Consumers in India who pre-ordered the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will receive their devices soon as the South Korean smartphone maker has started shipping its products today, recent reports indicate. Currently, the handset can be purchased from Amazon India and Samsung’s website in two color options — Maple Gold and Midnight Black — and shipping was officially scheduled to start tomorrow. Meanwhile, Samsung will include a wireless charger and one-time $15 screen replacement with every purchase of the Galaxy Note 8 as part of its introductory offer. The manufacturer has also tied up with HDFC Bank so that the bank’s credit card holders will receive a Rs. 4,000 ($61) cashback on the handset. Reliance Jio, on the other hand, is giving away a total of 448GB of free data for its subscribers once they purchase the Galaxy Note 8. The data will be divided evenly over the next eight months, the wireless carrier said.
While it shares a similar design and a number of internal components with the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus, there are still features that help the Galaxy Note 8 stand out from the other 2017 flagship offerings of the South Korean tech giant. The S-Pen, a stylus present in all Galaxy Note handsets, now sports new and enhanced software features like Live Messages, improved translation functionality, and better memo capabilities. Another standout feature of the smartphone is its rear camera, which is now equipped with two 12-megapixel sensors, one of which boasts a wide-angle lens, while the other has a telephoto one. The smartphone is capable of 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom, with both of its lenses being optically stabilized.
Galaxy Note 8 models sold in India are powered by the Exynos 8895 chipset that is comprised of an octa-core CPU clocked at up to 2.3GHz and the Mali-G71 MP20 GPU. The smartphone sports 6GB of RAM, 64GB of internal flash storage, and a 6.3-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2,960 by 1,440 pixels and an aspect ratio of 18.5:9. The front-facing camera contains an 8-megapixel sensor and is also equipped with a wide-angle lens. The handset comes with a 3,300mAh battery and supports both fast wireless and wired charging. The Galaxy Note 8 can be purchased in India for Rs. 67,900, which translates to around $1,044.