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Feature set summary – Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Review
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is the latest phablet from Samsung, combining amazing specs with an enormous screen.
| Style & Handling |  |
| User Friendliness | |
| Feature Set |  |
| Performance | |
| Battery Power |  |
| Overall Score |  |
Pros : Amazing specs, great screen, stylish design
Cons : Average battery life
Verdict : The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is a stunning bit of kit, with a dazzling screen and top flight specs. The battery could be better but even that’s not bad.
There was never much doubt that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 would be a brilliant phone but it’s great to be able to confirm that it’s just as good as we’d hoped. Being great might not cut it anymore though as while Samsung used to have the phablet market to itself there’s some stiff competition now, most notably from the Sony Xperia Z Ultra.
Design
Samsung makes some brilliant phones but the design of its handsets is almost always a letdown. Not so with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, which ditches the plastic build for a textured, leather look finish on the back. It’s not real leather and it’s arguably not as premium as the glass and metal backs that some phones use, but it still looks and feels high quality. It’s also quite unique.
At 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3mm and 168g the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is both big and quite heavy, but then it is a phablet so that’s to be expected. However despite that it manages to stay slim, adding to the high quality look of it.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a 2.3 GHz quad-core processor and 3GB of RAM. That makes it a monstrously powerful phone, and one of the only ones with 3GB of RAM. In practice there’s no slowdown, pretty much ever. This thing can multitask with the best of them and handle any HD video or graphically intensive game that you care to throw at it.
As you’d expect from a top end phone, 4G LTE is supported and ensures that its download and upload capabilities are just as high performance as everything else.
Display
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a 5.7 inch 1080 x 1920 Super AMOLED screen with a pixel density of 386 pixels per inch. That’s not quite as high a pixel density as the Samsung Galaxy S4 but it’s still very high and the difference is hardly noticeable, particularly given that you’ll probably just be dazzled by the sheer size of the screen.
It’s great for movies and games, making it the ideal companion for a long train or plane journey. Anyone with small hands or small pockets might find it a bit unwieldy, but then that comes with the territory of being a phablet.
Camera
The camera on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is much the same as the one on the Samsung Galaxy S4, which is no bad thing. It has a 13 megapixel sensor and can take some impressive photos. It also has a bunch of shooting modes, such as HDR and panorama. Plus it can shoot 1080p video at 60fps or 2160p video at 30fps and there’s a 2 megapixel camera on the front, which should come in handy for Skype and other video call services.
Other features
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has many of the same features as the Samsung Galaxy S4, such as the ‘S Health’ fitness app, which can track how many steps you’ve taken, the temperature and humidity of your surroundings and more. It also supports ‘Smart Scroll’ which will cause web pages to scroll as you read them and ‘Smart Pause’ which will pause a video if you look away from the screen, then continue playing once you look back. They’re innovative features and go a long way towards making the phone truly hands free.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a choice of 16, 32 or 64GB of built in storage, along with a micro SD card slot to extend that by another 64GB, so you’re never likely to run low. It supports Wi-Fi, 4G LTE, 3G, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and infrared.
It has a 3200 mAh battery, which is pretty enormous but if anything it actually has slightly worse battery life than the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, which can be explained by the bigger screen and higher power innards. It’ll still last a day and may even get to a day and a half if you use it sparingly but it could certainly be better.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 ticks almost every box in terms of what we want out of a top end phone, from good build quality, to high power, impressive camera and a great screen. The battery could do with a boost and the form factor won’t suit everyone, but if you’re after a phablet this is the best that money can buy.
Dimensions : 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3mm Weight: 168g Screen size: 5.7 inch Screen Resolution: 1920 *1080 pixels Pixels Per Inch (PPI) : 387 Processor: 1.9 Ghz Octa-core processor (3G Model) / 2.3 GHz Quad-core processor (4G Model) RAM: 3GB Battery capacity : 3200 mAh Onboard Memory: 32GB / 64GB (microSD) Camera : 13 megapixel / 2 mega-pixel (front-facing) Operating system: Android 4.3 Ultrafast / 3G / 4G LTE : Yes / Yes / Yes Bluetooth / NFC / Infrared LED : Yes / Yes / Yes Colours : Black, White and Pink Launch Date: 25th September 2013 Price : £550 (TBC)
