yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Mazzstrikers:
Wow I like this thread. It offers another perspective.

For me I came from a HTC One. Previous phones I've had include and iPhone 5, HTC One X, Galaxy Nexus, Xperia Arc and many more so I'd share some experience.

Buyer's Prospects

-I really like the large size. In my opinion larger screen size gives much higher productivity be it photos, videos or work. If not for the subpar camera I might even have gotten the Xperia Z Ultra!

-Powerful innards (however the Snapdragon 800 is present on many flagships too)

-The battery life on this is absolutely incredible and I have never experienced such longevity on any phone before, and not even the iPhone 5 which I felt was the next best, came close.

Buyer's regrets

-Camera. I was initially dead set on the Xperia Z1 which is leagues ahead in this respect. The camera of a phone is a feature I value a lot. If not for the pathetic Windows I would have gotten a Lumia 1020.

-Speaker. Those who have heard the stereo speakers on the HTC One will know. The speaker on the Sammy sounds so teeny and shrill with little body!

-Oversaturated colours on the AMOLED. I've always taken issue with this because I take a lot of photos and view them on the screen. Compared to the iPhone which I find colours to be the most natural and HTC One at a close second, the colours on the Note 3 are way too saturated.

-Build quality could be improved. The plastic is sleek and lightweight on the Note but when you hold the aluminium unibody of the HTC One or iPhone, or the glass of the Xperia Z1 it leaves a lot to be desired.

Basically that sums it up and I hope I have provided an objective assesment for potential buyers! :)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] JCM800:
Beats me why people think the Note 2 or 3 has fantastic battery life. I manage ten hours at best before I'm panicking, so yeah ill scrape a full days use out of either of them but wouldn't dare go camping for the weekend and expect em to last.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Mazzstrikers:
Hmm could it be the usage? What is your level of screen brightness and what are your "daily" activities? For me if I set my brightness level just good enough to see things clearly (about 1/10 of the slider most of the time) and do a little gaming (FIFA 14), web browsing and checking of Twitter and Facebook I can last close to two FULL days so I'd say it's a real step up from my HTC One which lasts less than a full day on this usage and iPhone 5 which is slightly more than a full day.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] rsokin:
I fully agree with you. S4 is also plastic but nice plastic. Note 3 is like cheep toy plastic. I only realised when I opened the box.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] riz157:
Yes I was pretty disappointed so I got black which doesn't look bad nor as cheap as white. It looks far better then white so bit happier.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] note3userr:
How do you guys go 2 days with the battery. Mine usually lasts around 10 hours at best
[Galaxy Note 3 General] jinosong:
Seriously, f'ing change the title idiot.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dr.m0x:
Could be a number of reasons really. Rogue apps and maybe poor network connectivity in your area are a couple of possibilites. The other thing might be the fact you have an octa core. On paper it should be more efficient but in reality it's pretty hard to get the implementation right for the switching.

Sent from my SM-N9005
[Galaxy Note 3 General] mi7chy:
Same Verizon Note 3 here and have gotten 4 days of battery with about 3 hours screen on time. WIFI enabled with LTE is a battery killer and also 3D games that utilize all CPU and GPU cores.

The first you can do something about. Suggest disabling Wi-Fi if you don't use it then set these options:

Settings>Wi-Fi>Advanced

- Uncheck Wi-Fi notifications

- Wi-Fi on during sleep to Only when plugged in or Never

- Uncheck Always allow scanning

- Uncheck Auto network switch
[Galaxy Note 3 General] toker_X1:
One month now on the N3, if weren't for the battery life and full HD AMOLED screen. This phone would have been sent back or exchanged.

Everything else on the Note 3 is poor.

Poor build quality

Stock ROM is annoying and slow

No existence speakers

No wireless charging

For £600 ($900 USD) I expected better.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] McBain_666:
In my version, dragging an icon on the 5 bottom apps allows me to change them to my likings...
[Galaxy Note 3 General] fade2black101:
Hard to believe some people are that pathetic really. Truth be told, I don't plan on getting an iPhone, but if anyone who had an iPhone asked me to recommend them a new phone... it certainly wouldn't be the plasticity Note III and would more likely be the HTC One. You see, it will be quite a shock to someone with a phone that feels as expensive as it is to suddenly have to start using a massive plastic lump with crap speakers.

