Gsmarena: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 vs. Nokia Lumia 1520: Bigger, better, faster

[Emix1988]

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 vs. Nokia Lumia 1520: Bigger, better, faster - GSMArena.com

 

[DBDev]

That seems to be a great article! I don't have time to read it though

 

[irvin792]

It seems that in all of the reviews of the 1520's screen brightness the new "assertive screen" tech is never mentioned. This is bby far the best screen I have ever seen in direct sunlight.....reflections be dammed

 

[5150 Joker]

I wonder how much Samsung paid for the review. I stopped reading once they said note 3 is easier to read in sunlight with its amoled.

Sent from my RM-937_apac_hong_kong_222 using Tapatalk

 

[dropofdreams]

I have both and really, the major difference in day to day use is the small difference in size, image capturing quality, and most importantly the operating system. Both are very easy to read in sunlight.

 

[DBZo07]

I have both and really, the major difference in day to day use is the small difference in size, image capturing quality, and most importantly the operating system. Both are very easy to read in sunlight.

that's nice. I was searching a person with both this device, please lend me your views.

Lets hear from actual user. May be gsmarena is biased so your words will matter most.


1) Which phone you use often?
2) Tell us why and for what purpose you use your each phone, please list them.
3)Does limitations of windows phone hurt your usage? Reason for your yes/no.
4) Are you happy with windows phones multi tasking? Are you able to multi task in note 3, how efficient note 3 is.
5) Do you require file system? And why?
6) What is price you paid for each?
7) If you have option, which phone will you sell?
8) Which phone annoyed you? And why?
9) Which phone has useless over size?
10) What about s-pen? Is that life saving feature?


Sent from my L625

 

[QOAM]

For me bigger better faster doesn't matter ... All I care about is the Nokia is NOT an Android phone.

 

[christenmartin]

Is it just me or alot of "reviewers" go with where ever the wind is blowing. I notice this with tech and car reviews. I read a review, check out the product and totally disagree with the review.

 

[shmsnh]

I read the review. I may not understand how they tested most of the features, but I certainly don't understand how they decided that the Note 3 had way better sunlight legibility.

 

[dropofdreams]

Hey there, DBZo07. To answer your questions as best as I can, we'll go through them one by one.

1) Which phone you use often?
A.) I would have to say that I use the 1520 more frequently on a day to day basis for a couple of reasons. First off, I'm using the WP platform in general due to a work project that relies on it. However, I would have to say that my experiences in regards to battery performance favor the 1520 as well. Granted, this could be addressed in regards to the Note 3 with a higher capacity battery such as the likes offered by ZeroLemon.

2) Tell us why and for what purpose you use your each phone, please list them.
A.) I use the 1520 due to a work project. I can't go into the details but my job at the moment requires a dedicated WP platform. The 1520 was the best that was out there in regards to the most modern internal hardware. My off time with the device is used mostly to browse forums, play the occasional game, and of course, take pictures. The Note 3 is used because I personally prefer the Android operating system as a whole. A lot of this is due to the fact that I have grown accustomed to the offerings of apps and functionality of the OS as a whole. As a result, I can imagine that my situation might be different had I started with WP rather than Android for the last few years. However, the Note 3 is used for ever other task that I'm not able to do with the 1520. In fact, the activities often time overlap as there are good alternatives to what I can't find by specific title as generic offerings on WP.

3)Does limitations of windows phone hurt your usage? Reason for your yes/no.
A.) Yes. I would have to say that the current "limitations" of the WP OS do hurt some of the usage. I would probably not even use the Note 3 at all if I were able to accomplish everything that I am able to with Android on WP. That being said, there is a great variety of alternative resolutions to the challenges that I face with the WP OS. It's not by any means a lame duck. It's just that it's not as well polished in my opinion.

4) Are you happy with windows phones multi tasking? Are you able to multi task in note 3, how efficient note 3 is.
A) I am fairly happy with the WP multitasking capabilities. There are a few issues that I have but it's mostly getting used to it. The only one major challenge that I have is in regards to Internet Explorer. When multi-tasking, should you drop IE from the main application and then return to it at a later point, it seems as if it "forgets" what the originating page prior to the current one was. As such, should you need to go back a page, you're out of luck other than manually doing so. Someone please advise me on the process for this if I'm mistaken.
In regards to the multi-tasking for the Note 3, it's brilliant. In regards to efficiency, there are no issues. In fact, you are capable of multi-tasking by way of having multliple applications on screen at the same time. Now, it should be noted that for me this is something of a novelty due to screen real estate. However, I could see it being put to use in one of situations.

