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Hi guys,
I am having some serious thoughts on what to get... Basically I am a software developer and I have a Galaxy Nexus, a Galaxy S1 some ond Xperia and a Nexus 7. It is time for me to switch to a new device as my daily driver. The options I have are Galaxy Nexus 5 and the Note 3. The Note 3 is more expensive with around 150$ in my country, considering the type of contract I am getting. The phone will be used for at least one year.
Nexus 5: well, no review yet. Price is reasonable in my country and has the new 4.4. The new android version doesn't impress me. To be honest I find the google experience pretty boring but I have to admit I liked receiving fast updates on my Nexus.
Note 3: I have been reading around the forum for the last days. I saw that many have problems with the home button, the battery life, the screen issues. I like the s-pen features but I am not sure how much I'll use them.
What advice do you give me ? What should I get ?
alinescoo said:
Hi guys,
I am having some serious thoughts on what to get... Basically I am a software developer and I have a Galaxy Nexus, a Galaxy S1 some ond Xperia and a Nexus 7. It is time for me to switch to a new device as my daily driver. The options I have are Galaxy Nexus 5 and the Note 3. The Note 3 is more expensive with around 150$ in my country, considering the type of contract I am getting. The phone will be used for at least one year.
Nexus 5: well, no review yet. Price is reasonable in my country and has the new 4.4. The new android version doesn't impress me. To be honest I find the google experience pretty boring but I have to admit I liked receiving fast updates on my Nexus.
Note 3: I have been reading around the forum for the last days. I saw that many have problems with the home button, the battery life, the screen issues. I like the s-pen features but I am not sure how much I'll use them.
What advice do you give me ? What should I get ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have galaxy note 3 but if i time returns i will choose nexus 5
Please mention your reasons. It would help me a lot. Thanks
I'm using note 3 at the moment and my nexus 5 is on its way to me, will give more accurate impression once received.
Features I prefer nexus 5 over note 3
Design look and feel (massive improvement)
No TW bloatware (another massive factor)
Easier to carry around
More regular software updates kat 4.4
No lag freezing (hopefully)
Features I will miss coming from note 3
camera not impressed at all (will miss that the most)
4k video recording
Battery life
S-pen (just a little)
Multi screens (what a feature)
Large screen
Ext memory
Have you encountered any problems with the Note 3 ? Does it lag ? Do you have that effect on low brightness for dark borders ? How does TW bloatware affect you ?
Battery wise note has 50%more juice. Home button issues - do you mean the button moving around? It is not a problem, people are too much complaining about tiny tiny things they should never find unless they read about it.
Camera - i think nexus5 is way better than n3. Its not the pixels that matter, or software options. Nexus 5 camera is next level, focus is about 10 times faster.
Bloatware yes, samsung puts 700mb of bloatware that you dont receive on nexus. Not sure if anything of that is usable. But cyanogenmod should arrive soon!
I wish note3 had the new camera and with optical stabilization, then it would be perfect!
As for 4.4 - its just a number. There will definitely arrive new android versions fast on the n3, just that you have to flash it yourself and void the warranty.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app
I like Nexus because:
- The design of the device and the appearance of the UI is more appealing to me. I like to keep things on my phone looking pretty "minimalistic" with few colors and lots and lots of black. I absolutely hate the Touchwiz cartoony look and I always change everything about it, the process starts immediately on first boot of the phone. Everything about Touchwiz looks awful - the icons, the menus, the choices in colors, those horrible big green quick settings toggles in the notification bar. Stock Android is much much better when it comes to looks. The Nexus 5 and its software looks like it's been designed by a design team made up of adults who actually make cohesive decisions together. Touchwiz looks to me like the school project of a pre-school class where everyone can add their favorite color and everyone gets to participate and add their touch to the design. Little Johnny wants a big blue, round icon there - OK let's put it right next to Jenny's rectangular pink icon there and add Lisa's green toggles! Fun for everybody.
I like Note 2/3 because:
- The battery is bigger. I've never been this satisfied with battery life.
- The screen is bigger. Honestly after using the Note 2, I cringe every time I use my iPhone 4 (I keep it as my spare phone) or my wife's Galaxy S III. The displays are so tiny, I don't think I could go back. Not even to a 5" display.
- I don't like the on screen nav buttons of stock Android. I want the physical menu, home and back buttons.
- The S-Pen. I'm not a heavy S-Pen user but it has really nice features on the Note 3. I use it much more with my Note 3 than I did with my Note 2.
- Memory card slot. Seriously. I could not live without one.
- Removable battery - not a big reason but nonetheless it is nice.
