Samsung has launched the Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy Gear smartwatch in India. The products were announced a couple of weeks ago at the IFA, a trade show for consumer electronics and appliances held annually in Berlin.
While both devices will be available in stores nationwide from September 25, 100 stores in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi will have them available for customers to experience starting September 18.
The Galaxy Note 3 is slightly larger, but lighter and slimmer than its predecessor. It features a 5.7 inch full HD Super AMOLED display (1920 x 1080 pixels) and is powered by a 1.9 GHz eight core processor with 3GB RAM. It runs Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean), and is heavily customised with Samsung's TouchWiz user interface. It has a 13 MP camera with features such as smart stabilisation and an LED flash. It comes with a new stylus, S Pen, that triggers features such as action memo, scrapbook, screen write, S finder and pen window. The Galaxy Note 3 weights 168 gm and has a 3200 mAh battery. It is priced at Rs 49,900.
Just a couple of months ago, Samsung introduced an exchange scheme for Galaxy Note II, under which selected smartphones could be exchanged for up to Rs 10,000 off on a new Samsung phone. Under this scheme, the Note II sold for Rs 27,500. But now, its price has been slashed, and it sells for Rs 27,000 without any scheme.
Vineet Taneja, Country Head, Samsung Mobile & IT, says: "The Galaxy Note 3 represents the next evolution of the Galaxy Note experience. At Samsung, our goal is not just to make great devices, but to empower consumers to truly experience, enjoy and fulfil their busy life with our devices, like the Note 3 and the Gear."
Samsung's new Galaxy Gear smartwatch, priced at Rs 22,990, connects to select Galaxy smartphones, and shows notifications and quick previews of incoming text messages, email, and the like.
Sony and few other companies have been selling smart watches for over a year.
Samsung also said it will bring the Galaxy Note 10.1, 2014 edition, to India in October.