Galaxy Note 3 Review
The Galaxy Note 3 is angled to bridge the gap between a smartphone and a tablet. It’s a hair smaller in both width and thickness when compared to the Note 2 and much flatter and square feeling. It’s still reasonably comfortable to hold but I don’t think I’d want a phone much larger than this, but there’s always going to be the “bigger is better” crowd that eats it up.
The design is also a bit less rounded and more like a thin brick but feels solid and well made. If you’re looking for a curved screen, look out for the Galaxy Round if it ever it hits the U.S. The back cover of the Note 3 adds a simulated leather pattern which actually feels pretty nice.
Hardware Specs and Performance
Under the hood is a 2.3 GHz quad-core Qualcomm MSM8974 Pro CPU, 32GB of onboard storage, expandable to an additional 64GB with the micro SD slot and 3GB of RAM sporting Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out of the box. Thank you Samsung for NOT making an 8 or 16GB version! Simple but by placing the micro SD Card slot on top of the SIM Card slot, it frees up some space for that 3200mAh battery.
The device measures 5.9 x 3.1 x 0.3 inches and weighs just shy of 6 ounces and comes with a 5.7 inch 1080p full-HD Super AMOLED screen. (up from the Note 2’s 5.5 inch screen). It’s capable of displaying 16 million colors, 1920×1080 resolution at 386ppi. You’ll also find a 2MP front and 13MP rear camera at your disposal.
The Note 3 also comes with a 3200mAh battery which you will need since the Galaxy Gear watch requires you to keep your bluetooth enabled. There seems to some unfavorable buzz about the Galaxy Gear, but wearable tech is still in it’s infancy and functionality will be added. The ability to make and receive phone calls through your Galaxy Gear is pretty cool though, I have to say and works very well.
Check out our Hands-on review of the Galaxy Gear Watch review here.
The 2.3GhZ quad-core and 3GB of ram comes in handy for the feature rich phablet. Butter baby. The actions are smooth and the Note 3 operates like a top shelf device. The Note 3’s 13MP rear firing camera is able to shoot Ultra-HD 4k video at 30fps, Full-HD at 60fps and Slow Motion at 120fps, impressive!
If you’re a forward thinking kinda guy and already have adopted USB 3.0 peripherals you’ll appreciate that the new wider, faster micro USB 3 power / data port is utilized. For charging, this will equate to 900mAh of charge off of your computers USB port. Don’t worry, the micro USB 3.0 port is backwards compatible and will accept your current micro USB cable as well. Gotta love the standardization.
Features and Functionality Highlights
The Galaxy Note 3 is full of functionality to keep your day productive. The feature packed device certainly has a higher learning curve than most smartphones, especially if you’re not familiar with the Samsung Touchwiz UI layer, but it’s not impossible to use. My mother zips around on hers, that should tell you something. If you already are, you’ll find some familiar Touchwiz UI accoutrement that your accustomed to on the Galaxy devices like SNote, SVoice, SMemo, MultiWindow…
As with the Note 2, the S Pen stylus tucks away nicely into the corner of the Note 3. When you pull out the pen, the Air Command menu appears allowing you to choose from the array of options at your pen tip. Options include Action memo, Scrap Booker, Screen Write, S Finder and Pen Window… There’s also a dizzying array of settings, preferences, on/off buttons behind the scenes for you to tweak to your liking. The Android OS runs smoothly on the Note 3, the experience is excellent in my opinion, at least on par with iOS. It just depends what you prefer.
Scrap booker allows you to simply circle an area of your screen to give you a snapshot. Pen Window allows you to draw a box anywhere on your screen to create a S Pen specific application box, very cool. Screen write allows you to take notation on your image or note. The Action Menu allows you to link specific actions to an area of S Note (like a hotspot on a web image) to assign a specific action such as making a phone call, adding a contact, composing an email, search the web, add a task etc. Multi-Window is nice but drag and drop from one document window to another is still nice and very convenient.
S Pen is just Too Thin for me
The S Pen needs a redesign in my opinion. It’s super thin, so thin that my hand cramps when I use it for any extended length of time. I also would have liked to have seen the single button that resides on the side of the S Pen, on the back, so you could click it like a regular ballpoint perhaps but I know the point needs some close proximity to be recognized by the surface. Perhaps with some variation of Ultrahaptic or other proximity sensor technology you could click the pen for functionality and not necessarily be in the “ready to write” position.
Conclusion
The Note 3 is large and in charge with plenty of capability as well as real estate. The experience is robust and responsive. So if you’re looking for a huge screen with stylus and Gear watch compatibility, this is it! The Note 3 and Gear compliment each other very well and they are fun to use.
The Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy Gear Watch are available for $299.00 each. The Note 3 is available in Black and White and the Gear comes in lime green, beige, rose gold, orange, mocha grey and jet black and . from AT&T, Verizon wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint and U.S. Celular
samsung.com/us
