[Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cdmoore74:
As a current Note 2 owner I faced the same question. But ultimately I picked the LG G2 (picking up from store today) and let me tell you why.

1. Price. I was able to buy the LG G2 for $140 on contract with the still active Verizon30 coupon. There is no guarantee that the coupon will work when the Note 3 is released. That's over half the price of the Note 3.

2. IPS display. I've owned 2 phones with Amoled display's and while they have vibrant colors and deep blacks they suck in direct sunlight. Just going for a walk in bright sunlight it's near impossible to make out. And I can't use gps while on my motorcycle because I can't see the display.

3. Smaller yet just as powerful. The big size of the Note 2 was not killing me but I wanted something in a smaller size. I was very interested in the S4 a few months ago and would have gotten it if I was eligible for an upgrade. But months in this industry is like years. There's always something new around the corner.

4. Newness. I don't know how iPhone fanboys can stick with the same old design for every 2 years. I wanted to try a different OEM while saying in the Android family. I pretty much know what to expect going with the Note and the S-Pen. I felt it was time for a switch up.

5. I bought a Note 10.1 a month ago for $250 at walmart. I found the S-pen and multi-window feature more useful on the larger screen vs the Note 2. I think having one S-Pen device is enough.

6. And you guys may laugh at this one but I like the IR remote control app better on the G2. It's a full learning app (ability to learn from other remotes) that allows you to make custom layouts. This is the entire purpose for me wanting IR blasters back in phones. I hate that Peel app.

But in all honesty if I never owned a Note 2/Note 10.1 I would have picked the Note 3 over the LG G2. I do think it's a better phone overall with removable battery and sd card slot but your in a different category of phones; the phablet. The LG G2 in my opinion is the best mainstream phone on the market today.

My only cons for the LG G2 is no removable battery (but the G2 has a 3000mah better which actually beats the Note 2 in Anand battery test) and no sd card slot (but it has 32gig which is enough for me). The biggest con I would say is LG's software upgrade record; I don't know how good they are. But then again my Note 2 is still on 4.2.1. But with the Verizon LG G2 receiving root access we're a step closer to "maybe" unlocking the bootloader.

---------- Post added at 08:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:34 AM ----------

Even with vanilla Android roms on my Note 2 I always found myself going back to custom touchwiz roms. Samsung packs so many features in the phone you start to miss them And I can see why Samsung adds features. If every phone looked the same out the box (the reason why Nokia is really the only WP maker) people would not care about you. My problem is with OEM/Carriers that try to lock down our choice in using Vanilla roms. That's why the Nexus program looked so appealing to me. But since Verizon screwed that up we only have locked down phones to choose from unless we switch carriers or go prepaid.