Two weeks ago, Samsung took the wraps off the latest iteration in its Galaxy J lineup, the Galaxy J2 (2016). Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have caught on quite as well as the firm would have hoped. As mentioned in our review, the handset carries a price tag of Rs. 9,750 ($144), but, much to our dissapointment, we didn't find it good value for money. It's not that the device isn't innovative, because it is. The issue boils down to it being too underpowered. 1.5GB of RAM isn't enough, and the 8GB of internal storage is an insult seeing as the operating system accounts for around 5GB.
It would appear that Samsung has taken our criticism on board, though, as it has today unveiled an upgraded model of the handset, called the Galaxy J2 Pro, which comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of flash storage as standard. It also ships with the company's new Turbo Speed Technology (TST), which, for those unaware, is a low-energy RAM management utility that constantly runs in the background enabling the processor to “load applications up to 40 percent faster than devices with double the RAM capacity.”
The Galaxy J2 Pro remains identical to the Galaxy J2 (2016) in all other aspects, meaning it sports the same 5-inch Super AMOLED display, 1.5GHz Spreadtrum SC8830 quad-core processor, Mali-400MP2 GPU, 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with an aperture of f/2.2, a 5-megapixel selfie shooter and a 2,600mAh battery. It also ships running Android 6.0 Marshmallow skinned with the latest build of Samsung's TouchWiz UX, which comes with support for the manufacturer's proprietary S Bike Mode and Ultra Data Saving Mode software.
What's neat about the Galaxy J2 Pro is that it won't set you back a whole lot more cash than the standard Galaxy J2 (2016). In fact, it will retail for a mere Rs. 9,890 ($147) when it goes on sale in India exclusively from Snapdeal tomorrow, which is a difference of Rs. 140 ($4). We have to say, this is a pretty nice gesture on Samsung's part as it could have quite easily added another $50 or $60 to the price of the unit, but it looks like it's trying to narrow the gap in its frustratingly crowded budget smartphone collection by turning people towards this latest model as opposed to the standard variant that launched a couple of weeks back.
