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| I definitely need a better setup/camera for this. |
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| Here's one from those who mastered the dark arts of photography. Source: Yologadget |
First off, specs!
Screen: 5.7" Super AMOLED 1920 x 1080 (386.5 PPI)
Screen Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (2.3 GHz)
RAM: 3 GB
Storage: 32 GB with microSD expansion up to 64 GB
Power: 3200 mAH Li-Ion battery
Mobile data: HSPA, LTE
Location: A-GPS with GLONASS
Wifi: 802.11 a, ac, b, g, n (2.4 and 5 GHz)
Dimensions: 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3 mm
Weight: 168 g
Well, there is really nothing much to say here, except that Samsung got their hands on the best of the best in 2013 and just shoved them into the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The fastest quad core processor running at 2.3 GHz is certainly the fastest mobile processor in 2013. A massive 3 GB RAM marks that Samsung is again first at something. Haven't even heard about the 802.11ac Wifi standard? It's okay. Samsung have, and they future-proofed your Wifi for you.
The main thing that jumped out at me while looking at the specs was that the battery only received a minor bump from 3100 mAH in the Note 2. With a screen that is 0.2" larger with 2.25 times as many pixels, and not to mention the much brighter screen, it did worry me some - but this particular worry was short lived.
Screen
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| Gorgeous screen. Source: Android Police |
I avoided Samsung phones, or any other AMOLED/Super AMOLED screen phones for as long as I remember. I even chose the HTC One X over the Samsung Galaxy S3 because HTC's IPS panel makes the Super AMOLED look like a piece of garbage.
But there is no denying it now. Samsung actually makes great screens now. The 5.7" Full HD panel on the Note 3 is comparable to the likes of the IPS panels from HTC or LG phones. They made the changes to the red and blue pixel, making them bigger and diamond-shaped.
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| Pixel arrangement in the Super AMOLED screen of the Note 3, if anyone cares. Source: Android Authority |
The results are simply astounding.
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| Close up of the screen. Source: Android Police |
Stylus
This is what makes the Note, a Note. The biggest complaints about the Note 2 is that the stylus does not work on the capacitive "Back" and "Menu" buttons. But this has been fixed since the Note 8, and it certain is fixed on the newer Note 3.
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| It is all about the stylus. From the back: Note 2, Note 8 and Note 3. |
Software - Touch Wiz
It is the same old Touch Wiz, with some new functions for the S-Pen.
There is only so many words you can use to describe Touch Wiz. Prime examples are clunky, outdated, and downright ugly.
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| Default lock screen. |
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| Notification area and Music Controls (only when playing music) |
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| All quick toggles. |
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| Music player on PIN lock screen. |
I mean what is with the black/green combo for toggles? Gingerbread is so 2010, Samsung. Time to move on. Music player on the lockscreen is also very badly implemented.
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| Even if I can change the widget myself, it is still an atrocity. |
First off, the are no pre-installed Mirror app (let you check yourself out using your phone). The Mirror apps in Google Play Store always comes with Ads, which hampers the experience a little.
Secondly, the Flashlight app has no brightness control. It is simply a widget that turns the LED flash on or off. This is definitely a step back from what HTC Sense has.
Finally, the Homescreen layout is pretty bad. Sticking to 4x4 grids on such a huge phone makes the icons look comical. My suggestion is to get a 3rd party launcher like Nova to make full use of the screen estate.
Software - S-Pen
This is what gives the Note it's name. A stylus that Samsung named S-Pen enables users to write, draw and make selections on the screen easily - the Air Gesture from S-Pen works like a mouse in some way which enables you to actually do mouseover on some websites not optimized for mobile devices.
The obvious features are holding the button on the S-Pen to take a screen shot, and hold the button and circle an area to capture the area in the circle.
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| Air Command wheel. |
Air Command is the name of the game for the Note 3. Holding the S-Pen's button while hovering near the screen will bring up a wheel of functions.
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| Action Memo. Write anything, and it will try to read it - making it possible to directly call the numbers you scribbled, get Google Maps to navigate to an address and other goodies. |
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| Scrap Booker. Draw a circle around anything and it will display the circled area, and displays the text inside separately, making it easy to get text from a photo from your phone camera, for example. |
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| Screen Write. Take a screenshot and lets you write on it immediately. |
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| S-Finder. Pointless. Useless compared to Google Now. |
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| Pen Window. Draw a box anywhere on the screen and you can select the handful of applications to run inside that box. Granted, the application do not always adhere to the box, but they will still float above any other app that you have running. Useful when trying to calculate spendings when reading an email. |
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| Pen Window. Calculator in action. Minimized calculator on the right. |
Battery Life
Battery life is superb on the Note 3. The 3200 mAH battery keeps the phone running for at least one and a half days. If you are a heavy mobile gamer, it might not last that long. Playing Plants vs Zombies 2 drained the battery in about 4 hours. But that is already leaps and bounds better than the One X that can barely hold its own through an hour and a half of Blood Brothers.
However, the thing that astounds me is how fast the Note 3 charges. With a 5V, 2A charger, the Note 3 goes from 0 to 100 in a little more than 2 hours (and about half of that are trickle charging ). Worried you might not make it through the day with 40% battery? Plug it in for 15-30 minutes and you will find that the battery has gone up by a healthy margin. Not to mention, it has to spend less time tethered to a mobile powerbank when you are out and about.
I am disappointed with the rest of the manufacturers that refuse to implement 2A chargers on their devices. Cutting the charging time by half is nothing but amazing. I know that it is a necessity on iPads and Galaxy Notes for they have huge batteries, but every device will benefit from shorter charging times.
Performance
I will leave benchmarking to the professionals like Engadget and The Verge, as I have no desire to wipe my phone to get the best benchmark scores. Not to mention that Samsung likes to rig its phones for mainstream benchmarks.
The performance is good on the phone. But it still gets dragged down by the clunky Touch Wiz. Flipping through the Homescreen, particularly when the device has just been rebooted, can show some animation lags.
One can hope that Samsung will learn the error of its ways and start making proper changes to its UI. However, when they are raking in dollars by the billions, you realize that they might not care to, because they still can get away with it.
Besides the UI, gaming on the device has been really pleasant, with an exception that the speakers are a little on the harsh, soft side. Packing the best internals from 2013, the Note 3 breezed through the game effortlessly. This is the fastest on market processor/GPU combo (the Nvidia Tegra K1 and the Snapdragon 805 has not hit the market in any devices yet). But if you do want the best in 2014, then I suggest you wait.
Conclusion
The Note 3 is definitely the phablet to get. While I have not used the LG Optimus G Pro, I have read that in terms of software, it is still lacking. With it being launched much earlier than the Note 3, it only packs a Snapdragon 600 processor.
Most people seem to have the idea that the Note 3 is simply too big for your pockets. But that is really a myth, unless you are into very tight jeans and such. Of course it is almost impossible to type on the Note 3 on one hand (I can manage reasonably well with Swiftkey's excellent Flow feature), I still think that the tradeoff from it - huge screen with long battery life and blazing performance, is worth it.
Sources: Android Police, Yologadget, Android Authority, Engadget, The Verge
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