It appears that Samsung Malaysia has quietly released the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo in Malaysia. The device, which was first rumoured some three months ago, was officially unveiled at MWC 2014 – though Samsung hardly made mention of it. Similarly, it has arrived in the local market sometime in the past week or two to little fanfare.
The Galaxy Note 3 Neo is a mid-range phablet that Samsung deems to be the little brother to the original Galaxy Note 3. It features a smaller 5.5-inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1280 x 720, and sports a smaller 8MP rear camera. LTE connectivity and microUSB 3.0 are also not present on the Galaxy Note 3 Neo. The S Pen, however, is still present.
On the other hand, the Note 3 Neo is powered by the new Samsung Exynos 5 5260 Hexa chipset, which as its name implies is a six-core processor. Applying the big.LITTLE architecture, the Exynos 5 5260 has two high-performance 1.7GHz Cortex-A15 cores paired with four 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 cores for optimum balance between power and battery life. There’s also 2GB of RAM, with 16GB of on-board storage and a microSD card slot that supports up to 64GB. Interestingly, the Note 3 Neo has a 3100mAh battery, which is only 100mAh less than its elder sibling.
The Galaxy Note 3 Neo is also compatible with all of Samsung’s wearables: the original Galaxy Gear, Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and the Gear Fit. Finally, the Galaxy Note 3 Neo also shares the same software additions that made the Galaxy Note 3 the best Android phablet around. And yes, the fake leather back makes an appearance here, too.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo is now available nationwide at a retail price of RM1699. Currently it is only available in two colours, White and Black. For more information, head on to Samsung Malaysia’s product page here.
