In the second half of 2013, sales of the new flagship smart phone Galaxy Note 3 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 only difference is the body color. In the first case, it is presented in white, and in the second - in black. At the beginning of 2014, a version of the Galaxy Note 3 appeared, capable of working with two SIM cards at once. Moreover, 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.
Case
Both in 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 diagonal 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, but it is opened around the perimeter.metallic paint. It gives the impression that it 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 is fully consistent with Note 2. At the same time, its dimensions remained the same, and the screen decreased. The body design itself has not changed. The back cover, as it was, remained made of plastic, designed to look like leather. And the frame is covered with metallic paint. But the same plastic is hidden under it.
Package
The equipment for all modifications of the Galaxy Note 3 is identical. In addition to the smartphone itself, the box contains a PC connection cable, a charger, a stereo headset, a stylus and a battery. The documentation package includes a user manual and a warranty card. A special place among the listed accessories is occupied by a 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 at the same time. Moreover, 4 more productive cores of the A15 architecture are launched only when there is not enough computing power. When simpler tasks are solved, A7 works. There are also four of them. This solution allows you to combine high performance and energy efficiency in one device. The clock frequency can vary from 300 MHz to 1.9 GHz. This in-house development by Samsung outperformsthird party products. Be that as it may, the A15 architecture 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 see, in this case, the performance will be significantly lower with a similar level of power consumption. But the cost of such a gadget will be less. However, for most everyday tasks, the resources of this model are quite enough.
Graphics subsystem
Different models of graphics adapters are equipped with Samsung Galaxy Note 3 gadgets. In the first case, 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 according to the proprietary technology "Super AMOLED". The screen resolution is 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels (so-called HD). Supports up to 5 touches simultaneously. The second model has similar characteristics. The difference is that it is smaller at 5.5 inches and has a resolution of 1280 pixels by 720 pixels. How inthe first, and in the second case, it displays more than 16 million colors. The screen has viewing angles close to 180 degrees. The quality of the picture raises no objections. Color rendition 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 picture on the display, distorts it less. Although these devices are equipped with a protective glass, it will still be more reliable to transport them in a case. Alas, this accessory is not included with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The cover must be purchased separately. And it is better to do it right away, so that later you do not accidentally scratch the case or screen. It is recommended to pay attention to covers made of leatherette or genuine leather. Their service life is significantly longer.
Memory
An interesting situation has developed with the memory in the Galaxy Note 3. Reviews of the owners of this gadget testify to this. The bottom line is that the same model can be equipped with different amounts of memory. In the case of the I9300, 3 GB of the DDR3 standard will be operational. 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 easily understand, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 32Gb gadget will cost significantly less than the 64 GB modification 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. Also havea separate slot for installing memory cards of the "MicroSD" format. 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 needs of the user. The rest is occupied by the OS itself.
Camera
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 at 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels at 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 proprietary image stabilization technology in this device. But she records the video in the same resolution. There is also a 2MP front camera for making video calls. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that it transmits the image as an h-di, that is, in a resolution of 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels.
Connection
The Galaxy Note 3 has an almost identical set of communications, the reviews of which numerous owners confirm this. First of all, we note wi-fi. Moreover, all existing standards for this data transfer are supported - from "a" to "ac". That will allow you to easily connect to any suchwireless network. The second important component of the communication system is bluetooth. In this case, the transmitter version 4 is used. It can also work with any and all devices 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 the very least, it can be used to download anything from a personal computer or an old phone model. The phone has an integrated ZHPS sensor. Moreover, it is universal, which can also work with the GLONASS navigation system. In general, if necessary, you can also use the Galaxy Note 3 as a navigator. Reviews only confirm this. Getting lost on the ground with such a device is almost impossible. Also, this smartphone is equipped with an A-ZhPS module for navigating through mobile towers. Among the minuses, it can be noted that there is no support for 4th generation networks. Although some I9300 models may have such a module, it is already an option. But there is full support for 3rd generation networks (WCDMA standard, data transfer rate up to 42 Mbps). This is enough to quickly download documents, watch videos from the Internet and surf sites. It is also possible to work in 2nd generation networks, 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 only enough to exchange messages on social networks or to view simple sites. But video calls at this data rate cannot be made. SupportThe USB 3.0 standard is an important innovation in the Galaxy Note 3. A review without mentioning this nuance would be incomplete. Due to this option, the speed of connecting by wire to a PC increases several times. Also, the developers did not forget about backward compatibility with the previous version of this standard. It's just that when you connect to USB 2.0, the data transfer speed will drop significantly.
Battery
A different type of battery comes with each of the Galaxy Note 3 models. A review of this particular part of the technical specifications confirms this. A more advanced version with 8 cores on board is equipped with a 3200 milliamp / hour battery. According to the manufacturer, its resource under 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 score. The situation is quite different with the second Galaxy Note 3 model. A review of its technical specifications suggests that it is equipped with a 3100 milliamp / hour battery. That's 100 milliamps/hour less than the flagship model. The main problem is that two SIM cards are already working here. Which is more battery intensive. As a result, with a very intensive functioning of the device, one charge is enough for one day of work, a maximum of 2. That is, according to this indicator, the N7502 loses 2 times to the I9300. But this minor drawback is compensated by the price, which is much lower.
Soft
Latest actual firmwareThe Galaxy Note 3 is numbered 4.3. Of course, this is a 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 enough. On this system software, all software that is available for this platform will run without problems. That is, there are simply no problems with software compatibility at the moment. Without fail, in the basic version of the software of this gadget, social services are preinstalled, among which are Twitter, Facebook and VKontakte. There is also a certain set of widgets (for example, a weather forecast). But there is one important nuance. If you do not have a Facebook account, for example, and you do not plan to register with this social network, then you can remove this utility and thereby clear the additional amount of internal memory. Separately, it is worth noting such an application as S Note. It plays a key role in this smartphone model. With it, you can create various electronic notes. Moreover, they can be drawn, entered manually, and various blanks can be used, for example, clippings from sites or parts of a navigation map. In general, the additive "laptop" (literally translated from English, this word means "notebook") in this case is more than relevant. This smartphone really makes it easy to replace a regular paper notebook with a more functional digital one. Given Samsung's approach to supporting their devices, it's likelyupdating 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 comes with a special stylus. You can get it in the lower right corner of the gadget case. This will bring up a special menu with the following items:
- "Entering handwritten notes", which are saved in a special application.
- "Scrapbook" - with it you can take a screenshot of the screen. Moreover, in whole or in part.
- "Enter 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 launch a new one without closing the old one. It is very convenient when you need to take data in the browser, for example, and calculate it in a calculator. The idea is great, but the list of applications for this operation is very small.
The previously listed functions cannot be found in any other device. This is an undeniable advantage of this model. But in order to use them to the maximum, you need to adapt to them. And this is unlikely to happen right away. So this moment also needs to be taken into account. But then you can achieve a significant increase in productivity while working on such an electronic "notepad".
Results
Samsung immediately occupied two niches with the help ofGalaxy Note 3 models. The price of the flagship today is $600, and it belongs to the top-class devices. Its characteristics, even after a year, are still relevant. It can easily compete with any device of this class. But the N7502 costs $150 less - $450. But its characteristics are also more modest. It should already be attributed to the middle segment, where it will also be among the leaders. So if you are planning to buy a high-quality, productive and functional smartphone of an average or higher 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.
