Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Preview

Samsung isn't the first company that tried to come up with a device blending the functionality of a smartphone and a tablet into one. However, it deserves credit for delivering the first large-screened handset that was actually good, thus kickstarting a whole new category of devices. Of course, we're referring to the very first Samsung Galaxy Note – announced a little over two years ago. Thanks to the trend that Samsung built up with its innovative, globally successful product, we've arrived to a point in time where most smartphone manufacturers now have a phablet in the fight, or are in the process of developing one.

The latest phone in the company's series is the recently announced Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Picking up where its predecessor left off, it comes with an S Pen stylus that is now more functional than ever. But that's far from all. In fact, Samsung's newest Note handset lands right into the high-end smartphone department, packing hardware that will easily get any tech geek excited. That includes a massive, 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display, a last-generation quad- or octa-core processor, and a 13MP camera, all of that complemented by software features and stylus functionality found on no other handset.

So yeah, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is shaping up as a beast of a smartphone, ranking among the best that have been announced so far. And now is the time to find out whether it has what it takes to become as successful as its predecessors.

Note: The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 unit used for this preview is running an early software build. Therefore, the appearance, performance, and operation of certain features might differ from what we may see on a retail Note 3 unit.

In the box:

• In-ear stereo headphones
• Extra earphone tips of various sizes
• Wall charger
• microUSB cable
• Replacement S Pen tips
• Quick start guide

Design

Samsung did mostly what was expected of it with the design of the Note 3, and it did it well, making the phone thinner and lighter than its predecessor. Even though the new model comes with a 5.7-inch screen – 0.2 inches larger in diagonal size than the display on last year's Note II – the newer model is tangibly more compact. The difference isn't vast, but we can definitely feel it when holding the two side by side.

And speaking of holding the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, we can confirm that operating it with a single hand is a chore compared to a regular-sized phone. But that's pretty much a given with handsets of this size so we wouldn't mind accepting Samsung's phablet as it is. Holding the Note 3 in one hand while navigating through its interface with the other, or using the S Pen, is the typical usage scenario for this device. There is an option, however, to shrink the keyboard or dialer right or left, so you can type a quick text reply or call a number with one hand only.

We were genuinely surprised to see Samsung taking a different approach to designing the exterior of the phone. The company has picked a faux leather back with stitching elements, meant to prompt the impression of a venerable notebook. Although the back of the Galaxy Note 3 is actually made of plastic, it looks fancy and sophisticated, while the soft touch finish does remind us of real leather as we run our fingers across its surface. As usual, Samsung has opted for a removable back cover, underneath which we find the user-replaceable battery, as well as the SIM and microSD card slots.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 comes in white or black, and there is a pink exterior available as well for those who prefer a color that is less conservative. In addition, a bunch of colorful S View cover cases are to be launched alongside the device, meant to protect and augment its looks to your heart's desire.

The buttons present on the Note 3 are all easy to feel and press, with very good tactile feedback, and that goes for the trademark physical Home key underneath the display as well. The Menu and Back keys, placed alongside the Home key are of the capacitive kind.

S Pen

For those who aren't familiar with the matter, the S Pen is an advanced digital stylus and one of the prime stand-out features of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. By “advanced” we mean that it is much more precise than regular capacitive styli and capable of detecting minute variations of pressure, creating strokes of variable width as you write. Furthermore, the tip of the stylus can be picked up even if it is just hovering above the phone's screen, which results in more precise drawings and selections. By pressing a button located on the S Pen's side, the user is given access to extra features, which we are about to tell you more about in the next chapter. A clever addition is the option to have the phone sound an alert in case the S Pen isn't nearby. You know, just in case the accessory is misplaced.

The S Pen fits firmly in its dedicated slot. It is easier to take out and slide back in than before, but it doesn't blend seamlessly with the phone's design anymore as a little bit of it protrudes out of the housing. The accessory is light and long enough to be held and used comfortably, although lefties might find its placement on the right rather annoying.

