In the second half of 2013, sales of the new flagship Galaxy Note 3 smart phone started. Its technical characteristics, strengths and weaknesses will be discussed in this article.
Varieties
Initially, two modifications of this device appeared on sale: I9300 White and I9300 Black. The hardware resources of these models are identical. The difference is only in the color of the case. In the first case, it is presented in white, and in the second - in black. In early 2014, a version of the Galaxy Note 3 appeared, capable of working immediately with two SIM cards. Moreover, the technical specifications have undergone significant changes. The device has become less productive, but at the same time its cost has decreased. This model is designated as N7502 and is also available in two colors - white and black.
Housing
In both the first and second cases, the Galaxy Note 3 is a candy bar with touch input. The I9300 is slightly larger in size. The screen size in this case is 5.7 inches, and the dimensions are 148 mm by 77 mm with a device thickness of only 8.6 mm. Case material - plastic. From the back, it looks like leather, and on the perimeter it is opened with metal paint. One gets the impression that he has a metal edging, but in fact it is not. The N7502 has a diagonal of 0.2 inches smaller, and according to this indicator it fully corresponds to Note 2. At the same time, its dimensions remained the same, and the screen decreased. The case design itself has not changed. The back cover as it was, and remained from the plastic, designed under the skin. And the frame is covered with metal paint. But beneath it lies the same plastic.
Equipment
The equipment for all modifications of the Galaxy Note 3 is identical. In addition to the smartphone itself, in the box is a PC connection cord, charger, stereo headset, stylus and battery. The set of documentation includes a user manual and a warranty card. A special place among the listed accessories is occupied by the stylus. It allows you to significantly simplify the process of working on this gadget.
CPU
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in the first case is equipped with an eight-core 5420 processor of its own production. At the same time, only 4 cores can be in operation. Moreover, 4 more productive A15 architecture cores are launched only when there is not enough processing power. When simpler tasks are solved, then A7 works. There are four of them too. This solution allows you to combine high performance and energy efficiency in one device. The clock frequency can vary in the range from 300 MHz to 1.9 GHz. Samsung’s own development bypasses third-party products in performance. Be that as it may, the architecture of the A15 makes itself felt. Therefore, if you need the maximum level of performance, then you can take note of this model. She can handle everything. But in the case of the Galaxy Note 3 Duos, a third-party CPU is used - MSM8228 from Qualcomm, which belongs to the Snapdragon line. It is equipped with only 4 cores of the A7 architecture, which operate at a frequency of 1.7 GHz in peak load mode. As you can understand, in this case, the performance will be significantly lower with a similar level of energy consumption. But the cost of such a gadget will be less. However, to solve most everyday tasks, the resources of this model are quite sufficient.
Graphics subsystem
Different models of graphics cards are equipped with gadgets Samsung Galaxy Note 3. In the first case, the T628 MP6 from Mali is used. Today it is one of the most productive adapters that can easily cope with any task. But the N7502 is equipped with Adreno 305. As in the case of the CPU, performance is significantly reduced here. As noted earlier, the I9300 comes with a 5.7-inch display. It is made using the proprietary Super AMOLED technology. The screen resolution is 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels (the so-called HR di). Supports up to 5 touches simultaneously. The second model has similar characteristics. The difference is that it has a smaller size - 5.5 inches, and a resolution of 1280 pixels by 720 pixels. Both in the first and in the second case, over 16 million colors are displayed on it. The screen has viewing angles close to 180 degrees. The picture quality is not satisfactory. The color rendering is excellent. Another “trick” of these smartphones is that there is no air gap between the touch panel and the screen. As you know, such a technical solution significantly improves the quality of the image on the display, it distorts less. Although these devices are equipped with protective glass, it will still be more reliable to transport them in a case. Alas, this accessory does not come with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The case must be purchased separately. And it’s better to do it right away so that you don’t accidentally scratch the case or screen. It is recommended to pay attention to cases made of leatherette or genuine leather. Their service life is significantly longer.
Memory
An interesting situation with the memory in the Galaxy Note 3. Reviews of the owners of this gadget indicate this. The bottom line is that the same model can be equipped with different amounts of memory. In the case of the I9300, the operational will be necessarily 3 GB of the DDR3 standard. But the built-in can be either 32 GB or 64 GB. And here you need to carefully look at the documentation that comes with the device. As you can see, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 32Gb gadget will cost significantly less than the modification with 64 GB on board. But in the case of the N7502, everything is much simpler. It is equipped with 2 GB of RAM of the same standard as the flagship, and 16 GB of internal memory. There is also a separate slot for installing microSD cards. The maximum amount that can be used in this case is 64 GB. Do not forget that the internal memory is divided into parts. One of which is occupied by the operating system. For example, in the case of 16 GB, 2 GB (resident memory) and 12 GB (internal flash drive) will be allocated for the user's needs. The rest is occupied by the OS itself.
Camera
A similar parity is present in the cameras. The flagship solution uses a 13 megapixel matrix. The camera is located on the back cover of the smartphone and is equipped with an LED flash. There is also support for image stabilization technology and autofocus. Video can be recorded in a resolution of 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels at a speed of 30 frames per second. But the Galaxy Note 3 Neo is equipped with a more modest camera, which is based on an 8 megapixel matrix. At the same time, there is no longer any proprietary image stabilization technology in this device. But she records the video in a similar resolution. Also, for making video calls, there is a 2 MP front camera . Its peculiarity lies in the fact that it transmits the image as an HR di, that is, in a resolution of 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels.
