So I’ve spent the last 24 hours with the new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and, well I’m in love.
As my friends know I was Mr Applefan, I have a Macbook Pro, I had many iPods, and more importantly I had every iPhone up until the 4s. Then I realised, when it was too late, that there really wasn’t anything that new in this ‘new’ model that justified me spending my hard earned cash on it. Siri, a better camera, iCloud, iMessage, Notification Center, Reminders, and Twitter integration simple didn’t enamour me, didn’t excite me. I just got the new phone because I was told to get it.
Then a mate walked into work with this behemoth of a phone, NAY, A PHABLET! The Galaxy Note II. I was aware of the first Note but this new model blew my mind. A 5.55 inch HD Super AMOLED screen with 1280×720 resolution! A 1.6 GHz quad-core processor! 2 GB RAM! Nice.
So I got it and it was amazing. I’d forgotten about open access functions on phones. I could bluetooth songs or pictures! S Beam or Wifi Direct could transfer files in seconds. It was bliss. Oh and the headphones were better than any free headphones I’ve ever had with a phone, and better than some I’ve bought.
But on the 25/09/2013 my new and improved Note 3 was released. Firstly I was impressed by the new look, it shares the same design scheme as the Galaxy S4, squared edges with the flattened ridged sides, except this is a ‘premium’ design with the faux leather back. This made holding it much nicer than before. The size of the phone, which is an issue to some, is fractionally larger than the previous model but not really noticeable, especially in my pocket due to the phone being thinner.
Turning on the phone you do notice the screen is larger as it’s closer to the edge of the phone rather than just making the phone bigger. Then you notice the quality of the screen. Wow. The super AMOLED screen is vastly improved, and I didn’t even know he screen needed improving. Side by side comparison really makes the difference obvious. The clarity in the letters and pictures is beautiful, change the vomit inducing standard background to a nice HD picture and you’re golden. Watching videos and looking at pictures on is an even bigger joy on the 5.7 inch 16:9 1920×1080 screen of gloriousness!
Excuse the blur, taken with the old Note II.
Full specifications can be found here but a brief overview shows the Note 3 has:
• A 2.3 GHz quad-core processor
• 3 GB of RAM
• 5.7-inch 1080p Super AMOLED display
• 13-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of filming videos in 1080p at 60 fps and 4K resolution at 30 fps
• 32 or 64 GB of internal storage
That’s a powerful piece of kit. The speed of the phone is tremendous, the predecessor was quick before but this is lightning fast. High demanding games run very smoothly, Shadowgun looks as good as any PSP title, and I’d push as far as to say as good as a later Xbox game.
The camera is amazing, the image quality is superb, the videos are remarkably clear, and once I get a 4K TV I’ll be able to report on the new 4K recording feature. I mean I can’t give a good report on it yet as I don’t have a 4K TV and probably will never be able to afford one, but still it’s cool to know I have a whole 2920 pixels more than the average bear. The camera is also packed with features that have provided hours of entertainment. Beauty Face does make you look like you’ve had a little botox. Best Photo is your standard takes a number of pictures and you choose the best one. Best Face is interesting as it takes 5 consecutive pictures of a group and you choose the best to get a the best merged group shot. Sound & Shot is not new to S4 users, it records a short sound as a ‘background’ to a picture, funny when your photo subject doesn’t know about this feature. Drama takes multiple pictures of a moving subject and merges them into a ‘dramatic’ image. Sports is similar, taking pictures of a fast moving object. Rich tone or HDR is your standard High-dynamic-range imaging tool giving greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image. Golf Swing takes a picture of a gold swing which which you can play backwards and forwards. Eraser isn’t about a Witness Protection specialist who becomes suspicious of his co-workers, rather it let’s you erase moving objects from a series of 5 images so you are left with the best image. Panorama and Surround shot do what they say on the tin. Animated Photo is the most interesting and fun feature. The same as Motiongraph this allows you to create an image with moving parts. Sounds weird but it’s great, really makes for some funny images. Check out an example video of Motiongraph here:
The built in Samsung apps such as S Health and S Translator have good functionality, unsure yet if they will eliminate the need for older apps such as My Fitness Pal or Google Translate. The Walking Mate widget is a neat feature which shows your daily steps, allowing you to set goals and doing away with the need to remember to start and stop an app. The S Pen and S Note functions have improved and the Air Gestures and Eye Functions, which can get annoying, can serve a purpose, though as one who is bespectacled I’ve yet to get the eye tracking to work. Eye discrimination at it’s finest…
The phone now comes with a Galaxy Plus folder with app such as Evernote, TripAdvisor, Bloomberg+ and SketchBook preinstalled, as well as Dropbox and Flipboard, which has improved since having it on the previous Note.
My biggest joy comes from the improved keyboard. As someone who writes a lot, and works a lot while travelling; as well as the usual texts, emails and Tweets, I find the new keyboard a massive blessing. Previously I typed like a fool, and my mistypes were a thing of great amusement to my colleagues, but not anymore! The predictive text and general feel and feedback is vastly better, the haptic feedback really does give the keyboard ‘substance’ under finger. Now my quick edits will be caused by my own stupidity and not my tools.
I’ve not tested every single function but what I have tried has been great. I do miss the swipe to pin setting of the Note 2, it now goes straight to the pin screen to unlock. The standard Clock and Weather widget has improved in both design and use, as now it has the right time – the previous version didn’t actually update with British Summer Time. File Format it easier and more intuitive. Multi windows/apps work as is, but with a much smaller side bar, which really did bug me previously.
Overall I’m extremely impressed with the Note 3, and not to become a Applephobe as I love my Macbook, but I genuinely can’t see any reason why you would buy an iPhone other than for purely aesthetic reasons. If size is a factor get the S4, but other than that why would you not want a better processor, better functionality, better accessibility, a better camera, and most of all open access and full customisation. The iPhone screen is no where near as sharp or clear as the Note 3, music is more accessible with apps like Google Play Music or even the built in music player. Pictures can be swapped easily without having to email or upload to a cloud. Overall the experience is a pleasure and Apple would have to pull something remarkable out of the bag next to turn me away from my Note 3. It’s literally the best phone I’ve owned.
9/10 – A Must Own.