I hate the Note 2/3 because:
- I get to a point where I'm never satisfied with the ROM I use. New stuff is released on XDA and I feel this pressing need to try other ROMs. All the time. Sometimes it seems all I do with my phone is restoring backups. With the Nexus I think that I would be more easily able to just stick with one ROM.. Maybe even the stock ROM, just rooting it.
Don't listen to them
I just bought Note 3 after using Note 2 for couple of months
And go for Note 3 believe me this is the beast .. Note 3 Snap dragon
I am in the same boat as op.
I have a s2 now for 3 years and looking for an upgrade.
Minimum 5 inch screen, preferably a tad bigger.
Key feature should be office workability, due to a upcoming promotion as a project manager.
So I need info from all sorts of documents on the fly. Including excel.
Does the note provide this?
For free time I love playing games and viewing movies.
Help appreciated.
EJ
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
U may have to wait for few weeks to get the full hands on review about this. Nexus 5. The specs r good. But we don't know about battery life, camera performance, and heating issues. Note 3 is good in these areas.
Sent from my SM-N9005
I am planning on using the Note 3 with stock firmware from Samsung... because of warranty issues of knox trigger. This would also help on trying to reproduce bugs that appear on TouchWiz platform easier. So, having stock on Note3 sucks performance wise ?
efjbdejong said:
I am in the same boat as op.
I have a s2 now for 3 years and looking for an upgrade.
Minimum 5 inch screen, preferably a tad bigger.
Key feature should be office workability, due to a upcoming promotion as a project manager.
So I need info from all sorts of documents on the fly. Including excel.
Does the note provide this?
For free time I love playing games and viewing movies.
Help appreciated.
EJ
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perhaps wait for nokia lumia 1520.
That's ideal for such mundane tasks. Lol
---------- Post added at 02:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:39 PM ----------
alleshi said:
Don't listen to them
I just bought Note 3 after using Note 2 for couple of months
And go for Note 3 believe me this is the beast .. Note 3 Snap dragon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Note 3 is far better then note 2 for sure but is it the best ow no. It's a beast but not the best.
If i didn't have the Note 3 already i would be pretty tempted to buy the Nexus 5. It's half the price, here, with great hardware, Kit Kat, Google updates, etc. But those touch buttons (why?) on the screen are a no no for me.
Thank you all for replies. After doing a lot of reading on the Buyers remorse thread I see that most of note3 users are happy. The only notable problems are: very weak audio output because of the small speaker, the pink effect around black edges on low brightness settings and the wobbly home button. Also I see that the battery isn't so great.
I am really thinking what to get, as I said, the difference would be around 150$ in price.
If I didn't have N3 already I would have the N5. I had N4 previously.
N3 has plus and minus points.
+ points
Battery Life - best I ever had
SD Card - installed 64GB,some users have install 128GB.
Big Screen - I like the screen some don't like AMOLED colors.
Fastest CPU & 3GB RAM
Multi Window & Pen Window
IrDA port - can control devices from my phone.
- points
Design - not very stylish
Build quality - my back cover already creaks only 1 month old. Others have experienced Home button and screen/multi touch issues
External Speakers - embarrassing from Samsung.
Samsung bloatware - unnecessary
Wireless Charging - not built in but @ extra cost
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
Costum ROM
why wouldn't you just wait on xda to get pure 4.4 android and install that ROM on your note 3 ?
Hi,
the Google Nexus 5 is indeed a very good phone. Having switched from Nexus 4 to Galaxy Note 3 I can basically give you good explanations.
The Galaxy Note 3 has plenty more features than the Google Nexus 4 abd 5 which is great.
I would say the Note 3 wins everywhere against the Nexus unless you tell me you prefer smaller screen. In my case, the screen size was the reasob why I moved.
On the otherside, yes there are a lot of Samsung apps and that sucks to me. The Galaxy Note 3 can be rooted easily, so you can easy remove those bloatwares which make me feel more confortable that way.
On the other hand, I do prefer the PURE Androis that the Google Nexus has to the TouchWiz by Samsung because it uses way less resources.
The perfect phone for me would be a Note 3 with a AOSP Rom. (CyanogenMod or Android Open Kang Project (AOKP) because it would give the pure android feeling which means higher battery life, no bloatwares, faster updates.
Ok guys, some N5 reviews have appeared and to be honest, things don't look that good in battery and camera departments. Actually that was kinda expected considering the 2300 mAh battery and 1080p screen.
