Another year, another Samsung flip phone model. Like a mythical beast imbued with immortality, the Korean manufacturer is seemingly releasing another flip style smartphone to the Chinese market, fortunately with somewhat decent hardware.
Proof of this creature was spotted in Samsung’s Chinese website. It may be sporting a form factor from way back when, but its spec sheet betrays a more modern device. This includes a 2.3 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, an unknown amount of memory and storage, though we’re guessing the usual 2 GB and 32 GB combinations, respectively. It is compatible with China’s TD-SCDMA and 3G UTS network, though no LTE support can be found here. The rear camera is a 13 megapixel shooter while the front-facing one has 2 megapixels.
Like many of Samsung’s recent flip phones, this one has dual AMOLED screens with similar dimensions and resolutions. Both sport 3.67-inch 480×800 displays. Not exactly HD, but way better than older models with even lower pixel counts. And like many smartphones in China, this also sports dual SIM card slots. Interestingly, the feature sheet mentions the availability of Gear Manager for pairing with a Gear 2 or Gear Fit, maybe even a Galaxy Gear, though Samsung has not explicitly listed which of its wearable devices are compatible with it. The manufacturer also fails to mention the version of Android running on the device.
The SM-G9098 sounds pretty much like the Samsung SCH-W2014 launched also for China late last year. Unfortunately for flip phone lovers elsewhere in the world, it doesn’t seem like this device will be available anywhere else other than from China Mobile.
SOURCE: Samsung China
VIA: Sammy Hub
I wished they would bring this phones out to the US market.