Samsung Galaxy Note 9 launched, Noida unit to make for India
New York, Aug 9 : Sounding the bugle for its annual warfare with Apple right on its home turf, Samsung on Thursday launched its flagship Galaxy Note 9 -- a device with a mammoth 1TB memory, bigger battery and a Bluetooth-equipped S Pen.
The smartphone will be available globally from August 24 and for the India market, it will be manufactured at Samsung's largest mobile manufacturing plant in Noida that was recently inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The 6.4-inch Note 9 comes in four colours and two variants -- 6GB RAM and 128GB in-built internal memory (expandable up to 512GB) and 8GB RAM with 512GB ROM that can be expanded up to 1TB with an additional 512GB microSD card -- a delight for the gamers and heavy-duty users.
"The Note has always been our showcase for premium technology and industry defining innovations. It is designed for a level of performance power and intelligence that today's power users need," D.J. Koh, President and CEO of IT & Mobile Samsung Electronics, said at the jam-packed Brooklyn's Barclays Center in New York City.
Both variants of the phablet will arrive in India by the end of this month and the price and exact availability date will be announced on August 10. However, not all the four colour models may initially make their way to India.
"The pricing will play a bigger role in deciding whether Samsung wants to fight the Chinese players or continue its focus on the premium customers in India," Satish Meena, Senior Forecast Analyst at Forrester Research, told IANS over phone.
The device that runs OS Android 8.1 (Oreo) will have the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 system-on-chip (SoC) for the US customers and the models powered by Samsung's very own "Exynos 9 Series 9810" chips will head to the rest of the world, including India.
The device will sport dual camera system (12MP+12MP) with dual optical image stabilisation (OIS) at the rear -- with 2 times more powerful optical zoom and up to 10 times powerful digital zoom -- and an 8MP front shooter.
Note 9 with Quad HD+ Super AMOLED display houses 4000mAh battery -- 21 per cent bigger that Note 8 -- that is paired with fast-charging technology compatible with both wired and wireless charging.
When it comes to Stylus Pen (the company calls it S Pen), there is much more to experience this time.
"S Pen now has remote control functionality along with Bluetooth connectivity and extremely fast charging," the company executive explained.
"S Pen can control anything, from YouTube or photo gallery to operating the phone camera. It can guide entire presentations at office meetings. We have opened software development kit (SDK) for S Pen and will soon have more applications and features," he added.
The fingerprint scanner is comfortably located just below the rear camera system.
Note 9 also comes with dust and waterproof IP68 rating (including S Pen) and houses "Samsung Knox" enterprise mobile security solution pre-installed for enhanced security.
The flagship smartphone has also retained the iconic 3.5-mm headphone jack.
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Hormuz Blockade: Why Your World Stalls
Three weeks ago, the third Gulf War started. And since that day, ordinary life for millions of people around the world — including us — has quietly started getting more expensive and more difficult. Let us understand why.
Everything begins with a tiny 54-kilometre-wide waterway called the Strait of Hormuz, near Iran. Think of it like a narrow gate between two rooms. Almost all the oil, gas, and goods from the Gulf countries pass through this one gate to reach the rest of the world. Now that gate is blocked. And the world is beginning to choke.
The Fuel Problem
On 16th March, the price of crude oil crossed $106 per barrel — the highest since Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022. Even Donald Trump released America's emergency oil reserves — the largest ever release — but traders are still not convinced the strait will reopen soon. About 10 to 15 percent of the world's oil supply is stuck.
Asian countries like India, China, Japan and Thailand are already cutting oil refinery production by 5 to 15 percent because the Gulf crude they are designed to process is simply not coming. The little oil that does arrive is the wrong type for their machines. Less production means less petrol, less diesel, less jet fuel — and higher prices at the pump for everyone.
Here is a scary number — if the blockade continues, countries in Africa may run out of jet fuel in just 23 days, Oceania in 36 days, and most of Asia in about 12 days. Some poorer nations have already started closing schools and cutting working days just to save fuel.
The Factory Problem
The Gulf is not just about oil. It supplies 24 percent of the world's aluminium — used in everything from milk packets to electric wires. The price of aluminium has jumped by ₹25,000 per tonne in just weeks. The Gulf also supplies nearly half the world's urea (fertiliser), a large portion of the plastics used in packaging, and critical chemicals used in making medicines — including the raw materials for aspirin and antibiotics.
India, being the world's largest maker of generic medicines, is directly affected. If these chemical raw materials stop arriving, medicine production slows down. Plastic companies in Asia have already declared "force majeure" — a legal term meaning "sorry, we simply cannot fulfil our contracts because the situation is beyond our control."
And then there is helium. Most people think helium is just for balloons. But it is actually used to cool the powerful magnets inside machines that make semiconductor chips — the tiny chips inside every phone, laptop, and car. Qatar used to supply one-third of the world's helium. That supply has now stopped. There is no easy backup.
The Food Problem
This is perhaps the most serious part. One-third of the world's fertiliser trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Countries like Kenya, Pakistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Tanzania get more than one-fourth of their fertiliser from the Gulf. Sudan gets more than half.
The price of urea has already jumped 35 percent since the war began. Sulphur, another crop nutrient, has risen 40 percent. The head of Yara, one of the world's biggest fertiliser companies, has warned this could be "catastrophic" for global food supply. In America, the agriculture minister has called it a "national security issue."
For farmers, the choice is brutal — pay double for fertiliser, use less and grow less, or wait and miss the planting season entirely. If fertiliser arrives late, it cannot help the 2026 harvest. Food that is not grown this season cannot be grown back next month.
What This Means For Us
We may not live near the Gulf. We may never have heard of the Strait of Hormuz before. But we will feel this — in rising petrol prices, costlier groceries, expensive medicines, and delayed goods. Even if the strait reopens tomorrow, experts say things will not return to normal quickly. Damaged refineries, broken factories, and cautious shipping companies will take months to restart.
This crisis is also a loud warning for every country — including India — to seriously rethink how deeply we depend on one single region for so many essential goods. True security means building alternative suppliers, stronger reserves, and smarter trade routes before the next crisis hits.
One small passage. One war. And slowly, the whole world is beginning to feel the heat.
(Girish Linganna is an award-winning science communicator and a Defence, Aerospace & Geopolitical Analyst. He is the Managing Director of ADD Engineering Components India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany.)
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or position of the publication, its editors, or its management. The publication is not responsible for the accuracy of any information, statements, or opinions presented in this piece.