Now back to note 3, all the small things that bothered me (wobbly home button, pinkish black borders, bloatware) are not important anymore. The things that worries me most is the screen burn in. I saw some reviews where this is mentioned (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3mbkoXCMhs&feature=em-uploademail from 19 minute). I have own so far a Galaxy S1 and a Galaxy Nexus both having amoled screens. On my GNex sometimes I can see the keyboard shadow after using it, but I haven't really noticed any permanent retention as it goes off after a few seconds. I just did a quick check with blue color all over the screen and I can see a very faint shadow of the top bar, but nothing really noticeable. BUT, I use the phone on auto brightness and considering that Note 3 has the most bright amoled display built, I am afraid that it will suffer from permanent burn in because of blue pixels. Could anyone tell me if they have burn in ? This is a major drawback for me and might be the point which may convince me to give up on note3 in favor of N5.
Thanks all for your help. I really appreciate it.
For me it's so simple. They don't even belong to the same category.
Do you need/like the S-Pen features (and do you actually use them)? Do you need the bigger screen and the amazing Full HD @60fps video (let alone the 4K)?
If not then the Nexus 5 is a no brainer at this price point. Plain and simple.
Apps and bloatware are of no importance to me. I always remove them to my preference, to me flashing ROMs is an integral part of a smartphone like Note 3.
I agree with you, but if the screen has issues than all the other features are pointless, considering that the screen is the thing we see most.
It would be really great if owners could do some screen tests and return with the result.
i was just watching the android authority review of the note 4 when about 5 minuets you can see a really nice charging screen.
is there any way of adding this to the galaxy s4?
i think its when the phone is off so im thinking no, but perhaps theres a way to make something like this as an app for when its on?
im mainly interested in the bubbly animation at the bottom of the screen.
From reviews online ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djrc6HLUpTA&feature=youtu.be ) they seem pretty good.
$170 is not even comparable to $900 or w/e the going price is right now. Anyone have one?
i bought it from dhgate for $160 incl shipping.
i like it. its jellybean with quad mediatek cpu (1/2 speed of note 4).
but it works great.
zurkx said:
i bought it from dhgate for $160 incl shipping.
i like it. its jellybean with quad mediatek cpu (1/2 speed of note 4).
but it works great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So the fake is half the speed on the real thing? Thats pretty good for the price difference.
Display Resolution: 1280x720
ROM: 8GB (Show 32GB in the phone)
RAM: 1GB (will show 3GB,Available 1GB)
You are probably better off getting a note 2 or something...
gluttony said:
Display Resolution: 1280x720
ROM: 8GB (Show 32GB in the phone)
RAM: 1GB (will show 3GB,Available 1GB)
You are probably better off getting a note 2 or something...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ordered a fake should be here in 2-3 days. Will see if I made a mistake or not.
it shows real values if you enable it.
*#*#9228#*#* for fake control/engineering menu.
Framaroot will root it.
Anyone willing to try it out?
We should see what happens when the clone is rooted! I wonder if it messes up the phone! :silly:
nothing. its a stock jellybean with a note 4 theme on top. if you root the fake iphone 6 you will also see the same thing.
Can someone run a benchmark?
Sent from my SM-N910C using XDA Free mobile app
OK if you want a low end big phone, however the efficiency of the components and the battery will be poor. The screen will be low grade and bare in mind that these people are still making money. For me it's false economy and not worth it.
The radiation are high on the clone version of Note 4, it is bad for you if you want to use it for your daily phone haha. But I guess it is great for a person who cannot afford a note 4 if they just want to have the look for note 4.
radiation ? its a cheap ass 3G jellybean clone phone. hardly any radiation and hardly any power emissions. the battery is only 2000mah and it stays on longer than the actual note 4.
Got the phone and here are my impressions.
1. Root was easy and works the way it does
2. Battery lasts all day with minimal use
3. Responsive screen, the same as my note 1 if I am not mistaken.
4. The antutu it comes installed with is fake and puts your score over 20,000. Uninstalled it and reinstalled a legit version and get a score of 19000.
5. Camera works great,gps works great, finger print lock works.
Any other questions I can answer? Lets just say for $170 I am super happy. I get a stylish device that works fairy well and is much better than my note 1 i717.
Oh I forgot to mention that air gestures work as well which was a big surprise actually.
yep and the air gestures work better than the original note 4 lol.
zurkx said:
yep and the air gestures work better than the original note 4 lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow that is actually a surprise or are just joking? I cant really tell lol because its hard to believe that the clone has something better than the original.
