Here's probably why India got a dual-core Samsung Galaxy Grand

Samsung recently launched its mid-level smartphone, the Galaxy Grand, in the Indian market. Now, news has it that the mobile giant has launched the same phone on its home turf, but with a more powerful processor. The Grand will hit Indian stores with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor while Korean users can lay their hands on a 1.4GHz quad-core processor. Moreover, Samsung is marketing the Grand as a budget handset in Korea with a price tag that reads 350,000 KRW, which translates to approximately Rs. 17,524. Eyebrows are being raised over Samsung selling a quad-core phone in Korea for a lower price while it sells the same phone with lesser hardware for a higher price in India.The Galaxy Grand is priced at Rs. 21,500 in the Indian market.

The dual-core Samsung Galaxy Grand unveiled in India

A quad-core processor would have meant a rise in production cost, which would automatically place the device in the high-end league in terms of the price and to a certain extent the specs.

So how is it possible that Samsung is selling a better version of the same device at a lower price in Korea? Well, for one Samsung isn’t importing the phone into Korea. On the contrary, introducing devices in the Indian market involves custom duties and other applicable taxes. Most of the features of the Grand like 5-inch display and others remain same as the Galaxy Grand in India. The only differentiation is the LTE and NFC feature for the Korean version, besides the quad-core chip. In India, we don’t have LTE coverage yet and wouldn’t need this feature anyway. However, Samsung could have included NFC for Indian audiences.

Samsung has played its cards quite well. It launched the Galaxy Grand with dual-SIM capability for the price-sensitive Indian market and the same phone with LTE and quad-core for the uber-connected Korean market. The Broadcom chipset used in the Indian version doesn't support LTE (and also helps lower the cost). Now, we can't whine about LTE as there is no support for LTE in India. On the other hand, it is certainly a must-have for Korea. LTE is a burgeoning market in Korea and is fast turning into a technical standard. Currently, one out of five people use LTE phones and networks. Just by adding a quad-core chip in the Indian version, it wouldn't greatly benefit the Indian experience, but instead would have simply increased the cost of the smartphone.

We've given the Samsung Galaxy Grand 8 out 10 in our review. Read the review here.