Revealed: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo to have hexa-core processor

It appears as if one of Samsung’s major announcements for 2014 has already been leaked, and we’re not talking about some blurry spy shot. No sir, we have the complete specifications and live comparison photos of the Galaxy Note 3 Neo. This upcoming smartphone is all set for a big Mobile World Congress (MWC) unveiling and thanks to GSMArena and SamMobile, we don’t have to wait with bated breath any longer.

Let’s get all the juicy bits out of the way first. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo will be the first smartphone in the industry to feature a hexa-core processor. What inevitably looks like a replacement to the aging Note 2, the Note 3 Neo will be powered by a Samsung Exynos 5260 SoC , which is yet to be announced. Similar to the Exynos 5 Octa, the 5260 will feature a quad-core chipset which consists of four ARM Cortex-A7 CPUs running at 1.3GHz.  The other two CPU cores aren’t detailed but we do know they will run at a speed of 1.7GHz. In all likelihood, these two CPU cores will be based on the ARM Cortex-A15 architecture. However, the most interesting bit of news is that this will be Samsung’s first SoC to feature  Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) capabilities, which allows all six cores to be active at the same time, thereby simulating a true hexa-core architecture. In a leaked AnTuTu benchmark, the Galaxy Neo appears to be a tad faster than the Galaxy S4 and only slightly behind the Note 3, where it scored 29,382 points. [caption id=“attachment_208350” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] CPU-Z capture shows all six cores as active[/caption]   ARM had specified this feature in one of their slides back in 2011, that the big.LITTLE architecture is scalable so as to allow all eight CPU cores to work in tandem. Samsung never actually implemented this in the Galaxy S4, Note 3 and other devices with the fear of severely impacting battery life. It seems that they’ve managed to get around that hurdle though as a leaked CPU-Z screenshot confirms all 6 cores being active at the same time. Again, we don’t know for sure whether or not this will be available in the retail models as Samsung is no stranger when it comes to ‘tweaking’ their hardware for certain apps.

The Galaxy Note 3 Neo looks identical to the Note 3 and features the same faux-leather back and chrome serrations on the side. The phone will also come with the new S Pen, along with the same level of pressure sensitivity and software features like Air Command, Action Memo, Scrapbook, etc. The phone currently being tested runs on Jelly Bean 4.3 but trust Samsung to release it with the latest possible version of KitKat, come launch day. Being a ‘lite’ version of the Note 3, the Galaxy Neo will sport a smaller 5.5-inch display with 720p resolution and an 8MP camera – very similar to the Galaxy Note 2. Here’s a list of some of the key specification of the Galaxy Neo that we know of:   -5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display (1280 x 720) -2GB RAM -Android 4.3 (should be upgraded to 4.4 upon release) -Exynos 5260 Hexa-core CPU (1.3GHz quad + 1.7GHz dual) -16GB onboard + microSD up to 64GB -Wi-Fi ‘ac’, Bluetooth v4.0, GPS, GLONASS, IR blaster -S Pen -3100mAh battery   The Samsung Galaxy Neo will come in LTE and HSPA+ variants depending on the region. The phone looks about ready as it will ever be for mass production and we sense an imminent announcement from Samsung, either at MWC 2014 or one of their Unpacked events. Given the features and positioning, the Galaxy Neo has all makings of another big hit for Samsung if they price it at what the Galaxy Note II is retailing at today.