Samsung kept up with the trend by making some serious upgrade to the Note II, with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 being announced with a better spec in every department. But the biggest question that would flow around is, should I upgrade from the Samsung Galaxy Note II to Note 3 with the given features? For me, it’s a worthy upgrade. Let’s see why!
Now, before we get into the detailing part, let’s get it clear that Samsung has brought in most of the features from the Galaxy S4 so we shouldn’t compare those two, and we won’t be talking about an upgrade from the S4 to Note 3, because it would be just a blunder unless you are looking for the S Pen and a larger screen.
Should I Upgrade from Galaxy Note II to Galaxy Note 3?
Display
The display when you are looking for an upgrade, is a better one, with the Note 3 having a 1080p Full HD on an Super AMOLED display, which has got a pixel density of 386 PPI, while the Note II has got a 720p display on the Super AMOLED one with the 265 PPI density.
Processor
The processor has got the replication from the S4 again, as the International version of the Galaxy Note 3 is coming with the 1.9 GHz Octa-core processor, while the LTE variant would have a 2.3 GHz Quad-core processor, while the Note II had a Quad-core processor clocking at 1.6 GHz.
The GPU has got a serious upgrade, with the ARM Mali-400 in the Note II bidding a farewell, to welcome the latest best Adreno 330 GPU which is the standard in most of the high-end, and it actually delivers.
Oh and the RAM is upgraded too. You get a whooping 3 gig of RAM when compared to the 2 gig in the Note II, and that would support more multitasking, and Samsung clearly showed with the various S Pen features why it provided such a good RAM in the Note 3.
Camera
Oh yes we always take a lot of photos with the Galaxy Note, because these were the devices from Samsung always with a good camera and nice screen to show the pictures off. With the Note 3, Samsung has done a good job of including a 13-megapixel camera with the Back-illuminated sensor (BSI), and that comes with loads of features, as well as the 4K video recording at 3840×2160 resolution, while the 1920×1080 1080p HD video recording is possible at 60 fps. That’s quite a lot of advantage the Note would be taking from the processor that is included in it.
Comparing it with the Galaxy Note II’s camera, yes there was 1080p video recording with the 8-megapixel camera at 30 fps, but there is no 4K video recording. We won’t call it a big difference, the reasons would be explained below.
Battery
3200 mAh battery with the company telling that you get to have more battery life than before, although the Note II also had a 3100 mAh battery. We can believe Samsung in this aspect, because the Note II’s battery was a good one which gave some long hours of usage, thus the Note 3 won’t disappoint much.
The Actual Points to Consider
When you are talking about the various aspects, there comes a question: Are we using every feature of the Note II and taking advantage of the S Pen, to think about an upgrade?
The camera, for example, shouldn’t be considered much for the upgrade because when you talk about the video recording, 1080p is quite understandable and it’s the speed of frames that has got better, but the 4K video recording, is it really needed? You would well capture a 4K video, do you understand how much storage would be eaten for a few minutes video, and finally, where would you show it? It’s not the same screens which would be able to display the 2160p videos with that ease. So practically, the 1080p videos is what you would capture although you get to have a better quality one, just to flaunt.
But, when you talk about the S Pen – Samsung has done quite a lot of changes and they did take the S Pen seriously, with the Air Command having 5 different options which can be taken advantage of, if you have been an avid user of the earlier Note devices and used the S Pen frequently to jot down notes or capture any part of the screen. Now, you get to save the exact text or numbers from that selected area, and copy it, send it or calculate the numbers if you wanted. It’s more than the productivity you used to get in the Note II. So for the S Pen, it’s really worth an upgrade.
The processor has got a lot better, with the Octa-core processor which again is just a number for me, more than the actual user need and experience. In the review of the Moto X, I did say that I was more than happy with the Dual-core processor the company included, because, are you really going to give the device such a load and you think it would be able to handle it with so many cores? Frankly the S4 was quite buggy although the same numbers in the processor section. But considering the way Samsung has made things possible with the S Pen and the other features, the processor might be taken advantage of.
The display is just another number game, with the 1080p Full HD in the Note 3, but when you talk of the seriousness, I would have taken 1080p videos and taken full advantage of the Note 3’s display to playback those videos, or else why would we have such a neat display? even the 720p would have been enough.
Just when we talk about the comparison and the various features the Galaxy Note 3 has got, Samsung was left with no choice but to upgrade every aspect, or else it wouldn’t have been able to push the device at all because Note II was already quite perfect with the specs which never disappointed, and which still were quite competitive to this year’s high-end smartphones from other brands. Thus the serious number changes in all departments from Samsung. But to answer it in simple words: If you have used the Note II not just to flaunt the large screen and the S Pen, but had taken full advantage of the stylus and the intuitive features, then the Note 3 is what you need to get to take the usage to the next level. Or else, you don’t have much to show except the rear faux leather in the hardware part.
