In a surprise move, Samsung announced the Galaxy E5 at the Galaxy A series launch in India some days back. As you would expect, the Galaxy E5 is indeed a budget device; in fact, it is the plastic equivalent of the more expensive Galaxy A5. Samsung is hoping to make a mark with this new series in a lot of developing markets, and it is natural that India be their first choice, given the diverse nature of the market and the rate of growth it has witnessed in the recent months. Coming back to the device, it isn’t the usual plasticky Samsung that you know of. Instead, there’s some eye candy added as well, giving the phone a rather nice a distinct look.
Although the device is yet to go live in many developing markets, the firmware files for the same have already been spotted online. All of these are based on Android v4.4.4 KitKat, but what’s great is that Samsung is promising an update to Android v5.0 Lollipop, which should not only make the phone’s UI even prettier with Material Design, but also give it a speed bump with the added optimizations in the new Android iteration. SamMobile have uploaded the firmware files to their server, which can be accessed here and be downloaded.
The Galaxy E5 has a 5-inch 1280 x 720p HD display, and is powered by the same 1.2GHz quad-core processor as the Galaxy E5. The device also has one-and-a-half gigs of RAM to go with the aforementioned processor, and an on-board chip that provides 16GB of internal storage. Besides that, the Galaxy E5 has an 8 mega-pixel rear shooter that’s coupled with a 5 mega-pixel front camera; all this is powered by a decent-sounding 2400mAh battery. The device is priced at 19,300 INR or roughly US$310 in India, which as mentioned earlier is the first market where the Galaxy E5 will be made available. Here, it’ll face stiff competition from Chinese and Indian OEMs that have lately been active in dishing out quality devices at super affordable prices.