Samsung Galaxy J4 Plus review: Samsung’s budget beauty

The mightily impressive Galaxy S10 may go for the best part of a grand, but there are some alternatives that are more worthy of your wallet. If you want the bling without the sting in the tail, Samsung’s Galaxy J4 Plus offers flagship-like design and features at a mere fraction of the price.

Samsung Galaxy J4 Plus review: What you need to know

As the Plus name suggests, this is another big’un from Samsung. Unveiled at the same time as the J6 Plus, the J4 Plus boasts the same 6in screen size, but manages to shave a little more off the price.

If you’ve got this review open in one tab, and the J6 Plus review open in another and are looking for differences in the specs tables, let me help you out. The J4 Plus has 1GB less RAM and a single 13-megapixel camera on the back, rather than the dual array that the J6 Plus employs.

That’s about it when it comes to differences between the two, but this has the potential to be a much better option for those in search of a competent, big-screened phone that doesn’t break the bank.

Samsung Galaxy J4 Plus review: Price and competition

The Galaxy J4 Plus’ key appeal is its price. While flagships such as the Galaxy S10 or iPhone Xs come in at around £900, the Galaxy J4 Plus sells for a fraction of these wallet-whacking handsets, coasting in at a mere £127.

That might sound enticing, but we’ve recently seen quite a big shake-up in this price bracket, and there are plenty of excellent alternatives to consider. Motorola’s Moto G7 series of phones continue to impress, starting at £150, and Vodafone’s Smart X9 remains the best budget option under £100.

Samsung Galaxy J4 Plus review: Design and key features

Other than the few changes I mentioned earlier, everything else is identical between the J4 Plus and J6 Plus, right down to the phone’s physical dimensions and the weight. Oh, and the colours – Samsung has spun the colour wheel and come up with three entirely random colours: gold, pink and black.

That means that everything I said about the J6 Plus is true here. It’s a good-looking phone, even if it does lose the fancy curves that have set flagship Galaxy handsets apart in recent years.

Of course, being a budget phone, the design isn’t flawless. The reflective rear panel picks up fingerprints quite easily, which is more of a mild annoyance than anything else. What’s more irritating is that there’s no fingerprint reader, so you’ll have to rely on the old-school PIN or pattern method to unlock the phone, or take advantage of the phone’s face unlock feature, which is a bit slow.

Alas, if you were hoping for USB Type-C quick charging, you’d best look elsewhere. Even though other phones in the J4 Plus’ price bracket have adopted this fast-charging method, the Samsung is limited to micro-USB, just to the left of the 3.5mm headset jack.

Samsung Galaxy J4 Plus review: Display

The phone’s screen is IPS instead of OLED, which means it doesn’t have the infinite contrast and deep blacks of Samsung’s flagship products – but it remains a solid display in its own right with bright, vibrant hues. At 6in across the diagonal, it’s a big beast, and coupled with its low-ish 720p resolution not the sharpest either, but getting this much screen space on a device that costs this little remains a triumph.

In technical testing, our colorimeter revealed the J4 Plus’s panel was capable of covering 85% of the sRGB colour gamut and is reasonably colour accurate, too, with an average Delta E of 2.31. That’s rather good for a phone of this price, and the reasonably high contrast ratio of 1,236:1 ensures text and images look as good as possible. A maximum brightness of 354cd/m² isn’t ideal though, and you might find yourself squinting at your Facebook feed when summer begins.

Samsung Galaxy J4 Plus review: Performance and battery life

The real issue with the J4 Plus, however, is where the corners are cut to get the phone quite so cheap. The obvious culprit is in the raw power of the handset. This year, we’re treated (for the lack of a better word) to Qualcomm’s ancient Snapdragon 425 processor, which is clocked at a measly 1.4GHz and backed up by only 2GB of RAM.