Test of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N9005), the best phablet on the market

Characteristics Design Coffee Screen Software Performance Autonomy Photo and Video Conclusion Availability Conclusion Competition Commentation Deput Products available to 2 €

Two years after its first phablet, then perceived as a UFO in a world dominated by "large" 4.3 -inch smartphones, Samsung presents its brand new large device, the Galaxy Note 3.Always decorated with an interactive stylus, in an XXL format, there is characteristics capable of making the most demanding salivate (Full HD screen, Snapdragon 800 processor ...) ... but for an initial price flirting with the inaccessible: 699euros.Does the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 are worth saying goodbye to your piggy bank?

The latest IFA was the scene of a tough fight led by Sony and Samsung, both simultaneously presenting their last flagship device, the Xperia Z1 for one, and the Galaxy Note 3 for the other.Two giants leaving their competitors aside, but not entirely playing in the same courtyard: the Japanese has indeed opted for a 5 -inch format rather reserved for smartphones, while the Korean set foot in the floor to offer whatis done better in a phablet.The only competitor on identical equipment capable of offering 4K video recording on a phablet, Acer has at the same time formalized its liquid S2, however intended for a commercially more modest future.

Features

Let's take up the story from the start: the Galaxy Note 3 is none other than a note 2 on the larger screen ... but in a smaller body of a few millimeters, very slightly thick, and above all less heavy, with 168grams on the scale.Under the hood of this device with a 5.7 -inch screen for a Full HD definition (1920 x 1080 pixels), there is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.3 GHz and coupled with 3 GB of RAM.From power to the program, but also good autonomy promised by a 3200 mAh battery, options do you want, here (infrared, temperature and humidity sensors, Bluetoots 4.0 The compatible with the Galaxy Gear watch) and software improvements in mess.Samsung also counts for improved photo performance with its 13 megapixel sensor, compared to 8 million points on the Galaxy Note 2, and especially on exemplary videos, since the beast is still able to film in 4K.You don't have a screen to take advantage of it?Whatever, Korean anticipates your future equipment, and offers performances capable of adapting to your home of tomorrow.Below, a summary in the form of a table:

In the box

The Galaxy Note 3 comes in the recycled paper box specific to the latest galaxy.In addition to note 3 accompanied by her stylus, we will find in the box:

Owner's tour

Samsung has somewhat revised its copy since the Galaxy Note 2, and even more recently, from the Galaxy S4 (released in spring 2013).On the front, the change is not noticeable, but if we return the terminal, we discover a removable shell not made of glossy plastic, but in a flexible plastic leather effect.We are not talking about happy blackberry leather, but a rather well -made imitation, touching sweet in support, and which does not skimp on the details: an imitation of seams even borders the smartphone.The advantage here is to have a removable shell that offers a fairly pleasant grip and hooks less the trait of fingers than the smooth and shiny plastic.

For the rest, the Galaxy team has not really embarked on, since the design of note 3 takes up the codes that we already know: a very smooth facade, but with reduced edges above and belowthe screen, plastic slices chrome effect (striated), sensors at the top of the device, and of course a LED of notifications at the top left of the screen.

The control keys take their usual place: on the right, the Power button plays discretion, while on the left, a volume adjustment bar is melting into the phone ridge.The upper and more interesting edge: it includes a 3.5 mm jack and an infrared port, since note 3 can occasionally serve as a remote control.

And below then?Goodbye standard microusb, hello to microusb 3.0, of a different format, hence this slightly wider grip than usual.The suitable and supplied cable in the box, but those who want to use, on the move or in the office, an old generation Microousb cable, the port is compatible with the old standard.Phew.The advantage of this connection, if we forget that it is more bulky than the traditional USB, it is the speed of its charge: it is supposed to allow note 3 to load almost 80 % faster.The underside of the device is also occupied by a speaker a centimeter wide that does not bother anything good, and of course by the S pen to remove from the body of the smartphone.The accessory, as on the previous generations of note, is not easy to remove for those wearing short nails, but is more elegant with its striated metal appearance body.We will come back to this later in this test.

For two years now, Samsung has retained an almost identical design from one device to another, and even if the Korean shows some efforts with its slightly more elegant rear shell and proves that we can reduce the space between the hullAnd the screen of a smartphone, we are hungry.When will a real design renewal?

Screen

You're going to laugh, we don't change good habits at Samsung.With its 5.7 -inch Full HD screen, the Korean ensures an excellent definition, very pleasant to the eye, with a very nice display finesse that will not surprise anyone.Comfort is obviously in order, with such a diagonal, as much as the brightness of this screen.In standard mode, it will be necessary to admit that the rendering of the colors remains a can be too "intense" to our taste, and suffers from a fluorescent appearance which can put off some ... but which can be corrected by tilting towards a video display,for example.Also note that white management is better than in the past, with a less bluish shade, even if you do not get a white as bright as on the IPS of the LG G2.Black, necessarily perfect, compensates without difficulty.The responsiveness is there, the angles of vision too, as required by the people?

