If you’ve started to find Samsung’s alphabet soup of entry-level and mid-range phones pretty much as confusing as the company’s old product lineup and its respective branding, it seems as though the market-leading OEM has similar issues keeping track of A or J-series releases.
Case in point, the upcoming Galaxy J2 (2016), aka SM-J210, benchmarked through AnTuTu, GFX Bench and Geekbench with specs reminiscent of the J3 (2016) that barely saw daylight last fall in China, this January on CDMA US carriers, and a couple of weeks back on Amazon stateside.
But reminiscent actually feels like an understatement when you think about it, as the J2 (2016) “borrows” the 5-inch 720p display, quad-core 1.5 GHz Spreadtrum 8830 processor, 1.5GB RAM, 8 and 16GB storage options, as well as the 8 and 5MP cameras from the J3 (2016).
So, is there anything different in tow? Anything at all? Just newer, smoother pre-installed Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software, apparently, and possibly, 2GB RAM on board the 16GB ROM variant exposed by AnTuTu.
We wouldn’t rule out the Samsung Galaxy J2 (2016) perhaps taking design and build cues from the upper mid-end J5 and J7 (2016), replacing the OG J2 and J3 (2016)’s plastic frame with a taste of premium metal, which would however only confuse prospective buyers more. But at the end of the day, if priced correctly (cough, sub-$200, cough), a 2GB RAM new Galaxy J2 should gain some traction, regardless of its name.