Samsung

Samsung has produced more than 4,000 special edition Galaxy Note 8s to hand out to Olympics participants.

The device comes with a white rear, white S-Pen, gold accents, and a custom software theme.

Samsung hasn’t discussed whether it will sell the device to general consumers.

The 2018 Winter Olympics is almost upon us (it starts February 9) and this year’s event is taking place in PyeongChang, South Korea. To celebrate the games, which take place on its home soil, Samsung has produced a new Galaxy Note 8 variant that it will distribute to competitors and staff.

The Galaxy Note 8 Winter Olympics edition is the first Note 8 to arrive with a white rear—reflective of the winter setting—while it also features gold accents and a custom Olympics theme. There’s a white S-Pen included too, but I think Samsung missed a trick by not styling it into a mini ski or something…

More than 4,000 of these special edition devices will be produced for occasion, while Paralympic atheletes will get their own version with the Paralympics logo.

This could be great business for Samsung—a chance to get its product photographed and videoed in the hands of sports stars for what I expect would be a comparatively small cost (the design/manufacturing/distribution fees for the limited Note 8s likley don’t come close to those of creating prime-time TV ads with top atheletes).

This isn’t the first time Samsung has been involved in the Olympics, either; the company is a long-time partner of the games and produced an Olympic edition version of Galaxy S7 Edge for the 2016 competition in Rio de Janeiro. That device actually went on sale to the pubic, at around $100 more than the regular version, but it’s unclear right now if Samsung intends to sell the special edition Note 8 to general consumers.

What are your thoughts on the Winter Olympics Note 8? Let us know in the comments.