Samsung Galaxy Note 3: What we know so far

We are but hours away from the official unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 at the Samsung Unpacked 2 Event in Berlin. The third-gen Note is expected to be a blockbuster in terms of specs, and we know quite a bit about the Note 3 from rumours and speculation. Here’s a roundup of what we know so far about the Note 3.

Design
The leaked pictures from the last couple of months show a more rectangular design for the Note 3 and this time too Samsung has been inspired by the current Galaxy S4, but there’s some original Galaxy Note influence as well. The Note 3 will likely be larger than the previous generation, but Samsung may manage to not increase the size too much despite the bump in screen size. Though the Note 3 is expected to come with a re-designed body, one will still find Samsung’s ubiquitous three-button setup. It is likely to be designed with a metallic look around the edges, just like the Galaxy S4, but will likely have a plastic body.

This Note 3 concept looks right on the money (Image credit: uva7 dance)

5.7-inch display
While we’ve seen several reports claiming that the Note 3 will go larger than life with a 5.99-inch or 6.3-inch screen, recent leaks strongly suggest a 5.7-inch display. The Note 3 is likely to have a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, with a pixel density of 386 ppi. Samsung apparently dropped the idea of a bigger display due to the lukewarm market response for Galaxy Mega 5.8 and Mega 6.3 smartphones.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Exynos 5 Octa & Snapdragon 800
Samsung has been working on an improved version of the Exynos 5 Octa chip, which is speculated to power the Note 3. According to rumours, the Note 3 is likely to run on Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa chipset, which is basically an ARM Cortex-A15 chip with a more power-friendly Cortex-A7. This CPU is said to be a real beast with a dual quad-core configuration for better performance. It also features the PowerVR SGX 544MP3 GPU. Samsung calls it the ExynosEvolved processor and has made improvements to the big.LITTLE architecture of the Exynos 5 Octa chip, presumably to give a boost in performance as well as battery life. Needless to say, Samsung claims it to be a more powerful and enhanced version of the Exynos 5 Octa. There could be a second version of the Note 3 with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 SoC, with four cores clocked at 2.3GHz. This will be released in LTE markets.

An enhanced Exynos 5 Octa will most likely power the Note 3

Android 4.3
We may know a little bit about the next version of Android, but the Note 3 will get Android 4.3 Jelly Bean in all likelihood. That’s because Samsung has made it a point to launch phones with the latest version of Android as seen by the slew of Android 4.2 devices (Galaxy S4, Galaxy Mega etc) they launched earlier this year. 

3GB of RAM
If the horde of news reports are to be believed, then the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 could come powered by 3GB RAM. This would mean we can expect enhanced speeds for multi-tasking and also quick stylus usage. Lately rumours have also said there could be 2.5GB of RAM in the Note 3.

What will the camera on the Note 3 be like?

13MP camera
Samsung could use a 13MP rear camera on the Galaxy Note 3, similar to the one seen on its Galaxy S4. But the big rumour surrounds the camera’s supposed 4K video shooting capability. If true, the Note 3 will be one of the first phone cameras to offer this feature. It is also rumoured to come with a xenon flash. Tonight could also mark the debut of the S Orb feature. This camera feature lets users take pictures of everything around them and stitch them up into one big spherical panorama, just like Google’s Photosphere.

While this Samsung device has been hitting headlines frequently, there are still no rumours about its battery power, internal storage, external SD card storage or price. Undoubtedly, it is one of the most highly-anticipated devices of the year, and we’ll find out exactly what Samsung’s readied for us later tonight. Join us for the live coverage of the Samsung announcement from IFA.