Samsung is set to launch its latest successor in the Galaxy J3 series soon. Well known tipster, Evan Blass (aka @evleaks) recently revealed a set of press pictures of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017). The device has been spotted on Geekbench in the past. Samsung’s hugely successful J-series are already due for a 2017 refresh and this lower-midrange Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) has popped up, thereby fueling speculations of its upcoming launch. Samsung first launched the Galaxy J3 last year and followed it up with an upgraded Galaxy J3 Pro earlier this year. The Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) was first spotted on Geekbench followed by Indian export-import website Zauba.
The smartphone’s design is synonymous with all Samsung’s low-budgeted Galaxy smartphones with a capsule-shaped ‘Home’ Button at the bottom of the display and capacitive navigation buttons on either side. The power button is seen resting on the right edge, while the volume buttons are housed on the left edge. As the first Galaxy J3 was launched in November last year, it is likely that Samsung will follow tradition and launch the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) in the same timeframe this year as well.
A cautionary tale for would-be buyers: revolutions (in design) are out of the question, naturally, and the upcoming model looks similar to the J3 (2016). Perhaps slightly more rounded corners and a relocated front-facing camera won’t change much of the initial impression. According to Geekbench, the Galaxy J3 2017 will be powered by an octa-core Qualcomm processor clocked at 1.4 GHz paired with 2GB RAM. The smartphone is said to run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with out of the box Samsung’s TouchWiz UI skin on top. It will mostly likely offer a 4G VoLTE support. Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) is listed on Zauba at Rs 6,800 and suggests the device will make it way to India pretty soon. However, the information on Zauba cannot be completely trusted.
The Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) aka Galaxy J3 (6) came to India last year in March, and was priced at Rs. 8,990. Back then, the ‘S Bike Mode’ was touted to be the big feature, and it helped ensure minimum distraction while riding a two-wheeler. The feature once enabled automatically replies to calls with pre-recorded messages in 14 languages and doesn’t notify the rider. The feature also brings something called ‘Motion Lock’, which ensures that if the user decides to take an urgent incoming call, they will need to bring their vehicle to a halt to be able to answer it. Safety first, as they say. The company replicated in its other budget devices later. The existing Galaxy J3 2016 is a dual-SIM 4G smartphone priced at Rs 8,990. It features a 5-inch HD AMOLED display and is powered by 1.2GHz quad-core processor with 1.5GB RAM. The phone packs 8GB ROM that is expandable up to 128GB via a microSD card. There’s 8MP rear camera and 5MP front camera.
According to Zauba.com, the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) is expected to be priced at Rs. 6,800, and this hints further that it should launch in India soon. There is no official word from Samsung on any launch plans so far. Given Samsung’s J-series comprises of budget devices, we too would expect the Galaxy J3 (2017) to be launched in this price segment as well. Also, company’s J-series has done well in the past thanks to features like Ultra-Data Saving Mode. Plus, Samsung introduced additional features such as F-Secure and Power Saving with J7 Prime and J5 Prime in India.
