When Samsung originator launched the earliest Galaxy Note in 2011, many analysts and reviewers decried the device’s 5.3-inch screen as too lofty in favor of the normal person’s furnish, and tried to explain away “phablets” were presently a period (we did this, too).
But at this time we are, two years on, and Samsung claims it’s sold more than 40 million Notes worldwide. Clearly, we were sin. If the phablet is a fashion, it’s certainly been a profitable lone. Other smartphone makers are riding the train, too with forthcoming diplomacy like Sony’s Xperia Z Ultra, LG’s Vu 3, the alleged HTC One get an A on, and more
But with so much big-screen competition, can Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 keep its place by the top of the enormous smartphone mega heap? The Note 3 certainly looks like it delivers on paper, with a quad-core supercomputer clocked by a speedy-sounding 2.3GHz, and a massive 3GB of RAM, topped rancid with a 5.7-inch 1080 AMOLED screen. And it will be unfilled on all four major US carriers, so you probably won’t hold to switch providers to become it. You will hold to salary more than your normal high-end smartphone, though. The Note 3 is $300 with a two-year contract from AT&T, and we expect pricing to be more or less the same from other carriers.
Is the Note 3 the greatest big-screen phone you can get? Or are its kitchen-sink lit of facial appearance more confusing than practical? Follow us on an S Pen-aided journey while we observe made known.
A little pleather will sort out ya excellent
Rather than the slippery plastic outer surface found of many of Samsung’s new Galaxy phones (as well as the Note 2), Samsung has consumed with a faux-leather back on the Note 3. It certainly looks nicer, and makes the Note easier to take in, thankfulness to its textured veneer. But it is still made of plastic (or polycarbonate if you favor marketing speak), so while the Note 3 feels more like a premium manufactured goods than its predecessor, the aluminum-clad HTC One and the iPhone 5S feel more premium, by smallest amount to our fingers.
We still endorse a problem in favor of the Note 3 if you desire to keep your device pristine. After individual a fasten days, we accidentally nicked the top of ours by sticking it in a back abridged with various keys.
Still, the Note 3 feels polite in the furnish, thankfulness to a corrugated metal perimeter with the intention of runs around the edges of the device. The phone is individual a little lesser and slimmer than the Note 2, splinter rancid a millimeter or two at this time and here. But it doesn’t feel full of chunks by 8.4mm thick, and its 167-gram heaviness feels solid, but not driving (it’s more or less 10 percent lighter than the Note 2).
And maybe it’s since we moreover presently spent point with the Galaxy Mega and its 6.3-inch screen, but the Note 3, with its 5.7-inch panel, doesn’t feel mammoth in our furnish. Sure, it’s lofty. And okay, you probably will feel goofy once you take in it to your head to get on to a call. But with even larger phone/tablet diplomacy like the 6.4-inch Sony Xperia Z Ultra and the alleged HTC One get an A on shipping soon, the Note 3 probably won’t be the biggest phone you’ll refer to in open in the introduction months. So the frequency of individuals exclaiming “OMG, with the intention of phone is mammoth!” in your all-purpose direction once you manipulate the Note 3 will cut this time.
And while we didn’t hate the size of the Galaxy Mega, the Note 3 is a much better fit in our jeans abridged and was easier to conduct – 5.7 inches could indeed be the ideal screen size in favor of big-screen phones.
Button placement is exactly come again? We’d expect from a enlightened Samsung phone. The power button lives on the correct upper hand, close at hand the top and the volume rocker is in the same place on the other characteristic. The earphone jack and Infrared blaster (for using the Note 3 as a universal box remote) sit up top, moreover everywhere we’d expect them.
A next-generation charging cable
On the bed upper hand of the device, things are more out of the ordinary and problematic. For starters, the charging haven at this time is Micro USB 3.0, which way it’s wider than on other Android phones. The excellent news, though, is with the intention of you can still manipulate a standard Micro USB cable to charge the phone, so you won’t hold to confuse away your chargers.
If you sort out manipulate the USB 3.0 cable Samsung includes with the device to plug it into a CPU, you’ll become a fasten repayment. USB 3.0 delivers more power than 2.0 once plugged into a USB 3.0 haven, so the phone will charge nearer (but still not as fast as it will once plugged into a wall). And as you might estimate, USB 3.0 is nearer than 2.0., so sleeve transfers to and from the phone to a PC must moreover be speedier. But this fly is likely restricted by the abilities of the Note 3’s domestic storage space, not a cable or haven. With so much media being handled in the cloud these days, USB 3.0 won’t be a substantive benefit in favor of generally users.
