Well after 6 days with the Note 3, I have returned it and gone back to my 5s. It is a fantastic device and probably the best Android phone on the market IMO. For those interested in why I returned it, keep reading. One of the main reasons I kept the 5s was Apple releasing Mavericks last night. Its added some great new features that tie in your iPhone to your Macs even more now. Seeing as I have an iMac, Macbook Air and an iPad Mini, keeping the 5s made more sense. Another reason is hardware. The Samsung radios are still subpar. I would drop into 3G or even 1x on Verizon in places where my 5s got LTE just fine. I prefer the 5s camera over the Note 3, and by quite a bit. The AMOLED displays are still not as good as the IPS on the iPhone, even though it is a higher resolution. Lastly, its just too big to be an everyday phone. I work from home, so if I want to watch movies, play games or something where a larger screen is a benefit, I'll do it on my TV, iMac, Macbook or Mini. I would recommend the Note 3 to pretty much anyone wanting a big screen, non iOS device, its just not for me.
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Galaxy Note 3
- Thread starter The Game 161
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I have had several Samsung phones so I was already very familiar with Touch Wiz. There is a pretty decent learning curve for first time users. No lagging or bugs, but I only used it for 6 days with only about 25 apps installed. Not nearly as simple to use as iOS but many more things to tweak and tinker with.
I've been using the stock Samsung keyboard since I got the phone and noticed it's improved dramatically over the Note 2 keyboard. Went into the settings and it appears Swiftkey Flow is built into the stock Samsung keyboard. I might end up switching to Kii again but for now definitely liking the stock keyboard.
Yeah the more you use the samsung keyboard the more accurate it becomes also in auto correcting. I'm using it as my default simply because of the pen input too.
Is it the same as the s4 keyboard? I used it and I wasn't impressed at all.
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Would you have kept the gn3 I'd you didn't own Mac products?
My Note 3 just started rebooting itself. And when it does, it goes into this rebooting loop over and over again.
There's a huge thread over at XDA with hundreds of others having the same issue. Seems to be a mix of SD card, SIM and software issue combined. If I can't resolve this today I will swap phones at Verizon and see if that helps.
Anyone else experiencing same?
There's a huge thread over at XDA with hundreds of others having the same issue. Seems to be a mix of SD card, SIM and software issue combined. If I can't resolve this today I will swap phones at Verizon and see if that helps.
Anyone else experiencing same?
Just got my Note 3 late last night. Do you have a link to the thread at XDA?
Im having some weird things occur out of the blue:
Notification emblems dont clear once I review a notification (email)
S Voice comes on out of nowhere prompting the screen to turn on
When receiving a text via handcent and popup the screen turns on and it doesnt ever shut back off unless I clear the text
I had the daemon-camera issue suck the life out of my battery before I fixed it
Overall, very small things but not as flawless as it was the first week and wondering if it will only get worse.
Notification emblems dont clear once I review a notification (email)
S Voice comes on out of nowhere prompting the screen to turn on
When receiving a text via handcent and popup the screen turns on and it doesnt ever shut back off unless I clear the text
I had the daemon-camera issue suck the life out of my battery before I fixed it
Overall, very small things but not as flawless as it was the first week and wondering if it will only get worse.
I would not call this a huge thread with "hundreds of others". Yes, it definitely appears to be a problem and it has been reported on various sites but so far the total number of posts is just over 200 and, of that, many are posts by the same member. Many owners do not have this problem but obviously for those who do it is a definite problem.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2467005
See above.
If I didn't own any Mac products I probably would still choose the 5S over the Note 3.
The way the phone feels and looks is also a part of my buying decision.
I didn't like how they tried to add things to make it look like some other thing. If you're going to use plastic make it plain - clean lines. Don't fake it.
Android, although fun, has simply been sub par for me.
I've noticed that I took a lot less pictures and videos of my daughter when I had my Nexus. The camera app just seemed to get slower and slower with each iteration.
Input lag has always bugged me. It was very noticeable to me. Especially coming from and iPhone.
Apps. Sub par apps. Others may disagree, but to me the experience isn't the same compared to apps in IOS.
Ultimately I wanted my phone to be a phone again and not try to be a tablet.
- RANT _ ALERT - 
I think its rather amusing when we get into Ios vs Android debate with its general points..Android fans claim customization is a limitation on the IOS (rightly so) and IOS fans claim that the User interface is smoother and much simpler and minimalistic. I have recently begun to heard that a true geek would almost have to pick android because of its features. I would not call myself a geek but I do love all operating systems and play around with them..I have owned android devices and have owned pretty much every iphone model. Personally I prefer the simplicity and minimalistic approach of IOS which others may find too straight forward and almost restrictive compared to options you can use on your android with all the launcher apps and ROM's etc. I loved using the Nova on the GS4 and could spend a heck of a lot of time playing around with it. I used the GS4 quite a bit and found myself playing around with the settings a LOT. With the iphone5 i was mostly USING it for what I use it for (Apps, Music , Calling and Email with some light gaming thrown in)..In my routine IOS (Iphone 5 currently) experience i would almost never feel the need to have the sort of customization that android offers simply due to the fact that I need a simple to use smartphone that goes from function to function in a snap, has a form factor and UI i am experienced with and that feels and looks premium. I simply do not have the time to play around a heck of a lot which I would do with the GS4 that i used for a while (My brother's phone which i used for a few weeks)..
