There has been so much FUSS about the New Galaxy Note 3, alot of things have been said, but what is it really all about? Want to find out?!
Come along, as I review Samsung's Latest and Greatest - THE SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3!

(There is alot I want to say, so forgive me if the Review is bulky and I hope I cover everything too. Lol)

First of all, let me say that initially, before i got this phone, i wasn't too excited by it. Maybe it was because I had a Galaxy S4 already,
or maybe because it was gonna be my first ever note series phone and I wasn't expecting alot from it!
The Galaxy Note 3 BLEW MY MIND! Lets find out how as I BREAK IT DOWN!

FIRST IMPRESSION (FIRST SIGHT)
Looking at the Note 3 immediately I opened the box, just looking at it sit there, there was no 'WOW' factor as this is typically what we see or expect Galaxy Flagship phones to look like.
There was Nothing really that said 'This is why I cost so much', as the HTC One does. But thats about First sight, moving on to design...

DESIGN
Samsung are not the best in terms of designing phones, but the Note 3 is their best designed of all recent flagship so far (IMO Design-wise Note 3 > S4 > S2 > Note 2 > S3).
Though not everyone will agree, i think thats how it stands. Anyways, I think what Samsung tried to do is give it an actual 'Note' look especially with the lines running along the silver area,
which is supposed to give you the idea of a closed book or a closed 'Note' . This also explains the textured plastic and stitches used for the back cover,
which gives the phone a more premium look... It's supposed to give out the idea of the phone being sort of like these diaries or notepads with the Leather covers.
This is brilliant as it does fall in line with the whole 'Note concept'. So, picking up the phone and taking a closer look, i was not disappointed at all!
Thinner bezels and slightly taller (compared to Note 2), to accommodate the now 5.7 inch 1080p display. Speaking of the display....

DISPLAY
The 5.7 inch 1080p display is absolutely beautiful! AMOLED displays has never let down in this respect, it didn't this time! At 5.7 inches and 1080 by 1920 resolution,
this display is MASSIVE and just brilliant! 386PPI compared to 267 of the Note 2. The colors just pop right out of the screen and are in your face!
The Blacks are so Black, the colors are saturated enough to look beautiful, yet not too saturated to be called 'fake', fantastic stuff. It is also brighter than that of the Note 2.
You will not be complaining about the display!

CPU
Not many people heard about the Broken CCI bus in the Exynos 5410 of the S4 (which affected it's battery life mostly). Samsung said they were going to fix it in the 5420,
and that they have done! Running at 1.9GHz, the A15 CPU of the S4 are powerful enough to chew any heavy task thrown at it and the A7 run as smart as ever to manage those less intense apps.
I think the New CPU plays a Big Role in the excellent Battery Life of the Note 3. The UI of the Note 3 is very fast and responsive also, snappy if you will (details later in review).
I did try out some games, how did the GPU do?...

GPU
The Mali-T628 MP6 GPU did live up to expectation when i did put it to the test, I'm not the biggest gamer but this GPU is Powerful! Playing Asphalt 8, FIFA 14, Virtual Tennis, Modern Combat 4,
I didn't find any hiccups, games are smooth and Lag-Free. I guess that is what you expect from a high-end device and after paying all that money! Still haven't been able to try Real Racing 3,
but I'm almost certain the Mali-T628 MP6 and the A15s of the Exynos 5 Octa will chew it up as always. Bottom-line, GPU is great also. The Note 3 must consume alot of Power, you think so? Lets find out!

BATTERY
This is one aspect of the Note 3 that amazes me! The battery is FANTASTIC! Notes are popularly known for their good battery life, but I think the Note 3 is exceptional.
Considering that the battery was only bumped up from 3100 to 3200mAh (Note2 to Note3), yet the Note3 having a 1080p display, you would expect that the Note3 would be at par with the Note 2,
or even play catch-up, but NO that's not the case. The Note3 battery life is great and I guess the CPU optimization/management/improvement/fix or whatever, we have to thank for this mostly.
Anyways, I did some battery tests and this is how it went.
Considering that i use mobile data only,

On 2G only mode (1% battery left):
Total Time: 18h 21m 2s
Screen On time: 8h 18m 4s
WhatsApp, 2 Emails Syncing, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and Twitter all running in background. Every other user app Greenified.

Here are Screens - http://i43.tinypic.com/11jsuhh.png | http://i43.tinypic.com/2vsnekp.png | http://i41.tinypic.com/2mpjvrr.png

On 3G/HSPA only mode (Incomplete test, got to only 30% before i charged )
At 50%, Screen on time was 4hrs 7mins 38secs
At 30%, Screen on time was 5hrs 46mins 7secs
Though tests not complete and total time stood at just over 10 hours, I want to believe that getting to 7hrs on screen in 3G mode should be easy and 7:30 is realistic

Remember that you get better battery when on WiFi too! All this was on Rooted Stock ROM. Might even have better with custom, who knows?!