And no, I can't think of even one person I know that gives a **** about the spen or the touchwiz "features." These people obviously exist but it is no way near approaching common. Similarly, only the most deluded individual will claim that the build quality and touchwiz optimization still don't leave a hell of a lot to be desired.

Samsung needs to up its game in the build quality department and refinement of touchwiz because it is pretty poor compared to some other phones right now.

This may not bother everyone, and certainly won't bother the Samsung fanboys... but it certainly annoys many others.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] ShadowLea:
Use Apex or Nova.

You do NOT loose any functionality when you use a different launcher, as all the functions are their own apps and not part of Touchwiz. They are an overlay on top of the launcher, any launcher. Only thing that apparently does not work is the Splanner Widget.

On those, you can set anything from dock size, to dock pages (yes, scroll), to adding widgets and the amount of icons it can hold. Also, folders.

Touchwiz uses about 600MB RAM. Apex 68MB. Haven't tested Nova.

I've used Apex since the first 5 minutes of getting my Note 3 (And that was spend finding an open WiFi hotspot.). It has less issues than Touchwiz. (No lag, no reloading, no crashing, my grid is 8x6, transparent notification bar...)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Rixsta:
Thread Cleaned

Please stop name calling, flaming and swearing on this thread, if you cant discuss a handset in an adult manner then please re-frame from posting.

We have children that are in our XDA community and this type of behaviour will not be tolerated.. Flaming, swearing being rude and a general lack of respect are all against XDA rules. If a user is been offensive please hit the report button..

Further flaming will result in the thread been closed.

Thank you..
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Techweed:
Things I liked:

Very fast device (with tweaks, of course)

Build quality is much better than the Note 2.

Camera is pretty beautiful unless you are taking low light shots which Samsung needs to seriously work on.

Screen is amazing, just amazing. Put it in Movie Mode and enjoy bright, accurate colors.

Battery life is great, better than Note 2's.

Overall look (black version) is so much better than the Note 2.

Things that annoy me:

There's stuttering in most browsers while scrolling. Only Chrome Beta comes close to a stutter free experience. Unacceptable.

Youtube has microstutters during play back. Every few seconds you will see a very slight and short pause while audio continues to play smoothly.

These last two are really annoying, especially youtube since chrome beta is acceptable as a browser. I have debloated, deleted, froze all kinds of nonsense and it still have the same issue in Youtube. I just don't get it. It can play back 4k recorded videos without a hitch so this behavior is very frustrating.

I am also using Nova and Xposed to set dpi lower and a custom icon theme. Couple that with reduced animation times (0.5x) and it looks and acts great. I just wished it didn't have those two issues (especially Youtube.) It would have been almost the perfect phone for me.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] nymviper1126:
Screen glass seems soft. I carry my N1 in the same pocket (the N3 gets its own pouch) and i have some scratches. Pretty irked by it.

The less than smooth scrolling and the not tight back cover fit( gets worse after you open it)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
Here's a 1 hour long Note3 video review for those who missed it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3mbkoXCMhs&feature=em-uploademail

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] fade2black101:
I like her reviews

Very in-depth and unbiased. I made sure to watch her Nexus 4 one before I bought it. (Even though at £170 it was a no brainer anyway). The Note II one was very helpful though :)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] zroice:
I had been a proud owner of the N7000 and actually thought I don't need to update, but I wanted to give myself a little gift, so I sold the N7000 and got the N9005.

I had my N7000 set up perfectly, with Rootbox CM-based rom and all sorts of custom modification. Now with the N9005 and this KNOX bull**** this is no longer possible - (dont wanna trip the know counter yet, before I'm sure whether I keep the device or not). I already rooted it, but its just not the same with SELinux enforcing.

