Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsFinally! A decent affordable mid-range phone with NFC and all T-Mobile bands
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2020
This phone checks off all the boxes of a phone for a typical SOHO user. On sale, it's a great deal!
Hardware:
The processor is mid-range not flagship-level, but the phone feels snappy in basic day-to-day tasks, which was my #1 concern. The screen is bright, crisp and has no notch; just a tiny "hole" for the front camera lens. Nice.
The phone comes with 4 GB RAM and 128 GB of storage. I added a MicroSD with another 128 GB of storage. Ample RAM and plenty of storage.
The phone also has a relatively large screen, which I also wanted, and has all the 4G LTE bands for T-Mobile including 66 and 71 (unlike its dual-SIM International counter-part, which does not have at least one of those bands, from what I've read). It also has other LTE bands which are used by carriers outside the US (as shown in the specs).
In addition to the usual Wi-Fi and BT radios, this phone also has NFC, unlike many other phones in this price range (like almost all Moto phones that I researched as well as some of the Chinese brands' non-flagship phones).
The screen protector glass that I use seems to make the fingerprint reader unable to recognize my fingerprints, so I would have preferred a separate fingerprint reader, but the phone does also offer face recognition, which I have not tried.
One thing this phone does not have is an LED on front for notifications, but I don't really miss that, as you can see an "always-on" screen by simply double-tapping the screen.
Software:
I happen to dislike the design that Samsung used in their built-in apps like Contacts and Messages, where they block out a large portion of the top of the screen for just a title and some subtitle information, and begin the contacts or messages only about half-way down the screen. Once you scroll, you regain the whole screen, but I find this annoying to initially lose half the screen. Solution: Download the official Google Contacts and Messages apps and use those instead of Samsung's.
One thing I do like in both Samsung and LG's customization of Android is that you can choose to have the bottom software back button on either the left, which is the "Google" default or on the right, which is the "Samsung" default. From what I have seen, Moto and perhaps others do not offer this option; the back button is always on the bottom left, not customizable to the right.
I use the extremely customizable Nova Launcher (highly recommended) so I did not use the included Samsung Launcher.
A big benefit to having a Samsung phone is the following: there is a "feature" of Android OS 10, about which many have complained online. If you connect a Bluetooth headset, and set that to play both phone calls and music, then your notification sounds will play over the headset only, not the phone's speaker. So if you are not wearing your headset and you get a text, for example, then you will not hear any notification sound.
LG addresses this by enabling you to toggle from the notification "shade" whether or not to use the BT headset for only calls or for audio as well.
But Samsung does better, in my opinion. It offers a free SoundAssistant app (downloadable from either their App Store or the Play Store but only for Samsung devices) which easily addresses this (and adds some nice features, like quick access to all volume sliders and more). I have it set to always play the notification sounds over the speaker, even if I'm listening to music on my BT headset.
Samsung and LG both offer software (typically included in the phone) that enables you to migrate from any old phone, including their respective competitors' phones, to their own. Samsung calls this SmartSwitch. I was unable to use a USB-C to USB-C cable to do the transfer, but Wi-Fi direct did work to copy over all my call logs and other data. Google also can backup/restore some data from your Google Drive, but that does not include Call Logs and certain other data.
Finally, since it is unlocked by Samsung, there are no hoops through which to jump (like calling the carrier for an unlock code, etc.) if you want to travel overseas and use a local SIM card; it's unlocked and ready to go.
Other thoughts:
My more recent phones have been LG Stylo phones, with the Samsung Galaxy S3 prior to those.
I have been looking into a replacement for my old LG Stylo phone, which is very laggy as it comes with only 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage.
Most of the Moto phones, for example, while reasonably priced, do not come with NFC. You probably won't miss NFC until you happen to need it. You could use NFC to transfer data from one device to another, though you can use Wi-Fi Direct instead, in most cases. Samsung actually makes good use of NFC with its Samsung Pay digital wallet, if you are interested in that.
Bottom line: This phone is a very good all-around mid-range phone. On sale, it cost not much more than a typical low-end phone from T-Mobile or elsewhere. Unlike many other phones, it has NFC but, more importantly, it just works and does not lag.