Display

As we stated above, the display on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has grown a bit from what the second-gen Note had to offer. The front of the new model is graced by a gorgeous, 5.7-inch display, and it's a Full HD affair now. Punching the 1080x1920 pixels of resolution into a DPI calculator results in a pixel density of about 386ppi, which explains why everything shown on the display looks nice, smooth, and detailed. And besides, you'll likely be holding the gargantuan handset even further from your eyes than smaller phones, so you can rest assured no icon jaggies or letter edges will be visible, even when fully zoomed in during browsing, for instance.

Color representation is on the overly saturated side by default – something typical for Super AMOLED panels. And that's okay as some users do dig exaggerated colors on their smartphone's screen. We, however, find the so-called “Professional Photo” screen mode much more pleasing to the eye, with its much truer color reproduction. There are several of these modes to choose from, in addition to the Adapt Display regime, which automatically tweaks the screen's settings depending on what's being displayed.

The display is pretty bright for a Super AMOLED panel, though still far from the best LCD units in that respect. Nevertheless, outdoor visibility is aided by the very low reflectance ratio under direct sunlight, and the deep black levels make elements more distinct when plenty of diffused lighting is present outside. Even on a bright sunny day, we could use the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 without much effort, as long as the sunlight wasn't reflected straight at our eyes.

As usual, we have impressive viewing angles thanks to the OLED technology, with little color shifting and sufficient brightness retained even when the handset is tilted to the extremes.

Samsung has not forgotten to add some extra sensitivity to the touchscreen on the Note 3, thus making it usable even while the user is wearing gloves. Interestingly, the panel's sensitivity is adjusted automatically, meaning that there's no need for the user to set it manually.

Interface and functionality

Samsung's latest TouchWiz Nature UX is painted over Android 4.3 on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and at a glance, it looks exactly like what you'd see on other Samsung high-ends. We find nothing wrong with that, of course, as the company's interface comes loaded with plenty of cool tricks up its sleeve.

One of them, called Multi Window, takes great advantage of the phone's extra screen real estate. It allows one to have two apps open at the same time, each of them displayed in a window of its own. What's more is that on the Note 3, the same app can be opened twice, which means you are free to have two IM conversations open simultaneously.

Another feature we quite like is My Magazine, powered by Flipboard. Think of it as a smart RSS reader for your news feed, but integrated into the UI. And by integrated we mean you can launch it with an upward swipe from the bottom of the home screen, just like you would trigger Google Now on a stock Android device.

Some minor, yet noteworthy extras like Air View, Air Gestures, Smart Pause, and Smart Scroll are also present and you can learn more about them in our Samsung Galaxy S4 Review.

Since the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 comes equipped with an IR blaster, it can be used to control various home appliances, such as your TV or home entertainment system, which is pretty awesome. Perhaps you'd also be able to shut down that annoying TV they have at the gym.

We find the Note 3's on-screen keyboard more comfortable to type on using two thumbs as it is pretty wide. Alternatively, there's the swiping method at your disposal as well, in addition to the hand-writing recognition mode, which is actually the slowest input method of all, in our opinion. Typos can be corrected automatically as you go, but if you don't want auto-correct messing with your texts, feel free to turn it off.

S Pen features

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 comes with an enhanced S Pen stylus, which is now more feature-rich than ever. As before, the accessory will be recognized by the phone as you hover over the screen with it, rendering a small dot on the UI. What's new, however, is that pressing the button on the S Pen displays a menu with a list of several new S Pen-related features. Some of them we find more useful than the others, to tell you the truth, but let's go over all of them anyway. So here's what's new:

• Action Memo – think of this as an upgraded S Memo application. It is capable of reading your handwriting and, for example, if you scribble the name and phone of someone you just met, the app can intelligently create a new contact in your address book using that input. You may also shoot them an email or a text message instantly, assuming this information is provided in the note. Cool idea as a whole, but it requires you to give all your trust to the software's ability to recognize your handwriting accurately.

