Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - Design, Screen and Performance

What is the Samsung Galaxy Note 3?

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is the third iteration of the phone that sparked the 'phablet' revolution. Many big-screen pretenders have come and gone, but it’s the Galaxy Note 3 that is the most coveted of the large smartphones, although Sony is trying to do something about that with the Xperia Z Ultra.

Samsung has increased the screen size on the Galaxy Note 3 by 0.2-inches. Its screen is 5.7 inches across. Just like with the Samsung Galaxy S4, however, Samsung has managed to cram the screen into a body roughly the same size as its predecessor - the Note 2 in this case.

Samsung is trying to change the perception of the Note series from a geeky device to a fashion accessory. Let’s see how it gets on.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - Design

As we expected, Samsung hasn’t deviated from the Galaxy S4 design and styling - apart from one very notable exception.

The back of the Galaxy Note 3 peels off just like any other Galaxy phone, but is made of a textured leather-like material. It’s soft to touch and feels more premium than the shiny plastic found on most other Galaxy devices.

It does also give a faint whiff of a granddad phone, though. To combat this Samsung offers the Note 3 in pink as well as black and white, and you can customise it further with a colourful flip case - available in reams of shades.

It’s such an unusual material for a phone that it might just require a little getting used to.

In all other respects the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 matches the ever-increasing Galaxy range of phones and tablets to a tee.

The easy-to-remove back cover provides access to the removable battery and SIM/microSD card slots, while a band of silver-painted plastic goes right around the entire phone. Just like the Galaxy S4.

The S Pen digitiser fits snuggly into the bottom right hand side of the phone when not in use.


It’s still a bit plasticky and feels some way off the build quality of the Xperia Z Ultra, but the S Pen makes it an altogether different proposition to the majority of other large phones.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - Dimensions

The Note 3 is actually smaller than its predecessor. The Galaxy Note 3 is 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3mm. It’s a tiny fraction taller than the Note 2 but 1.3mm narrower and a full 1.1mm thinner. It’s very impressive given the screen is a lot bit bigger.

What’s even more impressive is how light it is. Just 168g. That’s 15g lighter than the Note 2.

Samsung hasn’t gone overboard and added a huge screen as it has with the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 behemoth. This makes the phone a much more hand-friendly device to use and allows you to easily hold it in one hand while using the S Pen in the other.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - Screen

The Galaxy Note 3 now comes with glorious full HD, rather than the 720p resolultion used in the Note 2. Not only that, it also uses Super AMOLED panel technology, just like the S4.

There is a marked difference between the quality of the screen of the Note 3 and its predecessor. Colours are much more vivid, blacks are far deeper and there better contrast, particularly noticeable in the shadow detail of dark videos. 

The 386 pixels per inch (PPI) pixel density makes text look pin-sharp, even when looking at tiny writing, totally zoomed out on a webpage. Viewing angles are also very good.  

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - Performance

Just like the S4, the Galaxy Note 3 comes in two versions – quad-core and octa-core. And just like the S4 it’s likely Europe and the US will get the quad-core version while the Exynos 5 Octa chipset will have a limited release in regions without LTE support.

The quad-core version - the one we’re testing here - is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 processor – currently the fastest smartphone processor available.

Has Samsung made the right choice by ditching its own Exynos processor in 4G markets? On the initial evidence, yes. The Snapdragon 800 chipset is blisteringly fast and the Note 3 benefits from this speed.

Navigating and opening apps is a breeze while running processes side-by-side seems to cause no slowdown whatsoever. Our PC Mark Icestorm Extreme (that tests CPU/GPU performance) benchmarks saw it score 10,864. That’s just slightly less than we clocked with the Xperia Z Ultra.

It’s the same processor the Xperia Z Ultra and Xperia Z1 pack but with 3GB instead of the 2GB the Xperias have. In addition, the Snapdragon 800 of the Note 3 is clocked slightly faster at 2.3GHz, as opposed to the 2.2GHz on Sony’s phones. This makes us think the lower bench performance may be a pre-release software optimisation issue.

In terms of storage, the Note 3 will come in 32GB and 64GB versions. As is Samsung’s way, both versions have the option of microSD expansion of up to another 64GB.

Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-galaxy-note-3_Mobile-Phone_review#gvpGwUHq1QsfIDxX.99