Samsung has obtained certification from the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a mobile device identified by the model number SM-A605FN that’s believed to be the rumored Galaxy A6 Plus. Its smaller sibling, the Galaxy A6, also previously received certification from the FCC earlier this week, having also passed through the Wi-Fi Alliance certification as the SM-A600FN.
As per usual, the FCC’s certification documents only contain details about the variety of tests performed on the device involving several aspects of its wireless performance such as the specific absorption rate (SAR) on different bands and other connectivity features. The fact that the U.S. federal regulator approved the handset indicates Samsung may be planning on commercializing it in the country but doesn’t guarantee its eventual stateside availability. The FCC certification also suggests that Samsung’s upcoming mid-range series is getting closer to its launch date; two handsets identified by model numbers SM-A600FN and SM-A605G, believed to be the Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6 Plus, appeared in Geekbench benchmarking database earlier this month, revealing their core hardware specifications which suggested the duo has been designed to compete in the upper mid-range segment of the smartphone market.
While the benchmarks obviously disclosed no details about the devices’ release dates, they suggested the Galaxy A6 will be powered by Samsung’s proprietary Exynos 7870 processor which includes eight Cortex-A53 cores and the Mali-T830 GPU. As per the same source, the device is expected to pack 3GB of RAM and run Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box, likely overlayed with Samsung Experience. The Galaxy A6 Plus, on the other hand, is likely to be powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor boasting the Adreno 506 GPU. This model is also expected to come with Android 8.0 Oreo as well, but also ship with 4GB of RAM. Samsung may opt to introduce its latest Android mid-rangers later this spring.