Samsung unveils the Galaxy Note 3 with larger screen, faux-leather back

Samsung has just announced a redesigned Galaxy Note 3 with a slimmer design and larger screen. Though the phone’s front looks similar to its predecessors, Samsung has made some tweaks to the design, covering the plastic back with an apparent faux-leather finish in three colors, adding a metallic sheen to the plastic sides, and redesigning the S Pen. The screen has grown to 5.7 inches from the Note II’s 5.3, and it weighs in at a slightly lighter 168g. It’s 8.3mm, about a millimeter thinner than its predecessor, with 3GB of RAM, a 2.3GHz quad-core processor on its LTE model — another 3G version will use a 1.9GHz octocore processor — and a 13-megapixel rear camera. Samsung has even promised that the phone can shoot 4K video.

Samsung also touts new software and better multitasking, one of the Note’s major selling points given its large form factor. A launcher called Air Command is designed to make the S Pen more useful, bringing up a menu of tools that let users organize and act on handwritten notes: one given example is jotting down a number, then using new software to save it in the address book or call it directly.

While we don’t have pricing details, the Note is set to launch on September 25th in 149 countries, then worldwide by October. In the US, versions will come to all major carriers: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular are all listed as partners.