Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Review [Good & Bad]

 

 

 

Though the price still remains on the high side, it has a new and improved faux leather back, that’s available in a myriad of colours, as well as a 5.7-inch full HD display, this is the ‘phablet’ to beat. Samsung has also beefed up the software features, adding in an improved S-Note app and useful quick menu. Powering this rather large device is quad-core processor, paired with 3GB of RAM and you’ll have a choice between 32GB or 64GB of internal storage.

 

Dimensions

5.95 x 3.12 x 0.33 inches (151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3mm)

Weight

5.92 oz. (168g)

Screen size

5.7 inches

Screen resolution

1,920 x 1,080 (386 ppi)

Screen type

Full HD Super AMOLED

Battery

3,200mAh

Internal storage

32 / 64GB

External storage

microSD (up to 64GB)

Rear camera

13MP

Front-facing cam

2MP

Video capture

1080p, 4K/UHD* (only in some markets)

NFC

Yes

Radios

HSPA+, LTE Advanced

Bluetooth

Version 4.0

SoC

2.3GHz quad-core processor / 1.9GHz octa-core processor (varies by region)

RAM

3GB

MHL

Yes

Operating system

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean

Demerits

• Several useless (and clunky) features: All of the GS4’s motion-gesture features are present, along with new S-Pen functionalities. That’s cool. But lets be real here—the average man isn’t going to use 80 percent of them on the regular. Not to mention, most of the touchless controls are faulty and barely work most of the time. Smart Pause, S-Voice, and the eye-tracking technology all need major work.

• Buggy software and lots of bloatware: A series of bugs were present in our demo unit, which could either be blamed on the Android OS or TouchWiz. The camera option on Instagram would consistently come up when accessing the app and we found random emails being opened upon entering Gmail. Bloatware is another issue, as Sprint pre-installs 13 different apps on the device that are all practically expendable. Granted you have the luxury of disabling each one, it’s extra work on the user’s end.

• Poor audio quality:  Placing the speaker at the bottom of the device is a design flaw Samsung failed to acknowledge. Not only does audio output sound distorted and unbalanced when screening calls via speakerphone, but holding the handset in landscape mode blocks the sound, too. We noticed a lack of high volume as well during multimedia playback.

  In Summary, this is a great device, one you get value for your money and again its really worth it.