Samsung Galaxy Note 2 launched in India, Priced at Rs. 39,900 [Event Details]

The very next day Samsung kicked off the global launch of Galaxy Note 2 in South Korea, the company rolled out the Galaxy Note II in India on 27th September at a launch event held in Hyderabad, India.

Galaxy Note 2, the smartphone-tablet hybrid or ‘phablet’ which was recently unveiled in IFA event, Berlin is the next-generation successor to the Note 1 that was launched a year back. We had an invitation for the launch event and had a hands-on experience with the device and we were completely awed and noted by the device, which to put in the words of Asim Warsi, Vice President, Samsung India is a smart device for the ‘expressionist’

The phone is a laudable upgradation to the Note 1 and running on the latest Android OS ‘Jelly Bean’ and upgraded S-Pen, Galaxy Note 2 packs in lots of magical wizardry  that awes you.

The launch event kicked off with Mr.B D Park,President & CEO, South West Asia, Samsung Electronics giving a brief talk on  the Galaxy Note II and the Note portfolio that includes the recently launched Galaxy Note 800, the 10.1 inch tablet enhanced with S-Pen functionality.

A quick and short acrobatic performance preceded the unveiling of the Galaxy Note II launch…

The moment for Galaxy Note II unveiling and noted film maker Imitiaz Ali took to the stage alongside BD Park and Asim Warsi, VP, Samsung India…

Imitiaz Ali had been given the Galaxy Note II device and been toying with it and shared his user experience and how he felt as a film maker, the phablet gave a perfect viewing experience and also how he was charmed by its unique features like Air View etc…

Asim Warzi, Vice President, Samsung India continued to explain the unique features of Galaxy Note II…

Galaxy Note II sports a 5.5″ Super HD Amoled screen along with a 16:9 aspect ratio it provides for a perfect viewing experience clearly and vividly.

Galaxy Note II is more ergonomically designed to fit well on your palms and is also thinner and lighter. Weighing 180 gm and thinner at 9.4 mm. It also packs in an amazing 3100 mAh battery an almost 25 percent bigger capacity than the first Note for a longer performance.

Powering the device is a 1.6 GHz quad core processor with a 2 GB RAM, running on Android 4.1, Jelly Bean OS which is buttery smooth and enhanced with wonderful features.

One of the unique feature of Galaxy Note II that impressed me and everyone who fiddled with the device is Air View, which enabled the S-Pen to react to the device even without touching it. So what this feature does is, it allows you to hover the S-Pen over an email, S Planner, Image gallery or video to preview the content without having to open it. It works neat, saves time, gives quick access to search and view information detail without having to get into multiple tabs or screens. More on this feature, we will come up with a detailed review shortly.

The upgraded S-Pen packs in a lot of surprises. It is almost a magical wand that does a lot of interesting things.. (keep tuned to us for detailed post on the S-Pen functionality very soon)

The S-Pen now comes with a dedicated S Pen button to enhance its functionality. Just press the button, the S Pen understands that  you want to clip or edit the selected content on the screen. The Easy Clip feature allows you to instantly outline and crop any content on the screen in any shape to save, share or paste, even from a browser. The cropped image can be edited through coloring, sharing, or add handwritten annotations and not just that it is mighty easy to share the clip with your friends.

Remember the Popup play in Galaxy S3? Well, it allows the video to pop out to any screen and allows you to multi task. You can pinch zoom the video to any size and keep it on-screen while you read mail or sms or whatever. In addition to Popup play, Galaxy Note II also comes with a Popup Note. Similar to the Popup play video, the S-Note can be popped up anywhere on-screen and allows or multi-tasking. So while watching a movie you can paint, while on hands free talk, you can note down on S note and much more.

Galaxy Note II also has more exclusive S Pen App that makes best use of the S Pen functionality. The one app we had a hands-on Paper Artist was quiet a fun to fiddle with the images. One can also expect more developers to use the open API of S-Pen to come up with more and more S Pen Apps.

Oh yes, there are more and more to talk about Galaxy Note II but we will do all the talking with photos, videos and comprehensive reviews in the coming days.

Galaxy Note II has been priced at Rs. 39,900 and is available in two colors – Marble White and Titanium Gray color options. Currently in India only 16 GB model is available though it has an expandable memory of 64 GB.

Begining next week, Galaxy Note II will retail at Samsung Smartphone cafes, Samsung Plazas and selected large format stores and gradually will be available in other mobile outlets.

The company also offers a zero percent finance option available at Samsung Smartphone cafes and Samsung plazas.

At the end of the event, Samsung surprised with its own ‘one more thing’ surprise for the Indian market – Samsung Camera. It gave the audience a brief intro about the Android Jelly Bean OS powered camera with impressive features – where the smartphone features meets the camera. Ofcourse, we had a hands-on the device and we will update you all about it very soon.