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An Android Go smartphone from Samsung was certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) earlier today, hinting at its launch drawing near. The phone is listed on the WFA’s website bearing the model number SM-J260G – one of three device variants that Samsung was reportedly testing in a few markets earlier this year. The organization has the smartphone listed with Android 8.1 Oreo, while the inclusion of Samsung Experience is also expected. The certificate doesn’t reveal much about the phone except confirming its support for single-band Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz frequency. Smartphone manufacturers usually apply for such certifications only when an official launch is due in a few weeks; however, Samsung is yet to give any confirmation on the launch of its first Android Go phone. Given this Wi-Fi certification, an official announcement could happen sooner than later.
Though all Android Go smartphones launched thus far offered a stock Android OS experience, the South Korean company will reportedly take a different customer experience route, as suggested by one recent leak. A few photos of the alleged Samsung Android Go phone had surfaced earlier this week, showing the device as running Samsung Experience UI along with certain Go Edition apps like Gmail Go, YouTube Go, and Google Go. Another aspect of the phone that the images revealed was the presence of on-screen navigation keys, despite the phone featuring a 16:9 display with ample bezels on the top and bottom. Samsung-made Android smartphones with such a form factor traditionally featured a physical home button flanked by two capacitive keys.
Samsung has reportedly been testing its Android Go smartphone in different markets across the globe for a few weeks and might finally announce it as the Galaxy J2 Core this summer. The rumored specifications of the handset include a 5-inch Super AMOLED display with an unknown resolution. The cell phone should come powered by an Exynos 7570 processor, paired with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of flash memory. A rear-placed 8-megapixel camera, a 5-megapixel front-facing one, and a 2,600mAh battery will complete the package, as per one previous leak. Apart from the aforementioned SM-J260G variant, Samsung is said to be working on the international SM-J260F and SM-J260M models as well.
