Samsung Rex series poised to take on Nokia

Samsung is bringing in a brand new line of budget-friendly phones known as Rex. The affordable lineup will include four different devices, with three of those -- Rex 70, Rex 80 and Rex 90 -- featuring capacitive touchscreens. The Rex 60 will be the cheapest version and will sport a resistive display. Each of the phones from the Rex lineup will run a Java-based operating system with Samsung's TouchWiz UI. Rex will also embrace features like the Opera Mini browser, which is designed to help cut back on data fees. 

From Samsung's release:

"Feature phones continue to represent a large opportunity for mobile handset makers, especially in price-constrained emerging markets,” said Ian Fogg, senior principal analyst, mobile and telecommunications research at IHS. “IHS estimates that there will be 653 million feature and entry-level mobile phones shipped globally in 2013. Entry-level smartphones must compete with ever smarter touch screen feature phones that offer many of the same social network, games, and mobile Internet benefits as smartphones but at an even more compelling price."

As The Verge points out, it looks like Samsung's new pocket-pleasing Rex lineup is perfeclty poised to compete with Nokia's low end phones. The Finnish phone maker kills it in volume thanks to cheaper handsets like the Asha models, which helps the company keep its title as one of the world's largest phone manufacturers.

Buyers on the hunt for a cheaper handset may already trust Nokia's brand, but Samsung isn't exactly a stranger in the smartphone market. It's currently better known for its popular Android-based devices like the Galaxy S3 and upcoming Galaxy S4 (and possibly the Galaxy S4 mini), but that could actually afford it a leg up with its new Rex series.

Folks are already well-versed with the name, so now it's more a matter of how Samsung intends to take over Nokia's turf. The Korean smartphone manufacturer doesn't exactly have a reputation for handling its competition gracefully (in the past Samsung has released full-on attack ads against rivals like Apple, and most recently, BlackBerry's new BB10 lineup). 

[Samsung]

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