South Korean electronics giant Samsung unveiled the new Galaxy Note 9 smartphone on Thursday, its latest effort to address flagging sales of the high-functioning gadgets.
The consistent leader in the global smartphone market, Samsung nonetheless suffered a 22 percent drop in mobile technology sales in the second quarter.
The company blamed the drop in part to disappointing demand for the Galaxy S9, but it also has been pressured by growth in Chinese competitor Huawei.
At the launch event in Johannesburg South Africa, the company showed off the Galaxy Note 9, which will be available for purchase on August 24, and contains a series of improvements but no radical new innovations.
The latest model boosts memory capacity, with options for 128 or 512 gigabytes of memory. Users also can insert a micro card to boost capacity beyond a terabyte, a record for a smartphone.
Samsung also enhanced the gadget’s batteries so it can now be used for an entire day without needing to be recharged — a common headache for cell phone users.
Other improvements include tweaks to the device’s “S Pen” feature, which can be used as a remote control for taking pictures or selfies using Bluetooth technology.
And the new model has enough capacity for video games. Samsung has set up a promotion with the popular Fortnite game that lets users download a special mobile version.
According to some trade media sources, the Galaxy Note 9 version with 512 gigabytes will be the most expensive smartphone geared towards the general public.
The price for that model will be $1,1250 in the United States, while the 128 gigabyte version will go for $1,000. Apple’s iPhone X in a 256 gigabyte version sells for about $1,150.
Samsung also introduced the Galaxy Watch and a home speaker device, a first for the South Korean company in a market that already contains Amazon’s Echo and Alphabet’s Google Home program.
Edited by Neo Sesinye
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