It is no secret that Samsung is gearing up to formally introduce its latest budget smartphone, the Samsung Z2, in a handful of emerging smartphone markets.
However, the Samsung Z2 won’t just be your average budget smartphone. Those ones have one thing in common: they are all powered by Android, the popular mobile operating system from Google. The Samsung Z2 is every bit Samsung’s own child. From the hardware to the software. By this we mean Tizen, the platform that Samsung has for long been touted to be building as a backup plan to its Android focus over the years.
We’ve already seen other Samsung products running on Tizen from digital cameras to wearables to even smartphones so the Z2 won’t be something new. In fact, it’s modeled and designed around Samsung’s recent Tizen-running smartphone effort, the Z3. That we confirmed last week when we had an exclusive first hands-on with the device in Nairobi, Kenya. What we never managed to capture then as our excitement made us overlook them, were the device’s detailed specifications. Luckily, the Samsung-focused watchers at Sammobile got our back. Thanks to them, there are no grey areas when it comes to what to expect from the Samsung Z2.
There’s the all-too-familiar 4-inch display with an 800×480 pixel resolution, a 1.5GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB onboard storage, a 5-megapixel camera at the back and a VGA companion on the front, a 1,500mAh battery and, surprise, support for LTE networks! We knew that an AMOLED display on such an entry-level device was going to be a stretch so no surprises here that the confirmed specs indicate that an LCD panel is in place.
The Samsung Z2 is set to be launched in Kenya on August 26th. However, other markets in Asia like India may have it as soon as August 11th when the company takes the stage to unveil its latest high-end smartphone, the Galaxy Note 7. In addition to Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria are also in line to receive the first Tizen smartphone on the continent.
The device is expected to cost not more than Kshs 7,000.
