South Korean electronics major Samsung on Tuesday launched its ‘super-flagship’ Galaxy Note 8 in India, which is seen as its big phone comeback story, making up for the global recall of Note 7 last year.

The Galaxy Note 8 launch in India comes weeks after the smartphone was unveiled globally. The smartphone, which claims “stunning infinity display, different dual rear camera experience and new improved and intelligent S Pen” has another other interesting facet — the Bixby voice, which has been optimised for Indian spoken English, and would soon come to India and support both Note 8 and S8.

“Note 8 is coming after a gap. There is large pent up demand in India. We have had 2,50,000 pre-registrations of Note 8 till now on our Facebook page and Amazon on who will be retailing Note 8 with us. This is very encouraging,” Asim Warsi, Senior Vice-President, Mobile Business, Samsung India, told BusinessLine .

Priced at ₹67,900, Galaxy Note 8 will be available in India starting September 21 in Midnight Black and Maple Gold colours.

It may be recalled that Note 7 launch actually never made it to India. The most recent Samsung flagship phablet one could buy was Galaxy Note 5, which debuted in August 2015. Also, Note 6 never existed. Note 7 had to be killed and pulled from stores last year despite Samsung’s best efforts to fix its exploding batteries.

At 6.3-inches across, the Galaxy Note 8’s 18.5:9 display is bigger than ever. It is powered by a 3300 mAh battery with wireless charging. It comes with 64GB of inbuilt storage.

HC Hong, President and CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia, said, “India loves the Galaxy Note for the infinite possibilities it offers with its big screen, unique S Pen and multi-tasking capabilities. I take this opportunity to thank all our consumers in India who have made Samsung the Most Trusted Brand, especially those who have patiently waited for their next Note. This time, we have made the Galaxy Note 8 bigger and better and added ‘Make for India’ innovations that will transform lives yet again. Galaxy Note 8 lets people do things they never thought were possible.”

The company also announced a ‘Samsung Upgrade’ programme offering its loyal Galaxy users the best value when they trade in their old device for Galaxy Note 8. The programme offers a solution through My Galaxy app, a Samsung 'Make for India' feature and is powered by Cashify.

Jio data offer Galaxy Note 8 users will also get a double data offer on Jio, under which they can get up to 448 GB of extra 4G data over 8 months, as well as complimentary Jio Prime Membership, the compnay said.

In another special launch offer, consumers who purchase their Galaxy Note 8 using an HDFC Credit Card will get cash-back of ₹4,000.

Signature S Pen The S Pen stylus is a small accessory, tucked into a slot within the phone, and is in fact the most powerful digital pen in the world, said the company. Not only can one sketch or handwrite even on a sleeping screen and save the input, one can also take notes of up to 100 pages in a single file or use the S Pen for any of a number of other interesting features.

It can be used, for instance, to select and translate text in several languages. It can also be used to create funky live messages or GIFs, to extract video snippets and write on them to share on social networks, and it can be used as one would a mouse or pointer to navigate and select items on the phone, the company said.

The dual f/1.7 aperture camera set-up now takes shots that blur the background, when selected to do so in a ‘live focus’ mode. It also allows for a dual capture of two angles of an image, the company said.

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