The Galaxy Note 3 hit South-African shores at the end of September last year with the now trademark Samsung marketing flair. Ads were everywhere, at the airport, alongside the highways and interrupting your favourite TV series. “Why?”, would you ask would Samsung over-market a device that is not really even considered a smartphone? Because of its absolute popularity! Throw in a nifty smart watch to the launch and you have a bona fide selling machine. But is this over-sized smartphone/tablet everyone‘s cup of tea? We got out hands on one of these little (or big) guys and hopefully by the end of this review you will be able to answer these questions.
Building on the success of the Note 2, which sold 5 million units in its first two months, its successor the Note 3 has sold double that! Yes 10 million units in just two months. No wonder Samsung is really punting this device in South Africa. No when any device replaces an older model it is usually good to see what has improved or is entirely new on the latest model. I will refer back to our Galaxy Note 2 review during this one to ask some questions and make comparisons. First up, what has changed spec wise on the new Note 3?
| Specifications | Samsung Galaxy Note 2 | Samsung Galaxy Note 3 |
| Dimensions | 151.1 x 80.5 x 9.4 mm | 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3mm |
| Weight | 183g | 168g |
| Operating system | Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz | Android 4.3 with TouchWiz |
| Display | 5.5 inch 16M-color (720 x 1280) Super-AMOLED | 5.68-inch 1080p (1080×1920) Super AMOLED |
| Rear camera | 8MP | 13MP |
| Front camera | 1.9MP | 2MP |
| Storage, internal | 16/32/64GB | 32GB/64GB |
| Storage, expandable | microSD | microSD |
| RAM | 2GB | 3GB |
| Processor | 1.6 GHz quad-core Cortex-A9 CPU, Mali-400MP GPU, Exynos 4412 chipset | 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core; or Exynos 5420 Octa |
| Battery | 3,100mAh | 3,200mAh |
| Cellular data | Category 3 LTE and HSPA+; or HSPA+ only | Category 4 LTE and HSPA+; or HSPA+ only |
| NFC | Yes | Yes |
Design and Build
In true Samsung style the Note 3 closely resembles the S4 (albeit a larger version). The most obvious difference is the smaller radius edges. The Note 3 has the same metal frame we saw on the S4. I am still waiting for Samsung to step up and embrace the premium full metal chassis that the iPhones and HTC’s sport but at least they did try something different with the back of the Note 3. The back of the Note 3 appears to be made out of leather, but it is still that famous plastic Samsung is so fond off. The textured finish resembles a leather cover and provides the device with some much needed grip. It looks a bit tacky on closer inspection and the release feature (which accesses the SIM, microSD and battery) isn’t an engineering marvel (you just pull it off!).
The overall size of the Note 3 is slightly smaller than its predecessor. That is quite impressive considering the larger screen size, processor and battery. In the front you will find the usual home button, 2MP front facing camera and a host of sensors. The left side sports a sleek elongated volume rocker. On the top sits a 3.5mm headphone jack and on the right side you will find the wake/sleep button. The leather-like back displays the 13MP camera with LED flash. It is quite a thing of beauty, until you try and hold it. Just too big for me.
Display and S-Pen
The Super AMOLED is colorful, bright and very nice to look at. It isn‘t as crisp as some of the smaller flagship devices (HTC One, S4 etc.) but you will only notice it if you hold it up against any of these devices. As with the Note 2 & S3, the Note 3 has the same resolution as the S4 with 386ppi density. The full HD screen is much larger thus the pixel density isn’t as high as the other flagship devices. The difference in clarity is actually noticeable if you compare them side by side, but it didn’t bother me at all. The size of the device, as if it wasn’t large enough, has grown from 5.5inches to a 5.7inch monster. No one handed use here, except if you only want to press the home button.
The S-Pen works quite well with the Note 3. Some felt that the S-Pen on the Note 2 wasn’t all that accurate or responsive. Samsung has come to the party this time with a host of upgrades. The S-Pen fits into a little slot at the bottom and the phone vibrates and makes a little sound when you disengage it. It is quite tough to remove so you will maybe have to wear your nails a bit longer! When removed from the phone the “œAir-Command“ feature pops up (more on this later). The Note 3 box contains extra nibs for your S-Pen as well as a tiny pair of tweezers to help exchange them. The actual writing experience is quite responsive. The pen glides smoothly over the glass and the phone‘s responsiveness is near flawless. The S-Pen features a Wacom digitiser, which can sense up to 1,024 levels of pressure (the same as the Note 2). The original Galaxy Note S-Pen can sense up to 256 levels of pressure. Due to the Note 2 & 3 sharing hardware the pens are interchangeable on the two devices.
Overall I quite liked the S-Pen. The phone still reminds you to replace the S-Pen when you walk too far and unfortunately still no S-Pen locator. The plastic S-Pen feels a bit light and the different plastic once again makes it feel a bit cheap.
