Samsung expected to announce Galaxy Note II, Galaxy Camera for India today

Samsung is expected to announce the successor of its much-hyped Galaxy Note phablet, the Galaxy Note II, for India at an event in Hyderabad today. The Note II runs on the Android v4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS out of the box, and is powered by a 1.6GHz quad-core processor. The major talking point about the Galaxy Note II is that it features Air View, a feature that enables users to hover with the S Pen over an email, S Planner, image gallery, or video to preview content without opening it. Air View enables users to quickly search and see more information in one view, without making screen transitions.

Samsung Galaxy Note II

Here is a quick look at the highlighted features of the Samsung Galaxy Note II:

• 5.5-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen with a 1280 x 720 pixel density
• 4G LTE, EDGE, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi HT40, NFC
• GPS with GLONASS and A-GPS support
• Bluetooth v4.0 with USB 2.0 Host
• 8 megapixel AF/ Touchfocus camera, 1.9MP VT Camera, BSI front-facing camera
• 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, all with expandable support up to 64GB
• 2GB RAM
• MHL for AV out

Samsung has stated that it has redesigned the S-Pen - it is now longer, thicker, and ergonomically designed for good grip. Therefore, it provides a more precise, comfortable, and natural writing and drawing experience. 

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Another expression feature called Idea Visualizer provides illustration images that match the handwritten keywords on the S Note. It’s an illustration match function that enables users to express, organise and visualise ideas. Users can even customise and add their own illustrations library.

Other highlighted features found in the Note II include Pop-up Note, Quick Command, Screen Recorder, and a host of other features that raise the bar over the Galaxy Note. For those concerned about major battery drain, Samsung has added a 3,100mAh battery.

The Note II, recently became available for prebooking from the Samsung eStore with an advance payment of Rs 5,000. Customers who pre-booked were eligible to receive a free Desktop Dock worth Rs 2,399, along with the Galaxy Note II. 

Along with the Note II, Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy Camera for India today. The South Korean giant had announced its Jelly Bean-running Galaxy Camera at IFA 2012 held recently. 

Galaxy Camera: Runs the latest version of Android

Samsung claims that the Galaxy Camera combines high performance photography with the latest Android v4.1 (Jelly Bean) operating system, and wireless network connectivity, thereby creating a new type of device. Samsung Galaxy Camera is said to be ideal for those who wish to shoot, edit, and share high quality photographs and videos easily and spontaneously from anywhere, at any time.

“The Galaxy Camera opens a new visual communication era and shifts a paradigm in communication. With the growth of social networks and the prevalence of smartphones and tablets, people today communicate faster than words. As we increasingly articulate our experiences through pictures and videos the Galaxy Camera has been created to lead the way in this new era of visual communication. Communication becomes more vivid and lively with high-quality images and instant sharing anywhere, anytime,” said JK Shin, President of IT and Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics.

Samsung claims that users of the camera will not need to sacrifice picture quality in order to edit and share their photos instantly as it easily outperforms any smartphone camera. This model features a 21x zoom lens, a bright 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor and a 23mm aperture lens for taking wide-angle shots. The zoom can be controlled by either button or through the touchscreen, while the optical image stabiliser ensures that images stay clear. The Galaxy Camera features a large display, which is a 4.8-inch HD Super Clear LCD screen. Wireless connectivity enables the device to load applications for photo-editing, sharing, and much more.

The Galaxy Camera includes a set of 35 photo editing features through the ‘Photo Wizard’, allowing users to make professional quality edits on the go. The camera has a quad-core processor, giving access to a feature such as Auto Face Calibration so that edits can be made. The ‘Movie Wizard’ also allows users to create and edit videos from the touchscreen.

The Galaxy Camera also features the ‘Smart Content Manager’, an on-device organisation tool, which creates folders, tags faces, and even suggests pictures to delete when they do not come out as desired. In addition to the pre-installed applications from Samsung, users can browse the web and enjoy any applications from Google Play or Samsung Apps stores. Useful apps and games are suggested by ‘S Suggest’.

The camera’s ‘Auto Cloud Backup’ feature automatically saves photos into the cloud via Samsung’s AllShare as soon as they are taken. The Galaxy Camera also enables users to share photos at the same time as they shoot them with ‘Share Shot.’ As well as sharing to social networks and cloud services, users can also connect to a range of Galaxy devices including the Galaxy S III and the recently announced Galaxy Note II for automatic sharing of pictures across the Galaxy family of devices. The new device enables connection to 3G or 4G, and also Wi-Fi with Dual Band and Channel Bonding.

The Galaxy Camera comes in two connectivity options: a 3G version with Wi-Fi and a 4G version with Wi-Fi. There is no word on the pricing or availability of the Galaxy Camera yet.