Samsung skipped Google‘s Android One program, but it’s not the case with the latest Android Go. There has been numerous rumours about Samsung making an Android Go phone and a new Samsung trademark all but confirms the same. The South Korean company has trademarked a moniker, “Galaxy J2 Core” with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), which consolidates industry insider Roland Quandt’s claim that Samsung’s first Android Go smartphone will be called Samsung Galaxy J2 Core.
“Samsung has its first Android Go based smartphone coming: the SM-J260G, likely called Samsung Galaxy J2 Core,” Roland Quandt tweeted on April 25, well before the company filed for the trademark.
Samsung Galaxy J2 Core
An unannounced Samsung handset, bearing a model number SM-J260G has been spotted in the Geekbench database with 846MB of RAM. The phone has a processor code-named as Universal7570_Go, which appears to be an optimized version of the Exynos 7570 with four ARM Cortex-A53 cores at 1.43GHz. This, coupled with Android 8.1 as the OS version is a major indication of this being an Android Go device.
Word is that the device will be launched as part of Samsung’s entry-level series in four markets in the Indian subcontinent – India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. These markets has traditionally been the company’s debut markets for its budget offerings. Samsung has found it hard to go head-to-head on budget segment with Chinese giant Xiaomi lately, specifically in India. So it seems a sensible move for the company to other way round with Android Go devices.
Currently, Samsung offers a few, four to be precise, Tizen-based phones with 1GB RAM or less and has managed to do quite well in the markets mentioned above. However, poor app ecosystem has forced the company to look for other ways, and it now seems to have settled with Android Go.
There’s no news on price, full-specs and availability of the Samsung Galaxy J2 Core yet.
Read also: What is Android Go? Stock Android comes to entry level mobiles
