The telltale sticker on the side of the Galaxy Note 3 box
Samsung has region locked its latest Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone, meaning only UK and certain European SIMs will work in the device.
Those users who like to travel and simply pop a foreign PAYG SIM into their existing smartphone, won’t be able to do so with the Galaxy Note 3, as Samsung has made it region locked.
Usually a smartphone will be locked to the network it is on rather than a specific region, but it seems Samsung isn’t favouring network providers here.
Instead, Samsung has put the kibosh on anyone wishing to save on roaming charges by making it impossible to use a SIM from anywhere outside the EU or other European countries.
As revealed by stickers adorning the Galaxy Note 3 box, the smartphone is “only compatible with a SIM-card issued from a mobile operator within Europe.” A SIM from any of the EU countries, Switzerland, Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Serbia and the Vatican City will work, but forget about one from the US or Australia for example.
It’s not clear why Samsung has chosen to region lock the Galaxy Note 3, but we expect it is something to do with the software contained within the 5.7-inch smartphone.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Features
The Galaxy Note 3 is the most powerful of Samsung’s latest smartphone with a quad-core 2.3GHz Qulacomm Snapdragon 800 processor with an unprecedented 3GB of RAM.
It packs a 5.7-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display compatible with the new Samsung S-Pen stylus and offers an image density of 266ppi.
In the rear, the Galaxy Note 3 has a 13-megapixel camera capable of recording 4k resolution videos, coupled with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.
With a hearty 3,200mAh battery, the Galaxy Note 3 also offers 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, NFC and Infrared connectivity.
Next, read our Samsung Note 3 vs Samsung Galaxy S4 comparison.
