Samsung Unveils The Galaxy Note 3
Yesterday’s Samsung Unpacked Episode 2 event took place in Berlin and as expected the South Korean company unveiled the latest phablet in the Galaxy Note series. The Samsung Galaxy Note reached its third iteration and just as the first Galaxy Note, the third generation continues in the same line, being a big display device.
The third generation Galaxy Note has very slim bezels and a design featuring sharper angles on its rounded edges, being quite different from a design point of view from the usual Samsung Galaxy style. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is also thinner and lighter (at 168 grams) than the Galaxy Note 2 and it manages to be thinner and lighter despite including a larger display, of 5.7 inches. The battery life was also improved from the previous Galaxy Note model, as was the S Pen bundled with the Galaxy Note 3. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 also supports faster and more seamless LTE, with support for multi band.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3′s 13 MP camera sensor is capable of video recording at 1080p and 4K resolutions, has a new CRI LED flash that will drastically improve the quality of pictures take in low light environments. Regarding video playback power drainage, Samsung claims the Galaxy Note 3′s battery life is improved with over four more hours when watching videos. The South Korean company also claims that performance during normal use should also extend battery life with about 40 percent over the Samsung Galaxy Note 2.
To everybody’s surprise, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will feature a faux stitched leather rear cover that is available in black, white and (surprisingly) pink versions; the faux leather back gives it a stylish look probably intended as a way to address criticism for the use of plastic. It also has a faux metallic bezel and there is also a flip wallet accessory that comes in ten colors.
The new and improved S Pen has been designed especially for the Galaxy Note 3′s larger display. According to Samsung, the S Pen is the key to unlocking the phablet’s power and features and the way it does this is via many new interface controls. There is the Air Command feature; when the feature can be activated you will see a dot on the phablet’s display. Air Command offers quick access to action memo (allows you to link memos to actions), scrapbook, screenwriting, and a finder search function. There is also the ‘circle’ – with a circle drawing gesture, you can capture content that you want to save in you scrapbook. There is also Box, a feature that basically lets you multitask; you can do two things at the same time via a picture in picture interface.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 comes with Knox, the company’s security feature that will help improve enterprise and consumer security with partitioned software and business use for BYOD users. Speaking of software, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 also comes with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out of the box and it also works with newly announced smartwacth, the Samsung Galaxy Gear. Samsung will release the third generation Galaxy Note this month, on the 25th, in 149 countries across the world.
It is thought that Samsung’s share of the smartphone market peaked and won’t be growing any more. These fears determined the South Korean company to host a meeting with investors and analysts in which to discuss the problem; the timing is great to host the meeting considering the Galaxy Note series is alone responsible for many sales (though, obviously, not as many as the flagship Galaxy S series). Samsung has high hopes for the third generation Galaxy Note, hoping that it would pass 20 million units shipped, the same estimate the South Korean company had for the previous model.
Here is the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 list of specs:
- dimensions: 151.2 mm x 79.2 mm x 8.3 mm
- a 5.7 inch SuperAMOLED display capable of a full hd (1080p) resolution, with pixels per inch density of 368
- a 2.3 GHz Snapdragon 800 CPU, or a 1.9 GHz Samsung Exynos Octacore depending on market
- Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
- 13 MP rear camera and 2 MP front camera
- 3GB of RAM
- 32 GB and 64 GB storage options
- MicroSDXC card storage expansion
- Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11ac, LTE Category 4
- a 3,200 mAh battery
- LED/IR combo
Other than the shipping date, September 25th, Samsung did not offer any other information on availability; well the company did release official press materials that mention the Galaxy Note 3 will be available on all major U.S. carriers, but that was to be expected.