RAM
Not really much to say here, with the right amount of Bloat Frozen, I have at LEAST 1.5GB Free RAM at all times. Also, keep in mind that Total usable of the 3GB is 2.66GB.

SOFTWARE/UI
Touchwiz as we know is famous for Bottle-necking UI speed/performance, but this has changed with the Note 3. Something I am indeed very glad about!
Now, I really don't know where to point my finger at, that is responsible for making the Note 3 UI FLY! Whether it is the 'fixed' Exynos 5420, Or the 3GB of RAM,
Or the Android 4.3 OS, Or the Revamped TouchWiz UI (I wish it is). All I know for sure is that I love it! NO LAGS! From unlocking the screen, to scrolling,
popping open the gallery, the dialer, opening up apps, even Boot-Up/Shut-Down/Rebooting are very quick. Let's hope we see this on S3 and Note 2 before the year ends.
(The Delay when switching from Dialer to Contacts is still there, but this is technically not lag. Many might not even experience this, I have many contacts. That reminds me,
I have to delete some, they paid up already )

STORAGE
Boy was I glad to hear that Samsung scrapped off 16GB models of the Note 3. This must have been because on the S4, only 8.90GB was available for use in I9500 16GB model,
9.23GB in the I9505 variant. (Tho a fix is available to bump that up to the expected 11.8GB).
The Note3 (SM-900) comes out of the box with 25.9GB usable memory of the total 32GB as the system needs 6GB storage space to run. Pairing this up with my 16GB External SD card,
that has 14.83GB usable, I can safely say I have total available memory of 40GB on my phone. B|

S-PEN
Samsung has improved on the S-Pen functions yet again. But so far, IMO this has been my disappointing part of the Note 3. Now don't get me wrong,
I'm not saying that it doesn't work as advertised or that it is faulty. Or maybe it is because I am new to the 'Note series' and the S-Pen having used only the S2,S3 and S4 in the past year.
Pulling out the pen is kind of difficult, I have gotten a technique tho, fingernails! Lol. And even when the S-Pen is out, I don't feel it is as sensitive as it should be.
My friend who used a Note 2 took a go at it and didn't find any issues with it. Oh Well!
Now, the S-Pen can operate the capacitive menu and back buttons, how frustrating it was to always press 'back' with your finger on your Note 2!
You can also fit the S-Pen into the phone in two ways, which is a good thing

SOUND
The speakers on this thing is great! Loud and clear. Of course not as clear as the monitor speakers in your recording studios but it's huge improvement over that of the Note 2,
Maybe it is because it is now located under the phone, next to the charging port and not behind the device, but it sure is pretty LOUD.
My brother said 'A step higher and that would be abnormal for a phone'. LOL! So now, you can enjoy your games and music and movies even more if you love using speakers.
For me, I prefer everything through earphones, which it's sound production has similarly improved... I wouldn't say clearer/crispier than the S4 but DEFINITELY louder.
And I haven't taking the plastic off my Note3 earphones as i still have my S4 one but I am 99% sure they are the same thing.

NOTE2 TO NOTE3 (STEPPING-UP)
It's sometimes normal that the older flagship has a certain advantage over the newer one, just like you have S2 over S3 in design and maybe USB Mass storage thingy.
And we have Exynos S3 over Exynos S4 in battery life (Stock).
I have searched and searched, maybe not too well.. But there is nothing the Note 2 has over Note 3. Be it Screen (size or quality), Battery? CPU? GPU? Design? Sound? RAM? Connection Speeds?
Some people might say Price, but that is not technical and we all know
So Yes! this is a worthy upgrade if your pocket can survive the brutal attack. Lol.

BUG
The only bug I noticed so far is something with the keyboard, it stops responding for a second or two then immediately shows what you typed in when it wasn't responding,
I didn't categories this as lag because it happens only when using the keyboard, didnt try any third party tho. Samsung is aware of this and have attempted to fix it,
as I just downloaded a Samsung keyboard update from Play Store. Let's hope this fixes it.

Would this review be complete without talking about the NEW and EXCITING USB 3.0 capability?! No! With copying speeds of over 65MB/s, I need not talk about it too much!
I also feel like the Note3 is a tad too big, but if you are buying a Note are you supposed to be complaining about the size? Lol.
Btw, One-handed operation is still possible to an extent for me, King Kong hands i know Can't reach the top of the screen diagonally though.
However provision has been made software wise to reduce display area and make one handed operation a breeze!

