New Delhi: Ahead of Apple’s iPhone 6 unveiling, Samsung on Wednesday launched the Galaxy Note 4, updating one of its marquee smartphone lines at a time when the Korean tech giant is facing stiffer competition in bigger-screen phones.
Wednesday’s event dubbed “Unpacked†by Samsung and held at the IFA trade show in Berlin, comes at a critical time when the company is being pressured in emerging markets by low-cost handset vendors such as Xiaomi and Huawei. It’s also facing tough competition from Apple in the market for pricey, high-end smartphones, CNET reported.
Samsung, which started its bigger-screen with stylus-welding Note line in 2011, opted to double-down on these smartphones offering two new versions – the Note 4 with a 5.7-inch display and Note Edge with a 5.6-inch display.
The Galaxy Note 4 will be made available in two variants, one with a 2.7GHz quad-core processor and the other with a 1.9GHz octa-core (1.9GHz quad-core + 1.3GHz quad-Core) processor. It comes with 32GB of built-in storage and is expandable up to 64GB via microSD card.
Note 4 also gets a new user interface with a ‘transparency widget’ that makes the home screen visible under whatever the user is doing. Samsung claims that the new S Pen stylus for Note 4 has better pressure sensitivity and new Smart Select feature apart from the new calligraphy and signing pen writing options. According to Samsung, the new S Pen is meant to function like a mouse.
Sensors onboard the Galaxy Note 4 include an accelerometer, geo-magnetic, gyroscope, RGB, IR-LED, proximity, barometer, hall sensor, finger scanner, UV, heart rate monitor. It features a 3220mAh battery.
Beside Galaxy Note 4 and Note Edge, DJ Lee, President, Head Sales & Marketing IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung also introduced Samsung’s two new smartwatches, the Gear S and Gear VR.
The Galaxy Note 4 will be available in Charcoal Black, Frost White, Bronze Gold and Blossom Pink in global markets starting October.