Samsung Galaxy Note 3 release date, features & price rumours

Posted on 2 May 2013 at 19:07, by Chris Finnamore

Our Samsung Galaxy Note 3 release date, features and prices rumours article will grow to accommodate even more speculation as the months roll on. So save this page and keep checking back for regular updates. Updated on the 2nd May 2013 with new CPU and screen information.

When the Samsung Galaxy Note phone and tablet hybrid - or 'phablet' as it's most commonly known - was launched, there was initially some scepticism as to who would want such a device. However, Samsung proved everyone wrong and the Note was a success. Its successor, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, received a warm welcome when it was unveiled at at the IFA show in August 2012.

While its flagship sibling, the Samsung Galaxy S3, continues to sell in droves, the Note 2 hasn’t performed too badly, either, shifting 2m units in November alone, proving demand for so-called phablet devices is growing. No wonder, then, that just months after its release, attention is turning to its suspected successor, the Galaxy Note 3. We round up all the latest news and rumours to find out what to expect.

SAMSUNG GALAXY MEGA

There were rumours that the Galaxy Note 3 would be called the Galaxy Mega, but these have now been debunked.

Instead of being the new Galaxy Note 3, the Galaxy Mega name will belong to two large smartphones with 5.8in and 6.3in screens, which will fill the gap between the Galaxy S4 and the stylus-equipped Galaxy Note 3.

According to rumours, the Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 will be available around the 27th May 2013, while the Galaxy Mega 6.3 will be available earlier than expected - around 17th June 2013.

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3 RELEASE DATE

Samsung is currently working on a developing a line of flexible OLED displays for its 2013 smartphone range, which could hit shelves in the next few months, according to The Sun.

The paper claims Samsung is looking to reduce investment in its liquid crystal display (LCD) division to focus on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and plastic-based flexible displays, which can be bent and twisted, which are rumoured to be unveiled in early 2013.

This means we could expect to see the Note 3 emerge before the Note 2 reaches its first birthday, although official release date rumours have been thin on the ground so far.

There are also rumours that the Note 3 will be unveiled at this year's IFA show in Berlin in September - this would make sense, seeing as the Note 2 was unveiled at last year's show.

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3 SCREEN

While most manufacturers are focussing on making their devices smaller and slimmer, Samsung is reportedly going in a different direction with the next-generation Note.

Some sources claim it could have an even bigger 6.3in screen. If true, this could take it up to near-tablet status, as several leading technology companies already have 7-inch tablets available, including Google (Nexus 7) and Apple (iPad Mini). The oversized screen will apparently also have a 1080p (1,920x1,080) resolution, the Korea Times reports.

However, another source speaking to the same paper claimed that the Note 3 will instead have a smaller 5.9in screen, which puts it firmly in phablet rather than tablet territory. However, this is still significantly larger than the 5.5in display on the Galaxy Note 2.

Yet, more recent information from SamMobile points to the Galaxy Note 3 have a 5.99in screen with a Full HD (1,920x1,080) resolution. According to the report, the Note 3 will have a thinner bezel, so it will be the same size the Galaxy Mega 5.8, only with a larger screen.

That kind of makes sense, as the Galaxy S4 in the same size as the Galaxy S3, but the thinner bezel means that there's room for a larger screen. We'd also agree that the Full HD resolution has to be correct, as Samsung will want the best for its high-end phablet.

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3 CHASSIS

Some people were unsure about the Galaxy S4's plastic chassis which, while lightweight and tough, doesn't look or feel quite as classy as the toughened glass of phones such as the Sony Xperia Z or the metal body of the HTC One.

This is apparently giving Samsung cause for concern, so according to news site SamMobile, the Note 3 could break with tradition and ship with a metal rather than polycarbonate chassis.

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3 S ORB

The Note 3 is rumoured to be the first Samsung phone to have the S Orb panoramic photo feature. This is Samsung's version of Google's new Photo Sphere feature, which lets you take multiple photos in a 360-degree arc around you, and stitch the results up into a Google Street View-style collage to upload to Google+.

The key difference between S Orb and Photo Sphere is that Samsung's version will integrate with Facebook - a far more popular social network than Google+.

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3 PROCESSOR

Samsung has unveiled its octa-core Exynos 5 chip, with eight processor cores. Designed as a replacement for the Eyxnos 4 quad-core chip powering the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2 devices, and an upgrade to the Exynos 5 Dual found in the Samsung-manufactured but Google-branded Nexus 10 tablet, the Exynos 5 Octa promises significant gains in performance and power usage.

The Exynos 5 Octa combines a quad-core next-generation 28nm 1.8GHz ARM Cortex-A15 processor - an upgrade to the 1.6GHz Cortex-A9 chip found in the Galaxy S3 and the 1.7GHz dual-core Cortex-A15 chip in the Nexus 10 - with a secondary quad-core Cortex-A9 processor running at 1.2GHz.

The idea, Samsung explains, is that when the phone or tablet is doing lightweight work such as playing music, making a phone call or browsing the internet, the more powerful Cortex-A15 cores can be completely disabled and the Cortex-A9 cores used instead. The result, Samsung claims, is an improvement in power efficiency of around 70 per cent compared to the Exynos 4 Quad in the Galaxy S3.

The most recent information suggests that the octa-core Exynos 5 processor will be in the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. However, that doesn't mean that it will be available world-wide. While the Exynos 5 CPU was launched with the Galaxy S4, the UK instead got a standard quad-core processor instead. The reasons for this aren't exactly clear, but it may be that Samsung follows a similar pattern with the Galaxy Note 3, rolling out the octa-core version in some countries, while others will get a fast quad-core chip instead.

PRICE

When the Note 2 launched last year, it cemented itself as a device for technophiles, with its £550 price.

We would usually expect the next iteration to cost around the same amount (and the Note 2 getting a price drop after the Note 3 lands). A larger screen could mean that the new phone ends up being more expensive, which could push the price up beyond £600, though.