Performance and Battery:
With a 2.3GHz quad-core processor and 3GB of RAM under the hood the Galaxy Note 3 will give most laptops a run for their money. The speed of flicking through screens, dropdown menus and widgets is only determined by your physical movements. The response is immediate. Apps load lightning fast and the camera has very little shutter lag. I do however feel this supercharged phone packs too much punch for its own good. The interface moves as fast as other flagship devices such as the S4 and HC One. The everyday interface speed doesn‘t leave you in awe of its speed, it‘s a bit expected. The Note 3 was an absolute joy when it came to playing games. Even very graphically intensive games like Real Racing 3 ran a treat on the behemoth.
As usual, holding down the home button brings up the multi-tasking pane and with a myriad of apps running I didn‘t notice any drop in performance. The lock screen has been borrowed from the S3 with a water effect appearing when running your finger over the screen. What the Note 3 has added though is a colour drag effect that mixes different colours as you drag you finger across the screen. Battery wise you would expect the Note 3 to struggle a bit even with a 3200mAh pack. But to my surprise the Note 3 held up exceptionally well. This is primarily due to the Snapdragon 800 processor which provides a host of different power saving capabilities. Another plus is the fact that you can carry around fully charged spares if you are going to be away from a plug for a fair amount of time. This is due to the removable back panel on the phone. With quite heavy use, which includes emailing, listening to some tunes, social media and a bout or two of Angry Birds the Note 3 easily kept me got the whole day without want for a charge.
Software and UI
As per the mandate of all Android devices the Note 3 is infinitely customizable. From your lock screen to widgets to pop-up windows, every user can add and change as they see fit. TouchWiz is still quite evident on the device, but feels as though Samsung is getting closer and closer to the ideal look and functionality. All of the favorite functions make an appearance on the Note 3. The layout very closely resembles the previous Note 2 with the home screen, widget/app separator and the notification bar still going strong. When you press the menu button (top right) in the notification bar you will see all the different quick settings available. These can be customized to display on the default notification bar.
Samsung has added lots of functionality for the S Pen on the Galaxy Note 3, but I think a lot of it will be ignored (like many a Samsung feature) by the users. The new functionality includes:
Air Command: When removing the S-Pen from the phone the “œAir Command“ window pops up on the screen with different options.
Action Memo: This lets you quickly note down things such as a phone number, email address or physical address and the Galaxy Note 3 can then convert your handwriting into actual text which links with other functions on the phone.
Scrap Booker: This function allows the user to draw a frame (in any form) on the phone which is copied onto the clipboard. This picture can be inserted into notes, sms‘s, emails etc.
Screen Write: This is basically a screen shot editor. It allows the user to edit what he/she sees on the screen. A quite handy function especially when annotating maps.
S-Finder: Samsung has made this function a bit less complex. The finder will search on the phone as well as do web searches.
Pen Window: This allows you to draw a window and populate it with an app such as whether, calculator etc. the window can be minimized to a little circle and quickly accessed when needed.
These features will also be available on the Note 2 once upgraded to Android 4.3. Another feature on the Note 3 is the Flipboard magazine function. It is accessed by swiping up from the bottom. For those not familiar with Flipboard, it is a magazine like app which pulls together your own specified news headlines as well as the top stories on your social media feeds (Facebook and twitter). This is a one stop news spot for anything and everything that interests you.
The 13MP camera is a more than adequate piece of hardware. The Note 3 shares the Galaxy Camera‘s different modes. These include Sound & Shot, Beauty Face and Animated Photo. There is also a Golf-shot mode which captures a series of snaps which will help you correct that pesky slice! If you like taking photos of people Beauty-Face is for you. This mode will take 8 snaps and choose the best one. Here are some photo examples:
Conclusion:
Since opening the box of the Galaxy Note 3 I tried to keep an open mind as to what exactly Samsung are trying to achieve with this product. The product has obviously been designed for those that just need more. More screen, more power, more functionality! I will miss it though when watching videos on my far smaller smartphone and when having to use my chubby fingers for navigating. The Note 3 just works, effortlessly fast with an amazing display and ultra-versatile S-Pen creates the complete package. The Note 3 just doesn’t feel like a smartphone. It is something more than that. To me this device easily sits within a category of its own.
As with the Note 2 reviewed on BandwidthBlog, the Note 3 probably still remains one of the best Android device on the South-African market. The problem? The elephant in the room, its massive size. I just can‘t like this device due to this fact. I know there are many customers out there pining after this piece of phablet magic, I am just not one of them. And I know I am not alone.
Samsung‘s TouchWiz interface has definitely come on in leaps and bounds. The monster hardware in the Note 3 definitely helps to smooth out any lag issues, but the overall design and flow have been continually updated. As with all Samsung products the Note 3 is drenched in heaps and heaps of features. Most of which the users will probably never use but always provides a wow factor and a comfort of knowing they are there. What also remains to be seen is how well the performance of TouchWiz holds up over time, as this has been a problem of all previous Samsung devices running their proprietary skin.
At the end of day Samsung remains one of the leading trailblazers in the smartphone (smart-device) market. Even though they follow a hit and miss style, their hit-rate is increasing year on year.
