The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 will start selling and be available in stores in India on Tuesday, a week after its official release date.
UPDATE: The phone is now available online. While e-stores like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon are yet to start selling the Note 4, a relatively unknown site called theelectronicstore.in has started making the phone available online for sale. However, the online price of the phone is higher than the suggested price of Rs 58,000.
The electronic store is offering the Note 4 at a price of Rs 61,500. Major e-stores like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon are likely to make available the Note 4 in around four days.
The phone will be available in both physical and online stores, though online store sales may be delayed by a day or two.
The price of the Galaxy Note 4, as already announced by Samsung a week ago, will be around Rs 58,000.
In terms of specifications, the Note 4 is arguably the most advanced smartphone in the world, but will face intense competition from the iPhone 6 Plus, which starts at Rs 62,500, or Rs 4,500 more than the Note 4, for a 16 GB version.
However, despite its inferior specifications, the iPhone 6 Plus will give the Note 4 a run for its money due to the higher brand value, design and software.
In terms of specifications, however, there is no doubt about which is better. The 5.7-inch display on the Galaxy Note 4, for example, has 4 mln pixels on it compared to the 2 mln on the iPhone Plus.
In addition, the stylus on the Note makes it much more productivity friendly too. The Note 4 also comes with a 16 MP camera. In comparison, iPhone 6 Plus has an 8 MP camera.
While the Galaxy Note 4 comes with 3 GB of RAM, the iPhone comes with 1 GB.
Also, the Note 4 comes with the latest in ARM processor technology – the Cortex A53 + A57, running at 1.9 GHz whereas the Apple chip run as 1.4 GHz. Both chips have 64-bit support.
One of the crucial things to be noted is support for the type of 4G LTE that is being launched in India.
Indian operators are launching LTE in FDD mode in 1800 MHz (3) band, TDD mode in 2300 MHz (40) band. In addition, they may launch LTE in FDD mode in the 800 MHz (19) band. In other words, the phones should support these three bands – 3, 40 and 19.
Officially, the Samsung India website is of practically no use in this matter as it simply says the the phone has Category 4 LTE (150 Mbps). It does not talk about which bands are supported.
But our research indicates that the version of the Note that is going to be launched in India will support the following bands –
FDD-LTE – Band 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8
TDD-LTE – Band 38, 40
In other words, both types of LTE that has been and is being launched in India will be supported by the Galaxy Note 4 version released in India, while the 800 MHz LTE that Reliance Communications may launch in 2016-17 is not. Frankly, we believe that by the time such a network is launched, the Note 5 may be out and users need not worry about it right now.
As far as the iPhone 6 Plus is concerned, different variants support different radios, with some supporting practically all the variations in India. More details can be had on the official page.
Another factor to keep in mind is the possibility of lower prices, especially in case of the Note 4. While the iPhone is already aggressively (low) priced, we believe the price of the Note will easily fall to the Rs 50,000 mark in two months, at most three months. But, for the impatient, waiting for a couple of weeks for the price to come down to the 55,000-56,000 band is also advisable.
Another factor to keep in mind is the Google Nexus 6, which we expect to be launched in India in the second half of November. We expect the price of Google Nexus 6 to be around Rs 40,000-42,000 in India.
Nexus 6, when launched, will offer far superior value for money than the Note 4 and will come with the next version of Android, Lolipop. So if you want something immediate, go for the iPhone 6 Plus or the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, but if you are upgrading from the Note 3 or the Nexus 5, we suggest you wait for a month till the Nexus 6 is launched.
At the bottom is a detailed comparison of the iPhone 6 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 version, which will be available in India on Tuesday.
[socialpoll id=”2227394″]
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Dimensions |
6.04 x 3.09 x 0.33 inches (153.5 x 78.6 x 8.5 mm) |
6.22 x 3.06 x 0.28 inches (158.1 x 77.8 x 7.1 mm) |
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Weight |
6.21 oz (176 g) the average is 4.8 oz (138 g) |
6.07 oz (172 g) the average is 4.8 oz (138 g) |
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Body material |
Carbon? |
Aluminium |
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Display |
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Physical size |
5.7 inches |
5.5 inches |
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Resolution |
1440 x 2560 pixels |
1080 x 1920 pixels |
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Pixel density |
515 ppi |
401 ppi |
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Technology |
Super AMOLED |
IPS LCD |
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Features |
Light sensor, Proximity sensor, Scratch-resistant glass (Corning Gorilla Glass 3) |
Light sensor, Proximity sensor, Scratch-resistant glass, Oleophobic coating |
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Camera |
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Camera |
16 megapixels |
8 megapixels |
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Flash |
LED |
Dual LED |
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Aperture size |
F2.0 |
F2.2 |
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Focal length (35mm equivalent) |
29 mm |
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Camera sensor size |
1/2.6″ |
1/3″ |
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Features |
Autofocus, Touch to focus, Manual focus, Digital image stabilization, Optical image stabilization, Face detection, Smile detection, Exposure compensation, ISO control, White balance presets, Burst mode, Digital zoom, Geo tagging, High Dynamic Range mode (HDR), Panorama, Macro mode, Night mode, Scenes, Effects, Self-timer, Voice activation |
Back-illuminated sensor (BSI), Autofocus, Phase detection autofocus, Touch to focus, Optical image stabilization, Face detection, Exposure compensation, Burst mode, Digital zoom, Geo tagging, High Dynamic Range mode (HDR), Panorama, Self-timer |
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Camcorder |
3840×2160 (4K) (30 fps) |
1920×1080 (1080p HD) (60 fps) |
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Features |
Optical image stabilization, Continuous autofocus, Picture-taking during video recording |
Digital image stabilization, Continuous autofocus, Picture-taking during video recording, Video calling, Video sharing |
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Front-facing camera |
3.7 megapixels |
1.2 megapixels |
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Hardware |
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System chip |
Exynos 5433 |
Apple A8 |
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Processor |
8-core, 1900 Mhz, ARM Cortex-A57+A53 |
Dual core, 1400 MHz, 64-bit |
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Graphics processor |
ARM Mali-T760 |
PowerVR GX6650 |
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System memory |
3072 MB RAM |
1024 MB RAM |
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Built-in storage |
32 GB |
128 GB |
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Storage expansion |
microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC up to 128 GB |
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Others |
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Talk time (3G) |
20.00 hours (avg 915 min) |
24.00 hours ( avg915 min) |
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Battery Capacity |
3220 mAh |
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GSM |
850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz |
850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz |
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UMTS |
850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz |
850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz |
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FDD LTE |
700, 800, 850, 900, 1700/2100, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2600 |
700, 800, 800, 850, 900, 1700/2100, 1800, 1900, 1900, 2100, 2600 |
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Data |
LTE Cat 4 (150/50 Mbit/s), HSDPA+ (4G) 42.2 Mbit/s, HSUPA, EDGE, GPRS |
LTE Cat 4 (150/50 Mbit/s), HSPA, HSUPA, EDGE, GPRS, EV-DO Rev.A, EV-DO Rev.B |
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Other |
NFC, DLNA, MHL, Tethering, Computer sync, OTA sync, ANT+, Infrared, MirrorLink |
NFC, UMA (Wi-Fi Calling) |
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