Samsung today announced four feature phones in the range called REX. These devices are all dual SIM with single SIM options and range in display size from 2.8 inch to 3.5 inch. These devices are EDGE and run Samsung’s OS with TouchWIZ UI. The devices were announced and launched in India as the first market, naturally as these are feature phones, you would expect them to roll out to other emerging markets like Africa, South America and other Asian countries.
This launch signifies that Samsung is keen on getting hold of the market that Nokia aims for with the Asha phones. Nokia calls them smartphones while Samsung cleverly calls them smart feature phones. Also worthy of note is the fact that three of these devices have hot swap for SIM cards, a feature that Nokia has been using as selling point for the Asha phones.
REX 60 is the lowest among the four in hierarchy and it dons a 2.5 inch capacitive touch screen with a 320 x 240 pixels resolution. It has dual SIM hot swap, 1.3 mp camera, 1000 mAh battery, Bluetooth, 8 home-screens, Facebook and twitter apps out of the box, push mail with activesync, contacts and calendar sync, Opera mini, ChatON, Facebook Messenger, Samsung App Store with free games and 10 full version free games from Gameloft.
The REX 70 has most of REX 60 features save for a better camera at 2 mp, a display of 3 inch with the same resolution as REX 60.
REX 80 is also 3 inch but has better battery life than the previous two and a 3 mp camera and Wi-Fi connectivity as the features it betters the REX 70 and REX 60.
REX 90 is the highest end among the four and it’s a 3.5 inch device with a 3.2 mp camera, 480 x 320 pixels resolution and free games, music and app downloads from Samsung Apps Store. The REX 90 bears the design of the Galaxy S III while the REX 80 is a Galaxy S II look-alike. I would like to see how these compete in the market with Nokia Asha devices. These devices range in price from $80 (Kshs 6900) to $121 (Kshs 10,500) in India.