5) Do you require file system? And why?
A) I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this. If you're asking about root or superuser access, then yes. I have a variety of operations that are made much much simpler by have access to this. Most commonly, this is due to needing to make SQlite changes or changes to the active memory. If you're asking in reference to having access to read from the file system as far as files go, this would be handy as well. With my day to day operations, a file manager of some sort would be handy. This is specifically in regards to the SD card. To the best of my knowledge, there is no such app available for WP as of yet. In fact, there is a fierce argument as to whether or not people even need this. Personally, I'd have to say I do. There are times when I have needed to move files to another location and I simply can't with WP. The solution would be connect to a PC or use cloud storage. With Android, it's "drag and drop" and done.

6) What is price you paid for each?
A) The 1520 cost me nothing personally but the receipt that I had to turn in showed a price point of 579. As far as the Note 3, that came out of pocket due to the fact that it's a personal device. However, that ran me just under $300. This is USD. Bear in mind that this was also via upgrading a personal line of service with my provider and so the cost was subsidized.

7) If you have option, which phone will you sell?
A) The 1520 will eventually be sold off either to myself or to another employee. However, I suppose it really determines on what the newest iteration of WP brings our way. Should the major qualms I have with the OS be resolved prior to the end of my current project, I'll likely buy it back from my company and start using it as my personal device. The Note 3 will eventually be replaced with the introduction of the Note 4 or comparable handset. I'm pretty fickle when it comes to this. I have been through several dozen handsets in the last few years.

8) Which phone annoyed you? And why?
A) There are some annoyances with both of them actually. To be honest, the 1520 is pretty solid and a lot of my personal gripes with it are due solely to the operating system. Again, this is likely mostly in regards to my familiarity with Android and so it's just a bias. Overall, it's a very solid phone and I'm not experiencing the worst of the issues I see reported. From time to time I do need to turn off WiFi and then turn it back on due to some connectivity issue. Additionally, the screen dimming takes place from time to time but that doesn't bug me much.
A minor change that took place with the Note 3 that I didn't enjoy involved the "Settings" section. If you have a moment to check one out, look at this. You'll note that it's not the same layout anymore. It's now been sectioned off into columns. Granted, this is likely due to the new revision of Android and not something Samsung is doing. I haven't had a chance to check out any other 4.3 devices yet. This is the only problem I have come across so far. Again, it's just my level of familiarity and resistance to change I'm sure.

9) Which phone has useless over size?
A) I'm not sure I entirely understand this question. However, I would like to say that both devices use their size very well. The layout is excellent on both and I'm a big fan of having dedicated "buttons" on a device rather than on-screen controls. My time with the Xperia Z Ultra bugged me quite a bit in that many applications didn't recognize it as a 1920x1080 device due to the on-screen "buttons" and instead, saw a lesser resolution. If I had to complain about the physical aspects of either of the devices, I'd have to say my qualms are with the 1520's shape. Again, the layout of each device is well used but the 1520 has INCREDIBLY sharp corners. I actually purchased the case I did due to this. I wanted to soften them up a bit.

10) What about s-pen? Is that life saving feature?
A) I have had the Note 2 and now the Note 3 and yes, I have used the S-Pen. However, for me it's a novelty more than anything else. I am sure that there are a lot of folks out there that say they couldn't live without it. In fact, I believe this somewhat. In my day to day, I encounter a lot of older folks that have coordination issues with typing or just generally using a touch screen device. For them, the S-Pen would be a lifesaver. For me, not so much. There is one instance in which I REALLY put the S-Pen to use and it's not doing what you might think. There are some webpages that have been coded with hover features on various points of text or menus. Pages that are very menu heavy and rely on the the pointer location can cause some complaints when using a mobile device. The S-Pen comes in very handy here as you don't need to tap on the menu. A simple hover will open the drop down selection for what follows. An example would be frys.com or newegg.com. When attempting to browse the menus there on a mobile device, I sometimes have a hard time. The S-Pen resolves that as a pointer rather than a needed "clicker" if you will for selection.

In closing, I hope those were the answers you were looking for. Feel free to ask anything else you might have.

 

[mike13ftw]

I wonder how much Samsung paid for the review. I stopped reading once they said note 3 is easier to read in sunlight with its amoled.


Sent from my RM-937_apac_hong_kong_222 using Tapatalk

have you used a note 3 ? If not then don't speak please . Note 3 boost the brightness to 250 % in sunlight so that's why its easier to read.





Sent from my RM-825_eu_greece_250 using Tapatalk

 

[ShreyansShah]

have you used a note 3 ? If not then don't speak please . Note 3 boost the brightness to 250 % in sunlight so that's why its easier to read.





