Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Review

Samsung may be famous for making the only mobile phones that have successfully challenged the smartphone dominance of Apple, but it’s in new categories of smartwatches and digital ‘Note’ tablets that it’s really trying to make its mark. And with the Galaxy Note 3 it’s on, as the name implies, its third generation of a product that attempts to make pen and paper redundant – I really liked the Note 2, and the Note 3 is even better.

Whilst in the past the Galaxy Note was considered the flagship 'phablet', competition has been increasing since then and with the Xperia Z Ultra and the arguably the LG G2 both fighting for their own market share, the Galaxy Note 3 has been given a serious update to keep it ahead of the game.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 features a new design over its predecessor boasting a soft-touch back that Samsung is claiming has been designed to evoke the connection between the smartphone and the classic notebooks of old. It isn't, of course, it's that famous plastic Samsung is so fond off. The finish is textured to give it the appearance of leather and this actually provides some much needed grip. Those stitches running round the outside of the back cover? Well that's just a pattern formed in the plastic. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but the Note 3 does feel like a solid, well-built premium device.

With dimensions of 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3 mm the Note 3 is actually slimmer and thinner than the Galaxy Note 2 despite boasting a larger display. Not only that, it's only 168 grams - 12 grams lighter than its predecessor.From the front you’ll note there’s a pleasingly slender bezel running down either side of the monster display, while below you get the customary physical home key flanked by two touch keys – menu on the left and back on the right.

The Galaxy Note 3 has a long list of interesting features and improvements over the Note 2. First the display is grown again since the 5.5-inch offering on the Note 2 to a palm busting 5.7 inches complete with a full HD, 1080 x 1920 Super AMOLED display. It features a 13MP camera that, will be able to shoot Ultra-HD 4K video at 30fps, FHD at 60fps and even Slow Motion at 120fps. And there’s a 2 MP camera at the front as well. The Galaxy Note 3 has been given a serious hardware boost, it pairs new dual Octa quad core processor 1.9 GHz + 1.3 GHz with a whopping 3 GB RAM. It runs on the new Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.There's NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and an IR LED for remote control functionality and of course last but not the least, a 3,200 mAh battery.

The main addition to the Note 3 is the brand new Air Command function which is the main highlight of the phone. As you take out the S Pen out of its silo, Air Command gets activated. Hovering over the screen with your S-Pen and pressing a button on the side of the Pen brings up a new menu, with a number of new features. Air Command is a palette of five features - Action Memo, Scrapbook, Screen Write, S Finder and Pen Window.

First up is Action Memo, which brings up a simple notepad interface. Scribble your note and the Note will save to your Notebook app, where you can view all your notes. Then if you go in and select the note, the app will recognize what you've scribbled (within the boundaries of bad handwriting) and give you automatic options. For example, if you'd scribbled a name and number, Action Memo will automatically recognize that, and give you the option to put that straight into your contacts.

Screenwipe takes a screenshot, then lets you draw and edit it before sending, sharing or saving to Scrapbook. S-Finder is a powerful search engine that will find anything on your Note, from apps to photos to files and folders. It'll even divert you to Google if you want to search online.

A quick drag inwards from the left hand side window brings up a column of apps, all of which are available in split screen. Tap on an app and it'll start up fullscreen, or you can drag it across and it'll happily take up one half of the screen. Once you're running two apps side-by-side you can drag the partition up and down to adjust the balance.

Finally, there's Pen Window which is a little interesting and fun to use. It lets you draw a window on your screen, then select from a limited range of apps to use within that window. For example, we drew a small window in the top right, selected the calculator and, that's it. There's your calculator. The Pen Window feature currently supports Calculator, Clock, YouTube, Phone, Contacts, ChatON, Hangouts, and the built-in Web browser.

Overall, on the one level the Galaxy Note 3 is simply an iterative improvement over the existing, excellent models. Action Memo, in particular, is a really useful addition to a product that already has the potential to revolutionize the very idea of taking notes. Samsung hopes many users will pair the Note 3 with the Galaxy Gear smartwatch and that offers the prospect of a far greater revolution.