Samsung redesigned its Galaxy J5 and brings some upgrades in the 2016 edition.

Samsung Galaxy J5 2016 review: design

Sleek and elegant - you can expect the J5 like any other Samsung smartphones. It's got that slim dimension almost looks like the S5 in a glance. The slightly curved edges with all-metal body - that's something you want in a smartphone these days.

Samsung Galaxy J5 2016 review: specs

The 5.2 inch Galaxy J5 weighs 159 grams. The slightly thinner J5 features 1280 x 720 pixels resolutions and 294 ppi pixel density. Low? Definitely. Thanks to the AMOLED screen that makes it incredible in term of sharpness and brightness. It delivers vibrant color reproduction but quality is somehow reduced under the sunlight. Apparently, the good quality screen does not come with any protection from Corning Gorilla Glass.

J5 rear camera comes with 13 MP shooter with autofocus and LED flash; 5 MP selfie shooter with LED flash, GSM Arena wrote. It's able to record Full HD video at 1080 p. The image captured from its rear camera results in a pretty decent quality.

It runs Android Marshmallow paired with Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53. What's not great about the processor is that it does not receive an upgrade. J5 still uses the same Snapdragon 410 in this new series. Samsung fans expect at least Snapdragon 600.

The 2 GB of RAM is paired with 16 GB internal storage with dedicated MicroSD slot for memory expansion. Galaxy J5 comes with removable 3100 mAh battery. The smaller sibling of Galaxy J7 has no fingerprint sensor or VR compatibility.

There is nothing impressive in the new Samsung Galaxy J5 series except from its slim and the cool feel plus some improvements on the hardware. And the missing features could be a deal breaker. It is a bit pricey for an affordable smartphone since you can get higher specs with the same price.