Sent from my RM-825_eu_greece_250 using Tapatalk

take a chill buddy. why r u fighitng over brightness?
sometimes i really dont understand the features bragged by these company r really important? i mean readability in sunlight is important, but how much important? do they really expect us to read complete ebook in sunlight?
other features that we should look about. such as battery, net connectivity, etc. which r actually gonna affect our day to day use. for anyone, who spends half of the day in sunlight, can definitely manage with lumia 1520 readability. even my old lumia 800 worked excellent in sunlight.

 

[DBZo07]

Hey there, DBZo07. To answer your questions as best as I can, we'll go through them one by one.


In closing, I hope those were the answers you were looking for. Feel free to ask anything else you might have.

Thank you sir, your response is a "bulls eye" than every reviews on the internet.



Regarding file system, you have good interpretation skills. You understood correctly. I meant file manger with administrator power.



Regarding internet explorer, i felt that annoying but work around for me is that i use "recent" option from the IE menu. It somewhat serves my need but it doesn't not always list previous pages. I use UC browser which has good features along with transferring downloaded file and download videos. But as many may not know, it is dangerous, it uses proxy! Hence, private and sensitive task i always do via IE.



I am sure that many members here and around the world will have proper/unbiased differentiation between two phones.





Sent from my L625

 

[5150 Joker]

have you used a note 3 ? If not then don't speak please . Note 3 boost the brightness to 250 % in sunlight so that's why its easier to read.








Sent from my RM-825_eu_greece_250 using Tapatalk

Yes several times in direct sunlight. Even with its boost the cd/m2 is far below the 1520. Not to mention Samsung likes to over saturate colors.





Sent from my RM-937_apac_hong_kong_222 using Tapatalk

 

[dropofdreams]

Interesting about UC browser. I did install that and I don't use it often but I didn't know it was setup for proxy. Thanks for the tip.

 

[ragingklu]

As another person with different needs/wants, I figured I might as well give a compare/contrast of my impressions versus the ones already posted. Slow day at work, what can I say. I don't know if it'll help anyone, but I'll put it here nonetheless as a more casual evaluation of the situation.

Hey there, DBZo07. To answer your questions as best as I can, we'll go through them one by one.

1) Which phone you use often?
A.) I would have to say that I use the 1520 more frequently on a day to day basis for a couple of reasons. First off, I'm using the WP platform in general due to a work project that relies on it. However, I would have to say that my experiences in regards to battery performance favor the 1520 as well. Granted, this could be addressed in regards to the Note 3 with a higher capacity battery such as the likes offered by ZeroLemon.

I'm alternating between them at the moment, I rarely have them in concurrent use aside from operating passively. However, I do like using the 1520 better than the N3 for most tasks. I'm not sure if I'm still waiting for my 1520 battery to "settle" or whatever, but given roughly the same accounts being set up on the two devices, and given roughly the same screen on time and app usage, my 1520 is draining a good ~20-30% faster. The N3 battery life is something I'm still in awe of. However, that's going to vary by use case and will be very subjective.

2) Tell us why and for what purpose you use your each phone, please list them.
A.) I use the 1520 due to a work project. I can't go into the details but my job at the moment requires a dedicated WP platform. The 1520 was the best that was out there in regards to the most modern internal hardware. My off time with the device is used mostly to browse forums, play the occasional game, and of course, take pictures. The Note 3 is used because I personally prefer the Android operating system as a whole. A lot of this is due to the fact that I have grown accustomed to the offerings of apps and functionality of the OS as a whole. As a result, I can imagine that my situation might be different had I started with WP rather than Android for the last few years. However, the Note 3 is used for ever other task that I'm not able to do with the 1520. In fact, the activities often time overlap as there are good alternatives to what I can't find by specific title as generic offerings on WP.

Both are used for fun/games and regular everyday productivity to include office sort of stuff and work emails. Neither one serves a specific purpose at the moment, other than the fact that I can only seem to change my BF4 loadout from my N3.

3)Does limitations of windows phone hurt your usage? Reason for your yes/no.
A.) Yes. I would have to say that the current "limitations" of the WP OS do hurt some of the usage. I would probably not even use the Note 3 at all if I were able to accomplish everything that I am able to with Android on WP. That being said, there is a great variety of alternative resolutions to the challenges that I face with the WP OS. It's not by any means a lame duck. It's just that it's not as well polished in my opinion.

No, other than the BF4 Battlelog non-problem listed above. It used to due to the laughable ecosystem but that has made serious strides in the past couple of years.

