Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Black 32GB (Verizon Wireless)..
Special Price Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Black 32GB (Verizon Wireless) By Samsung
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399 of 416 people found the following review helpful.
By Critical Reviewer
All right here is an honest review about the note 3. It's something that I will approach from the perspective of someone in the Medical field, who needs to get things done quickly, and efficiently.
First of all, I received my phone on October 10th, and I had pre-ordered it but DID NOT pay 299. Well initially I did, but there is a promo code of VERIZON30 that drops the note 3 down to 209.99. I bought the Note 3 for myself and the LG G2 for my wife. Needless to say, at the price of 139.99 for the G2 and 209.99 for the Note 3, we returned the G2 for the note 3 despite the G2's incredible low light camera performance. Here is why.
Backstory: prior to buying the note 3 I have had the Droid Razr Maxx, which for its time was a great device. Now that apps are becoming more memory intensive, something needed to change. I needed a phone that wouldn't lag on me, and I really don't care about gimmicks such as scrolling while looking up or down, or pausing a video if I look away. Who really cares about that stuff? If I want to pause, I tap on the screen, which is less time consuming that looking away and ensuring my phone has paused playing a video. In addition, I really don't want that front facing camera on unless I am using it. Also, I was always reluctant to buy a Samsung phone because of the plastic build, but you know I always keep my phone in a safe case. I will talk about this a little later.
Now, right before I let go of my razr maxx, I briefly upgraded to the note 2 for 2 days. I chose the note 2 because I was in best buy and was comparing the HTC ONE which best buy had on sale for $50 and all of a sudden I decided to listen to the note 2's speaker. I was blown away in comparison to the razr maxx, but blown away which how much more I got in comparison to the HTC one. We are all going to large screens now, and frankly who the heck wants to hold the phone closer to their face? I certainly don't so I upgraded to the note 2. I really did not fall in love with it until the day I was sitting in my senior human cadaver anatomy course, and realized I had forgotten my Anatomy atlas and my notebook. I frantically searched the note 2 and found an app called S Note. I opened S note and began using it. I was blow away, there are blood vessels that are large and really thing, and I used to be able to only differentiate that on paper. Not this time, with the note 2 I was able to use the thin and thick lines as differentiators thanks to the S-pen. I then made my decision that I would return the note 2 and wait for the note 3 because of the larger screen, and faster processor. In addition, I had a memory intensive Anatomy app running on the note 2 that smoothly ran it, when my HP touchpad running android decided to begin hiccupping.
Now with all that said, this is why I feel the note 3 is the best choice on the market. First of all, if your going to purchase a phone that you are spending your hard earned money on it, it should be in the most secure and safest cases. It's an investment, that when 2 years later you sell back, you can almost pay for your new device. Second of all, we will ALL drop our phones at SOME POINT, and its important to protect them. I purchased the Spigen Bounce case despite it being slightly ugly; I got the gray one because Incipio NGP tpu cases are NOT yet available for this phone. That case kept my razr maxx in like new condition.
Now, I really protect my phone because I have my entire life on it, my class schedule, my hospital schedule, my family schedule, my kids doctors appointments, my appointments, my tests etc. EVERYTHING. So I needed a phone that was behind me 100% and never let me down. It has been the case with the note 3. I have customized it and it still hasn't hiccupped yet.
Now the actual review:
Screen & Productivity: The large display is fantastic. It is large enough to hold a full month calendar on one home screen and 3 days on another. I absolutely love the vivid screen because my anatomy apps, as well as using it to take notes is an absolute breeze. My only recommendation is to add many pages before you begin in lecture or whatever you want to take notes in.
There are many times where I find inspirational quotes on Facebook (FB) and wish I could save them and tag them to share not via FB but text messages etc. Scrap book has allowed me to do just that, I can share inspirational quotes and pictures with anyone and it's a breeze to look them up by placing my OWN PERSONAL tags for each photo. I hold the menu button, type inspiration and BAM; I have all my things that are tagged inspirational.
