Galaxy Note 3 - there is room for improvement - dobreprogramy

Dec. 10 in its final year-end world news said that it sold 10 million copies Galaxy Note 3 The successor to one of the first really big smartphones, which restored to favor the stylus accompanying mobile devices, has been successful, he gained recognition and impressed a lot of people, although it is not devoid of drawbacks. What is astounding the sympathy of users who follow the novelties

Galaxy Note 3 is primarily a great screen with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels and a diagonal measuring up 5.7 inches (386 ppi). This is the latest generation of the type of PenTile AMOLED screen, which caused quite a stir rhombic arrangement of subpixels. Green dots are smaller, but there are more than red and biggest – blue. It looks something like this:

screen Galaxy Note 3 is very light (55% lighter than the Note II, and 25% lighter than the Galaxy S4). Its brightness exceeds 600 cd / m ² , so beats even some LCD screens in this class of sizes, ensuring a great viewing angles and characteristic of AMOLED s, clear picture. What’s more, mobile devices Samsung as one of the few on the market offer the ability to change the calibration of the screen. Note 3 allows you to choose between dynamic film (color reproduction is the closest sRGB / Rec 709), a professional for photos (less “sugary”), and the default standard Adapt Display . Detailed examination of the possibilities of the screen can be found on DisplayMate, and I can say that the screen makes a great impression in all conditions, except for total darkness. For reading at night is too bright for me.

Samsung promised to change the design of their housings of mobile devices and kept his word. Do not lived to what is true brushed aluminum or any “noble” material. Instead, it is presented an eye-pleasing combination of chrome and black (and white, pink, in selected markets also red) skin. The rear housing unit is made of polycarbonate and coated with a material resembling artificial skin. The surface is very pleasant to the touch, but it spoils the impression embossed stitching that betrays plastikowo?? cover. This leads also to look closely elements of chrome, chrome which also does not …

Recent reports say that we will see the Samsung ultrabook Ativa finished in a similar style. These materials have one undeniable advantage – they are lightweight. The device with dimensions of 151.2 × 79.2 × 8.3 mm weighs only 168 grams. Will note here that the screen with Gorilla Glass panel failed to mount so that almost no room on the sides. Unfortunately, the Note can human dimensions 3 made it one-handed even though this is not achievable, even for people with larger hands. For me unlock the screen or turn the camera is downright dangerous, since reaching the thumb to the right place I am not able to cover the rest of the unit hand. The onscreen keyboard, even pushed to the edge of the screen in the operating mode with one hand, it is unattainable for me.

Inside you will find some of the strongest components, which can now be used to design your smartphone. The tested version N9005 (equipped with LTE) device into a 4-core Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974, 2.3 GHz Krait 400), Adreno 330 graphics and 3 GB of memory. Benchmark results, with some models (Xperia Z1), leave the competition far behind (in AnTuTu 34700, 19000 points in 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited), but the best thing about device performance demonstrates a total lack of 4K video problems. Note 3 without hesitation records and plays videos with a resolution of 3840 × 2160 pixels. Of course, everything else also works flawlessly and even coarse TouchWiz does not cause problems.

interesting is mounted here microUSB 3.0 with the ability to connect to the USB 3.0 cable – the same that you can get a portable drive. The cable is supplied in the online stores have already appeared as USB 3.0 OTG cable for Note 3 and various adapters. Smartphone connected to a USB 3.0 will charge about 80% faster than the version 2.0 standard, and will transmit data faster. Unfortunately, the latter was not able to verify this, since both Kies (OS X) and the Android file transfer, refused to cooperate. The socket is designed so that there is no problem to connect it to the cable with a micro-B type from another device. Besides charger in the box find the white headset with 3-button remote control and several pairs of headphones intrathecal rubbers.

very unfortunate I place next to the speaker connector only, in what has been equipped with the smartphone – not quite that of the stereo can only dream of, while you are still viewing media and playing it is easy to cover it with your hand. When it comes to conversations, I have this smartfonowi nothing to complain about. Regardless of the conditions, all callers hear me well, despite the size of the device. Holding it at the ear was not uncomfortable.

Mounted here

battery has a capacity of 3200 mAh, which allows for 2-3 days of intensive work. The manufacturer also thought about slot for a memory card and a set of sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, thermometer, barometer, hygrometer and a proximity sensor. With regret, I found that using the latter functions gathered under the name Air Gesture , which is handling the device without touching it, do not work as well as in advertisements. I am very happy with Air Glance , that is, the activation screen with clock and notifications (See photo below) when the screen is asleep, the hand whisk over it. As we frequently use the Bluetooth headset with a microphone, I liked also able to receive calls without touching the screen – it is faster even than using the button on the headphones. Scrolling and switching screens somehow I could not control the ball. As for the barometer and thermometer, so far the only application that uses them is a personal trainer S Health, supplied with the device. This application is able to read the data on the external conditions and inform if it is too warm or too cold for the well-being of the owner of the device. Perfectly suited mechanism to detect if I look at the device and stopping video or blanking the screen when I turn away.

accessory devices traditionally associated with the Series Note is the stylus. The manufacturer decided to change the shape of this add-on a simple and symmetrical, so you do not have to wonder whether the right way to hide it dedicated pockets. Like other devices in the family, it comes with a one button, activating different functions, and is sensitive to pressure, through the use of technology feel Wacom. Drawing and writing is more enjoyable than the older ones, because it is slightly longer and even more convenient. Samsung has implemented a system of warning before leaving the house without a stylus, which, however, works very erratically. It was designed so that it displays a notification only when we move from off-screen Note can human 3

pen features significantly changed with respect to what we know from previous Note’ów. The Galaxy Note 3 and Note 10.1 latest find, among others, activation after removing the stylus or by pressing a button on the stylus menu Air Command . It gives access to functions: note of action , Scrapbooker Screen Write , S Finder and Pen Window . With Play you can download the application Pen.Up, which is a client-specific social network, created just for cartoonists with the latest smartphones and the Galaxy series (on XDA I found a version for Note 8.0). We can still use the control by holding the tip of the stylus on the screen, allowing you to scroll through text or preview messages without opening them.

note of action is a smart notebook, which is able to recognize some of the stored keywords, email addresses and phone numbers, and then bind with the appropriate actions. As often happens with this type of functionality, it works best if we use the English language. You can also quickly note pinned to the home screen.

