India is slowly becoming the new stopover for affordable, mid-range smartphones. After Xiaomi and OnePlus, Samsung follows suit with its new Samsung Z1. The handset is the company's second Tizen-laden offering, which released just this month in the country.
Samsung Z1 comes with a 4-inch TFT PLS WVGA screen with a 480 x 800 pixel resolution. Under the hood is a 1.2 GHz dual A7-core CPU paired up with 765 MB RAM. It packs a 4 GB storage capacity, which is expandable to 64 GB. The Z1 features a 3.1-megapixel primary shooter and a 0.3-megapixel VGA camera.
"The compelling proposition of an easy to use and clutter free interface (of Z1), along with premium design has met wide consumer acceptance... The Z1 will be manufactured in company's Noida plant in UP," Samsung India Vice President for Marketing (Mobile and IT) Asim Warsi told PTI.
According to Tech Firstpost, the said facility can manufacture units amounting to not less than four million units. First-time smartphone buyers are expected to line up first for the device, which only has a Rs 5,700 ($93) price tag attached to it. With India as the first destination of the smartphone in terms of global market, Warsi shared that it should move to Bangladesh soon, too.
In almost two weeks in the market, Samsung has managed to sell around 55,000 Z1 units.
"Samsung Z1 sales have surpassed all expectations in a highly competitive and a fiercely fought price segment, which offers consumers the widest choice. We are also witnessing significant usage of the entertainment package with consumers downloading music and enjoying free movies and live TV," Warsi reported as quoted by IB Times.
This might put to rest previous reports that suggested that the Z1 was a flop. However, IB Times believes it is still too early to tell as the device and even the new operating system is new to the field. Tizen should develop more in the weeks and months to come as it perceptibly lags behind Apple iOS, Google Android and Microsoft Windows — at least for now.
