Samsung Galaxy Note 3

[WiWavelength]

Do you live in Alaska?

Close. Youngstown, OH. It is basically the "Alaska" of the Lower 48.

 

Yeah, but even Youngstown is getting Network Vision sooner rather than later.

 

AJ

[Virtualbot]

Was the SIM slot in doubt?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

I had my doubts since they didn't include a SIM slot for the Note 2.

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 using Tapatalk 4.

 

 

[ericdabbs]

I had my doubts since they didn't include a SIM slot for the Note 2.

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 using Tapatalk 4.

 

That was different situation.  All Sprint LTE phones in 2012 had embedded SIMs.  Starting in 2013, all Sprint LTE phones have removable SIMs so it shouldn't have been a surprise.

 

The bigger question I want to know about the Note 3 is if it is using a CSIM card so that it is swappable between the iPhone 5S and future Sprint LTE phones without needing to phone into Sprint.

[ericdabbs]

I stopped by an AT&T store to play with the Note 3 and man is the faux leather back pretty lame.  I mean the back is still pretty much plastic still and the fake stitching is quite hilarious but it does feel better than just plastic.

 

The size of the Note 3 looks exactly like the Note 2 which is not a surprise but it looks pretty good.  The floor model didn't have the S-pen available so I couldn't try out the Air Command features but the speaker is kinda weak.  I loaded a youtube video and put it at max volume and it was OK but I guess I expected more.  The sides of the phone with the "notebook" look and feel like a nice touch up to the Note 3.

[Yuhfhrh]

I stopped by an AT&T store to play with the Note 3 and man is the faux leather back pretty lame.  I mean the back is still pretty much plastic still and the fake stitching is quite hilarious but it does feel better than just plastic.

 

The size of the Note 3 looks exactly like the Note 2 which is not a surprise but it looks pretty good.  The floor model didn't have the S-pen available so I couldn't try out the Air Command features but the speaker is kinda weak.  I loaded a youtube video and put it at max volume and it was OK but I guess I expected more.  The sides of the phone with the "notebook" look and feel like a nice touch up to the Note 3.

 

I played with it a bit too, and I think the faux leather is a good step forward. I thought it felt pretty good in the hand. The size is perfect and I'm so tempted to pick one up. My Gnex's power button stopped working, so I can no longer swap batteries as it requires a computer to turn on now. -.-

[afazel]

Someone needs to make a 3rd party battery cover replacement made out of real leather with real stitching, as long as it doesn't affect the reception.

[digiblur]

Someone needs to make a 3rd party battery cover replacement made out of real leather with real stitching, as long as it doesn't affect the reception.

 

Just don't use the leather from cows with a high iron intake right?

[afazel]

Just don't use the leather from cows with a high iron intake right?

Yar. My only concern would be if the antenna was partially embedded in the battery cover with a connector to the inside of the phone. Didn't the Palm Pre do something like that?

 

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4

 

 

[The Dave]

Wouldn't real leather just get worn out from repeatedly being slid in and out of pockets, handled, getting wet on occasion, etc?

[digiblur]

Yar. My only concern would be if the antenna was partially embedded in the battery cover with a connector to the inside of the phone. Didn't the Palm Pre do something like that?

 

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4

 

The HTC EVO LTE did that on their little cover and it turned out okay right?

 

I believe the only antennas in the cover is the NFC one.

[afazel]

Wouldn't real leather just get worn out from repeatedly being slid in and out of pockets, handled, getting wet on occasion, etc?

 

No more than your wallet would I imagine. I've had mine for over 5 years, and it's only wearing on the folds. Even there it's just the coloring.

 

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4

 

[ab30494]

The HTC EVO LTE did that on their little cover and it turned out okay right?

 

I believe the only antennas in the cover is the NFC one.

the nfc antenna on the n3 in in the battery

[vlee]

Wouldn't real leather just get worn out from repeatedly being slid in and out of pockets, handled, getting wet on occasion, etc?

 

There are third party leather phone cases which have held up okay in the past. 

[WiWavelength]

No... we all lose.  Except my wife.  She wins (and gets an iPhone while I get her old crappy S4).... lol

 

No, S4GRU wins because we made the correct call that the Sprint variant Note 3 would be single band and stuck to our guns, even when the naysayers did not want to believe it and grasped at straws to prove otherwise.

 

AJ

[glenavo34]

Mods, if this counts a flaming please remove. But it's an interesting tidbit and perhaps speaks to why it should have been triband even though the network isnt fully capable yet?

 

Taken from an android based website as they are discussing the battery life as it relates to Sprint's network:

 

"So here's the thing about reviewing a Sprint phone: Sprint really sucks in, I don't know, 95% of the country. And as such, I was constantly flipping between 3G and LTE where I live, which pretty much wrecks the battery. Inside my house, I get spotty Sprint 3G, which also, you guessed it,wrecks the battery. Though apparently the Note 3 does have a nifty new Qualcomm radio power management tech, so perhaps the wreckage is less severe than it might have otherwise been. Anyway, thanks to Sprint, I've been on Wi-Fi most of the time. Here's what I've found.

