Samsung has finally revealed the 2016 editions of last year’s hit mid-rangers, the Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J7. The two devices have shown up on the Samsung Mobile China website.
Both devices feature several improvements in looks, features and specifications. While they still retain the plastic build of last year’s models, they arrive with that metal frame we had heard of. Additionally, the battery units are getting a bump up to 3,100mAh and 3,300mAh on the J5 and J7 respectively, up from 2,600mAh and 3,000mAh in last year’s editions.
The displays on both devices retain their Super AMOLED tech but the J7’s has been upgraded to full HD while the J5 stays at HD. The Galaxy J5’s display size increases to 5.2-inches from 5-inches on last year’s model while the Galaxy J7 stays comfortable at 5.5-inches. Last year’s devices were the first Samsung smartphones to pack front-facing LED flash. The 2016 Galaxy J5 and J7 retain it. As they do the 13 and 5-megapixel (f/1.9) main and selfie cameras respectively. That laser auto-focus that was wildly rumoured is nowhere to be seen.
Storage options on both devices have been narrowed down to 16 gigabytes, an upgrade from the meagre 8 GB onboard storage we decried on the J5 last year. They both also have memory expansion capability up to 128 GB. The J5 has 2 GB RAM while the J7 will benefit from more memory with 3 GB RAM.
The Galaxy J5 has a quad-core chip clocked at 1.2 GHz while its larger sibling, the Galaxy J7, packs the new octa-core Exynos 7870 processor clocked at 1.6 GHz.
Additionally, the battery units are getting a bump up to 3,100mAh and 3,300mAh on the J5 and J7 respectively, up from 2,600mAh and 3,000mAh in last year’s editions.
2 GB RAM, support for LTE networks and NFC (probably for Samsung Pay) are the other notable specifications.
Both devices will be available in gold, white and pink (rose gold?) colours.
The unveiling of the 2016 Galaxy J5 and J7 wraps up the Galaxy J lineup from Samsung since the company already has in the market other 2016 editions of the Galaxy J1, J2 and J3. Its Galaxy A device lineup has also already seen a refresh this year. Budget devices like the Galaxy J1 and Galaxy J5 were key in maintaining Samsung’s status as the number one smartphone vendor in the world and the company will be hoping the various improvements it has made to this year’s devices help it retain that status while raking in more profits.
In addition to China where the two devices were listed today, they will become available in the Indian market on Thursday, March 31st, 2016. Pricing information and details on availability in other countries are not available at the moment.