Mine has some uneven brightness. There are stripes / bands of different brightness levels accross the screen if you look at a monochrome and dark background. Its not very noticable, but it is, and for a 550€+ phone I demand perfect screen finally. (on the note 1 you had to live with the black crush, but the screen brightness was even at least)

I regret that I sold my N7000.... =(
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
I thing you quoted the wrong post :cyclops:

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] BarryH_GEG:
1:04:17 - "In the beginning I wasn't such a fan of the N3, after using it for several weeks I'm using it as my daily driver." "This was a device I didn't like very much at first that's really grown on me."

1:05:01 - "It's a very snappy device except for some of that 'S Lag;' yes, it does happen."

1:05:07 - "I really love the Galaxy Gear, pairing these [N3 + Galaxy Gear] together I've really loved the experience."

1:05:15 - "I really think this is a good upgrade from the N2."

It's nice to see you and I finely agree on something after weeks of discussion. ;)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
Lol, I didn't agree or disagree with anything, just posted a interesting review showing also some cons..

And that girl got tons of phones, I got only one....

And my main beef is Samsung policies above all...

So I am keeping my Note2 a little longer

However my wife needs a new phone and this time a phablet, more precisely a Note...

I will be hitting the showrooms again doing my own testings and comparisons..just for fun anyway...

As you know, I trust only my own reviews...

But taking into consideration that my wife is not a power user and that a brand new Note 2 is costing right now around 400 euros here in Holland, and that she won't let me root the phone (in case the phone remains region locked after that "normal sim activation)the choice, is a no brainer...

And my friend, Samsung doesn't deserve such a obstinate and loyal user like you doing his best to convince anyone how good the GNote3 is...

Specially you, know that its bad policies got even worse....

The great majority of the users don't, but you do...

Unless...no.....could that be?

Are you working for Samsung ?? :cyclops:

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] BarryH_GEG:
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 reaches 5 million channel sales in one month

News by Andrew Kameka on Wednesday October 30, 2013

The original Samsung Galaxy Note took five months to reach 5 million shipments to retailers. The Galaxy Note II reached the same milestone in less than half that amount of time, and the Galaxy Note 3 has continued the trend of besting its predecessor in half the time.

Samsung Mobile leader JK Shin revealed today that Samsung has sold more than 5 million units of the Galaxy Note 3 in one month. The sales figures are global and related to how many devices have been shipped to retailers and distributors, who will then sell the phone to customers. Though Shin cites the success of the Note II as the reason for the sales, a big reason for the increase is more launch partners. The original Galaxy Note did not launch in the U.S. until months later; the Note II launched in Asia and the UK in September but not in the US until November.

News of the Galaxy Note 3 sales are fresh on the heel of Samsung?s proclamation last week that it has sold 40 million units of the Galaxy S4. Samsung is on track to sell more than 50 million of its premiere smartphones by the end of the year.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] fade2black101:
I bet there's a party in the Barry household tonight :D
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
Yes....he is trying so hard...he deserves Samsung through him a party.

Anyway bet is still on...

This is about shipped phones..

The GNote2 (which by the way sold 30-35 million units do far) was launched in the US , almost 2 months later, unlike the Gnote3...

Bet (and the teasing :cyclops:) is still on....

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] NoteTheDate:
The chrome finish is starting to rub off after less than a month use.I though it was dirt but after further inspection it wasnt, its happening under the volume and power buttons only.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Poly15:
against my note 2

i dont like the stock browser now lost the settings where you just can swip from the edge of the screen to quicly pull out options

i dont like the stock camera either more modes but less options

i like the feel but i dont like the look of the fake leather especially on the white version of n3 :silly:
[Galaxy Note 3 General] avenging:
i think even with the sim region locking thingy, the note 3 will outsell the note 2 i am seeing a couple of them in the wild already
[Galaxy Note 3 General] BarryH_GEG:
It's always about "shipped" phones. The N2 launched worldwide two months before it launched in the U.S. The N3 was pretty much launched globally at the same time. So at double the shipped units of the N2, even taking in to account the boost from including the U.S., it's selling at least as well as the N2. And that's with high-end smartphone sales being slower this year due to saturation in Western markets. Your statement is the "N3 won't sell as well as the N2." So far, that's untrue based on initial shipping numbers.

