Samsung announced the longly awaited Note 3 phablet during their unpacked event on 4th September here in Berlin at the ongoing IFA 2013 conference. The successor to the hugely popular model, Note 2, is pretty similar to the specs and features of Galaxy S4, which was announced in March this year.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 packs a 5.7-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display which looks stunning just like its sibling, Galaxy S4. It comes with a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor from Qualcomm (or 1.9GHz Exynos 5 Octa for non-LTE markets) and 3GB of RAM. Other important specs include a 13MP camera on the rear, 16GB/32GB of internal memory and 3200mAh battery. In addition, it comes with all those software features like Air Command, Pen Window, S Finder, S Note and others which we have got used to see in the Galaxy Note phones.
In our hands on with the new Galaxy Note 3, we were particularly impressed with what Samsung has done with new leather-feel for the back panel. The back shell is still removable and houses the mammoth 3200mAh battery along with the slots for microSIM and microSD cards. As much as we loved the look and feel of the faux-leather back, we couldn’t help but wonder how durable it’d be, specially with the threading which runs through the edges.
While the design looks exactly like every other Galaxy phones these days, the Super AMOLED screen looks absolutely stunning on that big 5.7″ display. The colors are bright and vibrant, while the text rendering is crisp and clear. The camera is pretty similar to what we see in Galaxy S4, but Samsung has taken it a notch further with support for Full HD video recording at 60fps and it’s also capable of recording 4K (Ultra HD) video at 30fps.
Samsung is really turning up the gas with their new flagships. It’s particularly impressive how fast their go-to-market for launches are. Galaxy Note 3 is available for pre-order on AT&T for $299 with 2-year contract, and in Amazon UK for £600 without contract. Indian launch is expected to be around September 25th.
