Samsung’s second-generation Galaxy ‘J’ smartphones have started launching worldwide, and the most affordable one of the lot, the Galaxy J1 (2016), has already been made available in countries ranging from the UAE to Russia earlier this year. The device hasn’t yet been launched in the U.S. but that may be about to change soon if a Tweet by tech journalist and serial tipster, @evleaks, is anything to go by. According to the post on Twitter, the 2016 edition of Samsung’s entry-level Galaxy J1 smartphone will be available on AT&T at some stage. There’s no word on pricing or availability of the device, but the unlocked, SIM-free version of the first-generation Galaxy J1 was priced at around $100 when it was launched in India last year.
Samsung has already launched or is planning to launch a whole host of second-gen Galaxy ‘J’ series handsets globally, having launched the first-gen models last year. The lineup represents Samsung’s attempt at getting a significant chunk of the prepaid market globally, including recapturing some of its lost market share in mission-critical developing markets like India and China. The list of devices in Samsung’s Galaxy ‘J’ lineup for this year include not only the ultra-affordable Galaxy J1, but also other devices like the Galaxy J3, J5 and J7 (all 2016 models). While some of these models have shown up on one benchmarking database or another, others are rumored to launch in Europe, India and other global markets later this year.
Coming back to the Galaxy J1 (2016), the smartphone has already been launched in a number of markets worldwide, which tells us that it comes with fairly modest hardware. The device comes with a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED display and is powered by an Exynos 3475 chip that incorporates a 1.3 GHz quad-core application processor and an ARM Mali-T720 GPU. The handset comes with 1 GB of RAM and just 8 GB of built-in storage but there is a microSD card slot in the phone. As for the cameras, the rear-facing unit comes with a 5-megapixel sensor whereas the front-facing one is of the 2-megapixel variety. The device sports a 2,050 mAh battery and comes with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop pre-installed.