S Finder is an application for design Spotlight in OS X, which is a global search engine. With its help you can quickly find contacts, settings, applications, and even hand-written notes containing specified text, if the device is able to “read” the writing of the owner. We can also activate it by holding the menu button. Here I check that the touch buttons below the screen can be operated as a feather.

Scrapbooker and Screen Write are known from the previous generation of devices Galaxy Note. The first feature allows you to keep in the form of a fragment of a screenshot outlined by the area (in contrast to previous versions, this will match the rectangle). To stretch can of course add a note or instantly share it on social networking sites. Such images can collect application Scrapbook . The second option gives you the ability to write the dump full screen. We have, of course, possible to change the parameters of the pen, eraser, and can quickly send a snapshot of the note.

Pen Window is one of the most interesting capabilities of the device. Note’y traditionally allow you to run two applications simultaneously, and this function allows you to (draw) the area that will take one of them. In this way we get a floating window of the browser (no problems with keeping the aspect ratio of displayed pages), a film from YouTube, Hangoutami, customer Chaton, calculator, clock, contacts or phone app. The window can be moved and changed its size, as well as minimized to an icon or move the application to full screen.

Of course, you can still use two applications on a split screen. Note’ów flagship feature works flawlessly here.

Note 3 to the set of applications that support this mode joined by, among others, Evernote, Books Play and Trip Advisor. We find here, of course, known from other Galaxy devices applications, such as S Schedule, refreshed S notebook with sheets prepared under the task list is designed specifically for the Galaxy Note version of Autodesk Sketchbook. There were surprisingly rich movie editor, who collected clips will make a longer material in the selected style, with matching effects. Here warns against shooting movies in different positions. I registered a lot of fights during the competition Robotic Arena, but they are not posted on the blog, because some of them are recorded upside down, some rotated 90 °, even though I always kept the device level. The whole elaborate plan … well. It looks like the device zapami?tywa?o position in which the application was launched to operate the camera. In any case, the application for this device is more than a normal user will be able to use, but it has good sides – is a lot to choose from and everyone will find something for themselves.

Galaxy Note 3 is also promoted as a smartphone for business, so it is worth to mention about those aspects of the device. Among the wealth of installed applications will find here KNOX, who recently also can be installed on the Galaxy S4. Safety for the environment provide mechanisms: Customizable Secure Boot (ensures that the unit will run only proven software and not creep up here no virus, and allows the use of a certificate of safe start), TrustZone-based Integrity Measurement Architecture (continuously monitors the consistency of the kernel and the program If you change the boot and can even block access to the kernel and disable the device) and Security Enhancements for Android (technology creates separate areas of memory for application and data).

KNOX

in practice is protected by a password and PIN sandbox for applications which, as provided by the manufacturer, do not worry you can use in the office. It consists of your own home screen, launcher, application, slightly different from those available on the device in the basic mode and their own widgets. All stored in a container data is encrypted (AES-256) and does not have his level of access to information stored on the device outside KNOX. Without running KNOX also did not get into the stored data on a virtual partition. Moreover, we find here the client virtual private network FIPS certified and support WPS in the architecture of IPSec, including algorithm, Suite B. It is symptomatic that in this mode, it is impossible to, among others, capture screenshots, and none of the available applications do not have built-in connectivity to social networks. There were tools for administrators of corporate networks, enabling management of devices, although probably more than one IT department will have a problem – one of the staff will bring Note can human 3, advertised as ideal for business and working out of the system and adapt it to work in an environment falls on administrators.

Security Platform has of course been discussed. Researchers from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University argue that it is possible to eavesdrop on communications conducted inside KNOX – e-mail traffic from the browser and downloaded files. At the time of writing this test Samsung does not agree with the allegations. Apparently finding is based on a known vulnerability, before using the KNOX supposedly is able to effectively defend themselves by other means (for example, in terms of encrypted VPN). Here is what Samsung spokesman in Poland, Krynica Olaf, from mid-December:

Samsung treats any notification regarding security vulnerabilities very seriously, because observations submitted by Ben-Gurion University will be further in-depth analysis . As is apparent from the information we have indicated the threat appears to be related to other well-recognized attacks. KNOX Technology already has safeguards against this kind of threats, such as: the ability to configure VPN and SSL / TLS. Depending on the currently used mechanisms, KNOX system elements provide effective protection against any external attack. This type of malicious software will not be able to disrupt the architecture KNOX not penetrate to the inside.

Neither party reveals further details. Meanwhile, the platform is still being examined by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Tested Note 3 to work under the supervision of Android 4.3, but in January should get version 4.4. The preparation is also CyanogenMod for these devices, although the presence of KNOX system raises concerns among pet lovers ROMs. The mechanism permanently stores the state if modifications are made, which in most countries is associated with loss of warranty after zrootowaniu device.