Those who loved Samsung's Galaxy A7 will be glad to know that its successor is, apparently, on the way.

According to NDTV, the Galaxy A7 successor that has been the subject of numerous rumors over the past few months has just cleared a hurdle after making it past China's certification body TENAA.

The phone appears on TENAA's website with the model name SM-A7100. 

To be clear, merely passing through TENAA does not automatically mean that the follow-up to the Galaxy A7 is nearing its release, but it does suggest that the phone is closer to the market than what has been previously thought.

An official release date for the new phone remains unclear, although it's believed that the wait from now will not be all that long.

Specs and features of the Galaxy A7's successor have also made their way online.

The new phone will reportedly feature the Snapdragon 615 chipset along with an octa-core processor. 

In terms of the memory capacity of the rumored phone, it is expected to have 3 GB of RAM together with 16 GB of internal storage, although it will reportedly also feature a microSD card for those who are looking for more space, according to Sam Mobile.

The successor to the Galaxy A7 will reportedly be equipped with a 13-megapixel rear camera that is paired up with one up front that provides five megapixels. It is also expected to sport a 5.5-inch full HD display. The new phone will also reportedly be running the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop operating system (OS) right out of the box.

One other interesting feature that has been mentioned but not yet confirmed for the Galaxy A7's successor is the presence of a fingerprint sensor. Aside from the new Galaxy A7, other phones from Samsung's A series are also expected to feature a fingerprint sensor.