Poor narrator placement
Also on the bed of the Note 3 is the S Pen (which we’ll become into in facet in a bit), and the narrator. We’re delighted to refer to Samsung affecting the narrator rancid the back of the device. But everywhere it sits on the Note 3 – close to the upper-right corner once you take in the phone in landscape orientation – is a problematic. It’s correct everywhere your thumb or palm wants to take it easy once holding the device to watch a record. We tried various furnish positions to elude blocking the narrator once holding the Note 3 horizontally, but everything with the intention of felt natural or comfortable muffled the audio. And even unblocked, narrator output individual sounds more or less as excellent as the Galaxy S4. HTC’s One still has, by far, the greatest sound we’ve heard from a smartphone.
A flagship screen in favor of a flagship phone
The Note 3’s screen leaves thumbs down opportunity in favor of complaints – or by smallest amount very little. At 5.7 inches, it’s a speck larger than the 5.5-incher on the Note 2. Its 1080p vow is come again? We’d expect from a enlightened high-end smartphone (and a lofty step up from the 720p screen of the note), and offers up near twice as many pixels as on the Retina displays of new iPhones.
Viewing angles on the Note 3 are immense, and since it’s an AMOLED panel, insignia are vivid, blacks are deep, and the screen is intense sufficient with the intention of the individual point you’ll increasingly desire to crank it up to limit is once you’re straightforwardly under a sunbeam. But while AMOLED has its repayment, it moreover tends to oversaturate insignia, and this is thumbs down exception. But, persons ultra-bright hues be apt to describe the eyes, even if they aren’t entirely accurate, which is likely why Samsung chose a colorful abstract smear with oil painting to as the Note 3’s default unlock screen.
Don’t expect a class-leading camera
On paper, the Note 3’s camera sounds immense. Samsung stepped up to a 13-megapixel sensor from 8 megapixels in the before shape, and went with a 2-megapixel shooter on the front in favor of record calls and selfies.
But megapixels aren’t everything. While the phone’s innards get on to autofocus and image dispensation super-quick, the photos we took with the Note 3 were pretty excellent but rarely immense. All the rage daylight, open-air shots looked excellent, but once the sky became a speck more cloudy, our shots were darker than we’d like. And photos of colorful flowers appeared oversaturated (not presently once viewed on the phone’s screen). Low-light performance moreover wasn’t excellent exclusive of the zip. If you like to take photos in dimly lit bars and restaurants, HTC’s One or Nokia’s Lumia line will send far-better photos.
The Note 3 does cast record by 4K vow (3840 x 2160 pixels), which could be polite in favor of capturing memories to watch in the prospect once 4K TVs befit more reasonably priced. And we’re moreover delighted to refer to with the intention of Samsung brought back the 360-degree photo countenance on the Note 3 (Samsung calls it Surround Shot). The countenance is a supply part of Android 4.2, but went missing on the Galaxy S4.
Cluttered Interface, but a fantastic fountain pen
The Galaxy S4 took Google’s default, supply Android 4.3 interface, piled on its colorful-but-cluttered TouchWz skin, and added a bunch of particularly facial appearance, like eye-tracking, air controls, Multi-Window, and others. The Note 3 keeps much of the countenance clutter (okay, it’s not all clutter) of the S4, and adds an added healthy layer of facial appearance on top of with the intention of.
It’s hopeless to facet all the Note 3’s facial appearance exclusive of rotary this assess into a sign up, so we’re vacant to focus mostly on S Pen, since with the intention of countenance is the Note’s major differentiator. If you’d like details on various of the Note’s other software facial appearance, you can check our assess of the Galaxy S4, since generally of what’s here carries larger than to the newer device.
The S Pen fits securely in its slot on the bed of the phone, but once various practice, pulling it made known is quite painless, thankfulness its grooved metal cap. When you start to influence the fountain pen made known, the phone’s screen will switch on certainly and the Air Command menu pops up in the screen’s lower-right corner. Air Command offers icons in favor of five various S Pen tasks, and you can activate it every point by holding the down the button on the S Pen and floating larger than the Note 3’s screen.
Action Memo lets you a little amount down quick things like, say a phone add up to or lecture to with the S Pen and, with a tap, add it to your lecture to sign up, dial the add up to or propel a text, or look up the lecture to in Google Maps or the Web browser. This worked well in favor of us with phone figures and addresses. Surprisingly, the scribble recognition machinery. But email addresses gave us a problematic. The screen presently isn’t ample sufficient to carve made known generally email handles. And once we split the lecture to on two shape, the Note 3 had a tendency to individual recognize part of the lecture to.
