Lifestyle: Samsung Galaxy Note II arrives in Ghana

The new Samsung Galaxy Note II has arrived early in Ghana ahead of the global launch in Africa, which is slated for October 18 in Cape Town, South Africa. Samsung Ghana launched the sleek phablet device at a media experiential session in Accra on Monday. The device is currently available in all Smartphone shops across country for GHC1,539 and it comes with 24 months warranty, once is it purchased from an approved dealer shop.  Samsung is also offering free gifts, including accessories, flip covers and movie tickets on purchases of the new Galaxy Note II on a first come first serve basis.

The Galaxy Note II, with its 5.5-inch HD SuperAMOLED display, is slightly bigger than the original Galaxy Note, which had a 5.3-inch touch screen. It runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system, layered with the company’s TouchWiz UI. The phablet has a quad-core 1.6GHz Cortex A-9 processor with 2GB of RAM and will come in 16, 32 and 64GB variants, with support for microSD card having capacity of up to 64GB.

For camera enthusiasts, Samsung has assimilated an 8MP snapper with LED flash on the rear, whereas the secondary camera has resolution of 1.9MP. The rear camera can capture full HD videos at 1080p@30fps and comes with features like geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization.

Connectivity options of the Samsung Galaxy Note II include 4G, 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, NFC, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 4.0.  Samsung has also provided proprietary connectivity features in the device, such as Samsung AllShare Play & Control and Samsung AllShare Cast. The phablet it powered by a 3,100mAh battery and will come in two colours – titanium grey and marble white.

Samsung West Africa Head of Hand Held Product, Jaspreet Singh said “Galaxy Note II is the first device to have come with the Android Jelly Bean Operating System so customers in Ghana are privileged to be among the first to have it. We aspire to create new technologies and innovative products that inspire the world, while delivering new value to enhance the lives of our customers,” Singh said.

Andy Akpebu of Samsung Technical Support – HHP, who demonstrated the various features on the device, including the S-pen commented:  “the galaxy note II is the most powerful smart phone in the market currently and its features are unique and unparallel. With the Galaxy Note II you run two or more programmes at the same time – watch movies, chat or facebook at the same time.”

Andy Akpebu said some of its unique functionalities that require the S Pen include air view, pop up notes, popup videos, easy clip, quick command, idea sketch and photo note. The air view feature allows the user to preview the details of the content of a picture, video or text without necessarily opening another window – so you see the other icons as you view the details of one by dragging it to the top of the screen.

Pop notes and pop videos allow the user to do multiple tasks on the same screen at the same time, while easy clip also allow the user to instantly cut and paste any content (picture/text) unto the screen and send by email or MMS, just by selecting an option with the S Pen. Galaxy Note 2 Idea Sketch feature allows the user to just write what he or she wants to draw, and just with the right touches with the S Pen, the phone sketches the picture. The photo note features allows the user to keep one’s memories on the back of pictures on the phone for easy remembrance of what occasion particular photos were taken.