Samsung Electronics will officially debut its latest flagship in China next Wednesday, with the local branch of the Seoul-based original equipment manufacturer (OEM) now sending invites for a Galaxy Note 8 launch event dated September 13. Industry sources previously speculated that Samsung’s newest phablet will be introduced in the Far Eastern country on September 29 and it’s currently unclear whether these older reports on the matter were inaccurate or if the tech giant moved the event forward for some reason.
The latter scenario is somewhat more likely in light of the fact that Xiaomi is set to introduce the Mi Mix 2 on Monday, September 11, with that particular device being one of the Galaxy Note 8’s main competitors in China. Apple is also scheduled to unveil the iPhone 8 lineup between the Mi Mix 2 and Galaxy Note 8’s launches, and while the Cupertino, California-based phone maker isn’t as dominant in China as it is in the United States, Samsung will still have to compete with the 10th anniversary iPhone lineup in the Far Eastern country. The base Galaxy Note 8 model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal flash memory is expected to be available for purchase in China but industry insiders have also been speculating about an Emperor Edition of the phablet for some time now, suggesting that the South Korean consumer electronics manufacturer will debut a device with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space in China and a number of other (Asian) markets.
The Galaxy S8 Plus that Samsung released earlier this year made its way to China in the form of another Emperor Edition product which had 6GB of RAM as opposed to 4GB, though it’s currently unclear whether that smartphone performed well-enough to warrant a similar reimagining of the Galaxy Note 8. Samsung’s market share in China has mostly been declining in recent times, with the company currently only accounting for several percentage points of the largest smartphone market in the world, which prompted it to revise some of its high-end and other offerings in an effort to do a better job of catering to Chinese consumers, consequently bouncing back from its lackluster sales. The Chinese versions of the Galaxy Note 8 are expected to be offered in black, blue, and gold color options, bearing the model numbers SM-N9500 and SM-N9508.