With its large 5.7in screen and S Pen stylus, the Note 3 is unashamedly a phablet that will stretch prospective buyers hands and pockets, but provide fast and fluid experience while its at it.
Design: You'll need at least two hands
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is anything but small. A phablet through and through, it has a very large footprint compared to most other smartphones with screens between 4.7 and 5in, and while it's thin at just 8.9mm thick, it certainly feels big in your hand.The sheer size of the device basically makes one-handed operation impossible. Samsung's given the Note 3 an entire settings menu dedicated to trying to make it easier to use one-handed, but even with my adult male-sized hands it's a struggle to reach even half of the screen without dropping the device.
However, instead of a glossy plastic back, Samsung has given the Note 3 a fake leather back reminiscent of a cheap "pleather" sofa.
I wouldn't call that an upgrade. Combined with chromed and ridged plastic edges, it makes the Note 3 feel anything but premium.
Despite the cheap feel, the Note 3 is solidly built and displays little to no give, flex or creak in the body when twisted, while being lightweight.
The front of the device is dominated by an excellent, bright and colourful large 5.7in screen. With a full HD 1920x1080 resolution the display is pin sharp making text on websites and ebooks easily legible, images crisp and detailed, while making watching videos a joy.
Specifications
- Screen: 5.7in full HD Super AMOLED
- Processor: 2.3 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800
- RAM: 3GB of RAM
- Storage: 32/64GB plus microSD slot supporting up to 64GB cards
- Operating system Android 4.3 with Samsung TouchWiz
- Camera: 13-megapixel rear camera, 2-megapixel front-facing camera
- Connectivity: LTE, Wi-Fi (n/ac), NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 with BLE, IR and GPS
- Dimensions: 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3mm
- Weight: 168g
Powerful - and excellent for gaming
Samsung has given the Note 3 a top of the line processor in the form of a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800, and it really shows. The phablet absolutely flies along, with near-instant app loading and no perceptible lag anywhere within the operating system (more on that later).Even the most graphically intensive games run as smooth as butter, making the Note 3 excellent for gaming, while 3GB of RAM mean it should be up to any sort of multi-tasking you're likely to throw at it.
The Note 3 comes with USB 3.0 support, which makes transferring movies and music to the device much faster than most other smartphones that are saddled with the slower USB 2.0 standard.
Charging the Note 3 is also fast via the included USB 3.0 cable, which from the mains charger adds about 1% of battery life per minute up until around 90% of capacity. It's 3,200mAh battery then gives it a very decent battery life of just about two days of real world use.
That generally means you might have to top up the battery a little towards the end of the second day, but it should easily manage to last a day's mixed use even for the most demanding of users.
Software: TouchWiz is cluttered and confusing
The Galaxy Note 3 runs Android 4.3 "Jelly Bean" and has unfettered access to all the Google apps and services that are available through the Google Play Store, including Gmail, Chrome and Google Now.However, like most manufacturers, Samsung chooses to customise the Android experience on its devices. Samsung's modifications are known as TouchWiz, and include things like a custom keyboard, modified settings menus, and a custom home screen.
Within the TouchWiz experience lays a whole host of gimmicky features that are of little practical use, including 'Air gesture' that allows you to wave your hand over the device to turn pages, but only in specific apps, and 'Smart screen', which uses the phablet's front-facing camera to watch for your gaze and pause video among other things when you look away.
Generally they are confusing at best to use, and put additional drain on your device's battery at worst. Your mileage might vary, but I found myself turning them off within a frustrating first day of trying to use them.
Stylus: Completely ignore it
Samsung's 'S Pen' stylus also has a high potential for being relegated to just a gimmick. For the most part, there's little you can do with the stylus that you can't with a finger, which is often quicker and more convenient.The Note 3's 'Air command' function brings up a circular quick action menu that allows you to annotate a screenshot, but also provides access to 'Pen Window'.
Some of the drawing and annotation functions within Samsung's apps such as S Note, SketchBook and Scrapbook could be useful for someone who can draw well, but they're lost on me.
On the whole, the stylus doesn't detract from the Note 3's experience, as it slots neatly into the back, but it can often be completely ignored unless you're trying to actually sketch something on-screen.
Camera: Great for stills, but ultra HD is a gimmick
The Note 3 packs the same camera as the Samsung Galaxy S4, which at 13-megapixels produces clean, colourful and sharp images in decent lighting.In poor lighting, the camera can struggle to focus properly, however, it compares well to most other smartphone cameras and will capture pictures of a similar quality to most dedicated compact cameras.
Samsung's camera software is easy and straightforward to use. It also manages to incorporate useful functions like an 'Eraser Mode', which is capable of removing unwanted objects like passers-by from your photos, and 'Drama Shot', which captures a series of shots and then stitches them together to make one over-laid action shot of a bike leaping off a ramp, or a football's flight through the air.
Along with 13-megapixel stills, the Note 3's camera is capable of capturing video at up to 4K ultra high-definition, which at 3840x2160 has four times the number of pixels as full high definition.
Since the Note 3's screen is only full HD, and 4K TVs are few and far between at the moment, capturing video in 4K UHD is a gimmick and will fill up the Note 3's storage very quickly with its large file sizes.
The Note 3 will, of course, capture decent lower resolution video, including smooth normal full HD, and will even provide slow motion video at up to 120 frames per second if required.
Price: More expensive than iPhone 5S
Available in black, pink or white, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is a large, flagship phone and therefore commands a premium price. Bought outright, the Note 3 costs £650, which makes it one of the most expensive smartphones available at £100 more expensive than an iPhone 5s and around £230 more than a 5in Samsung Galaxy S4.
No comments:
Post a Comment