Samsung Galaxy Note 2 vs Note 3
Samsung has always been an aggressive competitor that uses a diverse range of techniques to maintain their market position. One of their key techniques is to have a spectrum of handsets to address the needs of disparate market segments which ensures that they stay at the largest handset provider position. However they also thrive to maintain the top tier market by producing the best smartphones in the market and its class so that they are crowned at the top no matter where people look. As a part of their strategy, Samsung Galaxy S4 is already making a huge splash in the top end market for been a preferred choice for a lot of customers. They have made sure that at least one smartphone from their Galaxy line stays at the top and in order to sustain their position, they release new or upgraded handsets that can then be the successor of what was on the top. Looking at the market through a horizontal perspective will definitely tell you that Samsung Galaxy Note 2 was also a smartphone that was at the top of the market. With the recent announcement of Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Note 2 finally have a successor and let Samsung retain this unique position in the Phablet market in a very competitive pace. So what has Samsung improved in their new Galaxy Note 3? That’s what we are going to find, and we’ll compare it against its predecessor Samsung Galaxy Note 2.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Review
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is perhaps the pinnacle of Samsung’s TouchWiz engineering division as of yet for it offers a diverse range of functions that would literally make your life way easier. Samsung thinks that although people buy Galaxy Note for its big screen, they keep it because of the multitasking ability and S Pen stylus; hence they’ve improved the user experience on both contexts. Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a slightly bigger display panel compared to Galaxy Note 2 but still is lighter and thinner than it. The 5.7 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display is brilliant and features a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels at a pixel density of 386 ppi. The big display and the full HD resolution give you a lot of space in the display panel so that you can exploit it for multitasking in the optimal way. The key point of attraction in Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is in S Pen Stylus where you can do a range of operations using it. When you pull out the S Pen Stylus from its case, the screen starts to display the Air Command wheel which enables you to choose an operation from a selection of five major segments. The most intuitive use of S Pen Stylus is to take down notes which is fundamental. However when you take down notes using the Stylus, the notes can be used to perform various tasks. For instance, if you jot down the phone number of your friend as a note / memo, you can use the S Pen Stylus to draw a box around the number, and it’ll give you a range of options to do like call the number, go to an address (if it was an address), write a new email (if it was an email address), search the web etc. Another interesting option available in the Air Command Wheel is the Scrapbook where you can save different captures of your screen. For instance, if you want to capture a part of a webpage that you are viewing right now and also want to jot down some additional notes on top of it and save it, you can do that just by drawing a box on the capture area using the stylus and proceeding further. The S Finder Samsung Search app has also got a considerable boost where you can search your android device not only for files by name but handwritten notes or drawn symbols, as well. It uses a tagging system to refine the searches and can even search through your photos’ Geo tags that match with your search query.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is powered by 2.3GHz Krait 400 Quad Core processor on top of Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset along with Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB of RAM. It runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and have butter smooth performance. As you can see, Samsung has included a high end processor with enough power to take down the best games in the industry to enable seamless user experience in day to day usage, as well as serious multitasking. With options like multiple minimized applications on top of one another while you browse or do some other work, multitasking takes a step further, and the processor ensures that the user experience stays enjoyable. Samsung has been really generous with Galaxy Note 3 because they’ve revealed a 32GB version as well as 64GB version along with the option to expand the storage up to 64GB using microSD card. In the world of unibody and thin smartphones, that is a really rare comfort. Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has also received a leather like design element with a woven thread like finish, which gives it a more premium look. It also enables the user to hold the smartphone at much ease that before.
The optics included in Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is also superb with 13MP camera along with autofocus and LED flash, dual shot feature, simultaneous HD video and image recording, Geo tagging, image stabilization and HDR imaging. What caught my eye the most is that it can capture 2160p video at 30 frames per second as opposed to classical 1080p video at 30 fps. Not only that, but you can also capture 1080p video at 60 frames per second, which is superb. The 2MP front camera can be used for video conferencing as usual. Like any other high end smartphone, Galaxy Note 3 also features super-fast 4G LTE connectivity as well as Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual band connectivity along with DLNA and the ability to create a wireless hotspot at your will. It has a beefy battery of 3200mAh which I reckon is fair with the size of its display panel. We are not quite sure how long it will last, but if Note 2 is any indication, it’ll last the day with moderate usage. Samsung Galaxy Note 3 comes in Black, White, and Pink but personally Black looked really sleek with the improved back plate.
