A review: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo

New Delhi: Samsung continues to dazzle its followers by offering smartphones and phablets equipped with juicier hardware specs, updated design, and a deeper software experience. The latest eye-turner from the Korean company is the ‘lite' version of its popular Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone, aptly called the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo. The new 5.5 inches phablet is slightly smaller and lighter than the Galaxy Note and brings the additional element of pressure sensitive S Pen stylus, thus improving the overall interaction with a smartphone. Though some of you may not be the biggest fans of the stylus as a smartphone input, at least it's more convenient to activate this time around thanks to Air Command. Clearly, the Note 3 Neo carries most of the goodies from the Note 3, which is probably the best phone/tablet mashup you'd see in India. It is a device for those who want a solid battery life, top performance, a stylus equipped device along with a good display.Design/Form Factor/Button AllocationBoth the Galaxy Note 3 Neo and the Galaxy Note 3 look and feel a lot like each other from the front as well as the back. It has same faux-leather battery cover, complete with the stitching. The S-Pen compartment is in the same place at the bottom as well. The device is made of plastic and can handle damages well. Though the device is still huge, it doesn't feel heavy, and fits well in the pocket. However, as with the case with other Note devices, the Note 3 Neo is difficult to operate from single hand. To minimize this, Samsung is offering the device with a set of layout optimizations and has even supplied a dedicated one-hand mode. A reduced interface makes it easier for a person to reach a part of the screen so that you can reach for the furthest angle. This makes it easy for you to pick the corners of the screen during its operation. For those who'd prefer the device to perform multitasking, they have the option of the S-Pen, which will bring out several shortcuts pop up on the screen. The front of the device is dominated by its 5.5” panel which is surrounded by a chrome frame which gives a premium touch to the device. Under the display, you'll find the typical Samsung three button layout consisting of a physical Home button with capacitive Back and Menu keys each side. The button allocation pattern is exactly the same as in the Note 3. While the right hand side has the power/lock button, the right hand side has the volume rocker, a 3.5mm headset jack and an Infrared receiver on the top. The bottom has the microUSB 2.0 port for connectivity and charging purposes, the primary microphone, the loudspeaker grille and the S-Pen compartment. Interestingly, you won't find microUSB 3.0 in this handset. On the back, there's an 8MP camera lens and a single LED flash. The back of the device is removable.DisplaySmaller by just 0.2”, the display of Note 3 has been lowered to 720 x 1280 from a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels in the original. The device keeps the Super AMOLED display matrix and offers a pixel density of 267ppi. The Note 3 Neo comes with four different screen mode presets, to make the saturation to your liking. You can either go for the full AMOLED or opt for realistic color representation. The display quality on the device is good as it offers good contrast and excellent viewing angles. Reading text, images and videos is a pleasant experience on this device. ProcessorAs we know the Note 3 comes in two main variants, one with an Exynos chip, and the other with a Snapdragon CPU. Unsurprisingly, the Neo follows the same route, and offers a similar – but not identical – Snapdragon / Exynos formula, depending on the model. While the 4G LTE-equipped variant draws its power from a brand new Exynos 5260 Hexa unit, the 3G-only, dual SIM Note 3 Neo features a Qualcomm MSM8228 Snapdragon quad-core processor clocked at 1.6 GHz. The 5260 chip comes with a Cortex-A15 dual-core chip clocked at 1.7 GHz and a Cortex-A7 quad-core chip with a frequency of 1.3 GHz.On the graphics front, the Neo comes with an Adreno 305 GPU (for Snapdragon), or a Mali-T624 graphics processor (for the Exynos model). These graphic units are good to keep up with the most 3-D heavy applications. The Neo comes with a RAM of 2 GB, which is 1GB less than the Note 3. This also makes the phablet pretty much capable to handle any task that is thrown its way with ease and each runs its apps seamlessly.Operating SystemThe Note 3 Neo comes with Android 4.3/TouchWiz combo. Samsung's TouchWiz UI means you'd get big and glossy icons and menus, which the company believed will make the UI user-friendly. The Galaxy Note 3's UI has been optimised for the S Pen, a stylus that offers enhanced functionality with the device's built-in digitiser. The homescreen of the device is the same you'd seen in the Galaxy S4 or a Note 3. Samsung has provided many of its own custom widgets like Samsung Hub, S Travel, etc. There's wrap around feature, which lets you scroll homescreens infinitely by always going from the last to the first one.The Neo also has an app drawer which is the same as seen in the S4 or Note 3. The app shortcuts are presented as a customizable grid, alphabetized grid or list and you can hide shortcuts, view only downloaded apps, uninstall apps and add folders. There is an option to maximize space in the app drawer by stacking apps into folders. Pinch to zoom in the app drawer works the same as on a homescreen as it offers a glance of all panes as thumbnails.The Neo offers the Multi-window multitasking feature, allowing users to have two apps running on your screen at the same time. The phablet also offers lots of S-Pen-enabled apps. Once you pull the S-Pen out, as usual the OS will pop up the Air Command menu – a virtual ring of five shortcuts - Action Memo, Scrap Booker, Screen Write, S Finder and Pen Window.Other interesting features of the device include S Translator, Samsung Smart Scroll, Air View, S-Voice Hands Free, Samsung Smart Pause, Screen Mirroring and Safety Assistance. The phone also comes with Samsung Apps, ChatON, Gmail, Play Books, Play Store, Hangouts, Voice Search, YouTube, Play Games, and Play Music.CameraThe Neo comes with a 8 megapixel auto focus rear camera, which is capable of capturing full HD videos. It has also an LED flash and a 2 megapixel camera. However, despite a low resolution camera than the Note 3, it still takes advantage of an LED flash, HDR, panorama and 1080p@30fps video recording capabilities.BatteryThe Note 3 Neo comes with a 3100 mAh battery. The device is capable to deliver 24 hours with more than average use. It might still be a couple of hours short of the Note 3.Connectivity and Other factorsConnectivity features include WiFi, WiFi Direct, WiFi Hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, micro USB 2.0, and NFC. ConclusionClearly, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo does not offer too many compromises in terms of hardware, build quality, display, and the stylus that makes multi-tasking a breeze, when compared with the original Samsung Galaxy Note 3. On the price front too, there's not much difference – the lite version is merely Rs 700 cheaper than its elder sibling. So, the point is – if you have few extra bucks to spend then Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is still a powerful choice. But if you are tight on budget and want the same features as the Note 3, then the ‘Neo' version is not a bad choice either. So if you like big phones and call yourself a heavy data user then nothing beats the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo.