Samsung Android Go Smartphone Being Tested for Indian Sub-Continent: Report

Samsung's rumoured Android Go smartphone is being tested for four markets in the Indian sub-continent, a new report claims. Google announced Android Oreo (Go edition) at I/O last year for entry-level smartphones. Essentially, Android Go is a version of the popular mobile operating system that has been optimised for smartphones with 1GB or less RAM, thus primarily aimed at emerging markets. It is a stripped down version of Android, and comes with apps that have been optimised to consume fewer resources.

Since the announcement, many manufacturers like Asus, Micromax, Huawei, Nokia, and other OEMs have launched their Android Go smartphones, and now Samsung looks to climb onto that bandwagon.

After getting listed on Geekbench as the SM-J260G, the smartphone was recently also spotted filing trademark application with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and rumoured to be called the Galaxy J2 Core Now, a new report claims that the smartphone is Samsung's efforts to make its mark in the entry-level Indian smartphone market.

A newly listed trademark corroborates that Samsung will name its Android Go smartphone the Samsung Galaxy J2 Core. Sammobile now reports that the Samsung's Android Go efforts are concentrated around four countries - India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, for which it is being tested as well. The report states that Samsung particularly will focus on India as it wants to give a tough fight to new competitors like Xiaomi, who have hoarded the budget smartphone market in the country.

Currently, Samsung uses Tizen OS for smartphones with less than 1GB of RAM, but that hasn't proved to be as successful as it hoped it to be. When Google launched Android One, Samsung didn't partake its efforts in that initiative, but is willing to take the leap and try its hands with Android Go.

Previous leaks indicate that the Samsung J2 Core will sport Android 8.1 Oreo, may be powered by a quad-core CPU, and run on 1GB of RAM.