Gadgetory

back in 2011 Samsung achieved what many thought impossible it popularized the concept of the smartphone tablet hybrid with the original Galaxy Note one year later it built on that success by consumer izing the concept with the sleeker more powerful galaxy note 2 this fall the company looks to up the ante again with an even heavier feature set made it to some of the biggest baddest hardware available but in a world of steadily ballooning smartphone dimensions does the note 3 have what it takes to stand out let's find out I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is our video review of the samsung galaxy note 3 before we get started we'll remind you as we did in our other Galaxy Note 3 videos that our review unit comes to us by way of Negri electronics be sure to visit them if you're looking for a note 3 of your own and be sure to follow PocketNow on social media so you don't miss future coverage on high-end smartphones and tablets as we noted in our video comparing the note 3 with its immediate predecessor Samsung promised that its latest phablet would come in slimmer faster lighter longer and larger than the note 2 and this being Samsung those apparently contradictory terms actually can coexist in the same device since 60% of that adjectives dump deals with physical dimensions let's start this review by taking a look at the note 3's hardware after a flirtation with wide radius corners and gentle curves Samsung has returned it to a more straightforward design aesthetic with the note 3 recalling the days of the original note and the Galaxy S 2 squared off corners join with the usual foam metal trim elements and a subtly patterned surface to deliver a familiar look on the front but turning the note 3 over reveals a welcome surprise gone as the glossy tacky hyper glaze coating of old replaced by a special battery cover made to resemble leather it's a bit rigid and slippery on our white unit here but the black version has a more rubbery texture that's easier to hold on to in either case you get the same custom stitching on the border the same fine stripes on the sides meant to represent the pages of a notebook the motif may be a little on the nose for some people but we like it it helps set the note line apart from the galaxy s devices making it stand out as something entirely different which it really is also playing a role in that set off the massive 5.7 inch AMOLED display which at 1080p resolution kicks out a pixel density of 386 PPI for a screen this big that's a pretty hefty pixel count and it combines with excellent color reproduction and customizable saturation settings to make this one of the finest panels around it's squeezed so tightly into the note 3's casing that the housing itself actually comes in smaller in nearly every dimension than the note 2 and it's lighter as well a remarkable achievement to be sure but make no mistake it's still a huge smartphone one-handed use is possible but to make the most of the phone you probably want to keep both hands-free especially if you're using the new and improved s-pen which we'll come back to in a sec Samsung has always used the note line as an opportunity to bring the highest end specs possible and the note 3 is no exception our unit the SMN 900 packs the so-called Exynos octa-core unwelcome Snapdragon 800 at 2.3 gigahertz either way these are top-of-the-line systems backed up by three gigs of RAM and either 32 or 64 gigs of storage powered by a battery rated at 12 point 16 watt hours as usual for Samsung that battery is removable and user replaceable array as is the optional micro SD card which can accommodate up to 64 gigs of additional storage array again rounding out the class-leading feature set is support for Wi-Fi a/b/g/n and AC USB 3.0 for faster charging and data transfers an IR port for controlling your home media system and a sensor suite that includes thermometer hygrometer and barometer finally the Wacom digitizer returns on the note 3 giving the display the pressure sensitivity that makes the S Pen work and Samsung's special stylus works better than ever before here the magic wand has gotten a slight aesthetic overhaul and now fits into its silo to orientations and also the nub at its tip has been reworked to deliver a softer firmer touch which feels nice and the pen now triggers the capacitive back and menu keys but the real story is in software where Samsung has instituted a new interface element called air command the circular jump menu is straightforward and clean and it packs equal parts useful features and a little bit of chrome applications like the system-wide search and s finder and the scrapbook crop collector are quite handy other functions like action memo seemed better suited to showroom stunts than daily time saver and the pen window action that lets you open apps and custom sized windows is definitely cool but it's less useful than Samsung's other multitasking feature fortunately multi window is still here and it's been improved further you can still run apps side by side on the big screen and you can now copy and paste text from one screen to another using the more streamlined interface which also now supports custom window presets so if you always find yourself opening Twitter and YouTube together you can now set a shortcut to open them both which is a big time-saver the rest of Samsung's heavy UI layer is still here and it's loaded with more features than ever whiz-bang stuff like