Friends+Design
- Nice, practical, appealing design
- Easy to hold and operate, despite its big screen size of 6-inches
- Lightweight (due to the plastic build)
- Has a good grip in the hand
- The plastic build can feel a bit cheap when you hold it in your hand though - there are other, more premium build devices in this price bracket
- There’s a pattern of very tiny dots under the glass on the rear, and unfortunately it really highlights the amount of smudges that the phone picks up
- The phone is also a bit on the heavy and unwieldy side for comfortable everyday use
- Face unlock is a bit of a hit-and-miss
Display
- Galaxy J4+ sports a 6-inch HD+ Infinity display with a resolution of 1480 x 720 pixels - the display has good brightness levels, and is legible even under direct sunlight - nor does the display hurt your eyes while using in the dark at minimum brightness - it's a good display for watching videos
- However, unlike the previous Galaxy J4 (and earlier budget Samsung devices), the J4+ has an IPS LCD display panel, instead of a Super AMOLED panel - which means the blacks are not that black - having an AMOLED display even in budget brackets used to be one of the strengths of Samsung, so it's a little disappointing to see them moving away from it
Software
- Samsung Experience UI is decent as far as custom Android UIs go and packs a lot of add-on features - assorted gestures, dual messenger mode, a blue light filter, game mode, easy mode, ultra data saving mode, S Bike Mode to improve on-road safety, S Power Planning for battery management, Emotify to create emoji avatars, and more
- There are also a lot of Samsung’s promotional apps and widgets though, that could have been avoided
- Another major annoyance is that with two SIMs inserted, Samsung’s SMS app shows two tiny send buttons right next to one another, and you have to be very careful about which one you are hitting when sending messages
Performance
- The performance from the Snapdragon 425 processor, combined with 2GB of RAM, is pretty mediocre - this is definitely not a device you can push a lot - there are lags everywhere - heavy apps, games, and multi-tasking is not a good experience - if you have basic use case (making calls, keeping up on social media, replying to emails) it will suffice, else you will be much better off looking elsewhere - most other good phones at this price level vastly outclass the J4+
Camera
- Average rear camera - there is especially a lot of detail loss and noise in low light situations - well lit situations are also not that great
- Average front camera - there is a loss of detail in well-lit shots and the colour reproduction is inaccurate - in low light conditions, the front camera performs even worse - low light images are often washed out and lack details
- Videos come out looking pretty shaky
- Shutter lag is an issue with both cameras
- Even otherwise, both cameras are pretty slow and unresponsive at times, like the rest of the UI
Audio
- The built-in speaker is pretty harsh and screechy at higher volumes
Battery
- Good battery life - will comfortably give a day of use even with heavy usage
- Slow charging speed - takes about an hour to get from 0 to 30%
More
- Samsung Galaxy J4+ doesn't have a lot going for it other than a decent battery - especially the performance is just not competitive - it will have a tough time competing with other smartphones like the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1, Nokia 5.1 Plus, and Xiaomi’s Redmi 6 Pro in this price bracket