Scrap booker is come again? It sounds like – a Pinterest-like board with the intention of lives on your phone. You can describe a loop around dynamic content on the phone, like Web pages, YouTube videos, and that., and depot them in the Scrapbook app. Things like Web addresses in your snipped content will stay behind live once you move back to look by them. But the amount of metadata that’s saved feels like a hit-and-miss matter. For command, we saved a restaurant we looked up in Google Maps, and once we went back to untie it in Scrapbook, it seemed to hold presently saved a screen shot of the send a message, and individual gave us the option of sharing the image, or doubling-up it to the clipboard.
Screen Write is moreover self-explanatory. It takes a screen shot and lets you a little amount clarification on top of it. This can moreover be ended by every point with the S Pen by holding down the button on the characteristic of the fountain pen and long imperative on the screen.
Pen Window lets you untie a limited hardly any apps in a small window. To untie it, describe a open place on the screen and a box appears with icons in favor of Calculator, Clock, YouTube, Phone, Contacts, ChatOn, Hangouts, and the Web browser. This countenance is more practical on the larger-screened Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition; but at this time, it’s a attention-grabber. If you desire to sort out various quick math or look up a acquaintance, it can be polite, but it’s severe to refer to why you’d desire to run a browser window or a YouTube record on top of an added app, especially once the window is so small with the intention of text and record details are severe to refer to.
If you desire to hold more than lone app untie by the same point, here is, of avenue, the Multi Window mode, which lets you launch multiple apps and drag the edges around to decide how much window they take up, a grouping like in Windows 8. Again, though, this is a countenance with the intention of feels like it would be much more practical on a larger-screen device.
Lastly, S Finder is a sort of universal search in favor of the device. You can manipulate it to search through your handwritten clarification, media, calendar, message, and that. For forgetful types, or persons who working on multiple projects by just the once, this may possibly be caring. But in favor of us, by smallest amount, the nicest countenance at this time was the skill to scroll through everything from the former seven days (30 days is moreover an option). The in sequence is laid made known visually, with conversations, clarification, and images screening up in a vertical feed, which is caring on a forgetful era. We sort out wonder how much window this countenance will chomp up on the phone larger than point.
If you need a break from all the facial appearance, apps, icons, and widgets on the Note’s household screens, you can smack up from the bed and bring up Magazine UI, which borrows solidly from Flipboard (and HTC’s BlinkFeed) to present you a visually pleasurable, vertical scroll of news, new social media posts from your acquaintances, and a collection of your new clarification and photos. Scroll vertically to browse content in a individual class, like news. Swipe missing and you’ll refer to social media posts, smack correct to access your private data and clarification.
If the central TouchWiz UI leaves you overwhelmed, you can exhaust a grouping of point in the Magazine UI interface. Tap an arrow in the higher correct and you become quick access to things like the phone dialer and camera, as well as the broad app drawer.
We like the look and feel of Magazine UI a grouping, and it’s more customizable than HTC’s BlinkFeed. But here still doesn’t seem to be a way to add individual sites into your feed (like Digital Trends). You can sort out this on Flipboard itself (which comes pre-installed on the phone). So once we signed in to our Flipboard report, we kind of probable with the intention of the News section of the Magazine UI would influence in our customized Flipboard feed. But sadly, with the intention of doesn’t seem to be the problem.
So, what’s it like to in fact manipulate the S Pen to a little amount down clarification? We know individuals swear by it. But in favor of us by smallest amount, prose things down at all times felt slower and more cumbersome than using the the ivories or speech-to-text.
Equally an test, we tried jotting down a to the point message (31 words) with the S Pen. That took us 90 seconds, and the scribble recognition wound up with four errors. Tapping the same message made known on the ivories took 45 seconds with nought errors. Swyping moreover took 45 seconds and had nought errors. Dictating the message into the phone took minus than 15 seconds and, aside from line breaks we had to situate in manually, here were thumbs down errors. We therefore tried prose the message again using the stylus, and wound up taking more or less 85 seconds, but our scribble should hold been a speck sloppier—the scribble recognition made even more errors.
To be impartial, our scribble is pretty bad (we type in favor of a living), and the Note got things correct generally of the point. But it does operate greatest once you carve lone word by a point, pausing a back or so involving terms while it converts them into text. Otherwise, the Note will often meander multiple terms into a single jumble. That, combined with the small size of the screen (compared to an real notebook), way with the intention of prose with the S Pen is greatest in favor of very passing messages.
