Samsung Electronics Co. has added under $80 Galaxy A2 Core to its budget phone line available in India to fend off fast-ascending Chinese rivals in the world’s second most populous nation and also amongst a few markets with immense room to grow in the smartphone sector.

According to industry sources on Tuesday, the company released the new budget phone in India over the weekend. The Galaxy A2 Core, the seventh of the Galaxy A series phones that the Korean electronics behemoth has rolled out this year, is a follow-up to the Galaxy J2 Core, its first Android Go smartphone launched last year. Android Go is a lighter version of Google’s operating system optimized to run on low-end smartphones with below 1-gigabyte (GB) RAM.

Priced at 6,000 rupees ($76) in India, the Galaxy A2 Core is the cheapest phone that Samsung Electronics has released in recent years. Market experts expect the new affordable phone would greatly appeal to budget-conscious customers in India. The phone powered by Samsung Electronics` proprietary Exynos 7870 processor features a 5-inch TFT LCD screen, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. It has a 5-megapixel rear- and front-facing camera.

The Korean smartphone leader has been pushing aggressively into the budget phone market to defend its global leadership after its overwhelming defeat by local names in China. So far this year, it has introduced 10 of such models – three Galaxy M series phones and seven Galaxy A series phones.

The company unveiled Galaxy A80, its first smartphone embedded with a rotating camera, in Thailand on April 10. The model is scheduled to hit the global market next month, and the price is expected to be around $700.

By Hwang Soon-min and Cho Jeehyun

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