Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge reportedly launching on Sprint January 6

A new report claims that the 2017 edition of the Samsung Galaxy J3 will go on sale in the US, via Sprint, on January 6. The story says the phone will get the new name of Galaxy J3 Emerge and will also be available via Sprint’s no-contract wireless subsidiaries Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile.

The report comes from VentureBeat and noted gadget news leaker Evan Blass, based on viewing a user manual for the phone. The Galaxy J3 Emerge will have a 5-inch 720p display and inside it will have an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of on-board storage. By contrast, the 2016 edition of the Galaxy J3 had a quad-core Samsung Exynos chip, 1.5GB of RAM and 8GB of storage.

The Galaxy J3 Emerge will also have a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP front-facing camera, along with a 2,600mAh battery, the same as the Galaxy J3 2016 edition. The Emerge will reportedly be launched with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box.

Pricing for the Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge on Sprint, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile was not revealed in the story, but with its very low hardware specs, we would expect the cost to be in the budget range for smartphones. There’s also no word on when the phone will be released for other carriers in the US.