Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Bigger display for a big phone

By Anca Gagiuc on Oct 11, 2013 in Technology

Since the introduction of the first Samsung Galaxy Note in 2011, competitors have placed on the market  many phones billed as “bigger than ever before.”

But none could match Samsung’s success or give the users a compelling reason to own such a big smartphone. Samsung smartly created a sub-market for the device that’s primarily a phone, but also pretends to be a tablet, and the Galaxy Note 3 is the latest model for this niche.

The price of the Galaxy Note 3 is proportional to its size, larger than average – it retails for around $950 contract free and $299 with a two-year contract. OS is Android 4.3 with Samsung’s TouchWizz skin over the top.

Its dimensions (5.95 x 3.12 x 0.33) suffered almost no modifications, but magically the display is bigger, reaching 5.7 inches, and has been upgraded to a 1080p Super AMOULED panel with full HD at 386ppi. The colors are vibrant, maybe even a bit too saturated when using the camera viewfinder. The weight of the device has dropped from 6.45 oz. to 5.93 and the sensitivity of the screen can be increased to make it possible to use the phone while wearing gloves, perfect for cold climates.

The appearance of the device shows improvement. Unfortunately the edges continue to have that faux-metal finish that soon will start to peel off; an actual metallic band would really give the premium feel we’re looking for in a smartphone, especially one that’s as pricey as the Note 3. The back of the phone feels much better than other Galaxies of late: the leathery finish looks much better, picks up no fingerprints, and provides a good amount of traction for the fingers. Although it’s still plastic, it feels strong and is removable to allow access to the 3,200mAh battery and SD card slot. Could be that this is the strategy Samsung chose to try in attempting to get the attention of the business sector, who started gravitating towards the big and shiny Note. Some real leather and that metal trim and we’d be happy, but this baby step in Samsung’s design department is bigger than any other the Koreans made so far.

Galaxy Note 3 is generally a fast phone with apps that open reasonably quick; still, the TouchWizz software is too heavy to carry, even with the powerful quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.3GHz; the 3GB of RAM help a great deal, but the smartphone should be faster. The internal storage goes up to 64GB and the microSD slot supports cards as big as 64GB.

The S Pen sits nicely along the bottom edge and has gotten much better: the handwriting-to-type engine has been greatly improved, allowing the user to put a scribbled phone number, for example, in the dialer, a person’s contact card, or text messaging app, just by circling it and clicking on ‘Link to action’. It’s the type of utility the Note has promised from the very beginning, but failed to fulfill until now, it’s the reason behind the phone’s name.

The Quick command on the previous version has been replaced with the new Air Command. It is connected with the S Pen so that once the Pen is unsheathed a circular pop-up will appear on the screen with five options: Action Memo, Scrap Booker, Screen Write, S Finder, and Pen Window. This menu can also be accessed by pressing the button on the S Pen while hovering over the screen.

The 13MP camera got improved from the 8MP the Note 2 has, and is virtually the same as the one on the Galaxy S4, excellent in the sunlight, with a high number of gimmicks and shooting modes; the front camera stayed at 2MP.

So far Samsung is still the only manufacturer that gives big phones a function that fulfills more than just the need to “have a big screen”, the updated S Pen and associated software takes care of that and will surely be appreciated by many. In any case, the Note 3 is not a phone for everyone. But if you like really big phones, the Note 3 is probably the best one yet out there.