The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is official, with 5.7-inch 1080p display
We’ve been talking about it for quite a while now, but as of this Wednesday the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, successor to the unique and polarizing Note line, is now official. It’s bigger (the display, that is, the rest of the phone is actually slightly thinner and lighter), better, and it isn’t totally made out of plastic anymore. It just might be the version that consumers have been waiting for.
As it turns out, the specifications that were rumored last month were almost entirely correct.The Galaxy Note 3 has a 5.7-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display, and yet is not any bigger than the Note 2. The device will be powered by a 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 or Samsung Octa Core processor depending on the market, all backed up with a full 3GB of RAM.
There is no 16GB storage option, only 32GB and 64GB versions, which may be needed to store full sized images from the 13MP rear camera. Along with the full suite of WiFi, Bluetooth, and sensors, the Galaxy Note 3 also includes NFC, although so far it doesn’t look like the device has wireless charging.
Of course, no Samsung device would be complete without Samsung’s suite of different software features (or gimmicks, depending on who you ask), which are added to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. In the video above, Samsung has detailed most of the hardware and software features, and shows some “live” uses for the features. The main event is the S Pen, which is new and improved with an Air Command menu that makes accessing the pen’s functions easier. Another new software feature is Scrapbook, which allows you to save portions of webpages by circling them with the S Pen.
Though they didn’t switch to metal construction, Samsung did change up the industrial design on this Note somewhat by adding faux leather to the back of the device instead of their distinctive plastic, which surprisingly doesn’t look bad. Most consumers will probably still want to try out the device in store before buying, but this certainly looks like an improvement.
The new and so far fairly impressive Galaxy Note 3 should be available in the US by the end of this year, and will be on all four major carriers and US Cellular. It looks like the price will start around $299 on contract, but that could vary slightly. While we can’t know for sure quite yet, this new Galaxy Note should be a big improvement over the previous version (who knows, I may actually like this new version),
[The Verge]
