Samsung goes 4G with Galaxy J1 at Rs 10k

Stung by the flood of competitively priced phones from Micromax and Xiaomi, Samsung has decided to prop up the budget segment by offering 4G-enabled smartphones in India, says Himanshu Juneja.

This seems to be consistent with their latest statement of concentrating more on providing 4G enabled phones in the country.

One of the first phones to be launched under the new initiative by Samsung is the Galaxy J1 4G, launched on February 16 in the Indian market.

Here are top 10 things you must know about the Samsung Galaxy J1 4G

1. The Galaxy J1 4G is an enhanced version of the Galaxy J1 3G (SM-J100H) model, a recently released phone from Samsung.

2. With the dimensions of 129 x 68.2 x 8.9 mm, the phone weighs 122 grams, which might be bit bulky for some.

The phone greets users with a metal rim all around on the front. The bottom part has been designed differently from the usual Samsung pattern, lending uniqueness to the model.

The back panel has been provided with a curved design.

3. The phone comes with a 4.3-inch TFT LCD screen which is pretty decent. The 480 x 800 pixel resolution and ~217 ppi pixel density should be up for the job for the budget segment phone.

4. The Galaxy J1 4G is is a dual SIM phone offering 4G capabilities in India. As a result, the phone supports TDD-LTE B40 (2300) and FDD-LTE B3 (1800) bands.

Apart from this, the phone supports Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, GLONASS and Wi-Fi Direct as well.

The phone leaves pretty much nothing out in this department.

5. The phone is powered by 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, a good upgrade from its 3G variant which comes with a 1.2 Ghz dual core processor. The RAM has been enhanced, as it goes up from 512 MB to 768 MB.

This is good to see from Samsung.

The phone will be running Android 4.4.4 (Kitkat) out of the box.

6. The phone comes with a 5 Megapixel rear camera with auto focus, and a 2 Megapixel front facing camera. The rear camera gets an LED flash for assistance as well.

Going by trend, the phone could have at least been equipped with a better rear camera. But considering the budget, the company might get away with it.

7. The phone comes with 4 GB of onboard storage memory which is puny. Thankfully, users have the option of adding another 128 GB via microSD card.

8. The phone comes with a Lithium Ion 1850 mAh battery, and should prove to be adequate enough, considering the phone's budget specs.

9. The prospective buyers get to choose the phone from these colour options: blue, white and black.

10. Priced at Rs 9990, the Samsung Galaxy J1 4G goes on sale in India from the second week of March.