Sometimes I also need a list of diagnostic medical conditions, and it's easy to quickly create a scrapbook memo or create a flow chart in S-note. Etc. In fact the other day, I was talking to Verizon and needed to write down the conformational code etc. for my second note 3, and you know what I did? I was on the dialer page, pulled out the S-pen and circled the page, then I notated it with all the information, it contains the date, the time, and all the information I need to have in case something went awry.
I absolutely love this feature and it is very important.
Another feature I love is that when I am on YouTube, I can load HD very quickly, the LG g2 did a good job in this too, but the razr maxx despite being an LTE phone did not handle this very well. Another thing I really love on this phone straight out of the gate is that it tells me how many text messages I have (like an unread count). Its something I like, it also has many accounts built right in, such as amazon, Facebook etc. I was able to disable most of the bloat ware by going to manage applications and clicking disable in some of the pre-loaded Verizon apps.
The IR blaster is great, I've already started using it on all my TV's however, it wont turn the volume up on my LG TV but do every else. In addition, I am able to have in memory which room has which TV and so when I switch rooms, I also switch rooms on my phone, which allows me to use it as a remote. Great when you have to hide the remote from your little ones.
Battery Life: Used it for an entire day hardcore, and its still at 31% at the end of the day after about 6 am to 1 am usage.
UPDATE 10.23.13- see the attached screen shot of battery usage. I was pretty impressed. I do know for a fact though that S- health eats battery life like crazy.
Also I LOVE the speaker placement on the bottom of the phone, because it's just smart. When I hold my phone, it cups around the speaker channeling the sound directly to me, and not the entire audience behind my phone. Smart.
People have complained about the flip board app, but keep in mind, this is android and not IOS. We have choices here. Download an app called home 2 shortcut and it allowed me to configure double tapping the home button to start Google now rather than anything else. Its fantastic and a great use of android capabilities.
(I will update more here)
The S-pen I received was faulty with my phone, and so Verizon sent me a brand new one for free. Not taking off stars for that, during the pre-order stage stuff like that happens every once in a while. The Spen was completely usable I just had to add a little extra pressure. But no worries, it's taken care of and all is well.
The power button has a slight lag when you just tap it to turn on the screen; if you give it a robust tap it comes on quicker. It is quickest to turn on the screen using the home button when it's sleeping. It kind of irritates me that it is that way.
NOTE 10.23.13 It maybe quicker to use the HOME button to do the same thing.
I wish Samsung allowed customization of the LED colors for the types of notifications.
Note 10.23.13 Re: reception issues- I know people have complained about reception issues, but truly I haven't had many. Just a couple here and there. I think the reality is that the Note 3 is SLOW at switching networks etc. So rather than wait, I have just downloaded a refresh network app, which does what I need in less than 15 seconds and gives me a fresh connection. I don't see it as much of an inconvenience especially because the many positives of this device outweigh this one negative. I haven't had no reception anywhere.
Tethering by the has been pretty amazingly fast with this phone, and it DOES NOT GET HOT!!!! I love that! My razr maxx used to be a meteorite when it was tethering.
More to come.
UPDATE 12.13.13
I apologize it has been a while to update. I absolutely still love this phone, and I wouldnt change much about my review. I will say that I have experience reception issues but they are SOOO SELDOM, I believe ive refreshed the network about 4-5 times since I have wrote the initial review and now.
Ive been informed that there IS an app that allows you to customize the colors of the LED to what you want. Excellent, so thats definitely a negative taken away.
I had been using my phone with a Spigen screen protector and initially I liked it, but now with using the S-pen and it aging I really am beginning to dislike that screen protector. I have just ordered a tempered glass screen protector and will update later about that.
ONE thing I have learned is to save EVERYTHING from action memo to Scrapbook or S-Note if you want to hold onto it in case your phone needs to be reset. I had to reset my phone once, but it was due to the FoxFi app and it causing certificate issues. Once I reset it it fixed it.
Another note, the Spigen case protector I was talking about, it is great, however I have found that the squared edges make it uncomfortable for my hand to hold, when I remove the case I can handle the phone pretty easily with one hand (even though I have hands on the smaller side). So I have ordered a case that has rounded edges rather than squared edges.
