Express Pro Reviews

The Samsung Galaxy Express offers a lot of what we like to see in a smartphone: A brilliant display, great battery life and high application and gaming performance. Many of its competitors can’t keep up with the Galaxy Express, although some are ahead in terms of build quality and screen resolution. There are still just a few LTE-enabled devices out there, letting the Galaxy Express stand out even more. In the same price range, only the HTC One SV and the Nokia Lumia 820 offer similar data transfer speeds. Those who don’t want to switch to the also rather intuitive Windows Phone 8 OS can only choose between the HTC One SV and the Samsung Galaxy Express. The HTC’s build quality is better, but the Galaxy Express offers a larger display and slightly superior battery life. Still, these differences are just marginal so that it ultimately comes down to personal preference. The only counterarguments against the Samsung Galaxy Express are centered on its low display resolution and its color choice – only a white model is available at the time of writing. Still, if LTE is deemed important and if money is tight, then it doesn’t seem possible to go wrong with this smartphone – in this case, we can recommend the Samsung Galaxy Express full-heartedly.

Throughout our examination of the I8730 Galaxy Express, we've touched again and again on the dual-core processor under the hood. We've seen quite a lot of Samsung devices with the latest of Android on comparable screen sizes, but it's really the Krait CPU and the LTE connectivity that make the most significant difference here. Granted, the camera department seems to be the major compromise in the Galaxy Express feature mix, but if camera performance is not critical to you, the Jelly Bean experience on the Krait processor is not something you should easily pass on. Battery performance was also top-notch - especially the standby times. Yes, the Express's Krait processor is class-leading and hard to beat. The addition of LTE connectivity will help expand the smartphone portfolios of many European carriers, which are staking a lot on the LTE connectivity and need all the help they can get to make the service more desirable and accessible on more devices.

Finally, we can confidently say the Galaxy Express is a very solid mid-range device. It comes with two compromises that you have to take into account. The first one that we are ready to forgive it is a 480x800-pixel screen which works out to a sub-par pixel density. The screen however is bright and vivid, which partly makes up for that. The second one is the 5-megapixel rear camera. It produces decent shots, but nothing too impressive, and if you plan on using the camera extensively we would recommend you look at other options, like last year’s HTC One S which up to this day looks like an excellent value for the money with a great camera. But if that’s not your primary concern and you care more about a great performing and energy-savvy device, the Galaxy Express will not disappoint. You’ll also get LTE as a bonus.