I bought this budget phone from Samsung at Costco and I have to say wow. It is very usable. It was $175 CAD (about $130 USD). This phone is last year's model and the MSRP was $250 CAD when it first came out.
I've turned off the animations in the developers settings and switched the launcher and keyboard to the Google alternatives. I would describe the performance as slightly slower than my Nexus 4.
The main reason I was interested in this budget phone was the AMOLED screen. After my Note 3 died and having to return my Note 7, I was forced to use a Nexus 4. On the lowest setting, the Nexus 4 screen was too bright for me to use in the dark. I love the nice blacks of AMOLED screens and how dim it can get since the Nexus S.
I've used this phone for about 2 days now and have to say the battery life is impressive. I was able to get over 7 hours of SoT over those 2 days. I didn't tinker with any settings, didn't play with "background app refresh" settings.
(That tiny spike before midnight, I plugged in for a minute)
I've turned off the animations in the developers settings and switched the launcher and keyboard to the Google alternatives. I would describe the performance as slightly slower than my Nexus 4.
The main reason I was interested in this budget phone was the AMOLED screen. After my Note 3 died and having to return my Note 7, I was forced to use a Nexus 4. On the lowest setting, the Nexus 4 screen was too bright for me to use in the dark. I love the nice blacks of AMOLED screens and how dim it can get since the Nexus S.
I've used this phone for about 2 days now and have to say the battery life is impressive. I was able to get over 7 hours of SoT over those 2 days. I didn't tinker with any settings, didn't play with "background app refresh" settings.
(That tiny spike before midnight, I plugged in for a minute)