air gesture smart scroll and smart paws have been ported from the galaxy s4 yes but more interesting is the addition of Samsung's Flipboard powered by magazine which lives under the home screen it's performance is quite slow it takes more than a second to launch in several seconds to update and out of the box it appears every time you hit the home button more than once which is pretty annoying but it's essentially an omnipresent Flipboard app and as such it's a pretty cool addition elsewhere on the note three more of the same Samsung goes out of its way to bring some value adds here and some are really cool we're happy to see the fitness monitor s-health make the cut and sketchbook for galaxy is an incredibly powerful and fun app for use with the S Pen other areas like the me to Samsung hub content store and the various over done memo apps could use some refinement or retiring in any case here the good overrides the bad the software add-ons are enough to cement the note threes position as the most useful phablet out there testing the Galaxy Note 3 over the course of 6 days in the Greater Boston area was a near total pleasure in terms of overall performance of course with the Exynos octa-core and 900 had zero problems with even the most strenuous of games modern combat 4 and asphalt 8 ran without a hitch with graphics rendered so beautifully that tearing ourselves away from the action to write this review was honestly tougher than usual benchmark results were similarly outstanding and day-to-day responsiveness barring the occasional jump or stutter was usually Swift and speedy but the phone did hang on us twice during the test period freezing on the home screen for no apparent reason and requiring a forced restart we haven't seen that behavior mirrored on other devices in the blogosphere but it was too ominous not to mention we'll test other variants of the note 3 as we get them and report on the problem if it recurs a phone call quality is solid on both ends on a TTS 3G network a big improvement over recent Samsung phones with the earpiece producing crisp sound and the volume boost feature coming in handy for speaker phone calls which are otherwise too quiet even with maxed out volume the note 3's small speakerphone isn't as loud or as bassy as we'd prefer for media it fortunately sound through the earbuds is considerably better and Samsung is built in its special adapt sound feature here to dynamically ultra levels based on the ambient environment on the camera front the 13 megapixel shooter bolted to the phone's backside is a significant upgrade to last year's model Samsung's versatile viewfinder software makes finding the right shooting mode very easy most of the time and the result is photos that are nothing short of brilliant in the right lighting we especially enjoyed the sports mode with its faster shutter speed allowing for fast motion capture and HDR and animated photo are always a welcome sight as well despite the narrow field of view that forced us to back away from our subject to catch photos we enjoyed shooting with the note 3 in broad daylight and well-lit indoor scenarios but were flabbergasted that the company has opted to remove it's nighttime shooting mode from the menu replacing it with a confusing smart stabilization option buried in the settings menu if you don't have this turned on be prepared for some really low quality night shots once you throw the switch though things get much better video performance renders very sharp footage in 1080p mode our and 900 unit here doesn't feature the 4k recording mode on other models and the software stabilization is actually quite good though indoor shots tend toward the noisy side while it takes longer than we'd like to launch the camera software it's worth the wait thanks to the various shooting modes and the relatively easy to use interface taken as a whole the note 3 shooter isn't the best camera we've used on a smartphone but it's also far from the worst also far from the worst battery life even with hardcore high-end gaming and heavy browsing we were able to get more than a day's use out of the note 3 and that's saying a lot for a phone with a 1080p display this large altogether the note 3 lives up to its legacy in a big way it improves on the note 2 in almost every meaningful sense and it even manages to stand apart from its fellow Samsung devices functionally and aesthetically something not easily done in the company's watered down world where nearly every smartphone bears the galaxy moniker while we'd like to have seen a stronger focus on quality over quantity in the feature set and a streamlining of the S Pen functionality these are minor quibbles if you're buying a large screened android device you want utility to go along with the added scale and right now the Galaxy Note 3 is absolutely the most capable most powerful smartphone tablet hybrid on the market accordingly pocket now scores it a 9 out of 10 pocket now's official written review of the galaxy note 3 will be available at pocketnow.com starting October 1st be sure and check back for that but before you go anywhere please like this video if you didn't enjoy our video review drop a comment down below if you have some feedback or additional questions and be sure to follow us on social media so you don't miss more on the Galaxy Note 3 and other devices from PocketNow until next time this has been michael fisher thank you very much for watching and we'll see you soon