It is a very good phone.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.
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.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.The major feature of the Note 3 that integrates the S Pen is Air Command. The -Pen that comes with the Note 3 features a button that can be pressed to invoke an Air Command menu on the screen when you hover it over the screen. The Air Command menu brings Action Memo, Scrapbooker, Screen Write, S Finder and Pen Window options. One can also insert content, and contacts and view additional options while hovering the S Pen around the display and pressing the button on the S Pen. It does make things a bit complicated but if you’re someone who loves to create content and share it in a jiffy, you might like this feature. We found the additional S Pen button shortcut features a bit overwhelming though