First off I had the note 3. Its ok, note 2 was imo my favorite android device! It could take a beating but like all android phones, no I don't flash or use custom roms, after awhile it started to slow down...to the point it just got annoying!! The s-pen is a great option, especially if you are in the business field, but in the end its a gimmick I rarely used it, even in grad school, easier to type. The duel screen option I thought was pointless too and never used it but fun to show off to your friends, same with the s-pen, again after a week I rarely used any of Samsung's added features.
As for the Note 3 I was excited, I had the HTC ONE, Nokia 1020 and was hoping Samsung improved on touchwiz and the plastic back of the galaxy line.....wasn't a huge issue but that fake leather did look nice! The screen looked great for being amoled (spelling sorry) not a fan of that screen style anyways and thought finally this will be my phone for at least a year to 16 months! Well nope! Super cheap! They made it larger which I was fine with, but it was too boxy, yes the 1520 is boxy but thinner and some reason easier to hold. The screen is nice! The s-pen is a pain to take out and Samsung loaded way too much of their own bloatware and gimmicky crap on the phone. I tried to like it, but it felt like a huge step back from the note 2. It ran well but it was nothing special.....the cheap plastic or metal on the sides also made the phone look cheap! I was very disappointed. I returned it, waited and finally got the 32gb 1520....again another huge risk! No phone is perfect but so far this is leaps and bounds better! Especially if you are running a windows 8 computer....worse case try out the note but remember with android, sorta like a car, the day you buy it, its out dated, updates are horrible on android and yes even at times WP, but least they fix bugs and what not. This is just my experience with android....if you can get your hands on a note 3 that can be rooted that's a different story but again your taking a risk....i just want a phone that works out of the box.....sorry for the essay and oh the camera sucks on the note3 unless they updated it.