The reason I posted isn't to celebrate with Samsung about their sales numbers. It's because a bunch of people here, a lot of them N2 owners, make it seem like the N3 is some inferior piece of crap that no one will buy. I've been using it for a couple of weeks and, at least for me, it's an incredible device. That includes the h/w improvements as well as the s/w revisions; especially the S Pen related apps.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
If you are right, then I will lose my bet...

My hunch was based on the fact that the outrageous Samsung's policies are piling up , pissing off more and more customers every year, and this time also users that don't even know forums like this one...

But are alert anyway about that "region lock sticker"

I saw many sites writing about it, sites that have nothing to do with Android forums, tweakers , flashers and modders ...

I never wrote the GNote3 is inferior than the GNote2, however if it's upgrade worthy, that's another discussion and based on individual reasons and needs..

But Barry knows what I mean......;) and he keeps changing the subject...

If Samsung's bad policies won't backfire after all, well, it's just a pitty..

And not even Barry can disagree with that ....

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] BarryH_GEG:
The policies (assuming they work as described) help a lot more people than they hurt.

Region Lock - Samsung's trying to stop gray market sales. Agree or disagree it's their right. Just as it's the consumer's right not to buy Samsung devices if they have issues with the policy. But if Region Lock works the way it's supposed to (unlock local, use global) no one who buys a phone in their region for use in the region they live would be affected. People who buy gray market will most likely be pissed but Samsung clearly doesn't want their business anyway. Samsung's denied warranty support on gray market devices for years (you can't fix a UK phone in the U.S. under warranty or even out of pocket) and people somehow lived with that. To me, that's a bigger deterrent than having to use a SIM local to the device before being able to use it internationally.

KNOX - I've talked to a couple of IT folks from different companies about KNOX. They've all wet themselves as it's the answer to their dreams. Being able to control a device via MDM while still allowing users to safely play Candy Crush solves a big problem for corporations. I personally use and like KNOX because I have sensitive files from different companies that I don't want them individually to have access to or to have them fall in to the wrong hands if I lose my phone. The KNOX counter's primary purpose is to alert MDM s/w that a device attempting to connect to a secure network has been breached so it can refuse access. Samsung's moving the flash counter to KNOX has nothing to do with KNOX itself and they could have done the same thing without it if they wanted. Once again, Samsung's always tried to catch when a device has had non-factory s/w flashed on to it so all Samsung's done is "checkmate" tools like Triangle Away that used to be able to defeat it.

Other than enthusiasts (us) the two policies above really don't make a lot of difference to the experience the masses have with the N3 as compared to previous Samsung devices. I'm not supporting the policies and statements like "I paid full retail and should be able to do anything I want to my phone" are true. But since 95% of people buying mobile phones don't even know what a ROM or bootloader is I think people here predicting the sky will fall are projecting their specialized knowledge on to others that, for the most part, are pretty oblivious.

So could these policies piss off "enthusiasts" who are 5% of Samsung's sales and drive them to other manufacturers? Of course it could. Will it matter to the other 95% and potentially even boost Samsung's sales in the lucrative corporate and BYOD markets? I personally think it will.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
Again you trying to play silly or think the many other users here are silly...

I was not talking about the ones that know what a Mod Rom or bootloader is or the ones with specialized knowledege...

That's, what I meant with " a larger number of consumers" and "this time":

.

You can keep conveniently ignoring this possibility, but I will keep emphasizing it :silly:

That's the point....it's not working in many cases

And Samsung keeps disrespecting its customers with false and unclear statements.....

In the UK, retailers like Clove and Handtec are already putting warnings at their sites about the region lock anf that the "normal activation "( unlock local, use global) could not really work....and that does affect sales..

