The Galaxy Unpacked 2021 event is just around the corner and the first Samsung new model of 2021 is not a high-end smartphone but an entry-level Galaxy M02s. The phone is now official in Nepal, a few days before its scheduled Indian launch. The trailer is out. And the official listing, featuring previews and specs, is also up.
Samsung Galaxy M02s will make its debut in India. And should land in Pakistan next, given Samsung’s typical release calendar. The M02s is a successor to the M01s that came out last year. It offers a larger battery, a bigger display, and improved memory.
Samsung is often reluctant to name the chipset model in their phones, but it confirmed that the Galaxy M02s has Qualcomm’s silicon instead of MediaTek’s Helio P22, which you’d find in M01s. Reports leading up to the launch, point to the Snapdragon 450 powering the new arrival. The chip came out in 2017, and it’s built on the obsolete 14nm fabrication process, unlike the P22’s 12nm wafer.
The newly-released OneUI 3.0 is limited to the company’s flagships, for now, so the Android10-based OneUI 2 powers the Samsung Galaxy M02. The 4000 mAh battery from last year has grown to 5000 mAh, but it lacks any fast charging support. The 4GB of memory, upped from 3GB, promises better multitasking. And the storage has been doubled to 64GB.
The Galaxy M02s is pretty similar to the Samsung Galaxy A02s in terms of specs. Out on the front, has a 6.5” screen that peaks at 720P, producing a standard 60Hz refresh rate. A notch bleeds into the panel. Three cameras live in a boxy housing on the rear shell.
The Samsung M01s had a rear-facing fingerprint scanner, but neither the trailer nor the promo page shows a fingerprint reader of any kind. Unless Samsung has embedded it inside the M02s’ IPS LCD display, the new phone lacks biometric support— a feature integral to a modern smartphone.
As the Samsung Galaxy M02s is being retailed at 15,999 NPR in Nepal, WhatMobile expects its starting price to be around Rs. 20,000 to 24,000 PKR, if it makes it to Pakistan.
