Samsung just confirmed we’ll be seeing the Galaxy Note 3 in one week’s time, and while we already think we know plenty about it, so far we’ve seen very little in the way of leaked images. But high-res photos of the “phablet’s” display popped up on two sites on Tuesday, showing off a bezel that measures just 2.2mm thick.
The first set of images come courtesy of supply chain solutions company Etrade Supply. Here you can clearly see the design of the phone is very much similar to the Galaxy Note 2. But pay close attention to the bezel, which Etrade Supply notes is only 2.2mm thick. The display measures 5.68 inches diagonally, which is close to the majority of rumors that have pit it at 5.7 inches. Also worth noting is that the display seen here measures just 1.8mm thick.
The second set of photos (pictured below), from Sonny Dickson (one of this year’s biggest sources for Apple leaks), is much less clear. But overall these images corroborate what we’re seeing from Etrade Supply from a design perspective, and one image, in which the bezel is fairly clear, looks to have an equally slim design.
What’s so special about a thin bezel? Depending on the legitimacy of these images, it means that Samsung can release a phone with a 5.68-inch display without it having a much larger footprint than its 5.5-inch predecessor. Smartphones may be getting larger all the time, but comfort is still a primary concern. Trimming down the bezel helps fit the largest display into the smallest frame possible: Motorola’s Moto X is a prime, recent example of this engineering approach, fitting a 4.7-inch screen into a frame not much larger than Apple’s iPhone 5.
In addition to a larger display, the Galaxy Note 3 is expected to feature a quad-core 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, a 13-megapixel camera and a massive 3,450mAh battery. We’ll know for sure when Samsung officially unveils the phone next week, alongside the Galaxy Gear smartwatch.
Images from Etrade Supply and Sonny Dickson.
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