The Cheapest Smartphone from Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co. launched the Galaxy A2 Core smartphone in India last weekend to capture the low-end smartphone market and lowered the price to 5,300 rupees (US$76 or 87,000 won). The company already announced a full set of seven A-series phones this year, seeking to expand its share of the low-cost market with the compact line-up.
The Galaxy A2 Core is assumed to be a successor of the Galaxy J2 Core, the first device from the company that runs on Android Pie Go released last year, according to industry sources on April 16.
Android Go is a lightweight version of Google’s OS designed to improve the performance of low-end smartphones with less than 1GB of RAM.
The Galaxy J2 Core was priced at 6,000 rupees (US$86 or 98,000 won) in India. The Galaxy A2 Core has been launched at 5,300 rupees (US$76 or 87,000 won), which is even lower than that of the Galaxy J2 Core. This is the least expensive smartphone model released by Samsung Electronics in recent years.
The Galaxy A2 Corehas a 5-inch LCD and is powered by the octa-core Exynos 7870 SoC paired with just 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.The phone draws power from a 2,600mAh battery and comes equipped with a single 5-MP rear camera as well as a 5-MP front camera.
Samsung Electronics reorganized its low-end series to the Galaxy A and the Galaxy M models this year. The company has already launched 10 affordable smartphone models to target the market, including the Galaxy M10 to 30 and the Galaxy A10 to 50, 70 and 80.
The company focuses on low prices and essential features in the Galaxy M series priced at 100,000 won to 300,000 won (US$88 to 264) and the Galaxy A2 Core, while it proactively uses innovative functions in the upper level of the Galaxy A models to deal with the emergence of Chinese manufacturers, such as Huawei Technologies Co., Xiaomi Corp. and Oppo Electronics Corp.
In addition, Samsung Electronics unveiled theGalaxy A80 in Thailand on April 10. It is the first smartphone from the company to feature its full-screen display, “Infinity Display,” and an embedded “rotating camera” which enables the camera module on the top of the device to pop up and flip around to face the user when the selfie mode is activated. TheGalaxy A80 will be launched in May and the price will be around 700,000 won to 800,000 won (US$616 to 704). Samsung Electronics is also planning to present the Galaxy A60 and the Galaxy A90 by the end of this year.