Following this January's debut of the Tizen-powered Samsung Z1 in India, the company is bringing a successor already. Samsung on Wednesday announced the Z3 handset for India, available later this month for INR 8490 (US $130.87).
The new Samsung Z3 looks like a solid step up from the Z1: A quad-core processor clocked at 1.3 GHz, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage that can be expanded by up to another 128 GB via microSD card, and a 5-inch HD Super AMOLED display.
The rear camera with LED flash uses an 8 megapixel sensor and f/2.2 aperture while the front-facing sensor can capture 5 megapixel images, selfies and be used for video chat.
Samsung boasts an ultra power-saving mode that allows the Z3 to run on standby for 33 hours, even with just 10 percent of battery life remaining. And a data compression mode reduces mobile broadband consumption by 40 percent, the company says.
Like its predecessor, the Z3 is a way for Samsung to continue building up its Tizen product line and, in turn, the software platform and ecosystem itself.
While Samsung rose to smartphone dominance on the back of Google Android, the company has long been trying to have a platform option under its own control.
Tizen is that platform and Samsung uses it for both the Internet of Things with connected devices as well as many of its Gear smartwatches. Indeed, Samsung originally had a Gear watch running on Android and switched it over to Tizen via a firmware upgrade.
Within the first six months of availability the Samsung Z1 enjoyed one million handset sales; no small feat for what's essentially a fledgling platform batting two massive incumbents in iOS and Android.
Can the Samsung Z3 top that? We'll have to check and see six months from now, because that will shed light on Tizen's future.
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