The Galaxy Note’s strength is the S Pen, the intelligent stylus that accompanies the device and allows users to do more than just navigate the user interface and scribble notes. With the Note 3, Samsung claims to take the experience at the next level. We try to find out if its still the best phablet in the market, in our review.
Build/ Design
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 retains the same design that gave the Note series of smartphones their own identity. When we first lay our hands on the phone, it reminded us of the original Note. The Note 3 looks much more similar to the first-generation Note than the Note II, which was more curved.
The Note 3 is essentially made of plastic but Samsung has cleverly disguised the finish of certain elements to give the smartphone a premium fit and finish. Despite its huge size, the phone doesn’t feel heavy and fits in the pocket in a better manner, if you compare it with the Sony Xperia Z Ultra. Having said that, it’s still ungainly when it comes to singe-handed operation, though Samsung has tried to find a solution for it.
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The Note 3 is available in three colours - Jet Black, Classic White, and Blush Pink, and we got a Jet Black phone as our review unit.
The front of the phone is dominated by its 5.7-inch Full-HD Super AMOLED display. The bezel is narrow on the left and right sides and unlike the Galaxy Note II, the Galaxy Note 3 is not beveled above and below the screen and is flatter, sporting a textured dark grey finish.
The front of the phone still features a physical Home button and two capacitive touch buttons for Menu and Back controls. The different sensors, front camera, notification light and earpiece grill sit above the Note 3’s screen.
The phone’s front panel is surrounded by a chrome frame, which gives a premium feel to the Galaxy Note 3, but the edges sport a faux-metal finish with a ribbed pattern.
The power button is on the right edge of the Note 3, volume rocker on the left, a 3.5mm headset jack and Infrared receiver on the top and a new USB 3.0 port sits at the bottom aloneg with a small speaker grill and the slot for the S-Pen stylus. It’s good that Samsung has placed the power button on the side and not on the top, in line with other large screen phones, but if you have small hands you’ll still find the location a little cumbersome.
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The back of the Galaxy Note 3 is another place where Samsung has made some major changes to give the phone a refined look. It sports a leather finish, complete with the stitching, and we’ll have to say that it looks really close to the real thing and Samsung deserves some credit.
The back also features the 13-megapixel-camera lens, with the LED flash right below it. The Indian version of the Note 3 just features the Samsung branding at the back. There’s a small speaker outlet towards the bottom.
The back is removable and hides the micro-SIM card and microSD card slots that are stacked on top of each other, and the battery. Samsung has been able to please people who advocate the use of a removable battery and memory card slot, once again.
Overall, the Note 3 looks much more refined than the Note II with its leather finish back and good weight to dimensions ratio, though it still sports the same design.
Display
As we mentioned, the Galaxy Note 3 is in a way Samsung’s other flagship device, other than the Galaxy S4. All flagship devices now tick the full-HD display checkmark, and keeping with the trend, Samsung has also upgraded the screen to full-HD. The screen’s also bigger by 0.2-inches at 5.7-inches.
The Galaxy Note 3 comes with a full-HD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels packing 386 pixels per inch.
The Galaxy Note 3’s display, is among the best displays we’ve seen so far. In our use, we found that text, images and videos appear extremely sharp, with vibrant colours. Reading text and browsing the web was also a pleasant experience.
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The only downside to the display is that colour reproduction is not very accurate, and as with other AMOLED displays, they appear a bit oversaturated.
Just like the Galaxy S4, Samsung offers what it calls Adapt Display, to optimise colours according to ambient light conditions. You can choose between four manual modes( Dynamic, Standard, Professional Photo and Movie) and automatic modes if you select the Adapt Display option. The phone also offers the option to adjust the screen tone automatically to conserve battery power.
The display was not very reflective and sunlight legibility was great. The viewing angles on the phone are excellent.
The Note 3’s big full-HD display enhances the user experience by leaps and bounds.
Software / User Interface
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of the OS( at the time of writing this review) and TouchWiz Nature UX, Samsung’s own UI that includes custom apps in addition to a skinned interface.
While some people prefer stock Android to any kind of skinning, Samsung’s TouchWiz UI has been panned for employing big, glossy and cartoon-like icons and menus. The intent might be to make the UI user-friendly, but it ends up looking anything but pleasant. The Galaxy Note 3’s UI has been optimised for the S Pen, a stylus that offers enhanced functionality with the device’s built-in digitiser.
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The Touchwiz UI add-ons on the Note 3 are similar to that of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and you can read more about them in our Galaxy S4 review.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 offers a more enhanced version of Multi-window that comes with support for launching two instances of the same app. It’s also been made more flexible as you can place the Multi-window bar on either side of the screen.
It also offers a new Magazine screen which can be launched by simply flipping the Home screen towards the top. The Note 3 takes a cue from HTC’s BlinkFeed notifications screen and allows users to read News across categories, personal content and social network feeds on the Home screen in a magazine like format. It’s an alternate home screen as it offers shortcuts for launching apps like the Phone dialler, SMS and Camera, among others.
Just like the previous versions of the Galaxy Note, the Note 3 also features’one-handed operation’ settings allowing users to position not just the keypad and in-call buttons, calculator and screen unlock pattern on the left or right side, as per their convenience, but also shrink the entire interface to one’s liking by an awkward left and right swipe gesture. One can resize the interface window to one’s liking and Samsung even offers virtual on-screen Menu, Home, Back and Volume control keys. This is a great feature for people who find the screen too big for daily use.
Just like the Galaxy S4, the Note 3 features motion and gesture-driven controls. The gestures include Quick Glance that lets you glance at information like missed calls, time and unread message count when you move your hand over the phone; Air Jump that lets you move up and down web pages and emails when you move your hands, and Air Browse to essentially browse the Gallery, web pages, music tracks and memo notes, and even accept calls with the wave of your hand.
Another similar feature is Air View that lets you preview text inside emails and SMS or images inside a folder when you hover your finger or the S Pen over the screen. This even works for speed-dial contacts, to view Icon labels, scrolling lists and for tracking progress bars while watching videos. You can choose to either use your finger or the -Pen or automatically switch to whichever one it detects.