Samsung Galaxy Note 3

[badass]

My battery life is also really good now

 

[PhireSide]

Good morning ladies and gents

After keeping an eye on my phone bill over the last few months I have decided to attempt to make the move to a contract again (Currently Vodacom prepaid), and a certain deal with Telkom Mobile has caught my eye. Now, I don't care much for the latest tech and I can probably get the contract package without the phone and just use my Moto G, but I am just a bit worried that it won't last the length of the contract. Also, in the back of my mind I am thinking of selling the Moto G and my Nexus 7 3G+Wifi and just using the Note 3 for all my daily tasks.

The screen will be big enough to make my tablet obsolete - or that is my reckoning at the very least.

Is it worth it to go for an older gen phablet such as the Note 3 at this time or should I wait instead? I believe the successor to the Note 4 would probably be released in September or October of this year but I don't think I will be able to hold out until then. My average spend a month is near enough to the price of the Note 3 per month on the SmartPlan 100 @ R379, and since most of my spend is on data bundles the included 150MB plus 1GB per month should cover it.

Any feedback would be appreciated

 

[faniebraai]

Good morning ladies and gents

After keeping an eye on my phone bill over the last few months I have decided to attempt to make the move to a contract again (Currently Vodacom prepaid), and a certain deal with Telkom Mobile has caught my eye. Now, I don't care much for the latest tech and I can probably get the contract package without the phone and just use my Moto G, but I am just a bit worried that it won't last the length of the contract. Also, in the back of my mind I am thinking of selling the Moto G and my Nexus 7 3G+Wifi and just using the Note 3 for all my daily tasks.

The screen will be big enough to make my tablet obsolete - or that is my reckoning at the very least.

Is it worth it to go for an older gen phablet such as the Note 3 at this time or should I wait instead? I believe the successor to the Note 4 would probably be released in September or October of this year but I don't think I will be able to hold out until then. My average spend a month is near enough to the price of the Note 3 per month on the SmartPlan 100 @ R379, and since most of my spend is on data bundles the included 150MB plus 1GB per month should cover it.

Any feedback would be appreciated

The Note 3 is still an awesome phone, and still beats a lot of what's out there at the moment. If you don't mind not having the latest and greatest then the Note 3 is a very viable and still a high tier spec'd phone.

 

[TJ99]

The Note 3 is a massive step up from a Moto G. And yes, it does make 7" tablets pretty pointless especially ones that don't have a stylus.

 

[PhireSide]

The Note 3 is still an awesome phone, and still beats a lot of what's out there at the moment. If you don't mind not having the latest and greatest then the Note 3 is a very viable and still a high tier spec'd phone.

Thanks, and how easy is it to get used to the size of the device? I seem to have progressively stepped up my smartphone screen size, from a little Xperia X10 mini, through an HTC Desire S, a Moto G and now maybe a Note 3

The Note 3 is a massive step up from a Moto G. And yes, it does make 7" tablets pretty pointless especially ones that don't have a stylus.

That is my thinking as well. I mainly use the tab for web browsing, I store some manuals on it that I need for work (better than lugging around a 1000 page service manual), and the occasional game here and there.

I'll stop by Telkom on my way home today and see if I like the size. They should have some dummy phones there

 

[TJ99]

Thanks, and how easy is it to get used to the size of the device? I seem to have progressively stepped up my smartphone screen size, from a little Xperia X10 mini, through an HTC Desire S, a Moto G and now maybe a Note 3



That is my thinking as well. I mainly use the tab for web browsing, I store some manuals on it that I need for work (better than lugging around a 1000 page service manual), and the occasional game here and there.

I'll stop by Telkom on my way home today and see if I like the size. They should have some dummy phones there

Try Vodacom or a Samsung shop if there's one near you, they should have the real thing. Much better than a dummy phone.

Be warned though, if you do like it you will never go back to a "normal" phone again. The Notes just feel so good in the hand. Unless you have small hands of course.

 

[Lostears]

Thanks, and how easy is it to get used to the size of the device? I seem to have progressively stepped up my smartphone screen size, from a little Xperia X10 mini, through an HTC Desire S, a Moto G and now maybe a Note 3



That is my thinking as well. I mainly use the tab for web browsing, I store some manuals on it that I need for work (better than lugging around a 1000 page service manual), and the occasional game here and there.

I'll stop by Telkom on my way home today and see if I like the size. They should have some dummy phones there

You could probably pick up a decently priced 2nd hand note 3 these days just btw mate . I know bfore were running it on special with R100 airtime for 24months at a R6k once off payment. You get the phone + R100 airtime for 24 months. Note 3 is a crazy good phone and you could, with some digging, find one which still had 2 ADH claims left .

The size is very easy to get used to, I actually find the S4 to be too small now

 

[PhireSide]

Try Vodacom or a Samsung shop if there's one near you, they should have the real thing. Much better than a dummy phone.

Be warned though, if you do like it you will never go back to a "normal" phone again. The Notes just feel so good in the hand. Unless you have small hands of course.

I'll see if I can stop by there too, thanks.

Silly question, does the Note also come with the ADH package that the S4 and S5 comes with? I understand it isn't water resistant like the S devices, but that doesn't matter to me too much as I am not planning on taking it swimming anytime soon (it's too big anyways, it will feel like an anchor in my pocket )

 

[Exaelea]

Adh 2 screen or 2 water damage fixes or 1 of either

 

[TJ99]

I'll see if I can stop by there too, thanks.