Here is a comparison with two other smartphones:

LG G2 (5.2 -inch IPS Full HD screen) - Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (5.7 -inch Super Amoled Full HD screen) - Sony Xperia SP (4.6 -inch HD 720p TFT screen))

As for white, we find the usual Achilles heel of the amoled, namely a white drawing towards a bluish gray, instead of a snow color.Here is the G2 IPS which wins the palm, while the Xperia SP suffers from a small perceptible jaundice even in photo.

The colors all show the same state of affairs: in standard mode, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 displays very (too?) Frank colors, which have the advantage of being attractive, but tend to be a little aggressive for mirettesfragile.We generally prefer the more homogeneous rendering of the IPS screen.But we will recognize an importance point in note 3: Among the phablet categorized devices, it is one of the most beautiful products.

Software

In the latest version of its Touchwiz interface coupled with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, Samsung brings some features proper to his device with stylus.Among them, Air Command succeeds Air View, which simply previews the content of an application (typically, the content of a photo album) by passing their finger or stylus above the corresponding icon.Here, we see a small wheel appear, or carousel, on the screen either by holding the button of the stylus leaning on the stylus that we hold a few millimeters from the screen, or simply when we remove the stylus fromapparatus.This operation as a popup is interesting, especially since it remains a little complicated to press the mini-button of the stylus, even when you have small hands!

From this carousel, you can access various orders:

Floating app

Overall, the features linked to the SPEN were expanded and, when entering texts in handwriting, we notice a more precise transcription in printing characters.A good point for Samsung, whose big challenge remains to justify the presence of a stylus on its device, even though the Note 3 is smaller than number of phablets, and pushing its customers to use it as much as possible.Hence the drawing necessary everywhere!

The features provided by S PEN are seconded by various more or less useful software improvements.If the Samsung vocal assistant is not yet at the level of certain competitors (Siri, so as not to quote it), it has significantly improved for a few generations of smartphones.Keep the idea that two years ago, it was almost unusable.This is no longer the case today.

Air gestures also take off, and use the various sensors of the device.Our favorite in Note 3 is the "quick glance" function, which allows access to a panel of notifications on the lock screen while simply passing the hand a few centimeters from the sensors (7 cm areRecommended by Samsung).A practical tool to check where a notification without touching the phone comes from, for example when the device is placed on a table next to it.For professionals, it is very practical in the office.Among the air gestures, there are already known features such as "Air Call-Accept", which allows you to cling to an incoming call by carrying the phone to the ear (thanks to the local sensor) or "Air Browse" allowing toScroll web pages with a hand sweeping movement.Technically interesting, these features are not always obvious to use, knowing that their success rate rarely reaches 100 %...

A final point on "Operation with one hand", option present in the "Controls" tab of the note 3 parameters.This is intended to reduce the size of the usable screen, either eccentric on the left, or to the right of the screen, depending on a modifiable size at envy.A way to admit that this type of screen is properly unusable with one hand?In any case, it is possible to use these operations in one hand for specific uses: the call keyboard, the Samsung keyboard, the calculator or the unlocking pavement.For the others, there is the stylus!

Hand operation

Excluding "original" features, Touchwiz remains a happy shamshaft based on samsung apps, preloaded applications (so much that a folder called Galaxy Plus includes Sketchbook for Galaxy, Tripadvisor, Dropbox, Evernot and Flipboard), including kitten forinstant messaging.History not to add more, insofar as the services of Samsung generally make duplicate with those of Google, note 3 groups all the applications of Mountain View in one and the same file.S Planner, Video, Music or Internet are therefore accessible in the menu, while the agenda, play music or chrome are hidden in their file.At least the presentation is clearer.Note that the Watchon application works in concert with the infrared port located above the device.

Performance

Samsung has not equipped its note 3 with its home processor.And ... was right.The Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 competes with the Cortex A15 of Arm and the Bay Trail platform of Intel.That is to say if this SoC is powerful.

On the GPU side, we have a new king.The Adreno 330 graphic chip provides enormous performance improvements, far beyond the Adreno 320 and all that we have tested to date.It is clear, the Snapdragon 800 is the reference of the market.

To better visualize its performance, know that this processor is capable of encoding 4K UHD video (3840 x 2160) 30 fpsjus at 120 Mbps (H.264 High profile), and of course it is able to read the same file.

This upward speed is also demonstrated in the famous benchmarks:

Communications and GPS

It is rare to encounter network hooks on high -end models of Samsung, and note 3 is no exception.If we can blame him for a fairly mediocre sound in a speaker, he provides good quality telephone communications to those who will not be disturbed at the idea of calling with a smartphone of such a scale.