• Scrapbooker – much like the name implies, this feature is for collecting bits and pieces of imagery from various sources. You can crop content from the web browser, YouTube videos, even parts the phone's interface, and organize them in a single note. Text can be added to these notes as well. This can be useful for taking visual notes, or even starting your personal diary.

• Screen Write – this feature will take a snapshot of your screen and will allow you to add comments or simply scribble away on top of it. Simple as that.

• S Finder – yup, you use this to find stuff. Write down whatever you need and the feature will search through your hand-written content saved in your notes and memo apps, or it will match it to symbols and formulas. It lists search results through not only notes, but also in your music, gallery, or video library.

• Pen Window – now that's interesting. In a nutshell, this feature is for launching apps in a small window, such as the calculator, the address book, messaging app, and more. You draw a rectangle with the area where you'd like this app's window to appear. Strangely, the size of the window doesn't always match our specifications and the app's aspect ratio is off, but this could be just a software glitch that (hopefully) won't be present on a retail Galaxy Note 3 unit.

Processor and Memory

A smartphone of this class deserves to be powered by a top-of-the-line processor, isn't that so? In the Note 3's case, the silicon providing it with processing power will vary from one region to another. The LTE-capable version will get the Snapdragon 800 SoC and its 2.3GHz quad-core CPU, while the HSPA+-only model will sport a 1.9GHz octa-core Exynos 5 chip. We have the former on our hands and boy is this thing fast! To sum it all up, we have yet to witness a single hint of lag. The performance of the device is just flawless no matter how much we push it. Multitasking is also silky smooth, which comes as no surprise given the whopping 3GB of RAM tucked under the phone's hood.

There's plenty of storage on board the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 – enough to store tons of music, photos, applications, and hours of high-definition video. 32- and 64-gigabyte models will be made available, with the option to add extra space using a microSD card of up to 64GB. And if that's not enough, Samsung is treating Note 3 buyers to 50GB of free Dropbox storage for 2 years – ideal for backing up important and not-so-important files on the cloud.

Internet and connectivity

Needless to say, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 excels when it comes to browsing the internet. It is not only fast, but its stock browser app reacts to our navigation and input very well, without any lag. That the web page goes into full-screen mode on its own, thus spanning across the entire screen, is a neat addition. We also like the so-called Reader mode, which clears all unnecessary content, leaving only the text and some images, for easier reading of lengthy articles. Whole web pages can be read without having to zoom in as the screen is detailed enough to display even the smallest of text. All in all, if you do a lot of browsing on your smartphone, then the Note 3 won't disappoint.

Samsung has several Galaxy Note 3 versions ready, each of them tailored to the needs of a specific market. The LTE model comes with a radio capable of reaching 150Mbps down, at least in theory, which is pretty neat, assuming your carrier can provide all that bandwidth. That very same model packs a 42Mbps HSPA+ radio as well. Some countries will get the non-LTE Galaxy Note 3 model, offering just 42Mbps HSPA+ connectivity. Of course, both these versions come with the regular set of connectivity features, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC. In addition, the GPS radio is backed by GLONASS support, improving location detection in tricky areas. Assuming you have a USB 3.0 port on your computer, you'll be able to transfer files from and onto your Note 3 at high speeds as the smartphone supports the new standard.

Camera

The Note II had a very capable main camera and we're expecting its successor to follow suit. On the back of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 we see a 13MP shooter with a BSI sensor and digital image stabilization, backed by a high CRI (Color Rendering Index) LED flash. The latter is touted as capable of producing highly-accurate colors when used. But before we get to the actual photo samples, let's say a few words about the camera's features and UI.

We find the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 relatively easy to take photos with as its shape makes it suitable for being held horizontally. The camera app loads quickly and exhibits little to no shutter lag, which is great for capturing events as they happen. All in all, the camera UI looks as it does on other recent Samsungs. It is well laid out, with easy-to-reach settings menus, and instantly accessible shutter keys. Naturally, the experience is enhanced with a number of shooting modes that have been thrown in, including HDR, Panorama, Burst Shot, and more.