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Review
Samsung’s Galaxy line is the prominent and flagship product line that has earned much respect towards the company. It is also these products that have the highest return for Samsung’s investments. Hence Samsung always maintains the quality of these products at a very high level. At a glance, Samsung Galaxy Note 2 isn’t any different to that image. It has a majestic look that closely resembles the looks of Galaxy S3 with the same Marble White and Titanium Grey color combinations. It has a 5.5 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with vibrant color patterns and the deepest blacks you could ever see. The screen was viewable from very wide angles, as well. It features a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 267ppi with a 16:9 widescreen. Samsung promises that the screen is more optimized to today’s visually oriented apps. It goes without saying that the screen is reinforced with Corning Gorilla Glass 2, to make it extra scratch resistant.
Following the footsteps of Galaxy Note, Note 2 is slightly bigger scoring dimensions of 151.1 x 80.5mm and has a thickness of 9.4mm and a weight of 180g. The layout of the buttons hasn’t changed where it features the big home button at the bottom with two touch buttons on either side of it. Inside this housing has the best processor that is featured in a smartphone. Samsung Galaxy Note 2 comes with 1.6GHz Cortex A9 Quad Core processor on Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad chipset with Mali 400MP GPU. The powerful set of hardware components is governed by the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It also features a 2GB RAM with 16, 32 and 64GBs of internal storage and has the option to expand the capacity using a microSD card.
The network connectivity is reinforced with 4G LTE that varies regionally. Galaxy Note II also features Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n with DLNA and the ability to create Wi-Fi hotspots to share your internet connection with friends. It also has NFC along with Google Wallet. The 8MP camera has become a standard in the smartphones these days and Note II features a 2MP camera on the front for the use of video conferencing. The back camera can capture 1080p HD videos at 30 frames per second with image stabilization. One of the specialties in Galaxy Note series is the S Pen stylus provided with them. In Galaxy Note II, this stylus can do a lot more compared to the conventional styluses featured in the market. For instance, you can flip over a photo, to get its virtual backside and scribble down notes just as we do on actual photos sometimes. It can also act as a virtual pointer on the Note 2’s screen which was a cool feature. Galaxy Note 2 also has the function to record your screen, every key stroke, pen marking and stereo audio and save it to a video file.
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 features a 3100mAh battery that may be able to survive for 8 hours or more with the power hungry processor. The increased mileage of the battery will suffice for the bag of tricks introduced with the Galaxy Note II compared to the original Note.
A Brief Comparison Between Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and Note 3
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is powered by 2.3GHz Krait 400 Quad Core processor on top of Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset along with Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB of RAM while Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is powered by 1.6GHz Cortex A9 Quad Core processor on top of Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad chipset with Mali 400MP GPU and 2GB of RAM.
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean while Samsung Galaxy Note 2 runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has 5.7 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display features a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels at a pixel density of 386 ppi while Samsung Galaxy Note 2 features a bigger screen of 5.5 inches featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 267ppi.
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has 13MP camera that can capture 2160p videos at 30 frames per second and 1080p videos at 60 fps while Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has 8MP back camera and 1.9MP front camera that can capture 1080p HD videos at 30 fps.
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is smaller, thinner and lighter (151.2 x 79.2 mm / 8.3 mm / 168g) than Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (151.2 x 80.5 mm / 9.4 mm / 183g).
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has 3200mAh battery while Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has 3100mAh battery.
Conclusion
As it can be clearly seen from the specs as well as the fact that Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is the successor of Samsung Galaxy Note 2, the former beats the latter by a fair amount of upgrades. Not only does Samsung Galaxy Note 3 provides you with a bigger screen with a better resolution, but at the same time, Samsung keeping the form factor smaller than Note 2, which is impressive. The opportunities available with Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is endless with the S Pen Stylus and seamless multitasking, and we at DifferenceBetween think it would come to the top line in no time. Obviously, there will be a price difference, and hopefully Note 2 will get a discount as well which is good because if you don’t want to afford the Note 3, Note 2 would become a more accessible option.