Does anyone know if the LED case works with the clone?
webosFTW said:
Wow that is actually a surprise or are just joking? I cant really tell lol because its hard to believe that the clone has something better than the original.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes really. dont you have a note 4 you can try it on ? samsung has removed a lot of the air gesture stuff from the note 4.
anyway, doubt the LED case will work - the pinouts and OS and samsung drivers are missing. i dont have an LED case to try on both so not 100% sure but i doubt it will work.
also the fingerrprint reader does not work - its a fake BTW.
zurkx said:
yes really. dont you have a note 4 you can try it on ? samsung has removed a lot of the air gesture stuff from the note 4.
anyway, doubt the LED case will work - the pinouts and OS and samsung drivers are missing. i dont have an LED case to try on both so not 100% sure but i doubt it will work.
also the fingerrprint reader does not work - its a fake BTW.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait the fingerprint reader is fake? How sure are you? When I set a lock I can unlock it but nobody else can.
yep its fake. it just measures the direction of the swipe not the fingerprint. try swiping with your other fingers and it will unlock. or ask someone else to swipe the same way you do.
I'm looking at getting a phablet off contract (so something like the Note 4 isn't an option at $600+) so I was wondering if the Note 3 is still worth a buy if I can get a good used one for around $300 or less?
still love my note 3 its fast its big its great some good deals on note 3s at the mo ..get 1 i wont be disappointed
scottharris4 said:
I'm looking at getting a phablet off contract (so something like the Note 4 isn't an option at $600+) so I was wondering if the Note 3 is still worth a buy if I can get a good used one for around $300 or less?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure. Just got one for my wife. Now I own 3 of them.
Fast. Big FullHD screen. High capacity battery. What else can you ask for?
Screen is washed out compared to note 4 or else if it's sexier than note 4.
kenny1991 said:
Screen is washed out compared to note 4 or else if it's sexier than note 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sat mine side-by-side with a Note 4 a week or so back, comparing them. Didn't notice any screen issues and my Note 3 ate his for speed, although he is on TW stock and I'm on Temasek's CM12.1 ROM with Nova.
How to make a Note 4 user green...
I'd say get a Note 3 - there is hardly any difference (except price) between that and the Note 4 and with Custom ROM's it flies...
Journyman16 said:
I sat mine side-by-side with a Note 4 a week or so back, comparing them. Didn't notice any screen issues and my Note 3 ate his for speed, although he is on TW stock and I'm on Temasek's CM12.1 ROM with Nova.
How to make a Note 4 user green...
I'd say get a Note 3 - there is hardly any difference (except price) between that and the Note 4 and with Custom ROM's it flies...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have both and a note 1. and there is a different between all of them. Note 4 performs better. I'm too on that rom. The difference is there. You may not notice it unless you spend some time with it. An my note 3 has purple colors on black background like many others have. This is not the same with note 4. It has as you know more pixels too.
kenny1991 said:
I have both and a note 1. and there is a different between all of them. Note 4 performs better. I'm too on that rom. The difference is there. You may not notice it unless you spend some time with it. An my note 3 has purple colors on black background like many others have. This is not the same with note 4. It has as you know more pixels too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd imagine if you 'customed' a Note 4 it too would improve, but his stock versus my CM12.1 & the difference in performance was in favour of my Note 3. And yes, I know about the UHD screen - just didn't think it was worth the extra money given how few UHD uses there are - I prefer to kick back in my recliner to watch movies on the big screen.
What is the thing about purple colours on black? Never heard of that... do you have a faulty screen?
Journyman16 said:
What is the thing about purple colours on black? Never heard of that... do you have a faulty screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ghosting. Happens on every AMOLED screen, due to the black being made by disabling the LEDs. (What happens when you turn off a LED(or any light)? It glows briefly.) But it's only noticeable on very low brightness settings in the dark, and only on a pure-black background. It's not a defect, it's basic physics.
Sit in a dark room, set your screen to 20% brightness and scroll across a black menu slowly. You'll see it.
The reason it doesn't show up on the Note 4 isn't because it doesnt exist. It's because the Note 4 doesn't use black menu's; and neither do 99% of the apps thanks to the migraine-inducer that is Material Design.
I tested it on a Note 4 in the first week with the old version of Tapatalk in Dark mode. It has Ghosting just as much as the Note 3.
Sent From My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9005 Using Tapatalk
Hi all,
I'm confused and very hesitant about upgrading , I have a note 4 and I love it but like I said I'm very hesitant and reluctant to upgrade because I don't want to be a slave to a charger.....this is the number one reasons I hate Iphones besides not being able to expand the memory you can't switch out the battery, and you become as I stated a slave to a charger. Also I want to know if you are rooted & running the latest software does it make a difference what device you have? I know a friend of mine who has an s6 and I know one who has a note 5&6 their constantly charging it because the battery is constantly dying. can anyone tell me why I should upgrade to a note 5 if I cant expand the memory?
