Samsung
SamsungReuters File

Samsung released its high-end devices from Galaxy and Note families last year, but one device that was a surprise was the Galaxy J7. The mid-range device did well in terms of sales, and Samsung seems to be looking to repeat the same with a brand new 2016 version of Galaxy J7 (2016).

Samsung is mum on the release date of the Galaxy J7 (2016) but it is expected to arrive in June. It has been cleared by Chinese telecom equipment certification authority TENAA, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Bluetooth SIG, giving a clear hint that its launch is not far off.

There is not much hype around the Galaxy J7 (2016) with the recently announced Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge hogging the limelight for months but there may be many waiting for its release as not everybody can afford high-end devices.

The mid-range smartphone should do well in emerging and price-conscious markets like India.

Market research organisation GfK said in a report that India was a key driver in growth of smartphone sales in 2015, witnessing "unit growth of 34 percent year-on-year, driven by its dominant low-end (sub-$100/around Rs 6,700) price band segment, which saw unit growth accelerate to 76 percent year-on-year." It added that there is plenty of room for demand with penetration of budget smartphones standing at only 24 percent in the last quarter of the year. 

Samsung may release two variants of the Galaxy J7 (2016). Two models of the device with SM-J7108 and SM-J7109 with 5.5-inch display, 1,920×1,080 pixels and 151.7×75.9×7.6 mm dimension have been spotted on TENAA. There are also reports that it will come packed with a 10GB internal storage, a 3GB RAM, a 12MP main camera and a 5MP front-snapper.

According to GFXBench benchmark, the Galaxy J7 (2016) will sport a 5.5-inch display with 1,920x1,080 pixels, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor clocking at 1.5GHz, house an Adreno 405 GPU and run on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. The device is also seen with an Exynos 7870 processor, Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and a 2GB RAM on Geekbench benchmark.