Samsung's Android Go Smartphone With Android 8.1 Oreo Spotted on Wi-Fi Alliance Portal

Samsung's first Android Go powered smartphone has been part of the rumour mill for the past few weeks with specifications and design renders leaked online. A recent development had suggested that the company's first Android Go handset would not run stock Android, and instead have the custom Samsung Experience UI on top. The smartphone has now been spotted on Wi-Fi Alliance's official portal and is expected to run Android 8.1 Oreo (Go edition) out-of-the-box. There is currently no update on the pricing and launch timelines for this Samsung budget smartphone, but developments in the near future could point toward the same.

The unnamed upcoming Samsung smartphone with Android Go has been listed with model number SM-J260G/DS on the Wi-Fi Alliance site, suggesting it could be part of Samsung's entry-level J2 series of smartphones. This is in line with initial rumours, which said Samsung's budget Android Go smartphone would be called the Samsung Galaxy J2 Core. Additionally, it means that the handset will arrive with dual-SIM support. Other specifications mentioned on the Wi-Fi Alliance landing page include single-band Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n support and the presence of Wi-Fi Direct. Nothing else has been revealed in the minimal listing, first spotted by SamMobile.

As far as specifications go, we have a clear idea courtesy previous reports. According to the leak, the Samsung entry-level smartphone will sport a 5-inch Super AMOLED display alongwith the octa-core Samsung Exynos 7570 SoC. Other features include 16GB of internal storage, an 8-megapixel rear camera sensor, a 5-megapixel front sensor, a 2600mAh battery, and, now, Android Oreo (Go edition). We could expect the smartphone to run Go versions of apps like Google Maps, YouTube, Google, apart from Facebook Lite.

The Samsung smartphone with model number SM-J260G is said to be in testing in markets including the Asian markets of India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam.