Gadgetory

hi guys this is Brian Bennett for cnet and right now we're taking a first look at Samsung's latest beast of a phone tablet hybrid that's right my friends I'm holding in my hands the galaxy note 3 shipping now and hitting US carriers in force in October 2013 the note 3 costs to 9999 on verizon and AT&T t-mobile sells a device for a lower one 9999 up front but you're on the hook for 24 monthly payments of $21 sprint and US Cellular have also said they expect to scoop up the note 3 soon now I know that three hundred dollars is a heck of a lot of dough to cough up for a smartphone on contract the galaxy note 3 though has a ton of awesome features a fresh design plus cutting-edge software and components and oh yes the mighty s-pen which samsung is so proud of measuring 6 inches long by 3.1 inches wide and just a third of an inch thick the note 3 is only a hair taller and wider than its predecessor it's a smidge lighter to 5.9 ounces compared to the note 2's 6.4 ounces it's an impressive engineering feat considering the note 3 packs a bigger screen than its predecessor and my what a screen it is spanning a massive 5.7 inches across the note 3's AMOLED display is not only big it has an extremely sharp full HD 1080p resolution which samsung says provides an ultrafine 385 PPI the high contrast display produces well saturated colors as well with deep blacks and boasts wide viewing angles samsung has gussied up the note 3's design to the edges are molded info metallic silver complete with distinctive ridgelines another controversial design choice is the back plate which flaunts a fake leather motif it's pseudo organic patterned surface has an almost leatherette quality to it there's even mock stitching running around it the upside is it resists fingerprints and is easy for your fingers to grip the downside is since it's made from thin plastic it lacks the premium feel of real metal or expensive polycarbonate personally I like the notes new look and it ryans me of classic Samsonite briefcases from the night 1860s very cool indeed the note 3 runs Android 4.3 jelly bean powered by a blazing two point three gigahertz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor backing this up is not two but three gigabytes of RAM along with 32 gigabytes of internal storage better still is the phones huge 3200 milliamp battery which samsung claims will power the device for 15 hours straight it's removable too so you can swap in a fresh battery if you have one handy to add more memory the note 3 has an SD card slot but you'll have to remove the battery to get at it above the screen is a 2-megapixel front-facing camera below is a physical home button and two capacitive android keys buttons for power and volume sit on the right and the left side while there's a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack up top around back is a notes 13 megapixel camera with LED flash the note 3's camera app comes with the huge bucket of shooting modes you'll find on the galaxy s4 they range from the very useful such as HDR burst panorama to the strange like beauty face golf and eraser which removes people and moving objects in the background on the bottom lip is what really sets the note 3 apart from other smartphones its S Pen Stylus Samsung made the tool more compact and has given the note 3 slick new abilities when you pull the S Pen out of its sheath a little fan shaped graphic called the Air Command appears you can also activate it by holding the pen close to the screen and pressing its button Air Command has five main options action memo scrapbooker screen write s finder and pen window just tap a selection to launch the feature action memo lets you create a handwritten note then email it save it to your contacts use it in a text or look it up on a map you can also convert notes into to-do lists and even port them over to Evernote for safekeeping scrapbooker lassos images and content you see whether that be from a website photos or youtube videos to save in a virtual scrapbook the s finder function will search the phone for keywords including your handwritten notes and present a list of documents with relevant information hitting pen window allows you to draw box on the screen then select an application that will fill that space so for instance you can have your email or web browser open then pull up a little window for the calculator phone or contacts which will float above everything even Wilder is the advanced multi window that allows you to open multiple application windows at once then even drag and drop content between them Samsung has also taken a cue from HTC and it's blinkfeed news aggregator which first appeared in the HTC One swiping upwards from the home screen on the note 3 launches the my magazine news viewer using technology from the popular flipboard app my magazine serves up articles and news stories from a variety of websites I'm Brian Bennett for cnet and this has been a first look at the samsung galaxy note 3 be sure to check out our full review