Can anyone tell me weather I'm doing the right thing, Or can anyone tell me anything to rest aside my fears concerning upgrading. ......thanks
I think best upgrade from note 4 is now s7 edge.
S8 is not anymore samsung phone becaus there`s no HW buttons and screen look ... WTF? WTF? ... pain in eyes so no thanks.
Still note 4 is amazing device but I think only exynos version becaus on Snapdragon if u have screen time 3 hours u can be happy of Exynos 6 hours sot.
I have 910F with snapdragon and low SOT is reason why i want to upgrade. (OR i need replace mainboard for 910C)
I did not upgrade my Note4 until the Note7 came out. Then it go recalled so went back to the Note4. I can swap the battery around when I want and I have a 256gb microSD card installed. It's still a great phone I say keep it.
I have rooted my Note4 and have a Note7 rom installed. It works really well.
Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk
There's really not a lot of good phones to upgrade to with as much features as the Note 4. Closest by far is the LG V20 and Huawei Mate 9.
I'm actually aiming for the BlackBerry KeyOne cuz how good the battery life will be, I'll wait for a full review though.
Im sad of 910F (snapdragon) battery life. I looking for 910C (Exynos) but in my country is quite imposible
Short Answer: The Note 4 won't be beaten by new phones. Only if you are willing to sacrifice 2 features. The pen, and the removable battery. But for the next 2 to 3 years, it will stand alone on the throne.
Swapped the battery in the beginning of the year, because it died down with some shutdowns after 2 years of usage. No Shutdown since then, I have low SOT but still got 3 days instead of 2 before (910F). Just imagine having a phone with a fixed battery, you would either have to live unhappy with it or buy a new phone. The display is absolutely fine, no AMOLED aging problems yet.
It got a fine camera, 4k video, QHD Display, fast processing power and UI, good battery life, and a pen. That's so far stuff the note 4 has, and isn't worse than recent phones in a considerable amount in any of the things it does.
I crave for an even bigger display (something like 6 - 6,4 inch with 16:9), dual sim (with the bands I need), small bezels, and durable design on the edges (no bent display). I mean man, i dropped the note 4 so many times. The metal frame got damaged like it should, and the display hasn't broken yet.
Future Galaxy Notes won't get bigger in my opinion (Samsung using 2:1 ratio, only good for movies), and even after the note 7 disaster, removable batteries are going to be even less common (like no flagship phones have them anymore).
My only hope are smaller asian companies. But even Xiaomi (who are not small in any way, but they show to have the guts and put money into development of innovative phones like the Mi Mix), won't introduce an integrated pen and removable battery design just like that. Who knows, maybe in 5 years it may be different. When phones are just a display at the front, and you have to be different because they all have become the same concerning the design (lg g6 = s8 design, or like all the sharp aquos and the mi mix).
By the way, I use the dr. Ketan rom. Main Reason: With UC Browser (you can use a custom background, like a black picture. Bugless black browsing experience), and the official samsung theme manager, I got a close to complete black UI.
Vybramo said:
I think best upgrade from note 4 is now s7 edge.
S8 is not anymore samsung phone becaus there`s no HW buttons and screen look ... WTF? WTF? ... pain in eyes so no thanks.
Still note 4 is amazing device but I think only exynos version becaus on Snapdragon if u have screen time 3 hours u can be happy of Exynos 6 hours sot.
I have 910F with snapdragon and low SOT is reason why i want to upgrade. (OR i need replace mainboard for 910C)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
on s8 you can set the navigation bar to be static and black and you will get the same as hardware buttons with the plus of the force touch home button.
nobody used to the hardware button will get any difference in using them.
to understand what i'm saying just give a look at the antutu benchmark ... you will see the black bar.just imagine the black bar with buttons.no difference
you can adjust even the ratio to be 16/9 so...if you want you can get advantages from the infinity display otherwise not
Still its amoled. After half year of using u will have different collors on display on Button spot. But i dont understand why samsung use just only 4gb of ram on latest CPU ... Most of application eat around 700mb and 8gb will be nice to have on flagship.
I using my note 4 as navigation but s8 rly sux with screen ratio + edges for it.
I thinking about upgrade to oneplus 3t but night shots its imported for me alot + battery life where is samgung s7 edge for now best choice.
Even by current standards the Note 4 is still a very good device. Especially if you have the Exynos variant.
If the Note 4 had the S7 Edge Camera, fingerprint scanner and Ip68 resistance, it would be Samsung King.
Sent from my SM-G935V using XDA-Developers Legacy app