4) Are you happy with windows phones multi tasking? Are you able to multi task in note 3, how efficient note 3 is.
A) I am fairly happy with the WP multitasking capabilities. There are a few issues that I have but it's mostly getting used to it. The only one major challenge that I have is in regards to Internet Explorer. When multi-tasking, should you drop IE from the main application and then return to it at a later point, it seems as if it "forgets" what the originating page prior to the current one was. As such, should you need to go back a page, you're out of luck other than manually doing so. Someone please advise me on the process for this if I'm mistaken.
In regards to the multi-tasking for the Note 3, it's brilliant. In regards to efficiency, there are no issues. In fact, you are capable of multi-tasking by way of having multliple applications on screen at the same time. Now, it should be noted that for me this is something of a novelty due to screen real estate. However, I could see it being put to use in one of situations.

Multitasking ease of use and convenience are won by the N3 hands-down. I also seem to have the issue with IE, which is a PITA because most of the times I need to effectively multitask, IE is involved. The Multi-Window feature is excellent. Not as good as HALO on devices with custom ROM ability (FU AT&T BTW), but still an amazingly useful tool.

5) Do you require file system? And why?
A) I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this. If you're asking about root or superuser access, then yes. I have a variety of operations that are made much much simpler by have access to this. Most commonly, this is due to needing to make SQlite changes or changes to the active memory. If you're asking in reference to having access to read from the file system as far as files go, this would be handy as well. With my day to day operations, a file manager of some sort would be handy. This is specifically in regards to the SD card. To the best of my knowledge, there is no such app available for WP as of yet. In fact, there is a fierce argument as to whether or not people even need this. Personally, I'd have to say I do. There are times when I have needed to move files to another location and I simply can't with WP. The solution would be connect to a PC or use cloud storage. With Android, it's "drag and drop" and done.

I do not require it but the fact that the ability doesn't exist on WP annoys the hell out of me.

6) What is price you paid for each?
A) The 1520 cost me nothing personally but the receipt that I had to turn in showed a price point of 579. As far as the Note 3, that came out of pocket due to the fact that it's a personal device. However, that ran me just under $300. This is USD. Bear in mind that this was also via upgrading a personal line of service with my provider and so the cost was subsidized.

The 1520 was $550 - 10% + tax, whatever that works out to (I think ~$621 with the insurance) at the MS Store. The N3 was around $700 I think, maybe even more. Release vs release, the 1520 was significantly less expensive.

7) If you have option, which phone will you sell?
A) The 1520 will eventually be sold off either to myself or to another employee. However, I suppose it really determines on what the newest iteration of WP brings our way. Should the major qualms I have with the OS be resolved prior to the end of my current project, I'll likely buy it back from my company and start using it as my personal device. The Note 3 will eventually be replaced with the introduction of the Note 4 or comparable handset. I'm pretty fickle when it comes to this. I have been through several dozen handsets in the last few years.

I will be giving the Note III to my son shortly. I just like the 1520 better but I'm sure he'll enjoy the endless tinkering/customizing possibilities Android brings.

8) Which phone annoyed you? And why?
A) There are some annoyances with both of them actually. To be honest, the 1520 is pretty solid and a lot of my personal gripes with it are due solely to the operating system. Again, this is likely mostly in regards to my familiarity with Android and so it's just a bias. Overall, it's a very solid phone and I'm not experiencing the worst of the issues I see reported. From time to time I do need to turn off WiFi and then turn it back on due to some connectivity issue. Additionally, the screen dimming takes place from time to time but that doesn't bug me much.
A minor change that took place with the Note 3 that I didn't enjoy involved the "Settings" section. If you have a moment to check one out, look at this. You'll note that it's not the same layout anymore. It's now been sectioned off into columns. Granted, this is likely due to the new revision of Android and not something Samsung is doing. I haven't had a chance to check out any other 4.3 devices yet. This is the only problem I have come across so far. Again, it's just my level of familiarity and resistance to change I'm sure.

The fact that the N3 has a locked bootloader annoyed me the most I guess. But that's about AT&T, not really the phones themselves. I also felt like the N3 was always about to flex.

Things that annoy me about the 1520 are that WP doesn't scale well to this size, but I'm sure that'll be addressed as these 1080p devices keep rolling off the shelves. Just too much "white space" and unnecessarily large font; you could fit so much more useful stuff in that much real estate without compromising practicality. But I'm sure the fix for that is in the works, both with OS related settings and app specific adaptation.

I also dislike the new settings layout in Android 4.3. I just didn't see why it was necessary.

