About Samsung Galaxy Note 3

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is a high-end, Android phablet smartphone produced by Samsung Electronics. The Galaxy Note 3 was unveiled during a Samsung press conference at IFA Berlin on September 4, 2013, and will be released internationally in late-2013. Serving as a successor to the Galaxy Note II, the Note 3 was designed to have a lighter, more upscale design than previous iterations of the Galaxy series (with a plastic leather backing and faux metallic bezel), and to expand upon the stylus and multitasking-oriented functionality in its software - which includes a new navigation wheel for pen-enabled apps, along with pop-up apps and expanded multi-window functionality.

Hardware

The Note 3's design was intended to carry a more upscale, "premium" look in comparison to previous Samsung devices. Although it carries a similarly polycarbonate-oriented design to other recent Samsung devices, the Galaxy Note 3 has a faux metallic bezel and a rear cover made of plastic leather with faux stitching. With a thickness of 8.3 mm (0.33 in), it is slightly thinner than the Galaxy Note II, and is also slightly lighter as well. The LTE version of the Galaxy Note 3 is powered by a 2.3 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 chip with 3 GB of RAM, while the GSM version will use an Exynos 5 Octa. The device also includes a 5.7-inch 1080p Super AMOLED display, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of filming videos in 1080p at 60 fps and 4K resolution at 30 fps, 32 or 64 GB of internal storage, and a 3200 mAh battery. As with other Galaxy Note series devices, the Galaxy Note 3 ships with an S Pen stylus, which has been updated to use a more symmetrical shape.

Software

The Galaxy Note 3 will ship with Android 4.3 and Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz user interface and software. Additional pen-oriented features have been added to the Note 3's software; removing the stylus from its compartment (or pressing its button whilst hovering over the display) activates an Air Command menu which provides shortcuts to the pen-oriented features such as Action Memos (on-screen sticky notes that use handwriting recognition to detect their contents and provide relevant actions, such as looking up addresses on Google Maps and dialing phone numbers), Screen Write, Pen Window (which allows users to draw pop-up windows to run apps inside), the search tool S Finder, and Scrapbook. The multi-window functionality has also been updated with expanded app support, the ability to run multiple instances of a single app, and the ability to drag and drop content between apps. The device also ships with a news aggregator app known as My Magazine (accessible by swiping up from the bottom of the screen), and an updated version of S Note.

Release

Samsung first teased the unveiling of the Galaxy Note 3 with its announcement of a Samsung Unpacked event on September 4, 2013 at IFA Berlin, which contained the tagline "Note the date." The international Galaxy Note 3 will be released on September 25, 2013 in over 140 countries, while its U.S. and Japanese releases are scheduled for October 2013. All Galaxy Note 3's will also include a free one-year subscription to Evernote Premium.

Pre-release

After its unveiling, The Verge complimented the incremental improvements to the Galaxy Note 3's hardware and software, considering it to be the company's "best attempt yet at making touch input optional on a mobile device." Its overall design was considered to be "cohesive and well thought-out" despite its continuing use of plastic, and subtle changes such as a symmetrically-shaped stylus were also noted.