Samsung has just announced a rather peculiar smartphone called the Galaxy Core Advance. It has a 4.7 inch display, like the Galaxy S III, but unlike the GS3’s 720p AMOLED panel, the Advance has an 800 x 480 pixel TFT display. The front of the device also has buttons. Not just a home button, like every other Galaxy, but buttons for the menu keys and back keys as well, like the Galaxy S4 Active. Under the hood there’s a dual core 1.2 GHz processor and an unknown amount of RAM, 5 megapixel camera, and a 2,000 mAh battery.
What version of Android is pre-installed? 4.2 Jelly Bean, and there’s no word if it’ll ever receive an update. When will the Core Advance come out? Early 2014, whatever that means. How much is it going to cost? No clue, which makes judging the device kind of hard. I hate to bring it up again, but Motorola’s Moto G is $180 and has a higher resolution display, quad-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, and while it doesn’t run Android 4.4 KitKat today, the company has promised an update will be pushed out by the end of January. Why then is Samsung making this thing? For people who want to be seen carrying a Samsung. Like it or not, Samsung’s brand is powerful, and if you can buy a “budget” Galaxy Core Advance that looks like a flagship Galaxy S3, then it’ll make you look good. The thing is, 2014 is right around the corner, and we’re ripe for a new design language. The S4 was nothing more than a refined S3, and every Galaxy for the past two years has essentially been a variant of the S3, for better or worse.
