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Samsung is working on a new rugged Android smartphone, the Galaxy Xcover 7. We recently shared exclusive official renders of the handset, revealing its design early. A subsequent benchmark listing gave us a few additional details about the phone. While there is still no word on its launch date, the upcoming device has just popped up on the BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) certification website. It may head out to the market soon.
Galaxy Xcover 7 picks up the BIS certification
The BIS certified the Galaxy Xcover 7 with the model number SM-G556B (via MySmartPrice), which we have known for a while now. The listing doesn’t reveal anything about the device, which isn’t surprising. The BIS website usually only mentions the model number of the product. The surprising thing is that Samsung didn’t release the Galaxy Xcover 5 and Galaxy Xcover 6 Pro in India. It appears the company plans to bring the next-gen model to the country.
The Korean firm will soon pick up other necessary regulatory approvals for the Galaxy Xcover 7, so the specs may not be under wraps for much longer. As things stand, we only have a handful of details about the phone. The next-gen rugged handset will ship with Android 14 onboard, featuring 6GB of RAM. Samsung may offer it in multiple RAM variants, but there is no confirmation of that.
The octa-core chipset powering the Galaxy Xcover 7 has two high-performance CPU cores operating at a maximum frequency of 2.2GHz. The six efficiency cores are clocked at 2.0GHz. ARM’s Mali-G57 MC2 GPU supports the CPU. Based on this information, we might be looking at MediaTek’s Helio G99 or Dimensity 6100+ SoC. These chipsets have the same core specs but the latter supports 5G cellular connectivity.
Since we are talking about budget SoCs, the Galaxy Xcover 7 may not be a direct sequel to last year’s Galaxy Xcover 6 Pro, which features a relatively more powerful Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset. A single rear camera also points toward a budget-friendly rugged smartphone. The model number (SM-G556B) suggests it is the successor to 2021’s Galaxy Xcover 5 (SM-G525F), which is less powerful than the 2022 model.
The new model should boast a MIL-STD-810H-compliant build quality
Samsung’s Xcover-series smartphones feature the same level of ruggedness irrespective of their pricing. So the Galaxy Xcover 7 should boast MIL-STD-810H-compliant build quality with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. We are also expecting drop-to-concrete resistance, customizable hardware buttons, a removable battery, and enhanced touch sensitivity. Stay tuned for the official launch of the next-gen rugged Samsung smartphone.