Samsung Galaxy Core Prime

Bad – This phone is very bad. It has bad specs and it is very laggy and the battery drains out super quick it is only upgradable to Android 5.0. The phone is not water proof or water resistant so if your drop it in a puddle or pool it will not work. Overall I think that this phone is bad.  Show details

Good phone – I love it but I find it doesn't hold a charge for very long....need to charge it every day. Haven't had any trouble with it but after using it I wish I had bought a slightly larger one with a larger screen.... Not overly impressed with the quality of photos it takes but for a cheap phone...it does what I really need it to and am happy with it. It… Read more

doesn't have a lot of space for storing apps. I didn

t realise that there are actually some very good apps I would like to have so this is no fault of theirs....it is simply my ill informed choice.

Perfect! – Looking around for a mobile phone, that was economical and did everything I wanted. The Samsung Galaxy Core in white, suits my needs perfectly. I have had it since 2015 and haven't had any problems, which is what I like, a phone that is functional and reliable, and easy to use.  Show details

Good phone for the price – Have been using this phone for a year and a half. Bought it for around $200. The size is very functional as you can still fit it in your pocket. Response rate is good even though now that I have a lot of apps on it itseems to be a little slower. Camera is good but not when there is not enough light (dusk or internal photos).  Show details

good value – samsung galaxy core prime is one of the best phones ive used.I have had for 13 mths .it is reliable, fast, has all the features you could wish for. has a decent size screen. the only downfall is the battery needs charging alot, say once a day depending on use.and isnt expensive  Show details

Good for the price – This phone was sold as a Telstra model but is available from other carriers. I had it unlocked and now use it with Vodafone. It has a quad-core 1.2GHz processor, one slot (internally) for a MicroSD card, 1 SIM slot, 8GB built-in storage (5GB available), 4.5" 480 x 800 screen, 2 cameras (5 megapixel main on rear with HDR, and 2MP front camera for… Read more

video calls etc.), can record HD 1280 x 760 video at 30 fps (main cam.) or VGA 640 x 480 from front camera. Maximum download speed 150Mbps, 50Mbps upload - one of the variants of 4G. Has a Micro USB 2.0 connector, and the usual connectivity such as Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11b/g/n (can be a WiFi hotspot and modem for your computer(s) and home network), GPS, NFC (for paying with your phone), web browser etc. There's a more complete list of features here: http://www.phonemore.com/phone/samsung-galaxy-core-prime-lte-sm-g360g/2005

This is neither a full-featured nor a basic phone, but a good value-for-money balance of features, and for the price it's really not bad. It was released in Nov. 2014 so that's now almost 2.5 years, but I still don't see many other competing phones with more features that are much cheaper. I've found it's always worked very well for me, it's reliable, good battery life, reasonably rugged, though the screen got a minor crack when I dropped it on the road. It's Android 4.4.4, when I've gone looking for certain Android features (eg. blocking phone numbers) I've found that some of these are mysteriously missing, don't know why... customised version of Android maybe? You can upgrade it easily to version 5.02, but I haven't tried that yet. Comes with the usual basic app's, eg. Youtube, mobile version of Chrome, Play Store, Google Drive, Catch Up TV, GMAil, Kindle, Maps, Samsung Planner and all the usual Google stuff. All basic versions, but they work fine. Doesn't have a Facebook icon but you can easily add that yourself.

I connect it to my PC using Samsung Kies and that's very good. Lets you directly sync if you want, or simply access it like an external drive, which is how I prefer to transfer photos etc. to/from the phone. You need Kies to get the drivers to do this, but you can still USB tether to it without downloading anything.

Taking a photo is slower than many other phones I've seen from when you click until the photo is taken. Video quality is pretty good, as is recorded sound. In-built speaker is not very loud and a little thin, but adequate, however it can be difficult to hear in a noisy environment. Comes with very basic ear bud-type headphone. My own voice picks up clearly for recording, or for calls (they can hear me clearly). As it has one of the better CPU's for this type of phone it never seems to lag waiting for the CPU to catch up, but it's only running simple tasks so you'd be disappointed if it did. I haven't tried any 3rd party games except Angry Birds, had no problem with that though. The screen is a little small for most games or for watching video comfortably, but it's about as good as you can expect in a phone of this size and type.

Texting, I find the on-screen keyboard a little tight sometimes get the wrong key, but it still does a far better job than many other cheap phones, even with bigger screens. Touch sensitivity is good. With the keypad on its side for bigger keys, the problem disappears. Younger people and most ladies' fingers smaller than mine will have no problem.

I often use this phone as a WiFi hotspot and wireless modem with my PC to get internet without a landline. I'm 100% happy with that, it gets great data speeds when I'm close to a tower, connects in under a second, and is easy to do all your home networking with it. The BlueTooth is good too. Connecting to other hotspots with it is also easy. The data-connection side of the phone is really good including tethering by USB, BlueTooth or WiFi, far better than a couple of other cheap Android phones I had before this one. I had an earlier Samsung Galaxy Ace and it also did this very well.

Even though it's getting a little old, I'd still buy this phone again, so long as I can find it cheap enough. I paid $150 for this over a year ago, by now I'd want to get it cheaper than that. For phones of this type and price, this is a good option... there are probably newer phones with the same features cheaper, but I can at least say that this one is hassle-free, very reliable and serves me well, getting used all the time. Happy to recommend it. I didn't give it 5 stars, but that's just because of a few small imperfections, none of them are a deal-breaker.