With its Galaxy Note series, Samsung has claimed ownership of the
supersized smartphone category. Will the latest in the line, the
Samsung Galaxy Note 3, continue the brand's dominance?
Design
While the faux-leather plastic styling will turn some off, the
handset is easily the nicest-looking in the Note line. In fact, it
looks very elegant and sophisticated, although closer inspection will
dampen the impression some as soon as you realize the cheap-feeling
plastic construction. Still, it's arguably the best-looking phone at
this size range, so it's not like you have a dozen other options that
better match your personal aesthetic preferences. With that said, the
faux-leather back makes for excellent feel in hand, apart from being
relatively smudge-resistant.
Display
The 5.7-inch AMOLED display is a definite highlight for the phone,
with super-crisp lines (1920 x 1080 resolution), vibrant colors and a
massive viewing area. For my money, it combines quality and quantity
better than any display on any phone yet, making it a joy to use for
everything from watching movies to editing detailed spreadsheets.
S-Pen
While the S-Pen has been an integral component of the Galaxy Note
line, we doubt many users have found it indispensable. I know quite a
few Note users, in fact, who've barely touched the S-Pen in over a year
of using the phone.
For the Note 3, Samsung is aiming to make the stylus a more
accessible tool. How? By revamping the user experience entirely. The
most remarkable change is Air Command, which launches as soon as the
S-Pen is pulled out of its sheath. The feature, basically, places all
the S-Pen's main functions in a single spot, giving users easy access to
Action Memo, Scrap Booker, Screen Write, S Finger and Pen Window from
one location.
Camera
The Galaxy Note 3 is equipped with a 13.0 megapixel shooter. Paired
with a LED flash, it takes seriously good images. Indoors, everything
looked clear with great exposure; outdoors, everything looked sharp and
vibrant; even moving subjects looked great in still captures. On top of
the great photo quality, the camera app offers a generous amount of
shooting modes, with editable settings for every aspect of image capture
you can think of.
Features
It runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, with TouchWiz (or whatever Samsung
wants to call it now) on top. You get all the usual wireless
connectivity options, the hodge podge of Google services, and the ever
growing roster of proprietary Samsung apps. We're loving the new My
Magazine news viewer, by the way, which appears to be a combo of HTC's
Blinkfeed and Flipboard, allowing you to pull up content from a variety
of web outlets on, practically, any subject.
Performance
Powered by a 2.3GHz quad-core and 3GB of RAM, the Galaxy Note 3 is
seriously fast. No lags, even with the gnarliest games and lots of
stuff running, so expect a zippy time working through this handset.
Call quality is great, with everything sounding clear. It wasn't
perfect -- you can sense some occasional hollowness on the sound -- but
it sounds great for the most part. Those on the other end reported the
same. The speakerphone brings plenty of volume, with the mic picking me
up very loudly even outdoors. Battery is a generous 3,200 mAh, which
should last you well past a day (we're getting a day and a half,
actually) on moderate use.
Overall
There was a time when people had doubts whether a market for phones
like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 existed. Now that we've confirmed it's
no small niche, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has clearly been built to own
the category. It's, quite simply, the best phone at its size range --
bar none. It's available now, priced at $299.99 on a two-year agreement
with either Verizon or AT&T.
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