Price of the new Samsung Galaxy Note 3: $699

Major carriers in the US require you to cough up between $199 to $299 depending on the contract y are signed for.

But what we are more interested here is the retail price without contract as many of us may just want the phone set and hunt for the best plan or package out there ourselves.

Want to squeeze Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 into your pockets? That'd be....

According to Engadget, the Note 3 is peg at $699 without contract, although no official announcement from Samsung yet. This was reportedly seen on Verizon's website.

That would be an equivalent of RM2,399 in Malaysia but there's no surprise here as the Note 2 was priced around the same figure previously.

This sounds ridiculous but remember this is Samsung's flagship phablet and people are expected to pay ridiculous price.

Source: Engadget

Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone driving 55% increase in mobile phoneDisplay Revenues in 2013

Just to keep us abreast of the latest development in the display technology - used in smartphones, laptops, desktps, TVs, etc.

Source: NPD DisplaySearch

Mobile phone display market is split into two:

• AMOLED and LTPS TFT LCDs - high-end smartphone models,
• a-Si TFT LCD  - low-priced, high-volume smartphone models.

Not surprisingly, in the mobile phone sector, Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone lead the way in terms of deployment of displays/screens. The huge increase in revenue means more people are getting themselves smartphones. 

Meaning, family members 'talking' to their mobile devices more than talking to each other while at dining table would become a common sight.


Demand for larger, High-resolution smartphones increased

Increased demand for higher resolution, larger touch-enabled smartphones is leading to strong revenue growth in the mobile phone display market in 2013.

According to the Quarterly Mobile Phone Display Shipment and Forecast Report by NPD DisplaySearch, overall mobile phone display revenues are expected to reach $33.3 billion by the end of this year, which is a 55% increase over 2012.

This revenue growth is being driven by rising smartphone display average selling prices (ASPs). Shipments of mobile phone displays are expected to grow 15% in 2013, reaching 1.9 billion units.

Samsung with its Galaxy S4 series and Apple with its iPhone 5 series, continue to increase production volume and market share. The growth in sales for these popular smartphone brands has led to increased requirements for high-end flat panel displays, including AMOLED used in the Galaxy S4 and LTPS TFT LCD used in the iPhone 5.

The increase in OLED mobile phone display revenue can be primarily attributed to the growth in the size and resolution of AMOLED displays, as Samsung moves from Galaxy S3 models (4.8” 1280 × 720) to Galaxy S4 (5.0” 1920 × 1080, with on-cell touch).

Similarly, LTPS TFT LCD revenue growth can be attributed to the shift from the iPhone 4S (3.5” 960 × 640) to the iPhone 5 (4.0” 1164 × 640, with in-cell touch).

AMOLED is expected to take the lead in mobile phone display revenues in 2013, accounting for a 37% share, closely followed by LTPS TFT LCD with 36.1% and a-Si TFT LCD with 26.5%.

Source:  NPD Displaysearch

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 officially announced in Berlin

Apple is expected to announce the latest iPhone next week, but just before that, Samsung sneaked in to announce two new devices on Wednesday - the Galaxy Note 3, the latest iteration of the Note family and the Galaxy Gear, a smart watch.

The latest entry to Samsung's popular phablet line is equipped with a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display and its signature S Pen stylus, and is scheduled to launch later this month. September is poised to be a shopping month for the latest gadget!

The Galaxy Note 3 is equipped with a useful S Pen

Physical difference from the older Note 2

The Note 3 sports a 5.7-inch, full high-definition screen, a slight bigger than the Note 2's 5.5-inch display. But despite the bigger screen, the Note 3 is thinner and lighter, measuring 8.3mm and weighing just 168g.

The screen sizes have been creeping up slightly since the introduction of the first Note:

Galaxy Note 1 : 5.3 inches
Galaxy Note 2 : 5.5 inches
Galaxy Note 3 : 5.7 inches

Don't be surprised if the future Note's screen size overtake the Galaxy Mega's current 6.3 inches.

Thinner and lighter. With screen size bigger than Note 2's, the Note 3 is still lighter by a few grams

Specification of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Chipset	:	Quad Core Processor
CPU Speed	:	2.3 GHz (LTE) and 1.9 GHz octa-core (3G)
Memory	:	32 GB or 64 GB and 3GB RAM
Connectivity	:	3G, 4G LTE
Other wireless	:	Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Operating System	:	Android Jelly Bean 4.3
Display Technology	:	Super AMOLED
Display Size	:	5.7 inches
Resolution	:	1920 x 1080 pixels, 386.5ppi
Camera Resolution(Rear)	:	13 M
Camera Resolution(Front)	:	2.1 MP
Flash	:	LED flash
Dimension (HxWxD)	:	6 x 3.1 x 0.33 (inch), thickness 8.3mm
Weight	:	168 g
External Memory Slot	:	MicroSD up to 64 GB
Capacity	:	3,200 mAh
Video Resolution	:	4K or Ultra HD

As phones get bigger and tablets get more ubiquitous, it's good to see that the Galaxy Note 3 does something different that actually justifies the increased size. It multitasks!

I don't fancy big phablet as I tend to go for bigger tablet and smaller smartphone for the obvious reason, but this will be an interesting preposition for the big-phone lovers.