Whatever you do, do NOT get a metal case for your phone because it will reduce your signal quality.
Other than that the phone has been running great, and I will update it again soon!
148 of 158 people found the following review helpful.
By Brad
I have always thought the Note was an interesting concept since the first version. I love my iPhone but with each release I became more and more disappointed that they never increase the screen size. I was worried about moving from my Apple iPhones, but it was time I had to try.
I have been absolutely amazed by this phone. The size of the screen is terrific. The first few days it felt huge and took some getting used to, but by day 3, it was normal and no big deal. I look at my iPhone and think "Wow, I settled for that tiny screen?". I figured with this big screen I would have to run from outlet to outlet with a charger, but it lasts all day where my iPhone couldn't.
The speed, the image quality, and the functionality of this phone is just amazing. The S-Pen features and Samsung's spin on the Android platform are perfect. The S-Pen allows for such accuracy on the screen that you can do very detailed work on a relatively small screen. It's integration with Evernote is great and the Sketchbook allows the average artist an excellent canvas in his or her pocket with Adobe illustrator like features. The keyboard has a top row of numbers making input of passwords and data so much faster. They not only improved the speed of a Smartphone, they improved the speed that a user and work with it, making my iPad and iPhone obsolete.
I was able to transfer my music with little effort thanks to the Google Play music app including the things I purchased. I used the Note app to sync notes on my Apple devices. The integration between the Note 3 and Evernote offer a solution to this.
The only negative I can say about the phone is S-Voice is no Siri. I used the location based reminders on the iPhone often for things such as "Remind me when I get home to take out the trash".. I have yet to get S-Voice to do this, but I understand it's supposed to be able to.
I'm almost speechless at how perfect this phone is. If you are interested in a bigger screen are worried about leaving the iPhone, dont be. Give this phone a few days to get used to and you wont look back..
144 of 156 people found the following review helpful.
By FALCON
[Forget those silly complaints about region lock. They do not affect 99.99% of users and no USA carriers. The N9000 is the European phone, and gets setup for the carrier used in the European country where you activate the phone. Period. US users need to get the phone for their respective carrier which changes the last digit of the number. It's that simple. Amazon makes both available. I teach overseas yearly. I keep my phone in airplane mode and use Wi-Fi or get a cheap phone card.]
First, I am not affiliated with Samsung in any way, nor do I work for a cell phone store. I am a writer though.
Secondly, I hate long reviews with the poster just reports the specs you already have. Rather, these comments show why the Galaxy Note 3 is more technologically advanced, and more phone for your money, compared to the many good phones on the market today. As for those phones that only show an app screen. I call them cave phones.
1. The beautiful 5.7" Super Amoled HD display has a "Wow!" factor. Everything is crisp and clear with a resolution of 1920 x 1080P, 386 PPI. Despite a few good contenders, no phone on the market can match the combination of vibrant color, and deep blacks. Check it out for yourself. For those who prefer drab, you can even adjust color intensity and contrast.
Is this practical? You bet. You get more viewable data for all social networking apps; you can see more email and contacts without scrolling; browsing is quick and pages more visible; YouTubes and video are fantastic; games are more playable; you can see larger areas on GPS maps; you get a better view of radar in weather; (live) wallpapers look great; you can use it as a reader; you can multitask with it; and with the right productivity apps you can even get some work done on it. I will never go back to a small screen phone. This phone is a joy to use.
2. The CPU (For US versions) is the quad core Qualcomm snapdragon 800 @ 2.3, which is the fastest processor on the planet as of this time. It will perform well for years to come. A few other phones have it. No lag on this baby. Just try to do things to outpace it. It moves data faster than you can see. Partially because of #3.
3. The Adreno 330 GPU is the best on the market, a few other phones have it. Graphics are amazing. It is 50% faster than the Adreno 320 in the Galaxy S4 which is a screamer.
4. It's the only phone to come with 3 GB of DDR 3 RAM. It also comes standard with 32 gigs of storage and you can add more with an SD card. Note: No extra charges for these!
