3 weeks ago we were at the international launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 at IFA in Berlin where our esteemed editor Adam got to play with the device that he has been coveting for the last few months. Today Samsung announced the local release details for latest model in the Note family of phablets (which is now a real word).
In case you didn’t see the specs the first time around, the Galaxy Note 3 is the first phone in the Galaxy range to offer a mammoth 3GB of RAM along with the industry leading Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC (in the LTE version) and Samsung’s Exynos Octa in the regular garden variety version of the device. Being a Note device it of course has a massive 5.7 inch 1080p display that dwarfs the flagship of the Samsung smartphone range the Galaxy S4 and it comes with Samsung’s now famous S Pen stylus. The increases in display size and specs have not beefed up the bulk of the Note 3 with it coming in over a millimeter thinner and 15 grams lighter than the model it replaces having pulled the same trick as the S4 did in reducing the bezel size of the chassis to accommodate the bigger screen without a bigger footprint.
The S Pen and accompanying software have also been redesigned with a new Air Command wheel that can be accessed anywhere by pushing the S Pen’s button and hovering it above the screen. Air Command gives you easy access to features like Action Memo which will, for example, prompt you to enter a new contact when you write a name and a phone number or will launch your navigation app if you scribble a location down.
The multi-window feature has been updated to allow for 2 instances of the same application to run at the same time. This means that the Note 3 can run 2 Twitter instance, for instance, at the same time.
The Galaxy Note 3 is also the first phone to use a miniUSB 3.0 connector at the bottom of the device for charging which should give it the ability to juice up the gigantic 3200mAh in record time.
The Galaxy Note 3 will be available in South Africa from tomorrow at a recommended price of R8 999.
The Galaxy Gear smartwatch is also coming to South Africa for R4 599 and will arrive in October. Both a standalone option and an option that bundles the device together with the Note 3 from some of the carriers will be made available in time.
A variation on the ADH (Accidental Damage Handling) warranty that we saw with the Galaxy S4 will be offered with the Note 3 and we’re going to find out the additional benefits of the new plan at the public event a bit later on.
The LTE version will be available at the exact same time as the 3G version (not like the fiasco we saw with the i9505 model of the S4) and it will be slightly more expensive (although we have no details from Samsung on the exact pricing difference)
The software update that allows for the Galaxy Gear to work with the other devices in the Galaxy family (not every device mind you) is expected to roll out sometime in November or December.
Developing story, check back later for more…
