The Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 released last year has been refreshed with a new model called the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 Value Edition. The handset in question was spotted on the virtual shelves of an e-shop in Netherlands earlier today, where the terminal is listed along with a price tag of €228.
Samsung’s “Xcover” brand has been around for more than 5 years. The moniker was initially used to label dust and water resistant feature phones, but later in 2011, the Xcover series switched lanes and entered the world of smartphones. Two years later in 2013, the South Korean tech giant released the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 boasting an IP67 dust and waterproof certificate, and of course, last year in April the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 was released as a budget-friendly rugged smartphone. Keeping the aforementioned release schedule in mind, one would think that the next Galaxy Xcover in the series should be planned for a market launch in 2017 – two years after the 3rd smartphone in the series was released. But surprisingly enough, it appears that Samsung has already decided to launch a new sequel, or rather a refresh based on the Galaxy Xcover 3. It’s called the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 Value Edition, and overall it features roughly the same hardware specifications as the model it succeeds. According to the source, the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 VE is equipped with a 4.5-inch TFT display with a resolution of 800 x 480, an unspecified quad-core processor clocked at 1.3 GHz, 1.5 GB of RAM, 8 GB of ROM expandable via microSD, a 5-megapixel main camera, a 2 MP front-facing sensor, and a slightly smaller 2,000 mAh battery as opposed to a 2,200 mAh unit offered by the predecessor.
Not unlike last year’s model, the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 Value Edition meets MIL-STD 810-G standards, meaning that the terminal can handle humidity, altitude conditions, and adverse temperatures easier than ordinary smartphones. It also comes with a dust and waterproof IP67 certificate so it can technically survive being submerged in 1 m of water for up to 30 minutes. Once again these are the same exact characteristics boasted by the 2015 model, but unlike its predecessor the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 Value Edition does come with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. In any case, the smartphone is priced at €228 on the Dutch online store (source link below), and can also be acquired for €0 down along with a local carrier agreement.