Budget-priced Samsung Galaxy Express quietly launched

Budget phones are looking to be more of whats in store for this year. Even the elite priced Apple iPhone range could be getting a cheaper, smaller younger brother if rumours are anything to go by. So the announcement of a budget orientated Samsung Galaxy Express by AT&T adds more to this idea. And it’s on sale as of today.

And let’s be honest, as the world is increasingly turning over to mobile, the rush to get there was always going to be hindered by price. At US$99, this smartphone should sell like hot cakes. Spec wise it is impressive, with a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED screen, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory (with MicroSD card expansion) and a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor.

The phone will run on Android Jelly Bean and have support for WiFi, USB 2.0, Bluetooth and NFC. The AllShare device-to-device feature will also be available, as will S Beam and Mobile High Definition Link that allows playback of HD content on larger television screens.

Currently almost anything that supports LTE is at the high-end of the price scale, and the introduction of a budget smartphone with such impressive specs will set the sales counters alight. And that would beg the next question to be asked: why do users have to pay such stratospheric prices for devices that would deliver the same results?

The verdict is still out whether this phone will have enough weight to throw around, but at the moment the specs tell a good story, and with more wallet saving smartphones on the way, the higher priced bracket phones could be in a spot of bother this year.