Samsung has just introduced a new entry in its heralded Galaxy product line, and it’s cheap.
The Galaxy Pocket, which reportedly has designs on being released in Europe and the US, could quite potentially be offered as a free-after-contract device depending on the carrier.
Its full list price is £100, or around $140. For customers who sign a new two-year service agreement, that could potentially be dropped to nothing, or a very minimal fee of $20 – $30.
On the inside, it’s decent. It runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and has an 832 MHz processor. There’s a 2-megapixel rear camera, and the display measures in at 2.8 inches with a 320 x 240 resolution.
This is likely a response to Nokia’s new Lumia brand, which has managed to generate large sales even though it runs the less popular Windows Phone operating system. Although there are other factors at play, part of the Lumia’s success is that it’s inexpensive.
The Lumia 710 is only $50 after a mail-in rebate and two-year contract, and it packs in processing power that is usually only seen in high-end smartphones.
For the Galaxy Pocket to truly compete with that, it would need a bit more power under the hood, although if it does manage to strike a free-phone deal with a major carrier in the US, it could be a significant growth opportunity not only for Samsung but for the entire Android platform as a whole.