With all of my various crap synced (2 Google accounts with all the trimmings, Twitter, FB / Messenger, Foursquare, Amazon / MP3, Play Music, Dropbox, Mint.com, RunKeeper, Yelp), I still felt very comfortable making it through an entire day on the Note 3. Not "there's no way I could possibly run down this battery" comfortable, mind you - if you go out on mobile data with the display cranked to max brightness (or on auto on a sunny day outside) and start taking a bunch of photos, holy moly does the battery drain fast. I was taking test shots with the screen at maximum brightness for about the last 30 minutes (20 photos, plus 2 surround shots), and the battery went from 61% to 42% in that time. Photo processing is a very CPU-intensive task (especially night photos and panoramas), and the display is the biggest potential source of battery drain on any device. Put them together, and the Note 3's strengths (brighter display, quicker processor) combine to chow down on the battery big time.

However, for generic tasks like checking email and social networks or web browsing not using Wi-Fi, I think with a decent LTE connection (so, not Sprint) I could probably get about 3-3.5 hours of screen-on time with the brightness on 85% or so. That means it's still a pretty big step away from, in my experience, the DROID MAXX, which consistently hit 4 hours on mobile data with the display cranked to 100% (granted, it's a dim screen). That puts the Note 3, for me, in the company of the LG G2, which in my opinion gets excellent battery life. The Note 3 has 0.5" more display, but also 200mAh more battery capacity than the G2, so it makes sense that they're comparable in this regard.

Wireless performance on the Note 3 has been difficult to judge on Sprint's network. Considering my data connection regularly drops or hangs, the experience, for me, has been really awful. Every time I review a Sprint device, though, the experience is awful, so I really can't blame it on the phone. The few times I did have LTE coverage on Sprint didn't yield outstanding speeds, though latency was much better than on CDMA."

[WiWavelength]

Mods, if this counts a flaming please remove. But it's an interesting tidbit and perhaps speaks to why it should have been triband even though the network isnt fully capable yet?

 

Taken from an android based website as they are discussing the battery life as it relates to Sprint's network:

 

. . .

 

Nothing in that review shows that the Note 3 "should have been tri band."  Furthermore, that "reviewer" should not be dealing with Sprint devices, as he clearly has a prejudice against Sprint.

 

Maybe he lives in a market with overall poor Sprint coverage, thus should use a different wireless provider in the first place.  Or maybe he lives in a market that is still in the early stages of LTE deployment, hence is not even close to full LTE site density.  Without knowing his location, we cannot say for certain.

 

But I can practically guarantee that this "reviewer" is not an S4GRU sponsor, so he lacks knowledge of Network Vision progress in his market.  My guess is that he does not care.  Because of his negative bias toward Sprint, he expects the network to be automatically peachy once Network Vision has started and does not cut Sprint any slack to get Network Vision finished before he renders judgment.

 

AJ

[irwinshere]

Well said aj.

 

Jim, Sent from my Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

 

 

[The Dave]

Unfortunately, the quality of "reviewers" and "editors" on many websites is lacking. It's hard not to find people with an overall bias for or against a particular company. That's the nature of the World Wide Web. What you have to do is take a little from each source to find your own conclusions and then try it out yourself to see where your judgement lies. I have no doubt that the Note 3 is an amazing phone. I have no doubt that Sprint has spotty service in some areas. I also have no doubt that Sprint kicks ass in the most insane ways in other areas. This can also be said of AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc. I remember hearing so many negative things about the G2 when I read countless reviews. But, I decided to se for myself. You know what? That horrible, unusable software in all those reviews...it isn't that bad. The Note 3? I have yet to see a truly bad Galaxy product. I would highly doubt, Triband aside, that there is anything remotely wrong with the phone.

[afazel]

To play devil's advocate, if he's reviewing a device for consumers and has poor coverage in his area then he's doing his part as a consumer advocate to stay away from what he perceives as a spotty network. It will be old news for current Sprint customers, and it serves as a warning to not switch to Sprint just for the Note 3. I probably wouldn't recommend Sprint to most people in my area because the promise of a great network in the future isn't enough to stake my reputation on.

 

For me, it's fun to watch the rollout, even if LTE is sub-3G speed in my neighborhood.

[twospirits]

another fine example of wanna be journalists from that site. The very same site that one of their so called editors/contributors stated in the review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (last year) that it gave him cancer. 

 

TS

[vlee]

Biased or not, the Android Police review still provides valuable information, especially about battery life. Living in a partial LTE area myself, battery life on EVDO w/ patchy LTE is a big concern. I'd say he addressed that better than most other reviews.

[WiWavelength]

To play devil's advocate, if he's reviewing a device for consumers and has poor coverage in his area then he's doing his part as a consumer advocate to stay away from what he perceives as a spotty network.

 

No, if he does not list the market(s) where he tested the device, he is doing a disservice to consumers.  That is shoddy reporting.  Wireless coverage is all about location, location, location.

 

AJ

[Richmc]

Went into an AT&T store this morning to take a look at their Note 3 display model.

I have gone back and forth on whether to get the N3 due to the whole no triband issue but after seeing how much more responsive it is over my N2 I will be at the local corporate store when they open in the morning.

 

Luckily for me LTE coverage is decent where I live and work and the speeds more than meet my needs. To be honest if it wasn't for one up, I would be waiting another year. For $180 over the next year I will take it.

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[thewezgrays]

No, S4GRU wins because we made the correct call that the Sprint variant Note 3 would be single band and stuck to our guns, even when the naysayers did not want to believe it and grasped at straws to prove otherwise.

 

AJ

I would rather have a tri-band phone than be right. Either way, I was just playing.

[The Dave]

I would rather have a tri-band phone than be right. Either way, I was just playing.

I'd rather have a triband Note 3 and be right.