After months of anticipation, Indian fans of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 phablet will be finally able to get their hands on the device, as the company has just announced that the handset is officially available in the country. Due to the popularity of Dual-SIM in emerging markets like India, where support of two SIM cards is a must, the South Korean giant did manage to incorporate the feature at hand.
So, without any further ado, let’s take a closer look at the Galaxy Note 5 for India’s smartphone market.
Specs and software
The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 sports a 5.7-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, with a resolution of 1440 x 2560 (518 ppi pixel density) and 16M colors, covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 4 for ultimate scratch and shatter-proof protection.
Underneath the hood, the phone is powered by a 64-bit Exynos 7420 processor, housing eight cores; four Cortex-A53 clocked at 1.5GHz and four Cortex-A57 clocked at 2.1GHz, coupled with 4GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB/128GB of internal storage and Mali-T760MP8 GPU. Built-in storage is not expandable via microSD card for the Dual-SIM variant.
Camera wise, the primary shooter, located on the rear, shoots at 16MP and packs touch focus, face/smile detection, panorama, HDR, 2K (2160p@30fps) video and LED flash. The secondary ‘selfies’ camera, embed on the front, comes with a 5MP sensor, recording 1440p@30fps video, clubbed with dual video call and Auto HDR.
In terms of connectivity, the Note 5 has been fitted with LTE antennas, 3G, GPS (with A-GPS), WiFi, Bluetooth v4.2, microUSB v2.0 and Dual-SIM. It is worth noting that the particular Dual-SIM supports simultaneous use of two nano-4G SIM cards.
To accommodate the humongous 5.7-inch screen, Samsung has backed the device up with a 3,000mAh battery, which does not appear to be sufficient enough, at least on paper. Samsung claims that it delivers up to 22 hours of talk time (3G) and 64 hours of music play.
Dimensions wise, the Galaxy Note 5 measures 153.2 x 76.1 x 7.6 mm (6.03 x 3.00 x 0.30 in) and weighs 171 g (6.03 oz).
The phablet will come with Android 5.1 Lollipop straight out of the box, skinned under Samsung’s own TouchWiz UI. Extra features include the S-Pen stylus and Samsung Pay mobile payment service.
Pricing and availability
Samsung has made the device available through its official Indian eStore, while the 32 GB version of the dual-SIM handset will be the first to arrive for Rs. 51,400 ($760). The 64GB installment will make its advent a tad later for Rs. 57,400 ($849).
When it comes to the single-SIM editions, the 32 GB and 64 GB variants of the device will now cost Rs. 47,900 ($708) and Rs. 53,900 ($796), respectively.
Moreover, the Galaxy Note 5 will be available in three color variants; Gold Platinum, Black Sapphire and Silver Titanium.
Are you planning on picking up the Galaxy Note 5? Let us know in the comments below.