I wish I had the money to splurge on the G Note 3 as a secondary device to my Iphone 5s (ordered) for times when i feel like playing with the OS and for gaming and browsing..But then I would be getting into my Ipad Mini territory here...I guess I am one of those users that has a separate requirement from a tablet (At home, light browsing, games etc) and from a phone (Work, Email, Calling, Music)
All in all, I have a ton of respect for Android and what it brings to the table, and after having played with the G N3 a few days ago, I must say it is a great device to have around if you are really into using all those features and BRAINPOWER routinely...If you are a once in a while tablet user or someone that uses the tablet in separate situations ( Like I as a substitute for my mac book pro for browsing the internet from home) then you really should not have to carry all the bulk on you and could go for a 4 inch or a 5 inch device (HTC One has the best tradeoff in my opinion as far as screen size to operations is concerned)..
I may one day switch to a phablet but i hope that it is when either samsung, apple or someone else gives me a different user expereince from it...Perhaps apple will do something different with the IOS when it finally decides to enter large phones and who knows phablets? Until then I am going to prefer the Iphone5's along with other android 5 inch phones (or slightly less)...I really hope apple bumps up the ip6 to closer to 5"" otherwise its GS5 for me next year
I think its rather amusing when we get into Ios vs Android debate with its general points..Android fans claim customization is a limitation on the IOS (rightly so) and IOS fans claim that the User interface is smoother and much simpler and minimalistic. I have recently begun to heard that a true geek would almost have to pick android because of its features
. I would not call myself a geek but I do love all operating systems and play around with them..I have owned android devices and have owned pretty much every iphone model. Personally I prefer the simplicity and minimalistic approach of IOS which others may find too straight forward and almost restrictive compared to options you can use on your android with all the launcher apps and ROM's etc. I loved using the Nova on the GS4 and could spend a heck of a lot of time playing around with it. I used the GS4 quite a bit and found myself playing around with the settings a LOT. With the iphone5 i was mostly USING it for what I use it for (Apps, Music , Calling and Email with some light gaming thrown in)..In my routine IOS (Iphone 5 currently) experience i would almost never feel the need to have the sort of customization that android offers simply due to the fact that I need a simple to use smartphone that goes from function to function in a snap, has a form factor and UI i am experienced with and that feels and looks premium. I simply do not have the time to play around a heck of a lot which I would do with the GS4 that i used for a while (My brother's phone which i used for a few weeks)..I wish I had the money to splurge on the G Note 3 as a secondary device to my Iphone 5s (ordered) for times when i feel like playing with the OS and for gaming and browsing..But then I would be getting into my Ipad Mini territory here...I guess I am one of those users that has a separate requirement from a tablet (At home, light browsing, games etc) and from a phone (Work, Email, Calling, Music)
All in all, I have a ton of respect for Android and what it brings to the table, and after having played with the G N3 a few days ago, I must say it is a great device to have around if you are really into using all those features and BRAINPOWER routinely...If you are a once in a while tablet user or someone that uses the tablet in separate situations ( Like I as a substitute for my mac book pro for browsing the internet from home) then you really should not have to carry all the bulk on you and could go for a 4 inch or a 5 inch device (HTC One has the best tradeoff in my opinion as far as screen size to operations is concerned)..
I may one day switch to a phablet but i hope that it is when either samsung, apple or someone else gives me a different user expereince from it...Perhaps apple will do something different with the IOS when it finally decides to enter large phones and who knows phablets? Until then I am going to prefer the Iphone5's along with other android 5 inch phones (or slightly less)...I really hope apple bumps up the ip6 to closer to 5"" otherwise its GS5 for me next year
Well obviously it doesn't affect 100% of phones. Or it would have been caught in testing
No No no it's much better than the stock S4 keyboard. Even the tactical response of the keys feel better. But more importantly it doesn't feel as cramped as the S4 keys, as they're spaced out rather nicely.
Also I noticed lag in S4 keyboard, whereas there is none on the Note 3.
At least, for a workaround, it seems unchecking always scanning (wifi) works for many.
No Problems, yet. Knock on wood. Love this phone.
Nope.
I've not had any of those problems, I do not use hand cent however.
Yep likewise.
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Anyone wanna take a stab at how to fix my issues?
Try uninstalling Handcent and see if the issue clears up. If it does = don't use Handcent until they release a new update / fix and contact the developer.
I used to do this at times on my Note2, but with the Note 3 I've been using SwiftKey and still get the option to use the pen if I hover the pen over the input window.
Ive found it only works in certain places such as the internet search bar and others.
I cant get it to work on inputting text like in the box here on the forum or on the email app on the phone.
At least on the Samsung keyboard you can press the key on it to bring up the pen option. Cant seem to get that on Swiftkey even though I really like Swiftkey more. It reduces the S Pen functionality.
I stand corrected, I really only use the pen for writing in Note apps and messaging (GO SMS Pro) and never tried it in Chrome, which I just did without success (with the search bar at Google.com). Guess it fits my needs but may not work for others.
You found the iPhone 5s camera that much better? I have been using both. The Note 3 seems much better in good lighting and with video (the video clarity on the Note 3 is phenomenal). The iphone5s takes the better low light pictures.