Samsung Galaxy Note 3 NeoReview inpictures

Definitely not a budget Note

• The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo is a not-so-cheap variant of the Galaxy Note 3

• From the outside, it appears almost identical to its predecessor – faux leather removable back panel and all

• The large display takes up most of the front, but slim bezels bring down the size.

Skips the 1080p, but still stunning

• The phablet gets a 5.5-inch display with 720p resolution

• Viewing angles are excellent, as is sunlight legibility

• But the Super AMOLED technology means colours tend to look oversaturated

You get all the S Pen extras

• Yes, it comes with the trusty S Pen stylus

• Draw, scribble and doodle to your heart’s delight

• Pressing the button on the S Pen brings up the Air Command carousel, with shortcuts to various S Pen apps, including Pen Window to create a floating window of an app

And a pair of feature-packed shooters

• The 8MP rear camera is a downgrade from the Note 3, but manages to do the job.

• Daylight photos are bright and sharp, but low light images can get a bit grainy.

• The camera app is packed with shooting modes, as well as advanced controls and live filters.

With plenty of editing options

• There’s an extensive editing menu in the gallery

• You can apply filters post-shooting, if you haven’t already

• You can also adjust colour, add stickers, drawings, frames and crop photos to the desired size.

TouchWiz, you love it or hate it• The Note 3 Neo runs Android

4.3 Jelly Bean, with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on top.

• The crowded interface and cartoony icons may not appeal to some.

• But you do get fancy face detection features like Smart Pause and Smart Scroll, not to mention several motion gestures.

Bloatware or not? You decide

• There are a ton of pre-loaded apps, most of them Samsung’s own (read – cannot delete).

• Action Memo, Story Album, S Health, WatchON and ChatON are just a few

• Not to mention Scrapbook, S Note and Sketchbook for Galaxy

• And you get Dropbox, Flipboard, Trip Advisor and Evernote too

Good performance, but gaming is average

• Powered by a hexa-core Exynos processor, with 2GB RAM and a Mali-T620 GPU

• Day-to-day performance is commendable, but graphic intensive games like Riptide GP2 stutter on occasion.

Battery life that might outlive you

• The removable 3,100mAh battery lasted us over 14 hours in our video-loop test – one of the highest on a smartphone

• With heavy usage, you should be able to avoid reaching for that charger for at least a day and a half.

At a glance

• 5.5-inch, 1,280 x 720 screen

• Android 4.3 with TouchWiz

• 8MP primary camera, 2MP secondary camera

• 1.7GHz hexa-core Exynos 5260 processor

• Mali-T624 GPU

• 2GB RAM, 16GB expandable internal storage

• 3,200mAh battery

• Dual-band Wi-Fi ac, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, DLNA, NFC

-• Plastic build• Tons of bloatware• No KitKat update

planned yet• Steep price

Pros and cons

+• Good display• Fast performance• S Pen functionality• Smart gestures and

motion control• Excellent battery life• Expandable storage

Rs 38,990

Pricing and verdict

“The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo may be a dressed down version of its big brother, but its stunning display, zippy performance and

amazing battery life rank it among the top Android phablets currently available. The steep price might be a put off for some,

but with an expected price-drop, it might fit your budget.”