Samsung's smartphones are some of the most resilient on the market, even across the foldable phone industry. But that hasn't stopped the company from realizing truly rugged smartphones under the Xcover brand. As it turns out, a new Galaxy Xcover is in development.
Samsung is hard at work developing the Galaxy Xcover 7. Our friends at GalaxyClub have discovered that the device carries model number “SM-G556B,” the latter of which bears a striking resemblance with the upcoming Galaxy A55's “SM-A556B” model number.
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Will the Galaxy Xcover 7 be similar to the Galaxy A55?
First things first, how do we know the upcoming rugged phone won't be a Pro model like the existing Galaxy Xcover 6 Pro? Well, there's no concrete information that it won't, but we're leaning toward the Galaxy Xcover 7 (sans Pro) moniker.
The reason is that the ongoing Galaxy Xcover 6 Pro carries model number SM-G7xx, whereas this upcoming device has the SM-G5xx designation. Samsung's relatively loose convention suggests that the higher the number, the more powerful a device is. For example: SM-A346B (Galaxy A34) versus SM-A546B (Galaxy A54).
As such, the SM-G556B seems more likely to be released as a non-Pro Xcover device rather than a direct sequel to the Galaxy Xcover 6 Pro. Otherwise, logic dictates that the upcoming device should have had the SM-G756B model number. Nevertheless, these rules are not set in stone, and you can never be too sure with Samsung.
The final piece of this puzzle is that the SM-G556B model number is suspiciously similar to the SM-A556B model number, the latter of which should correspond to the upcoming Galaxy A55.
This similarity may hold a clue about the Galaxy Xcover 7's potential. If it shares internal hardware specs with the upcoming Galaxy A55, it will probably punch above the Galaxy Xcover 6 Pro's weight class. If true, the Galaxy Xcover 7 might be worthy of the “Pro” label even if it won't carry it in its title.
If the Galaxy Xcover 7 turns out to be a rugged alternative to the Galaxy A55, not only would this mark an intriguing change in the Xcover design philosophy, but the phone could also be vastly superior to its predecessors.