Equally you could hold guessed at the present with the intention of you’re 2,700 terms into this assess, we don’t sort out passing messages with the intention of well. So we don’t think the S Pen is a killer countenance in favor of us in this form reason. On something like the Note 8.1, we’d probably manipulate it more often.
Dethroning the G2 as the generally powerful phone
All the Note’s daydream facial appearance would be useless or, by the very smallest amount, frustrating if the Note 3’s internals weren’t up to the task of keeping things running smoothly. But that’s not an installment at this time. With its 2.3GHz quad-core supercomputer and ample 3GB of RAM (up from 2GB in endure year’s model), the Note 3 performed faultlessly near faultlessly, even once we had more than 10 apps running while downloading podcasts in the background. The individual installment we proverb was rough playback of Hulu Plus videos by prohibitive settings. Stepping down to mode made playback smooth again, and YouTube playback was smooth by every setting.
If you’re partial to benchmarks, notice with the intention of the Note 3’s gain of 20,190 is the highest we’ve seen from a smartphone, beating made known the 12,000 from the Galaxy S4 and even the LG G2’s impressive 17,700, leaving the Note 2’s gain of 6,000 far, far behind. The Note 3 moreover handled games exclusive of installment, and on the Epic Citadel target, it twisted in 59.1 frames for every back, which is a fine feat in favor of a phone with a 1080p screen. Make thumbs down misconstrue, the Note 3 isn’t presently a superphone in size unaided.
We did our taxing on a T-Mobile shape, and on with the intention of “un”carrier’s 4G exchange ideas, performance varied. But we were consistently able to become download speeds of involving 13 and 18Mbps, while upload speeds hovered around 8-10Mbps.
Battery life
Battery life doesn’t disappoint, either. Samsung upped the cell’s juice a little, from 3,100mAh in the Note 2 to 3,200mAh. But with the better, higher-resolution screen, more RAM, and more supercomputer cores, we weren’t unquestionable if the battery life would take in up. If whatever thing, though, we’d say it’s a little better than the Note 2.
After 16 hours and 15 minutes of mode to driving manipulate, before a live audience a hardly any games, taking and uploading images to Facebook, interpretation a magazine on Zinio, making a fasten phone calls, conveyance a hardly any texts, running various benchmarks, and installing and updating several apps, all larger than a mix of 4G and Wi-Fi, we individual managed to become the battery down to 30 percent.
All the rage other terms, our brain conked made known long previous to the Note’s battery did. Unless you leave your screen on in favor of factually semi the era, you must straightforwardly be able to become a broad day’s charge made known of the Galaxy Note 3. Many will be able to move in favor of two days exclusive of a charge.
Conclusion
For power users looking in favor of a big-screen phone to help deal with their confused lives, the Galaxy Note 3 is a no-brainer, especially if you like the appreciation of using a stylus in favor of jotting down clarification. And even if you don’t manipulate the S Pen, the device still delivers exceptional battery life and a immense screen in a package with the intention of looks, performs, and feels like a serious productivity device, not a toy-like colorful wedge of plastic and schooner (hello, iPhone 5C).
That being whispered, here are so many facial appearance loaded into the Note 3 with the intention of we’re pretty unquestionable we didn’t cover semi of them. For command, if you leave the S Pen behind and go away with the phone, a pop-up window and a sound alerts you with the intention of you’ve over and done your stylus. Also, the Wi-Fi telephone lines chains 802.11ac, so the phone will show polite with next-generation routers. We may possibly move on, but we already hold.
And with the intention of, really, is the Note 3’s biggest failing. It’s not a excellent fit in favor of smartphone novices or persons who don’t take pleasure in digging into layers in the lead layers of facial appearance. Because persons layers run deep, and it’s severe to tell what’s worth using and what’s worth disabling or uninstalling. Samsung’s phones are getting daunting to explore.
If you don’t mind countenance clutter and the device’s prohibitive fee, or you presently desire a big-screen phone with the intention of has the fastest internals in favor of gaming and multitasking, the Note 3 is the greatest phone in favor of you. But if a lofty screen and excellent performance are mostly come again? You’re once, here are other big-screen options, and here will soon be more. If you can live with a lower-resolution screen (that’s still pretty great) and the absence of the S Pen, Samsung’s Galaxy Mega is a excellent scale. It’s not as exciting as the Note 3, but using it isn’t near as overwhelming, either.
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