After all the stories about how the Galaxy Note 7 variant meant for China will come with more RAM and internal storage than the international models, latest developments now suggest that the world’s largest smartphone market may actually end up getting pretty much the exact same model as the one that’s being sold in the U.S., barring of course, the usual differences in support for LTE bands. The device has now finally gone up for pre-order in China, and going by the listing on Samsung’s official website in the country, it will still come with ‘just’ the 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage and cost 5,988 Yuan ($897) for the unlocked, SIM-free version. According to the listing, Samsung will begin shipping the phones from September 1st.
While that amount of RAM and built-in storage in a smartphone is nothing to scoff at, earlier reports had strongly suggested that the country may actually get an even better-equipped version with as much as 6GB of RAM and a whopping 128GB of internal storage. It was even rumored to come with a 6088 Yuan ($917) price-tag. In fact, the chief of Samsung Mobile, Dong Jin Koh, was even reported to have virtually ‘confirmed’ the existence of such a model while speaking at the Galaxy Note 7 launch event in Seoul, South Korea, earlier this month. However, many Android enthusiasts had expressed dismay at the suggestion that the device may be launched exclusively in China, and urged the South Korean company to reconsider its apparent decision not to launch the device globally. However, as things have now turned out, Galaxy Note 7 buyers in China will apparently have to be satisfied with the regular model, at least for now. There’s no word either on whether the more premium variant will actually come at a later date.
While most of the hardware specs and software features of the Galaxy Note 7 meant for the Chinese market is fairly similar to the feature set found on the international version, the chipset powering the Chinese and American models is vastly different to the SoC found inside the international variants meant for markets in Europe, Asia and elsewhere. That’s because the versions meant for buyers in the two largest smartphone markets in the world come with the Snapdragon 820, whereas the global Galaxy Note 7 models are powered by the Exynos 8890. Both are powerful processors, but while the former is a product of U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm, the latter is designed, developed and manufactured in-house by Samsung Electronics.