Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note 7 just last week, and it has already been made available for pre-order in a number of countries around the world. Apart from the three largest smartphone markets in the world – China, the U.S. and India – the device has also been up for pre-order in Australia, Japan, Singapore, Russia, France, Dubai, Canada and many other countries including, Samsung’s home base of South Korea. However, different regions will get slightly different hardware inside their Samsung phablets, and while countries like the U.S. and Canada will get a model powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, many other markets, including the U.K. and India, are slated to get a variant powered by the Exynos 8890.
While the in-house Exynos chips should, in theory, allow Samsung to price the Note 7 more competitively in some countries, that doesn’t seem to be happening, though. In fact, the pricing seems to be on the higher side in many of the markets that are, in fact, set to get the Exynos model. While the unlocked, base version of the device with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage is priced at $849 in the U.S., customers in the U.K., India and Australia are likely to pay the most for the premium phablet. While buyers in Australia will have to pay A$1,349 (US$1,038) for the handset, U.K. consumers will have to fork out £699 ($917) to get their hands on the device. While national and local taxes do play a large part in the pricing structure, many around the world will still be disappointed at having to pay such inflated prices for what is still essentially just a high-end smartphone. Buyers in China, however, will get a comparatively better deal, as the handset has been priced at 5688 Yuan ($856) in the country.
Meanwhile, if you’re planning to buy the device in India, you have more bad news coming your way. Not only is the device priced at a significant premium in the country, Samsung is not offering any freebies to sweeten the deal either. In most other markets, the company is throwing in one freebie or another with the Galaxy Note 7 for its customers. While Galaxy Note 7 buyers in the U.S. will get a Gear Fit 2 and a 128GB micro SD card, those in the U.K. will get a Gear VR headset alongside the micro SD card. In what is even more of an oddity, India seems to be the only major market where the Galaxy Note 7 comes without any special launch offer, although, Samsung will sell the Gear VR headset at a discounted price of Rs. 1,999 ($30) to all Galaxy Note 7 buyers in the country.
