Galaxy Note 3 Lite enters mass production, rumors say Samsung is making a lot of them

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Published 12 Dec 2013

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The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is an amazing smartphone with a gorgeous 5.7 inch 1080p AMOLED panel, the fastest Snapdragon 800 out there, and 3 GB of RAM, but it’s also insanely expensive. Depending on where you live, it can cost anything from $300 with a two year contract to $1,000 after tax. This is why Samsung is planning a “Lite” version of the Note 3, which according to the Korean news site ETNews, has already entered the mass production stage.

What exactly has Samsung done to the Note 3 in order to make it cheaper? All that’s “known”, and I’m using that word loosely here, is that the 5.7 inch AMOLED panel has been swapped out for an LCD, but no word on the actual resolution. And the 13 megapixel camera on the back has been replaced with an 8 megapixel shooter. That’s it. Assuming the device will retain the word “Note” in its name, then that means it’ll retain its expensive digitizer and stylus.

But enough speculating on specs, what really matters here is price. What kind of pricing does Samsung have in mind? When the company introduced the world to the Galaxy S4 Mini, they shocked everyone with the (relatively high) price tag of 450 Euros. My gut tells me Samsung is going to price this Note 3 Lite at roughly the same price as a Galaxy S4, and that’s just going to confuse a lot of people. Do I buy a “gimped” version of a flagship phone or do I buy the phone that’s still considered a flagship?

Word on street is Samsung wants Note 3 Lite sales to be roughly a third of Note 3 sales, so hopefully we might actually see that lower price tag.