CONCLUSION
Question: How good is the Note 3?
Reply: My S4 is collecting dust on my bedside table. That reminds me, I have to clean it so it looks neat when i sell it.

Samsung has shown yet again that they are here to stay, now unarguably the King of the Phablet world, the Note 3 is worth getting.
DESIGN YOUR LIFE! #SAMSUNGNATION

Captain Awesome
Reporting for Myself!

Guy tnx 4 d review even though i have seen other reviews frm other foreign sites yours is easily understandable(let me put it dat way) since it's coming 4rm a naija guy like me(lol).I happen to have come across d note 3 yesterday(a friend of mine jst bought it),d first thing i noticed was d large screen and yet it was very light.This things alone made me to believe dat samsung are really a gud company when it comes to smartphns.But as for d 1080p screen,it wasn't dat all suprisingly new to me bcuz i have used an s3 with 720p screen b4.Its was bright,crisp and well detailed but not compared to my amazement when i 1st saw d 720p screen of S3.But overall my experience with d phn was amazing,it's sure a worthy upgrade if u have d money(lol).

Nice one sir.. Abeg, is Africa among the regional lock ish?

kel2me: Nice one stan man, nw about ur s4... Even tho note 3 is so tempting, damn! Lol

Everyone keeps asking of My S4 but no one is showing me money. It's 80K. With flip cover, S-Line grip case, full accessories and even the box. No negotiation. First Come First Serve. I'm selling you the quality.

sushieater: Nice one sir.. Abeg, is Africa among the regional lock ish?

I didn't read about that yet, I know of US and Europe

Victor Tobore: Guy tnx 4 d review even though i have seen other reviews frm other foreign sites yours is easily understandable(let me put it dat way) since it's coming 4rm a naija guy like me(lol).I happen to have come across d note 3 yesterday(a friend of mine jst bought it),d first thing i noticed was d large screen and yet it was very light.This things alone made me to believe dat samsung are really a gud company when it comes to smartphns.But as for d 1080p screen,it wasn't dat all suprisingly new to me bcuz i have used an s3 with 720p screen b4.Its was bright,crisp and well detailed but not compared to my amazement when i 1st saw d 720p screen of S3.But overall my experience with d phn was amazing,it's sure a worthy upgrade if u have d money(lol).

Well said mate! And yh, I tried to break it down properly... Samsung AMOLED displays are fantastic.

Ok, so there was no sticker on the box that said such?

sushieater: Ok, so there was no sticker on the box that said such?

One sticker for IMEI
One confirms the model
And the last one is the one dat says you shouldn't accept if seal is broken. Nothing about SimLock

Almost the same observations I came across too. The only issue I had was the hand writing recognition, but when I downloaded the update from Play Store, the issue/bug was taken care of.
The multitasking function is really great too

pls am a bit confused should I go for the lg g2 or the note3 I need advice tanks.

lexrichy: pls am a bit confused should I go for the lg g2 or the note3 I need advice tanks.

Whatever tickles ur fancy, I'm always gonna say Note 3. So!

Wilfem: Almost the same observations I came across too. The only issue I had was the hand writing recognition, but when I downloaded the update from Play Store, the issue/bug was taken care of.
The multitasking function is really great too

Hmmnn! cool!.

lexrichy: pls am a bit confused should I go for the lg g2 or the note3 I need advice tanks.

Guy if i be u,i no go think am twice b4 i buy d note 3.But then again i'm not u and evrybody with what he/she likes but let me tell u something,frm my research both phns are almost d same when it comes to performance but i still think d note 3 surpasses d lg g2 a little bit in d benchmark test.Design on d other hand is a draw bcuz both phn still uses plastic but not like any other plastic though but samsung have been able to blend into d note 3 a leather back cover that makes d phn looks even more cooler.Talking of d display both phns uses 1080p display but while d lg g2 uses true hd ips-lcd display d note 3 uses super amoled display but unlike any other amoled display that of d note 3 is much brighter and more detailed with gud viewing angel.And another tin to bear in mind is dat d lg g2 has no removable battery cover nor sd card slot(although there are some with this featurs but i doubt if those models will get 2 naija because they are regional market locked,but even if it does u have to pay more to get it)while d note 3 has dis 2 features on all models.So when contemplating on which of dis devices to buy d factors dat comes to play is size,battery back up,removable ba3 and sd card slot.The note 3 has all dis features xpect to some it might be 2 big thus making them to go 4 d lg g2 phn which is more compactable but has ok but not awsome ba3 back up,non removable ba3 cover & no sd card slot.U can do more research and still try to get more info abt this 2 beast of a phn but if i be u na note 3 i go buy without even blinking because dis country wen light never stable phns with gud ba3 back up are phns to buy and along d line there might b need 4 u to either replace your ba3 or buy another to increase your fun which is very easy to do with note 3 and complex if not even impossible with lg g2.Lastly i don't see a reason y i should buy a phn without sd card slot,c'mon...whether u buy d 64gb model or 32gb it will get full someday and there will b need upgrade through sd card slot.Hp i have been of help 2 u,what u buy is left 4 u to decide afterall na ya moni kill am(lol).