5. It has a great 13 megapixel camera with useful software, a BSI Sensor, Smart Digital Stabilization and high CRI LED. Very few phones have this. It is also the only phone to do 4K video right now - sharp! It also does 1080P video at 60 FPS which is great.
6. No other phone has USB 3.0. 2 advantages: the phone charges very quickly on the 2 amp charger and nice thick cable. File transfer times are faster. With USB 3.0, a 2 gig file takes 27 seconds from the Note 3 to my (high end) PC. With USB 2.0 the same file takes 57 seconds.
7. How many phones have an S Pen? Except for email and quick notes, I seldom used the S Pen on my original Galaxy Note, but the Note 3 comes with some useful software making it more functional, and the handwriting recognition is scary accurate.
8. How many phones have a huge 3200 mA battery? It easily lasts all day with moderate to heavy use despite the large screen. Hardware CPU and GPU improvements, as well as Android 4.3 make the 100 mA bump over the Note 2 even more significant. You can also open the back and change out the battery - unlike some phones.
9. It does infrared remote control. It also has TV-out (via MHL A/V link), Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, temperature, humidity, and gesture sensor. I'm serious people, you get more for your money.
10. Hello multitasking! The fast CPU & GPU, extra memory, and high-resolution 5.7 inch screen make multitasking feasible and fun on a cell phone. You can even scroll through multiple applications in each split screen. This is even better if you hook up a keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth or USB, and connect through HDMI to your TV or computer monitor. The Note 3 can actually serve as a small computer. How many phones can do that? You can also mirror the phone screen with your smart TV for internet, games, viewing pics, whatever.
11. This the best cell phone for gaming on the market , period. The above features and OpenGL 3.0 which is part of Android 4.3 make it happen. Don't believe me? Read the reviews, watch the you tubes, and compared it for yourself.
12. It doesn't just have GPS, it also uses A GPS (improved), and Glonass Satellites. DL a GPS satellite app, and you'll see it will access between 5 and 25 satellites at once depending on time of day and location.
13. Got Knox? No, you don't. This phone provides business enterprise, and government level security for boot, VPN, etc., and comes in handy for privacy on public Wi-Fi. You don't have to use it, but it is there.
14. The air command and air gesture features make the phone futuristic. How many phones do that?
15. Is the screen too large for one handed operation? Yes, but so what? The tradeoff is worth it. Besides, Samsung now includes software to shrink it for one-handed so you get the best of both worlds.
16. I have been using the original Galaxy Note, which is actually wider, wearing suit pants to jeans. Both phones fit fine in your pocket. Don't worry about it unless you wear skinny jeans.
17. The TouchWiz UI is fine, and superfast now, but I prefer a 3rd party launcher - Go Launcher EX from the play store. Over a million users. So, the launcher is not a deciding factor in phone purchase for any Android manufacturer.
There are a few things that Samsung needs to improve in my opinion. I don't know how many thousands of people need to tell them that putting the volume rockers directly opposite the power button is inconvenient for users. The Note 2 placement was better but still wrong.
I do like the new speaker placement though. Its perfect for horizontal viewing because your hand channels the sound to the user. However, there should be two of them or a better one. It is Ok, just not great like the rest of the phone.
This phone should also be waterproof right out-of-the-box. Not a scaled-down version, just waterproof the thing. Other manufacturers are doing it for their flagship phones. That means Samsung can do it too. Truth be known, we users never want to see another flagship phone that is not waterproof. It's doable, so please do it. Smoke it with that nano-whatever waterproofing stuff. You went to CES.
All that said, I'm very happy, with the Note 3. IMHO the Note 3 is so powerful and functional, it is the first device I would classify as a hand held computer. As a professor, I researched it for days and used the original Galaxy Note for over a year now. There are other good phones, but the Note 3 does it in one package, and in most cases does it better, for the same flag-ship- phone price. I feel sorry for the fanboys and people believing advertising hype who don't research the market. They pay top dollar but don't get their money's worth. Amazon is a great place to get your money's worth and to find out user information. Thanks Amazon.
Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention, it's a really good phone too.
Recommendation - get a case for any phone, one that raises a bevel on the front glass, and try to find a good screen protector.
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