The Galaxy Core 2 is more evidence that Samsung needs to change its smartphone game

Update: Samsung has launched the phone on its e-store. The official price is Rs 11,900 , which does not change the fact it’s quite over-priced for its features.

Samsung’s Galaxy Core 2 could be hitting store shelves soon if speculation from Mumbai-based smartphone retailer Mahesh Telecom is to be believed.

In a tweet showing the Core 2,  the retailer revealed the price . The mid-range effort from Samsung will have an MRP Rs 13,950 and will sell for a discounted Rs 11,599 starting tomorrow. Mahesh Telecom had also revealed the existence of the Galaxy Ace NXT , which has also been launched stealthily by the company.

The follow-up to the Core series introduced last year, the Galaxy Core 2 is a dual-SIM phone. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box, but with a dose of the latest TouchWiz. The 4.5-inch TFT LCD has a lowly 480x800 pixel resolution, which already puts it behind the Moto G and even the Moto E for that matter . If the Asus Zenfone series is a target, then the recently-launched Zenfone 5 also has a higher res display . Samsung is already on the back foot and we haven’t even gone beyond the display.

It is powered by a quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz coupled with 768MB of RAM, which again is a disadvantage considering rivals. On the back is a 5-megapixel camera with an accompanying LED flash, and the front camera is an awful-sounding VGA (0.3-megapixel) unit. 4GB of inbuilt storage with support for a further 64GB through microSD card is a standard inclusion. The connectivity set includes Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and 3G for cellular data. The Galaxy Core 2 sports a 2000mAh battery, which is frankly the only exciting inclusion.

The Core 2 sounds like an unappealing option in a sea of mid-range smartphones. With all major manufacturers, HTC included with the Desire 616 , trying the high-specs at a low price game, Samsung is in serious danger of losing its ground in the market. It cannot even bank on Brand Samsung any more to steal sales away from the likes of Micromax and Karbonn, as the Indian brigade has managed to close the gap in terms of service, software and, to some extent, differentiation in hardware.

We have argued this in the past: Samsung has to put a stop to its iterative strategy , which has worked brilliantly till a few quarters ago. Having presence in each price point is no longer Samsung’s sole domain, and in a fast-changing mobile world, its approach to minor hardware refreshes is not the way to go.