Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Active in the US is an excellent water-resistant smartphone with the kind of durability that sets it apart in the smartphone market, but its AT&T exclusivity in the US limits what would be otherwise a world favorite. Fortunately, Japanese Samsung customers can rejoice, since the S6 Active gets something of a younger “sibling” in the country.
Samsung Japan has taken the wraps off its new Galaxy Active neo, a smartphone that is similar to the S6 Active but features a 4.5-inch, LCD screen with an 800 x 480p resolution as opposed to the 5.1-inch, Super AMOLED display with a Quad HD resolution of 2,560 x 1,440p found on the S6 Active.
It would be easy to assume that the Galaxy Active neo is the same as the AT&T Galaxy S6 Active, just smaller, but that’s not entirely true. While the display and physical touch buttons match those of the Galaxy S6 Active, Samsung has done some small redesign with the Galaxy Active neo: the Active neo still retains the volume rocker and Active key that are found in the S6 Active, but the new keys have more of a square look as opposed to the round appearance on the S6 Active. As for the back of the device, Samsung has removed the four bolts that are at the four corners and expanded the camo print so that the back of the device sports the camo print from corner to corner.
As for the camera, LED flash, and speaker, Samsung has made some small revision to these as well. The speaker, located at the bottom back corner of the S6 Active, now sits to the right of the camera on the Galaxy Active neo and has a circular, “two-halves” shape instead of the “two stripes” appearance in the S6 Active. The camera, with its square metal ring in the S6 Active, is now round and has a round metal ring instead of the square metal ring with round corners found on the S6 Active. The Galaxy Active neo doesn’t appear to have a heart rate monitor, but the LED flash, round in shape on the S6 Active, now has a circular shape.
The Galaxy Active neo features a quad-core, Snapdragon 410 processor, 2MP front camera, 8MP back camera, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage with a microSD card slot for expandability, and a 2,200mAh battery with 4G connectivity.
Samsung has also added to its ever-popular Ultra Power Saving Mode, allowing users to have a color display with the apps users choose to use in Samsung’s most power-conserving mode.
The Galaxy Active neo will run Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box, comes in Solid Black and Camo White, and will cost 20,000 Yen, or $166 USD.
