Yesterday, Samsung held part two of their 2013 Unpacked event in Berlin Germany and My Take Radio was able to attend the simulcast in Times Square at the Renaissance Hotel. We knew that Samsung was going to unveil the Note III and the new peripheral now known as the Galaxy Gear, but what we ultimately saw was unexpected. Samsung’s new offering looks to both simplify and revolutionize the cellular market. If all goes well, the future truly is now.
The Galaxy Note III was not just a Note II with a few improvements, it wound up being a complete overhaul of the company’s cel phone/tablet hybrid. First and foremost, the III delivers a larger screen at 5.7” with a better resolution (1920 x 1080) than its predecessor, yet the form factor (5.95”L x 3.12”W x .33”H) is smaller than that of the Note II. The Note III is also lighter than the II (5.93 vs. 6.34oz.) and has a longer battery life with a 3200mAh Li-ion battery. The internal memory is better, giving users up to 64GB of storage built-in along with a micro SD slot allowing up to 64GB of additional memory and 3GB of RAM vs. the 2GB in the Note II. These are just a few of the technical upgrades of the Galaxy Note III. The big deal was the new S-Pen and the “dot/circle/box” interface. The S-Pen has become more interactive with its host and now three gestures allow you to bring up a productivity menu (dot), save web pages for future viewing and by that I mean the actual page, not the link (circle) and launch apps within apps (box) On that last item, I am not talking about the multi-window (which has also been improved). The box function allows you to draw a box on an open app and then open another app within said box , giving functionality to both. The multi-window has received what I like to call the “Championship Edition” upgrade (my gamer fans get it), where you can now open two instances of the same app. All of these features and more will debut with the Note III, as it will be the first phone that comes pre-loaded with Jelly Bean 4.3. There are honestly pages of specs and details on the Galaxy Note III, and I have not even touched on it’s partner device, the Galaxy Gear. A lot of what it has to offer is difficult to explain with just words, so here is a short video from Samsung that really helps illustrate what to look forward to on September 25th:
Yes, I am excited. This phone officially replaces Grand Theft Auto V as my pick of the month. I am not going to throw around terms like “iPhone killer,” but I am extremely curious to see what Apple has to offer next week.
