Just as it starts to roll out the Galaxy Note internationally, Samsung has also announced the same for India today. The Android powered Smartphone is best known for its 5.3″ Super AMOLED display and a 2500 mAh battery to back it up. Galaxy Note joins a long list of Android smartphones from Samsung in the Indian market, ranging from the low priced Galaxy Y to the bestseller Galaxy SII. We also saw Google putting up the Galaxy Nexus page live for India, which is scheduled to launch sometime in December in India.
It is relatively convenient for Samsung to launch smartphones in India, compared to the United States, given the fact that they have often fallen behind with US launches due to carrier tie-ups and customizations. Nevertheless, we are certainly happy to see the latest international releases making it to India so soon. The Galaxy Note would be available in retail stores by the second week of November.
The Samsung Galaxy Note has a very interesting spec sheet which closely resembles those on a tablet except the fact that this one is a smartphone as well.
We start with the processor which is a dual core chip clocked at 1.4 GHz. The device comes in 32 GB and 16 GB versions – however in India, they are only launching the 16 GB version. You can expand the memory using microSD cards to a maximum of 32 GB. On the imaging front, the Galaxy Note features an 8 megapixel rear camera which also doubles up as your HD video recorder capable of capturing videos at full HD (1080p) resolution at 30 fps. Of course you can also “downgrade” to 720p should the need arise. There is a front camera as well rated at 2 megapixels.
All of these features are fit into a lean body which is just 9.6mm thick and weighs at 178g only, which is impressive considering the specifications packed into this device. Though I must add that even the Galaxy Note has a plastic body just like its predecessors.
The other innovative feature that Samsung is very keenly promoting is the Smart pen which can be used to take notes as well draw images on the Galaxy Note. Samsung has very smartly developed around 10 dedicated apps for the Smart Pen available in Samsung Apps marketplace which includes the likes of S Memo, S Planner and S Choice and plan to add up to them in the coming months.
We quizzed retailers in Mumbai yesterday about their opinion about the Galaxy Note and they seemed optimistic about the prospects of this device if it is priced under Rs 35,000. With a price tag of Rs. 34,990, we know that Samsung is not really off the mark. The large display was their main attraction and it seems Samsung has done enough to please them here.
With the Galaxy Note Samsung has joined Acer which with its Iconia Smart S300 is vying to carve a niche segment between the smartphone and the tablet category. It would be interesting to see how the market responds to these tablet like smartphone devices.
