Galaxy M benchmark shows Samsung's next budget phone play

Although it's not as bad as when it still made feature phones, Samsung still has quite a dizzying array of models and brands. Just as it did when it dropped the feature phones, Samsung will reportedly consolidate its Android lines into Galaxy S, Galaxy A, and Galaxy M (S,A, M) models. Either that or it will actually add one more breed to its stable to further confuse the market. Regardless, a Galaxy M phone might just be around the corner and, at least based on this first benchmark, it might not be so bad.

The Galaxy M will supposedly replace Samsung's Galaxy J, Galaxy C, and Galaxy On phones. These three have primarily flooded the budget and entry-level smartphone market, especially in Asia. The lines that differentiate these three are very, very thin and, as of late, Samsung has mostly poured its resources on the Galaxy J series instead.

As such, the Galaxy M that will replace these phones isn't exactly going to overtake them in terms of performance. Based on the Geekbench sighting for a certain Samsung SM-M205F, the phone will have 3 GB of RAM and run on an Exynos 7885. That's the new mid-range chip that Samsung launched earlier this year and is considered to be equivalent to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 series, particularly to the 636 and even the 660.

The SM-M205F, which may be called the Galaxy M20 is just one of two expected Galaxy M phones coming early 2019. The other is the SM-M305F or Galaxy M30, which will have 64 or 128 GB of internal storage. The Galaxy M20 will have half that much, according to sources.

Sadly, the benchmark also shows that the SM-M205F at least will be running on Android 8.1 Oreo. While that does dash hopes of an affordable Android Pie Samsung phone, it's not unexpected considering no premium Samsung phone even has the latest Android release yet.