Since the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 unit we're handling is running an early software build, we'd like to restrain ourselves from commenting on its photos in detail. Yet they did turn out pretty good, although we're hoping that a retail unit will capture images with less noise in them, especially indoors. The flash appears to be working fine as we don't see the typical for Samsung devices cold colors when taking photos in low light.



The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 can record video in 4K resolution. That's 3840 x 2160 pixels, meant to match the native pixel count of those new, fancy 4K TVs. And the footage does look pristine – smooth and with tons of detail.

Multimedia

The gallery application lists image-containing folders on the left side of the screen, while thumbnails of the photos contained in the highlighted folder are displayed vertically on the right. New folders can be made, allowing one to make their own album. By hovering the S Pen over a given folder, one may get a preview of the images it contains, which is neat.

To be honest, we weren't expecting to see anything new upon launching the audio player loaded onto the Note 3. And our assumption turned out to be correct. Basically, the handset comes with the same Music app we know from the Galaxy S4 and its variations. But that isn't a bad thing, of course. The application is packed with a dozen of useful features, including lock screen controls, a home screen widget, an equalizer with tons of presets, and even voice commands for switching back and forth through the playlist. Furthermore, Samsung has not forgotten to include AdaptSound for fine-tuning the sound reproduction so that it would best match the user's earphones and hearing. Alternatively, Google's Play Music application is also present, for those who prefer that instead.

While we're at it, we must mention that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has been given support for 24bit/192kHz digital recordings, making it one of the very few smartphones capable of reproducing audio of such high resolution. Folks who are really into high-end audio will surely appreciate having this advantage, but we seriously doubt that the average Joe would be affected by it in any way.

As the case is with the Music player, the Video Player application we have on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is the same one we've seen numerous times on previous Samsung devices. And we're okay with that. The app works just fine, after all, and can play back any popular video file format we can think of. Watching videos on the handset's 5.7-inch 1080p screen is a pleasure, as you might expect. High-resolution videos are played back flawlessly, with no skipped frames or lags when fast-forwarding.

The built-in mono loudspeaker on the Note 3 it produces clear tones at a sufficient volume level, and we like that it is positioned on the bottom side of the device, not the back.

Battery

There is a 3200mAh battery tucked inside the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 – a decent capacity for a smartphone of this caliber. It is removable and can be replaced with a fresh one if exhausted. Official numbers regarding its longevity are yet to be announced.

Expectations

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is better than last year's model in every way imaginable, which makes it an ideal successor to a popular, easily recognizable device. And it is an awesome smartphone as a whole, as our examination goes to show, combining powerful hardware with tons of software features to attract buyers' attention with. We see great potential in it and we won't be surprised if the handset sells by the boatloads once it is released.

However, while the Galaxy Note 3 easily gets our thumbs-up, it leaves us craving for more. What we mean is that perhaps Samsung should have innovated further with the Note 3; it should have given it a more resounding “Wow!” factor instead of just treating us to the mandatory upgrades in the hardware department sprinkled with a handful of new S Pen features on top. After all, the time when the Galaxy Note stood in a league of its own is now gone. Sure, the Note 3 does seem to be one of the better large-screened smartphones to date, but the competition, aiming to grab a bite of the phablet segment, is steadily picking up pace.

The Sony Xperia Z Ultra, for example, is a well-made alternative to the Galaxy Note 3, with resistance to dust and water damage. Huawei, on the other hand, has the Ascend Mate, which is definitely cheaper than what the Note 3 will retail for. And then of course come the high-end handsets of slightly smaller caliber. The LG G2, to name one, comes with a screen that is nearly as large as the Note 3's and is just as capable in the hardware department as Samsung's offering.

Samsung has announced the Galaxy Note 3 release date already – that is set for September 25. Expect our complete Samsung Galaxy Note 3 review soon!