One thing I'm particularly impressed with is the design. Sammy finally went back to the S2 and note 1 design which is much better than the s3 and s4 design. l wonder why they changed it in the 1st place.

Samsungs biggest strength and biggest weakness is touchwiz. Yeah, it is the most functional UI/OS but it also got too much bloatware. The features are cool but take too much storage and reduces Hence, lag atimes. Samsung should work on touchwiz.

caukerzee: Samsungs biggest strength and biggest weakness is touchwiz. Yeah, it is the most functional UI/OS but it also got too much bloatware. The features are cool but take too much storage and reduces Hence, lag atimes. Samsung should work on touchwiz.

Read the review, TouchWiz got better...

Hi Op, just a few questions. Cos I will be getting this phone though the region lock ish has been putting me off.
Are you in Nigera?
How did u buy ur phone? Is it an European, Asian, or American model?
Is it the N9000 or N9005?

Comparing the S4s screen with the Note 3s which would you say is better?

Thanks a lot guys i rest my case with the note3 but how can I select the one with snapdragon 800 processor I think I prefer that version.

lexrichy: Thanks a lot guys i rest my case with the note3 but how can I select the one with snapdragon 800 processor I think I prefer that version.

Get N9005 and goodluck buying that from a decent source here in Nigeria. And for sure! You won't get warranty on it.

Lord_Reed: Comparing the S4s screen with the Note 3s which would you say is better?

Both screens are 1080p, The Note3 one is 5.7 inches and the S4 one is 5 inches. It's only natural dat S4 has more Pixels Per Inch. 441 against the 367 of the Note3. Not sure 367 but to lazy to research now. still in bed. But you get my point. But it is said that the eyes can't normally differenciate above 300 PPI. haven't pit them against each other.

Greyfog: Hi Op, just a few questions. Cos I will be getting this phone though the region lock ish has been putting me off.
Are you in Nigera?
How did u buy ur phone? Is it an European, Asian, or American model?
Is it the N9000 or N9005?

Oga I buy my phone for Park and Shop at Adeola Adeko VI. 115K directly from Samsung. 2nd October.

Stanley08:

Oga I buy my phone for Park and Shop at Adeola Adeko VI. 115K directly from Samsung. 2nd October.

Thanks for the feedback.

I go wait till next year when the price for note3 would have dropped. Thanks OP for the review. This tech pple sef!

emeraldlife: I go wait till next year when the price for note3 would have dropped. Thanks OP for the review. This tech pple sef!

Lol. If you wait till 2016 after world cup, you might even get it for 10K. Lool.

Nna eh!!! Dis one make sense ooo... But the price high.. Next year tinz...

@post what about the gear?

Do more with you Galaxy
Note 3 with multi window
mode. http://oak.ctx.ly/r/e0ak

Stan is simply d best wit android, let me just type, I ll miss u using s4!...cheers.[color=#006600][/color]

holard07: Stan is simply d best wit android, let me just type, I ll miss u using s4!...cheers.[color=#006600][/color]

Lol! Mate! I still have my S4. I'm now using it to test ROMs. I flash it everyday.

Stanley08:

Lol! Mate! I still have my S4. I'm now using it to test ROMs. I flash it everyday.

LOL

Any idea where I can get a flip cover for this phone?

Sweetdoct247: Any idea where I can get a flip cover for this phone?

Note 3? Not available yet.

@Stanley08

Nice review. Seems you have the black one. Did you get to see the white version? What's your take on them colour-wise?

jedisco: @Stanley08

Nice review. Seems you have the black one. Did you get to see the white version? What's your take on them colour-wise?

Do I want a phone that palm oil or ink or dust or something else can stain? No! Black is for men. Women -> White. Simple!

Stanley08:

Do I want a phone that palm oil or ink or dust or something else can stain? No! Black is for men. Women -> White. Simple!

Gbam!!! White is meant for gals... Too shiny!!!

A stellar review! One of the best Nigerian review I've seen so far.
Would like to know how well the photo shootouts of the Note 3 goes against S4.