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OnePlus One vs Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - Quick Look

2014-04-23
this time around Samsung throws it's a note device at the oneplus one as a more comparable competitor to that device so it's Josh of Agartha manager Authority what's going on everybody and this is the oneplus one versus the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 there are two very different design philosophies at work here with the angular and rounded corners of these note 3 going in contrast to the also angular but now sleek lines of the design of the oneplus one the oneplus one features a minimalistic look in a premium feel with almost no embellishments with it slightly raised display on the front surrounded by chrome frame and then on the back you have that hard plastic but very smooth back plate but the Galaxy Note 3 instead offers an equally nice feel in the hand this time with a full leather plastic back cover that was a great addition as compared to the glossy plastic Samsung was known for before the front of the oneplus one is all black with no logos or physical buttons to draw the attention away from the display and such you get capacitive buttons but also an option is available to switch over from the on-screen keys to the capacitive buttons and back and forth if you so desire the Galaxy Note 3 of course comes with Samsung's or a signature button layout on the front with the physical home button being flanked by two capacitive keys in this case back-end menu in terms of dimensions the oneplus one is almost 2 millimeters taller than the note 3 but it's also narrower which makes it a little bit easier to hold and the difference in the way between the two devices is almost negligible at only 6 grams apart handling is largely the same between both devices though the note 3 does benefit from having very flat sides that help with grip the one is really nimble though due to a very even weight distribution giving it an edge as well and as such either device really toes the line of discomfort both just barely both devices feature 1080p displays with the difference in the size 5.5 inches for the oneplus one and 5.7 inches for the Galaxy Note 3 resulting in a pixel density of 401 and 386 pixels per inch respectively and as for the technologies underlying both screens we have a beautiful IPS LCD display on the oneplus one which also comes with touch on lens tech and it is also said to be more shatterproof than other screens due to the Gorilla Glass 3 you also get great viewing angles here but you also get them as well on the galaxy note 3 which on the other hand feature is the super vivid super amoled display that provides very good colors great contrast high saturation and colors that essentially pop out of the screen and punch you in the face it continues the tradition that Samsung has always had with good display quality and in this case we do look at these two screens as pretty much head-to-head especially because you have a great experience on either one in terms of the performance the oneplus one does have an advantage over the note 3 thanks to an updated Snapdragon 801 processor clocked in at 2.5 gigahertz that is backed by the adrenal 330 and 3 gigabytes of RAM the note 3 in contrast features the 2.3 gigahertz Snapdragon 800 processor but also comes with 3 gigabytes of RAM so the difference in performance should be pretty nominal in theory the biggest difference between the 801 and the 800 are the slightly higher speeds and in practice however the devices still go head-to-head and are very lightning fast and are going to be able to handle most tasks without a hiccup the full range of connectivity options are available for both of these devices as the oneplus one can also handle 4G LTE now the note 3 does feature expanded storage which is an option that isn't available with the oneplus one which attempts to make up for it by offering a version with 64 gigabytes of built-in storage and of course the Galaxy Note 3 includes its own trump card the S Pen for anyone that prefers a stylus experience the S Pen is an invaluable tool and provides even more functionality by simply taking advantage of its own capabilities you can clip out various elements on the screen right out contextual text and enjoy precision due to the well executed pen both phones have large batteries with there being a 3100 milliamp power unit and the oneplus one compared to the 3200 milliamp hour battery and the Galaxy Note 3 allowing for more than a full days of use with with either smartphone and even with the promise of better than average battery life the note 3 gets a slight advantage by virtue of the battery being removable giving you the option to carry around a spare but once again we see how one device tries to be more or less what you see is what you get and while it is able to provide an incredible core experience the oneplus ones Hardware offerings are minimized quite frankly by the sheer amount that the Galaxy Note 3 does provide and it continues to do so as Samsung always does in their ecosystem as we move on to cameras the 13 megapixel Sony Exmor RS sensor of the oneplus is combined with a six part lens construction with a 2.0 aperture and dual LED flash and a great software package provided by CyanogenMod in this particular version of the app does give a lot of options for your smartphone camera experience and on the front you get the 5 megapixel camera with a wide lens that enables 80 degrees field of view both cameras have 2.0 aperture lenses great for low-light photography and for obtaining that blurred background effect that adds a little extra bit of class to images the note 3 definitely holds its own in this area though despite being a little bit older you get a 13 megapixel rear camera and great image quality with the camera app that is packed with a lot of software features many of which you may or may not use but this is the case with every Samsung flagship release anyway we've always had a good time with the note 3 camera and in the future we may be doing a camera shootout to see which one of these 2 is better in the larger phone device Department and finally in software we find that the oneplus one runs CyanogenMod 11 s a special release built specially for the one to take advantage of all of its hardware and features and is based on Android 4.4 KitKat you get a clean minimalistic stock like experience with various customization options available useful software features such as the voice command allow you to wake the device but you can always launch your favorite apps by drawing preset gestures on a sleeping screen and as mentioned before you can also choose between on-screen and capacitive navigation buttons to suit your preferences so really cater the stock Android like experience of signage and mod to your liking with a Galaxy Note 3 on the other hand you get the all-too-familiar bright and colorful TouchWiz UI which is as always packed with tons of software features and also includes very useful apps that work really well with the s-pen now multitasking has always been a Forte of the Samsung ecosystem and you get the ability to do so in various ways like with the multi window or through the pen window application provided by the s-pen multitasking is a little more conventional in CyanogenMod of the oneplus one relying on recent app screens now more tools are available in the galaxy note 3 but many of them were already introduced in previous Galaxy devices like every gesture you may or may not use ultimately when it comes to software you get another simplistic elegant look when it comes to the oneplus ones in nerds with CyanogenMod 11 s and what TouchWiz we get the same somewhat oversaturated list of features and tools that you may or may not take advantage of in the end now the Galaxy Note 3 has been out for a little while now but its price is still very high especially when compared to the great price of the 1+1 which comes in at 299 dollars now that makes the oneplus one an absolute steal and it might be its biggest trump card when compared to all of these flagship devices so in the future we are going to be doing the full review of the oneplus one and pitting it against these flagships once again for a real comparison but until then I hope you enjoyed this quick look at the samsung galaxy note 3 and the oneplus one stay tuned to android authority for our future reviews and coverage of the oneplus one because we are your source for all things Android
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