Samsung launched the strongly-featured Galaxy A7 handset a while back and it's now gearing up to release its successor. The new smartphone model has gone through China telecom regulator TENAA's verifications and revealed its new features in the process.
TENAA's counterpart in the United States, the FCC, recently approved the 2015 variants of the Galaxy A3 and the Galaxy A5, while a few days ago the Galaxy J1, a 4.5-inch display handset, got the green light.
According to a new TENAA listing, the next-generation Samsung Galaxy A7 comes with model number SM-A7100. The list of specs confirmed most of the previously leaked information about the handset. The only difference lies in the amount of RAM, though.
UK publication Times News was the first to spot the next-generation Galaxy A7 on TENAA. The TENAA link in question appears to be broken at the moment.
The TENAA entry revealed that the Galaxy A7 features 3GB of RAM, an upgrade over the initial rumors that hinted at 2GB of RAM. Although no information exists about the battery capacity, it is reasonable to expect an improvement in this field. The former version of the Galaxy A7, pictured here, had a 2,600mAh battery and 2GB of RAM.
Additional details about the configurations of the new Galaxy A7 show a 5.5-inch OLED screen that can support a resolution of 1,920 × 1,080p. The SoC is an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615, running at 1.7GHz, practically borrowed from the Galaxy A8.
The camera combo stays truthful to previous rumors. The main one is a 13-megapixel autofocus, LED flash rear camera able to take decent to very good pictures, while the selfie snapper on the front side of the handset is a 5-megapixel shooter. The standard storage space is 16GB, but adding a microSD card can expand it to 128GB.
The embedded OS of the device is Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.
Connectivity options are diverse and cover everything from Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi to 4G LTE (Cat. 4). The phone also supports NFC, GLONASS, AGPS, GPS and USB 2.0.
TENAA's listing also showed the dimensions of the Galaxy A7: 151.5 × 73.95 × 6.95 millimeters (5.96 x 2.91 x 0.27 inches), and a weight of 155 grams (5.47 ounces). The smartphone color is listed as Golden.
The fact that the Chinese regulator checked and approved the new Samsung device likely means that Samsung is preparing to launch the Galaxy A7 soon, as such certification is usually among the last stops before a device hits the market.
