Larger Phablet From Samsung Tipped

Samsung prepping huge 6.3-inch OLED screen for its next Galaxy Note smartphone, pushing boundaries of phablets even further.



Samsung's Android Super Smartphone: Galaxy SIII (click image for larger view and for slideshow)

If you thought the Samsung Galaxy Note II was a big phone, wait until you see the Galaxy Note III. Samsung's component suppliers say next year's Note will boast a massive 6.3-inch screen. This begs the question, where does the boundary between phone and tablet really sit?

The Note II, which is available from most major carriers in the U.S., has a 5.5-inch screen. The Super AMOLED display is 1280 pixels by 720 pixels. It's one of the best displays available on a smartphone today. The original Note's screen measures 5.3 inches diagonally, but had a different aspect ratio and a different pixel count with 1280 pixels by 800 pixels.

The Korea Times, which first reported the story, didn't have information on the aspect ratio of the new 6.3-inch screen nor a resolution. With competitors such as HTC delivering 1080p HD displays to its leading products, it isn't a stretch to assume the Note III will have a full 1920-pixel- by-1080p HD display.

According to some quick math, such a screen would measure 5.5 inches long and 3.1 inches wide. By way of comparison, the entire iPhone 5 body measures 4.88 inches by 2.3 inches. That's a big, big screen. The pixel density would be approximately 350 pixels per inch, putting it in "Retina" territory, for sure.

[ Read Should Your Next Smartphone Be A Phablet? ]

Samsung has not confirmed plans to offer such a device, but it wouldn't be a surprise at all if it did. The company has devices in the market with nearly every measurement between 2.0 inches and 10.1 inches.

The Galaxy Note III isn't the only leading-edge device Samsung is preparing for 2013. The Korea Times believes Samsung will use February's Mobile World Congress event to debut the Galaxy S IV, a successor to the Galaxy S III.

The Galaxy S series of devices has been Samsung's best seller for the last two years, with tens of millions of units sold the world over. It is the company's top-of-the-line device. The GSIII, available in the U.S. since late June, displaced the Apple iPhone 4S as the most popular handset during the third quarter. The GSIII has a somewhat smaller display (4.7 inches) and footprint when compared to the Note II, but they look similar thanks to Samsung's familial design language.

The Korea Times' estimate of a February debut for the GSIV is questionable, though. Samsung launched the original Galaxy S at MWC in 2010 and followed it with the Galaxy S II at MWC in 2011. The Galaxy S III skipped MWC this year, though, and didn't arrive until early May, when Samsung held a special launch event specifically for that device.

Whenever the Galaxy Note III and Galaxy S IV arrive, Samsung will be sure to make a big deal about it.

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