Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Review
by Brian Klug on October 1, 2013 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Android 4.3
- galaxy note 3
Battery Life
Battery life remains probably the single largest differentiator for devices lately, and of huge concern to enthusiasts and normal shoppers alike. We’ve already caught a glimpse of how well 8974 fares from a power perspective inside the LG G2, a device that posted some seriously impressive battery numbers. The Note 3 we’re looking at is also 8974 based since it’s a T-Mobile model, and thus we expect the same kind of battery life.
With this generation of Note, battery gets even larger. The Note started with a then quite large 9.25 watt hour battery, then Note 2 moved to 11.78 watt hours, and Note 3 now moves to a very large 12.16 watt hour battery with of course the newest 3.8V chemistry and all that comes along with it. Display size goes up, but those power gains are offset in other places.
After we talked about the panel self refresh features in the G2 a few people reached out and let me know that this feature has been shipping for a while in some phones, and it’s easy to check for. If we look under the display subsystem we can see that the same MIPI_CMD_PANEL type 9 is used, which refers to this type of interface.
Qualcomm HWC state: MDPVersion=500 DisplayPanel=9
define MIPI_CMD_PANEL ‘9’
Our battery life tests are unchanged and consist of a set of popular webpages that are loaded on a schedule with the display set to exactly 200 nits and repeated until the battery runs out and the device dies on both WiFi and cellular data connections. In this case that means T-Mobile LTE which is 10 MHz FDD in my market, I haven’t had a chance to run the Note 3 on HSPA+ yet, or complete the call test (which is starting to get ridiculous, and probably breaks 24 hours in the case of the Note 3).
On LTE the Note 3 does very well, coming just shy of the pack of iPhones, at just over 8 hours. Interestingly enough it’s just north of the G2s as well, which do have a smaller battery but also smaller display. The Note 3 also is the first device to ship with Qualcomm’s QFE1100 envelope tracker solution from the RF360 front end portfolio, which lowers power consumption by up to 20 percent and heat dissipation by up to 30 percent by allowing the power amplifiers to follow the desired output waveform. There’s more on that later in the cellular section.
On WiFi the Note 3 does better by 22 percent, but not the kind of huge jump I’m used to seeing between cellular and WiFi testing. This tells me the Note 3 battery life is really gated by the display, which is almost always the largest consumer of power in a device. That said the Note 3 does very well all things considered, especially in comparison to the APQ8064 (Fusion 3) phones which came before it, like SGS4. New silicon and new process inside MSM8974 definitely helps move battery life forward here with the race to sleep game.
Charging is an interesting story on the Note 3, but primarily because of what doesn’t change. The Note 3 continues to use Samsung’s tablet charging specification and charger, which has 2 amps of maximum output. The Note 3 draws 2 amps over a considerable amount of the charging curve, like other Samsung devices (in the linear part of the charge curve). USB 3.0 doesn’t change things up here quite yet with the new supported charge voltages that are coming eventually with the power delivery specification.
The Note 3 does charge faster overall compared to the SGS4 however thanks in part to the new PMIC (PM8941) which is part of the overall 8974 platform story.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
302 Comments
View All Comments
Evil804 - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Thanks for that info! I have read the GSM arena bit on the audio output, but was hoping Anand would really break down the sound through the 3.5mm output. i have a 2012 Nexus 7 i plan to install in the dash of a 2006 acura TSX, and was planning to flash a rom for USB DAC support. Once i saw a few mobile devices this year bringing a quality DAC natively i am eyeing something like the Note 3 for the sake of simplicity. the SD card also makes this device very appealing for such a use.1ndian - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
"Note 3 is the new flagship from Samsung" That's what I thought. S series is now redundant.ddriver - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
S5 will come out with a tiny big faster processor, 16 mpix camera with OIS, plus not everyone wants or needs huge screen and stylus. Surely, the S series sells much more, which is atypical for flagship products, so considering the note is more expensive and less frequently purchased, it can technically pass for the flagship, at least until samsung release their new line, which looks like it will happen before 2014 is over.But the S series is far from redundant, considering it undoubtedly makes more money for samsung. Considering samsung's primary goal is making money, I don't see how the S series can be redundant.
repoman27 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
It's hilarious seeing all the angry comments about the benchmarks being misleading due to OEMs cheating and Anandtech not doing enough about it. Benchmarks get gamed as soon as they become popular, and have since the dawn of time. The real solution here is to never put too much stock in benchmarks.If you're the type of person that buys a device solely because it has the longest bars in all the pretty charts on some website, you're probably gonna end up with the device you deserve.
djboxbaba - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
Whats even more funny is people who follow-up by bashing Anandtech for their apple bias!Che - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
I agree, and frankly am amazed at the anger over benchmarks. Did we not learn years ago with this same thing and video card benchmarks? I skip those graphs for that very reason.Real world performance is not a benchmark, never was, and never will be.
Diorarat - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Anandtech is known for being objective and technical in making their reviews. I wonder how much more bash would anandtech would receive for not including a benchmark test as many suggested.Gadgety - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
The Note 3 was on my shopping list until I learned that Samsung has disabled the functionality of the SIM-free versions. The SIM free European Note 3's only work with European SIM cards. So when travelling, sometimes for months, I won't be able to use local SIM cards, and will be forced to carry exhorbitant roaming fees. No way, Samsung, no Note 3 for me.smartthanyou - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
I would encourage others to go read the Ars Technica review, AT has dropped the ball on this one.Ph0b0s - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
I think all the people on this thread would disagree: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?s=5...These are reports from people who have brought unlocked Note 3's, used a local sim to activate and make calls for a few days and then had problems when traveling abroad.
So no the region lock still is a big issue, even with Samsung's denial. Also see the responses from Samsung that have been all over the place as to what customer should expect. They deserve the sales hit, as this is a fiasco, coming to older devices via the 4.3 update in the near future....