9) Which phone has useless over size?
A) I'm not sure I entirely understand this question. However, I would like to say that both devices use their size very well. The layout is excellent on both and I'm a big fan of having dedicated "buttons" on a device rather than on-screen controls. My time with the Xperia Z Ultra bugged me quite a bit in that many applications didn't recognize it as a 1920x1080 device due to the on-screen "buttons" and instead, saw a lesser resolution. If I had to complain about the physical aspects of either of the devices, I'd have to say my qualms are with the 1520's shape. Again, the layout of each device is well used but the 1520 has INCREDIBLY sharp corners. I actually purchased the case I did due to this. I wanted to soften them up a bit.

Without question the 1520. I like the 1520's shape because I shattered a N2 screen with a drop that should never have broken a phone, but it hit just right on the corner to stress the glass in a way that it broke. With the N3's edges even closer to the screen, I was always worried there would be a repeat event even though I had the Incipio case (which BTW is a useless case that will crack in no time on its own). Although I'm not sure the 1520 would do better in similar drop scenarios, it seems to be sturdier to combat torsional forces and maybe provides a better buffer in case I have another freak drop onto a corner from a foot above the ground.

Also see above about being oversize in terms of what the OS is capable of right now (wasted real estate).

10) What about s-pen? Is that life saving feature?
A) I have had the Note 2 and now the Note 3 and yes, I have used the S-Pen. However, for me it's a novelty more than anything else. I am sure that there are a lot of folks out there that say they couldn't live without it. In fact, I believe this somewhat. In my day to day, I encounter a lot of older folks that have coordination issues with typing or just generally using a touch screen device. For them, the S-Pen would be a lifesaver. For me, not so much. There is one instance in which I REALLY put the S-Pen to use and it's not doing what you might think. There are some webpages that have been coded with hover features on various points of text or menus. Pages that are very menu heavy and rely on the the pointer location can cause some complaints when using a mobile device. The S-Pen comes in very handy here as you don't need to tap on the menu. A simple hover will open the drop down selection for what follows. An example would be frys.com or newegg.com. When attempting to browse the menus there on a mobile device, I sometimes have a hard time. The S-Pen resolves that as a pointer rather than a needed "clicker" if you will for selection.

I didn't use s-pen very much. Some people rely on it heavily, so your answer here will be very subjective. I don't miss it except for in instances like noted here, where you need to access hidden menus or objects that are very small while browsing.

So basically that's my $.02, not as in-depth but additional info just the same.

In the end what amazed me both about the N3 was exactly how many "neat" features I turned off right away. There sure is a lot of nifty stuff included in those phones, but only some of it was useful to me at all. Maybe that's why my battery life was better than the 1520? I didn't have to micromanage BT/WiFi/etc... like in previous Android phones, but I turned off all the silly features I didn't use. I didn't have to compromise brightness or redo my email settings to poll less frequently or anything. I'd easily get a good two days (~48hrs) use out of the phone during normal use with plenty to spare.

Oh I should probably also mention I don't game on the phones except for every once in a long while until now. Now that the screen seems like a good size for my fat thumbs to have controls plus the screen, I actually am having fun with the gaming aspect. But these games KILL the battery in the phone right now, not sure if that's due to needed optimization for the new specs or what. For the battery life records I took just after getting the phone (to compare with the N3), I was not using games though.

One last thing I'd like to mention is that I really like the new dark lock screen with the clock and notifications.... It's very nice to finally not have to wake the phone to get notifications and another great thing about it is that I never lose sight of where the phone is exactly when I set it down. The clock is always easy to see and with these black phones, sometimes that can be a blessing. Plus it's nice to have notifications in that scenario, even if there's no notification hub that can touch Android's implementation yet.

WP has come a LONG way in the last couple years. I actually like it now.

 

[vlad0]

It still has a long way to go as well.. I am a Symbian user and I still feel like there is too many things missing in terms of functionality for me to fully switch to WP. To be honest I find iOS 7 much closer to Symbian in terms of functionality than WP.

Don't get me wrong, the concept is great and it feels great in terms of UX, its just missing a few things that I find essential.

Every time I start complaining about WP8 I have to remind myself that it is indeed 1.0 software and it shouldn't be compared to matured platforms such as ios and Symbian.

That being said WP at 1.0 is WAYY ahead of 1.0 ios/andro/Symbian , so its really a great foundation to build onto to.

The 1520 is the best WP device to date..

 

[DBZo07]

@ragingklu yet another realistic review.


I wish i was your son. ;D



Sent from my L625

 

[michail71]

I don't even need to turn sunlight readability on. I found it made the screen too bright in the sun.