Today Samsung announced two new smartphones that are coming to the Chinese market. They're called the Galaxy C5 and Galaxy C7, and they kick off a new line of Samsung smartphones targeting the upper-mid segment of the smartphone market. Both the C5 and C7 have a full metal chassis, and they have an interesting mix of specifications, which you can check out in the chart below.

  Samsung Galaxy C5 Samsung Galaxy C7
SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 625
GPU Adreno 405 Adreno 506
RAM 4GB LPDDR3
Display 5.2" 1920 x 1080 AMOLED 5.7" 1920 x 1080 AMOLED
Size / Mass 145.9 x 72 x 6.7 mm
143 grams
156.6 x 77.2 x 6.7 mm
165 grams
Battery 2600 mAh 3300 mAh
Camera 8MP f/1.9 Front-facing
16MP f/1.9 Rear-facing
32GB 32GB
64GB
MicroSD Up to 128GB
I/O 3.5mm headset, Micro USB 2.0
Connectivity 2.4 + 5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, BT 4.2, GPS/GNSS, NFC
Price ~$330 ~$396

The Galaxy C5 and C7 are the same in a number of ways. They share the same cameras, wireless capabilities, and amount of RAM. The fact that they ship with 4GB of RAM stands out to me, but it doesn't seem to have had a large impact on the price so there's not really any harm. The devices are primarily differentiated by their SoCs and displays.

The Galaxy C5 uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 617 SoC. This is still a 28nm LP part, with four Cortex A53 cores that have a peak frequency of 1.5GHz, and another four with a peak frequency of 1.2GHz. The Galaxy C7 is another story, as it's built on Samsung/GlobalFoundries' 14nm LPP process. It still has two clusters of four Cortex A53 cores, but the performance cluster tops out at 2.0GHz.

As for the displays, the big difference is the size. The Galaxy C5 uses a 5.2" 1080p AMOLED panel, while the Galaxy C7 moves to 5.7" while maintaining the resolution. At that size a PenTile subpixel arrangement is less than optimal, but on phones of this price I wouldn't expect to see anything else, and so it may be that the Galaxy C5 ends up having the better display of the two phones. The battery capacity scales naturally with the display, with it going from 2600 mAh in the C5 to 3300 mAh in the C7.

The Galaxy C5 and C7 are only headed to China for now, but there's always a chance that devices like these can make their way to other parts of Asia, to Europe or even North America, although the latter is quite unlikely. Both of them come in silver, black, gold, and rose gold, and they also include Samsung Pay which just recently launched in China. Both devices come in under $400 when you convert the price to USD, with the Galaxy C5 coming in at roughly $330 and the Galaxy C7 at $396.

Samsung via The Verge

Comments Locked

12 Comments

View All Comments

  • SunnyNW - Thursday, May 26, 2016 - link

    Obviously the iphone resemblance is just...WOW..I guess originality is not the name of the game anymore. I do believe that we have reached a point where cell phone design has become pretty consistent with only smaller refinements going forward but...As a consumer are you really satisfied thinking your phone looks like the premium brand you wish you had even though in terms of functionality the device is completely different? Or do certain consumers just feel that this is The pinnacle of phone design?
  • pashhtk27 - Thursday, May 26, 2016 - link

    Have you ever thought that your dearest iphone could be 'resemblace' of some other older phone. I'm pretty sure it is. :)

    Just how many times have I heard this comment.....I wonder.
  • Michael Bay - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link

    >desperate apple shilling
    >originality
  • Carmen00 - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link

    What makes you believe that "the premium brand you wish you had" is an iPhone for everyone? I know people who are flush with cash, have expensive tastes, and don't choose an iPhone.
  • 0razor1 - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link

    You've posted in convincing words what resonates with my friends, but it's still difficult to get an ifollower to believe this is possible.

    The days that the macbook air was the thinnest lightest fanciest gadget have long gone.
    Phones are now way beyond features.
  • alonso - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link

    As you can see the reality is a little bit different:
    Released 2013, August
    http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_one_dual_sim-pictures-...

    Released 2014, September
    http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_6-pictures-63...
  • JamesDean17 - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link

    Sems like some people are so stupid understanding what a premium brand is.
    Samsung is the premium brand of technologie these days since they manufacture almost every piece of hardware inside their own fabs, from CPU's to memory chips to AMOLED or LCD screens to SSD's etc. they produce almost everything inhouse. Others brands are more like second hand not premium at all brands since first they buy the components from other manufacturers like Samsung then they integrate those components into a phone. The less premium brands worst than second hand brands are those that don't even have fabs to integrate components into their phones therefore they pay other integrators like Foxconn to entirely produce their phones. Those are the less premium brands that stupid people think they're premium, insert lots of laughs in here. lol
  • Daniel Egger - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link

    It's quite obvious why it's not coming to the US or EU: This thing has lawsuit written all over it. In the land of copycats this should not be a large deal.
  • Alexey291 - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link

    So HTC is going to sue them right? Or did you mean someone else? *yawn*
  • lilmoe - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link

    <facepalm>

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now