The Samsung Galaxy Grand 3, the next version of Samsung’s most powerful competitor in the mid-range market, will be launched in India in the next 2-3 weeks at a price of around Rs 22,000, according to an industry source.
The phone is likely to be only the second phone after the Huawei Honor 4X to come with a new mid-range series of 64-bit ARM processors from Qualcomm called Snapdragon 410.
The Snapdragon 4xx series is the mid-range version of Qualcomm’s platform, with the low end being marked 2xx and the upper mid range being called 6xx and the highest-end being allocated to the 8xx series.
Qualcomm is slowly moving all its platforms to 64-bit, and has already come out with the 615 chipset, which powers the HTC Desire 820.
As a result, the Samsung Galaxy Grand 3 is not the first 64-bit-enabled Android phone to hit India as that distinction belongs to the HTC Desire 820.
However, it will be interesting for a key reason – it is a much needed refresh for the Korean giant in the mid-range segment (Grand 2 was launched a year ago), and Samsung is coming under increasing pressure in the mid and low range market.
Overall, there will be a moderate level of improvement in performance from Grand 2 to Grand 3.
Several key specs – such as the display resolution and RAM — are the same. In the processor department, the move from Cortex A7 to Cortex A53 will boost overall power by about 50%.
Other Grand 3 features are 1.5 GB RAM and 720p display.
Improved features are camera resolutions (up at 12/5 MP vs 8/2 MP earlier), screen-size (5.5 inch vs 5.25 inch earlier) and built-in memory (12 GB vs 8 GB).
All said, the Galaxy Grand 3 continues to be placed firmly in the mid-range, and will also have to compete with sibling Samsung Mega 2, which was recently launched for 20,900.
Even though the Grand 3 will be priced around Rs 22,000, it is likely to be available at around Rs 21,500 online soon after launch in late November or early December.
Grand is perhaps Samsung’s highest selling sub-brand in the 10,000-rupee-plus category. For many Indians, it is the best combination of brand value, specifications and affordable price.
Samsung will also launch the A3 (price around Rs 20,000) and the A5 (price around Rs 28,000) at roughly the same time.
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