Samsung’s Flagship Phablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Duos, Launched in India

South Korean tech giant Samsung has introduced the dual-SIM variant of its latest phablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 in India. The single SIM version of Samsung’s flagship phablet was launched in the second half of 2015.

More from iSpyPrice: Check out the new Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Duos mobile now

Let’s take a quick look at the specifications on the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, the dual-SIM variant which is also known as the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Duos.

Specifications – Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Duos

The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Duos comes with a 5.7 inch Super AMOLED display with a pixel density of 518 ppi. The phone is powered by a 1.5 GHz Quad Core Cortex-A53 and a 2.1 GHz Quad Core Cortex-A57 processing unit. This coupled with a 4 GB RAM makes this one of the most powerful Android phones going around. This phone will have 2 variants. The 32 GB variant has been launched in India and the 64 GB variant is also expected to make its way to the Indian market soon.

The phone comes with a 16 megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front facing camera. The rear camera has a f/1.9 aperture alongside the now standard Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) camera technology. The dual-SIM Galaxy Note 5 runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop OS and supports 4G connectivity.

More from iSpyPrice: Here is the most comprehensive Samsung Mobile List

One interesting aspect of the Galaxy Note 5 is its battery capacity. The battery unit on this phablet is, what we believe, a little on the lower side. 3000 mAh isn’t exactly what you would expect in a modern device which happens to be the flagship gadget of the world’s premier smartphone brand. Surely Samsung could have done better with the battery capacity?

There are no indications that the 3000 mAh battery comes with any technical advantages over other smartphone batteries. This at a time when Gionee is pushing the limits of batteries and using battery capacity as the USP of its mid-range devices. This begs the question – why hasn’t Samsung done anything about improving the battery capacity of a device that costs around Rs. 50,000?

Is the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Duos overpriced?

This is a question that I get asked a lot ever since Samsung introduced the Galaxy Note 5 a few months ago. There is no straightforward answer to this question. Every brand has a pricing strategy that depends on various factors. If we divide the above question in to sub-questions maybe we can find a relatively agreeable answer to the original question.

More from iSpyPrice: Find the latest Huawei mobiles on iSpyPrice

Are there phones in the market that are better overall phablets than the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Duos? The answer to this would be an emphatic “yes”. The Huawei Nexus 6P, which walked away with iSpyPrice‘s smartphone of the year 2015 title, is currently the darling of the high-end mobile consumer. Then there is the iPhone 6S Plus, which was the result of Apple sitting up and taking notice of the demand for larger screens.

While the Galaxy Note 5 is certainly not the numero uno phablet in the market right now, it is among the top 5 surely. But here is the interesting bit. One look at the pricing of these 3 phablets tells you a lot about their strategies. So the best phablet going around is the cheapest among the best while its competitors are priced a lot higher. This has a lot to do with distribution channels at the national and regional levels and the consumer’s propensity to buy into the hype created by massive advertising campaigns and social media puffery.

More from iSpyPrice: Check out Apple’s best phablet ever – the Apple iPhone 6S Plus mobile today

Samsung is known as one of the most aggressive brands in the advertising sphere. If a Samsung phone is close to launch you can be in Dublin or Delhi, but you will never be too far away from a huge billboard telling you the same. And Samsung has a huge distribution network which means it pays more to distributors than most other brands.

From an ROI perspective the Galaxy Note 5 Duos is not overpriced. But from the consumer perspective, it sure is overpriced. If someone walks up to me and says they want to buy the best phablet in the world, I would recommend the Nexus 6P without blinking an eyelid, but if someone walks up to me and says they want to buy a quality phablet from a top notch brand, such as Samsung, I wouldn’t ask them to change their minds. The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Duos is definitely worth a buy.