Connection
A practically identical set of communications for the Galaxy Note 3, reviews of numerous owners of which confirm this. First of all, we note Wi-Fi. Moreover, all existing standards for this data transfer are supported - from "a" to "ac". That allows you to easily connect to any such wireless network. The second important component of the communication system is bluetooth. In this case, the 4th version transmitter is used. It can also work with all devices without exception equipped with such a module. Although infrared data transmission is becoming a thing of the past, in some cases the presence of such communication can be very useful. At least with its help you can download something from a personal computer or an old phone model. The phone has an integrated ZhPS sensor. And universal, which can also work with the GLONASS navigation system. In general, if necessary, you can use the Galaxy Note 3 as a navigator. Reviews only confirm this. To get lost on the ground in the presence of such a device is almost impossible. Also, this smartphone is equipped with an A-ZHPS module for navigating mobile towers. Among the minuses, it can be noted that there is no support for networks of the 4th generation. Although some I9300 models may have such a module, this is already an option. But there is full support for networks of the 3rd generation (WCDMA standard, data transfer rate up to 42 Mbps). This is enough to quickly download documents, watch videos from the Internet and surf sites. There is also the possibility of working in networks of the 2nd generation, but in this case the functions of the smartphone will be significantly limited. The data transfer rate will be a maximum of 200-300 Kb. This is enough unless for messaging on social networks or to view simple sites. But video calls at this data rate are impossible to make. Support for USB 3.0 standard is an important innovation of Galaxy Note 3. A review without mentioning this nuance will be incomplete. Due to this option, the speed of connection via wires to a PC increases several times. Also, the developers did not forget about backward compatibility with the previous version of this standard. Simply, when connected to USB 2.0, the data transfer speed will significantly decrease.
Battery
Each Galaxy Note 3 model is equipped with a different type of battery. An overview of this particular part of the technical specifications confirms this. A more advanced version with 8 cores on board is equipped with a 3200 milliampere / hour battery. According to the manufacturer, its resource with an active load is enough for 2-3 days. This is an excellent indicator for a device of this class and with such a diagonal. In turn, the capacity of this battery is enough for 20 days of battery life. Also a great indicator. A completely different situation with the second model Galaxy Note 3. A review of its technical specifications suggests that it is equipped with a 3100 milliampere / hour battery. This is 100 milliamps / hour less than the flagship model. The main problem is that two SIM cards are already working here. Which uses battery life more intensively. As a result, with very intensive operation of the device, one charge is enough for one day of work, up to a maximum of 2. That is, according to this indicator, the N7502 loses 2 times the I9300. But this minor flaw is offset by a price that is much lower.
Software
The latest current Galaxy Note 3 firmware is number 4.3. Of course, this is the version of the most popular Android operating system to date. Of course, this is not 4.4.2 (the latest version of this OS). But still for most users it will be quite enough. On this system software, all the software that is available for this platform will run without problems. That is, there are simply no problems with software compatibility at the moment. Mandatory in the basic version of the software of this gadget social services are pre-installed, among which are Twitter, Facebook and VKontakte. There is still a certain set of widgets (for example, weather forecast). But there is one important nuance. If you do not have an account on Facebook, for example, and you do not plan to register on this social network, then you can delete this utility and thereby clear the additional amount of internal memory. We should also mention an application such as S Note. It plays a key role in this smartphone model. With it, you can create various electronic notes. Moreover, they can be either drawn, entered manually, or use various blanks, for example, clippings from sites or parts of a navigation map. In general, the addition of “laptop” (literally translated from English, this word means “notepad”) in this case is more than relevant. This smartphone really allows you to easily replace a regular paper notebook with a digital, more functional one. Considering Samsung’s approach to supporting its devices, most likely, updating to the latest current version of the operating system on this class of devices is just around the corner.
Stylus
Smartphone Galaxy Note 3 I9300 is equipped with a special stylus. You can get it in the lower right corner of the gadget body. A special menu will appear with the following items:
- "Writing handwritten notes" that are saved in a special application.
- "Scrapbook" - with its help you can take a screenshot. Moreover, in whole or in part.
- "Entering a recording over the current image" makes it easy and simple to mark the most important information.
- "Sphinder" - allows you to quickly find the information you need inside the device’s memory.
- "Pen window" - with its help, on top of any program, you can run a new one without closing the old one. It is very convenient when you need to take data in a browser, for example, and calculate them in a calculator. The idea is excellent, but the list of applications for this operation is very small.
The previously listed functions can not be found in any other device. This is an indisputable advantage of this model. But in order to use them to the maximum, you need to adapt to them. And this is unlikely to succeed right away. So this point also needs to be considered. But then you can achieve a significant increase in productivity while working on such an electronic "notebook".
Summary
Samsung took two niches at once with the help of the Galaxy Note 3 model. Today the flagship price is $ 600, and it refers to extra-class devices. Its characteristics, even after a year, still remain relevant. It can easily compete with any device of this class. But the N7502 costs $ 150 less - 450. But its characteristics are more modest. It should already be attributed to the middle segment, where it will also be among the leaders. So if you plan to buy yourself a high-quality, productive and functional smartphone of an average or top level, then you can safely turn your attention to these devices. The best device in terms of functionality and equipment will be very difficult to find among analogues.