GPS side, good surprise also.With a 4G connection, since note 3 is compatible with this latest generation of mobile network, a location is obtained in less than two seconds, a very rapid grip able to satisfy those who have small orientation difficulties.Note that navigation on a screen of this size is comfortable.

Autonomy

In order to specify precisely the autonomy and check if this feeling is verified, we have achieved a "stress-test" in four steps.We have taken a little classic panel of Android terminals, with a standard phone (the Nexus 4: not really known for its excellent autonomy), the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 in king of phablets and autonomy and finally the Nexus 7 (4325MAH).These four terminals carried out the test simultaneously, on the same network and with a similar configuration.

Small reminder of the tests carried out:

Step 1: Reading an HD movie in WiFi streaming for 20 minutes (luminosity at most-sound on the speaker) Step 2: Listening to music for 20 minutes (extinguished screen-sound on the hands-free kit) Step 3:Standard use of a smartphone for 20 minutes (brightness at most) Step 4: Reading an HD film stored locally for 20 minutes (luminosity at most - sound on the hands -free kit)

Samsung has always been a very good student with regard to the autonomy of his terminals.The Galaxy Note 3 even allows itself to do better than note 2.The deactivation of certain sensors is necessary to obtain much better performance, you will also have to take care not to activate all the features of Samsung Touchwiz.These features use sensors that tend to drive continuously on the battery.

In practice ?You can last two days in "intensive" use.

Photo and video

Unlike note 2 which was "content" with an 8 megapixel sensor, note 3 rises up to 13 million points, with a sensor combining autofocus, flash LEDs and ability to record video in 4K to 30 fps.Thank you to the Snapdragon 800 processor which allows this functionality certainly not very useful to the ordinary people to date, but which will have the merit of extending the lifespan of the videos captured today, since they can be looked at comfortably on the televisions of tomorrow… Arguments certainly marketing but which are not without influence on the result of the videos, which are also available a Slow motion recording in HD 720p.

We are not going to be fine, the shots are of good quality, worthy of a high -end, and worthy of a Galaxy S4.Not really better on the horizon, with weaknesses to be spotted in low light conditions.If we appreciate good fidelity in colors-unlike the S4 Zoom, which was going to get a fan of whimsical whites when we had photographed the town hall below, note 3 shows a stone in the natural color.However, smoothing is a little too present to our taste.Not to mention comparison with a Lumia 1020 at Nokia, obviously, since we do not play in the same courtyard, the note 3 ensures the job, but without breathtaking.Details are missing slightly, but we obvious the washed -out colors that can tarnish the results of certain competitors.

A software reminder all the same, although connoisseurs of the Samsung universe do not need it: the photo application brings together various modes, in addition to an automatic mode: beauty, best poses, best photo, sound and taken (to saveA few seconds of sound with a photo), Chronophoto (combination of several moving photos), animated photo, golf, HDR, gum, panorama, panoramic photo, sports.Just that.A note all the same: if you want a 16: 9 format, you will remain in 9.6 million points.If you want to enjoy a beautiful 13 megapixel, you will get a 4: 3 format.And by default, it is 16: 9 that is activated.

Since we talk about default format, same video fight, which is obviously not 4K by default, too bulky (108 MB for less than 20 seconds of video all the same), but rather HD.Regardless, it's up to you to opt for the format of your choice in the application settings, keeping in mind that optical stabilization starts up in smoke when you shoot 4K videos.To tell the truth, on this point exclusively, difficult to make an opinion: we find ourselves in two years to watch our films on a 4K screen ... For the moment, we do not have the necessary equipment for reading such videos.It will therefore be necessary to be satisfied in most cases of the Full HD, less greedy in storage space, and better stabilized.We will notice in all cases that autofocus tends to have small difficulties when it is dealing with objects in motion.Apart from this point, Samsung offers good quality results.

A detail to note, and not the least, concerns the possibility of filming in Smooth Motion at 60 fps in Full HD.Understand that as much as possible, you can multiply the diffusion speed of your video by eight. Il est possible de la multiplier par deux ou par quatre au choix, en passant par les paramètres photo > mode d’enregistrement > mouvement rapide.In the same vein, you can go up to 120 fps in slow motion (HD 720p quality), for fairly impressive video effects. Ici, il faudra passer par mode d’enregistrement > mouvement lent et choisir entre x1/8, x1/4 ou x1/2.Better to stabilize all the same if you want, in one case as in the other, videos pleasant to watch!We will notice, in note 3, the desire to do a lot, to propose.Of course we will not film in slow motion, maybe even ... But whoever has invested nearly 700 euros in his phablet will be rather satisfied to be able to multiply the possibilities "in case".

Examples of videos made with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3

YouTube ’ABONNON LINK in FRANDROC

YouTube ’ABONNON LINK in FRANDROC

YouTube ’ABONNON LINK in FRANDROC

Thanks to Orange Business Services for the loan, you can find it on their shop!