Gray Market? You guys from Samsung are just BS.ing around

For instance, I have friends and family in Brazil...Flagship phones somehow are always launched much later over there....and when they are launched, the prices are even more abusive.

So when or if they are here in Holland or in Germany (for pleasure or business), they want to use the opportunity and buy a flagship phone , because they don't want to wait and/or pay a even more abusive price in Brazil...and why not?

It's an example and I am sure it happens with more countries also outside south-america...

But they are not tweakers, they don't even know what root access is...

So of course they should be at least aware of the region lock thing

That's one thing you can figure out without being a power user...at least in more cases than usually , so far ..

The impact will now reach more than 5% of the users unlike what you keep saying..

It's still early.. let's wait and see .....

You have your prediction, I have mine......the bet is still on ....

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] BarryH_GEG:
We'll know after Q4 sales are reported. Q4's a big selling period because of the holidays. It's going to be hard to judge though since high-end sales are slowing and Samsung's making up for it selling more low-end devices in emerging markets. So total sales will be up, market share will be up, and margins will be the telling factor. If they're flat or up Samsung's doing well at the high-end (EG: N3). If they're down, especially against competitors, that means Samsung's high-end sales would be trailing the market.

And I hope you know I don't think my opinion is any more valid than yours. We're both just guessing. ;)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] fade2black101:
Anyway I've just recommended this for my sister. Mainly because of the excellent £27 a month contract with no upfront fee. At that price I figured worth it over Note II. It was very hard to convince her to come off her iPhone 3GS for a HTCA Sensation a couple years back. Then Nexus 4.. Now Note III.

Given the way she uses her phone (constantly on browser).. I figured she'd appreciate the massive screen. I really do hope the camera is decent indoors because the lack of optical image stabilization worries me. One of her main complaints of the Nexus 4 was how the pics would keep blurring when she was trying to get a picture of her young daughter.

As for the wakeup delay, and possible ever so slight lag in comparision to iOS/stock Android, I'm hoping it won't bother her.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lawonga:
My only buyers remorse is touchwiz. But that will soon be fixed when cm is released for this device. That and I miss being able to one hand swype on phones =(
[Galaxy Note 3 General] avenging:
i honestly cannot fathom the region lock thingy, here in saudi they sell the much cheaper exynos unlocked and the more expensive snapdragon locked (well not all sellers have region locked phones but they are there).... but the salesmen tell me they are sure it wil work in the philippines i am just not sure if they are really knowledgeable about this whole thing or not
[Galaxy Note 3 General] heavylift:
There is no way you can sweet this pill.

samsung is on the path of getting locked down á la iphone, knox , region lock etc and this is the wrong way.

this is bullshyt .

I am going to buy not 3 tomorow ( mega 6.3 user, and former n7000 user) and I am going to pay one thousand dollars for it, and ain't going to think twice, it is the best around.

But I don't need to find excuses for it , as I know it has faults , I am no samsung fanboy not even freaking android , I tell you if nokia lumia 1520 didn't have those huge bezels , and windows add a few more games and apps I would give it a try.

note 3 has faults , but we just have to come to terms with it. Even with faults , globally , its the best device, right now, in the world
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Bruce lee roy:
Can't see myself ever buying region locked phone after spending time overseas with pre-paid phone.

I'm also still not convinced the note 3 is the best device out. In terms of hardware, the phone is definitely in a league of its own, but hardware is seriously useless without the software to support/utilize it. After spending a little time with the device, I can honestly say, even with older hardware, the nexus 4 out performs the note 3. And compared to the n2, the n3 performance was only marginally better than n2. With a price more than 3 times that of the Nexus and the n2, there is no way I could justify the purchase or recommendation of this phone. Then you throw in region locking, knox, and QC (overheating, smear, wifi, speakers, home button, reception)... forget about it.

Hardware wise, the n3 reminds me of people who ask me about spending tons of money of the a laptop with the latest and greatest hardware; spec'd with quad core i7 and powerful gpu. When I ask about their usage habits, they tell me word processing and Internet browsing... seriously?