[Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] scooters29:
Hello all,

I wonder if I may ask your collective opinion. I've been an HTC user since the Desire and have had a One X for the last 2 years. I'm due to upgrade in a month on EE 4G in the UK and have decided to go down the Note 3 route.

I have a varied lifestyle which means I can be in a variety of quite different environments with different use profiles for my devices (how's that for jargon?).

I'm looking for some advice around the best options to protect and power my phone.

I run an industrial and agricultural engineering business, as such my working environment can change from extreme to office boardroom on a daily basis. Extreme can involve outside in the Scottish winter so cold and wet. Industrial means drop risk and impact and screen protection, scratch protection, solvent and oil protection. We also restore old land rovers so mineral oil on hands is a frequent risk as is scrabbling around on dirty garage floors. I need to protect the phone from this environment but also retain full functionality.

However, I also find myself in the corporate boardroom where I need smart and sleek and unobtrusive and don't really want an oil stained lump of rubber in the table or desk.

In addition, at home I have two young children who have sticky fingers, accident prone (I've replaced my wife's iPhone screen and case 3 times now, who help themselves to phones and tablets to play games etc. I don't mind thus too much as it keeps the little buggers off my alienware M18.

At work we frequently find ourselves in remote locations where signal can be patchy and offer away from power sources for a while so I'm also looking to iccassionally beef up the battery. The remote locations can gobble up battery with roaming increased and whilst I know you can adjust settings, it can be a pain in the butt to remember to do this.

Strikes me I need a rugged, oil proof case and screen protector with the option of an extended battery capacity both of which can be removed to return to stick when in the office/socialising etc. Something with a holster would be good as well so I can pick up without rummaging in pockets which all too often contain knives, screw drivers etc.

What would you recommend? I've seen a few different options but am getting to the confused stage!

Secondly, I've recently developed osteoarthritis in my left hand, this makes using a phone the size of a One X with one hand tricky so the Note 3 will be even more of a challenge. So annoying and painful is this I very nearly opted for an iPhone 5s and breaking my vow never to own an apple product as Jobs was the antichrst and I can't stand Apples hypocritical, smug, controlling, 'aren't we just so wacky and cool', twat, Bollox corporate image- just because it is skinny enough to be easier to hold in my left hand when used as a phone or thumb texting.

I then recalled...just a minute, these days there are a plethora of solutions for this problem, there is no need to sacrifice my deepest principles!

Now I'm not a huge fan of Bluetooth ear sets they don't sit well with helmets, goggles, spectacles etc. So I have been interested to see the Galaxy Gear watch which looks like it might be an option despite the fact that I don't necessarily want to be bothered by phone and text all the time...sales calls, the bank, irate customers etc....

Question is...is the current GG watch worth getting or am I better waiting six months for the new one? I'm not sure if the latest one is waterproof and shockproof as most reviews tend to be about its gadgetry rather than its construction as a watch.

Lastly, I do a lot of miles behind the wheel in different vehicles, from family and work cars to vans and classic cars. Is there a decent generic vehicle dock avaliable for this phone, one which can be moved between vehicles easily and which allows me to easily access the phone as well as spotify and audible. I've gone back to my Garmin sat nav as in the uk anyway, Google maps app went from brilliant to utter push about six months ago. I've list count of the cash I have wasted on various phone mounts for cars and given the huge size of the Note 3 am thinking about somthing specific.

Thanks in advance for wasting valuable time pondering the best way forward for my hectic lif. I'm determined not to trash thus phone and secondly, to actually get the best out of its productivity as I'm getting busier and busier and need to use the devices smarter, one if the reasons I don't is the environment challenges.

Cheers

Rich