Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo consumer smartphone test, specifications andfull review

Consumer test of the 5.5-inch phablet Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo - pictures, unboxing video, price, specifications and full review

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo consumer test

After the initial opinion that I previously shared with you about my new smartphone Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo now it is time for the full consumer review, including the unboxing video I made and some detailed information about this premium 5.5-inch phablet.

So, it has been couple of weeks since I am using the Note 3 Neo and I am left with mixed feelings about this smartphone. Of course there is plenty to be liked about it but there also some gaps that make really bad impression when using the Note 3 Neo. That is why I decided to divide the pros and cons so it is more clear on what is worth it in this phone and what is not particularly good.

Note 3 Neo - the good stuff

There are many things that I can point out in this category but probably the most significant of them are the gorgeous 5.5-inch AMOLED display and the strong battery.

The 5.5-inch has HD resolution and many people would complain that it isn't Full HD Super AMOLED display which is again awesome. I would say that there is no difference between the two but in daily use they both deliver great colors with great deep blacks and the lower pixel density of the HD AMOLED display doesn't sacrifice on image quality which in my mind is really great. The Note 3 Neo display is sensitive enough to operate with hands or with the provided S Pen stylus which is among the best in class.

The 3100 mAh battery is another thing that makes this smartphone stand out from the crowd, With battery with such capacity can easily make it through the day and you will have plenty left in case you are not able to recharge it. I myself am not a heavy user - couple of phone calls, some browsing, 3G turned on, and hour of video playback on WiFi and I get two complete days before it falls under the critical 15% when you are reminded that a charger is needed. The charging time for such a big battery is also pretty good and it takes less than 3 hour to fully recharge the battery.

Another thing that I should probably point out about the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo is its hardware which is on a very good level - multi-core processor (hexacore) processing power and 2 GB of RAM are good enough for any application or game to go smoothly. Still, even with such good hardware the Note 3 Neo manages to lag from time to time but that is another story that I will tell in just a little while.

Galaxy Note 3 Neo also has a very good 8 megapixel camera which does very good photos not only outdoors but also inside where light conditions are not that good. I will publish an article where we are going to compare few different 8 megapixel shooters and you will see that Samsung's sensor is one of the best. The quality of the FULL HD videos recorded with this phone is also pretty good but sound could be a bit better though.

Note 3 Neo - what I din't like

Probably here I should start with the awful TouchWiz interface which can make even the most powerful hardware look slow. This interface is not sorted out and I think Samsung should really give up on it as it takes too much hardware resources and browsing through the menus is not as smooth as compared to phones using clean Android with no additional interface on top. If you want to learn more about this topic please check the TouchWiz lag article that we shared recently.

Another thing that you may particularly dislike in the Note 3 Neo is the fact that is not very comfortable in regular daily use when you need just a phone most of the time - it is just too big and smaller competitors are more convenient not only for carrying around but for basic operation as well. 

At last I should mention that it is still pretty hard to find any good accessories for the phone and that is why I am still searching for a good Note 3 Neo TPU case.

You can also check what we found out while searching for good case for Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo unboxing video

Verdict

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo is a very good cheap alternative of the regular Note 3. The Neo is slightly smaller and significantly cheaper but does everything almost as good. Of course the bigger Note 3 performs better in almost any category but lets not forget that the Note 4 is already released and with a price of over $500 the Note 3 is much closer to the new release rather than to its cheaper and smaller sibling.

It is well spent money when buying the Note 3 Neo and probably rooting the phone to clean Android version makes it even more appealing, especially with the release of Android L.