Picked up a new phone. Its a Tmobile version. Since it has unlocked bootloader, covers wide range of bands and works fine on ATT /4g. Just to give an idea of how much crazy feature they threw in this phone:
Sweet! It'll take awhile to learn all the tricks with my S4 and I've already had it for over 3 months.
N3 has so many cool feature. Its hard to remember all of them. But pretty much what ever you need, chances are there is an option in the N3. I rooted mine and got recovery then it went in BrickLoop. But nothing that cant be fixed. Now its on stock kernel with slim down stock rom with no knox and other BS. Very good battery life, and the sound system is really great. Especially if you set it up right for you head phones. I was perplex between N3 and Nexus 5. Glad i got N3 after seeing Nexus 5 specs
I think the Note 3 maybe the first device I don't root and fart around with. MAYBE. When it boils down to it, Samsung has everything wired fairly decently. Just use a different launcher and voila: you still have everything under the hood that is touchwiz but at least you can customize your screen the way it SHOULD be customized...not the clunky way Samsung designed it. Unfortunately, I think that's where Samsung is like Apple: drink the punch, and you'll like it.
One thing for sure, once we have AOSP ROM, on this beast. It will be very fast. I already am seeing work on kernels. ALso just be careful with your Note 3. They made SELinux secured, so alot of time titanium is not restoring some apps perfectly. Just a heads up for future if you do decide to root your device and do restore at some point. Make sure not to back or restore EFS. Or you will be stuck in Brick loop which will require few more steps. Atleast while you are on Stock kernel.
I've thought about getting that as my next phone next year, glad to hear the battery life is good, cause thats always my main concern, my other concern is that the phone isn't too big? I do like a big display but that thing looks massive!
Yeah! battery life is fantastic. But just remember no two chip are alike unfortunately. Mine handle undervaluing amazingly. But i went back to custom mostly stock kernel from Ptmr3. Some chip just cant even handle a fraction of change and go in boot loop if you run any bench mark. So only work on mostly stock like custom kernel. The ability to minimize the whole screen with just one swipe, makes using phone so much easier with one hand, regardless how big the screen/phone is. My first impression was that the device is quiet prodigious. But after few min, i couldn't go back to any other device. Note 3 also have some amazing developer support.
Compared to my Note 2, it's slimmer. And it goes in and out of pocket right now better than my Note 2 did.
Note 2 and note 3 are pretty much same size. The thing with N3 is, it has thinner bezel and its lighter/slimmer. As MaesterB said, its deceptive. If you look, while not holding it; it would seem the device is massive. But once in you hand it just fits and hard to go back to smaller device. Drop by in some store and try it out.