Silly question, does the Note also come with the ADH package that the S4 and S5 comes with? I understand it isn't water resistant like the S devices, but that doesn't matter to me too much as I am not planning on taking it swimming anytime soon (it's too big anyways, it will feel like an anchor in my pocket )

Yes, the Note 3 had the best version. They scaled back the ADH on the Note 4 though.

 

[PhireSide]

Oh cool, thank you

One thing that I have noticed is that the model Telkom offers is the N9000 model with no LTE, which doesn't matter to me as I won't use it - but I have heard that they have slightly different chipsets. Is this a moot point or is it something to take into consideration?

 

[Piesang]

The Note 3 is still a awesome device. Size wise I like my Xperia Z3 Compact more, but that doesn't mean I will get rid of my Note3. I'm using it as a wifi hotspot.

As soon as you get your Note 3 make sure to flash Lollipop. It surely brought new life to my 14 month old Note3.

 

[w1tw0lf]

Oh cool, thank you

One thing that I have noticed is that the model Telkom offers is the N9000 model with no LTE, which doesn't matter to me as I won't use it - but I have heard that they have slightly different chipsets. Is this a moot point or is it something to take into consideration?

Only if you want to play with mods... n9000 has the exnos chipset, samsung priority chipset where the n9005 has snapdragon chipset which is more compatible with mods. Mods being roms.

 

[TJ99]

Oh cool, thank you

One thing that I have noticed is that the model Telkom offers is the N9000 model with no LTE, which doesn't matter to me as I won't use it - but I have heard that they have slightly different chipsets. Is this a moot point or is it something to take into consideration?

On the Note 3, the Snapdragon version (N9005) is definitely the better one. But even the slower Exynos (N9000) is already way faster than any game or app needs so you won't notice a difference if you stick to stock ROMs. If you want to install custom firmware you still can but the selection will just be more limited.

 

[PhireSide]

Thanks chaps.

I don't think I would go the modding route as I did before with my HTC Desire S and had a lot of difficulty. But it serves me right, I wanted to mos mess with Cyanogenmod's nightly builds

But it definitely is something to keep in mind. I went to the Telkom Store today to go and see if they had stock, but they had one sales consultant available and I was the 7th person in the queue, so I left it for now.

I will have a look at what Carbonite has to offer as well along the lines of second hand devices, but I am a bit skeptical of going this route. As a cherry on the top, I dropped my Moto G today face down a flight of concrete stairs. How the screen didn't crack is beyond me, but I am grateful I wasn't forced into a position of buying the Note 3 just yet

A colleague is already interested in buying my Nexus 7 off me so I can flog that if I end up getting the Note 3

/goes off to do more research

 

[PhireSide]

Okay, so I seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall for now.

Telkom Mobile in Greenacres are a franchised store and they cannot get any more stock of the Note 3. Telkom Direct in Walker Drive aren't picking up their phones. The number I have for Walmer Park Telkom doesn't exist. The other number I found for it in the Walmer Park Shopping Centre directory also just rings.

I found a few nice ones on Carbonite, but they will have to wait for me to save the cash first

EDIT: It would work out the same if I take a sim-only contract and buy a prepaid phone from Orange, so that's something to consider

 

[faniebraai]

Okay, so I seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall for now.

Telkom Mobile in Greenacres are a franchised store and they cannot get any more stock of the Note 3. Telkom Direct in Walker Drive aren't picking up their phones. The number I have for Walmer Park Telkom doesn't exist. The other number I found for it in the Walmer Park Shopping Centre directory also just rings.

I found a few nice ones on Carbonite, but they will have to wait for me to save the cash first

EDIT: It would work out the same if I take a sim-only contract and buy a prepaid phone from Orange, so that's something to consider

Check the classifieds, someone is selling there Note 3 I saw today.

 

[Lostears]

Okay, so I seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall for now.

Telkom Mobile in Greenacres are a franchised store and they cannot get any more stock of the Note 3. Telkom Direct in Walker Drive aren't picking up their phones. The number I have for Walmer Park Telkom doesn't exist. The other number I found for it in the Walmer Park Shopping Centre directory also just rings.

I found a few nice ones on Carbonite, but they will have to wait for me to save the cash first

EDIT: It would work out the same if I take a sim-only contract and buy a prepaid phone from Orange, so that's something to consider

Be careful with buying an Orange Note 3. They don't include the ADH warranty as far as I am aware. Its only stock sold by the cellphone providers. When I took mine in, I had to provide my contract paperwork as proof

 

[mitcheku]

Hey guys, I unfortunately have the pleasure of owning the n900 version, the non-4G model... I understand there is a leak of the official lollipop update for my model, but I would like to know if it follows the same procedure of using Odin, flashing the files and then running it on the device. It appears that some people are saying that my device needs to be rooted, which I'm not that keen on doing and on another video they say that it doesn't require any rooting. These videos I've seen and tutorials all deal with the n9005 model and in the one video I've seen of the N900 model they say it needs to be rooted.

Thanks for the help. Oh and my phone isn't networked locked, I got it via FNB last year.

 

[faniebraai]

Hey guys, I unfortunately have the pleasure of owning the n900 version, the non-4G model... I understand there is a leak of the official lollipop update for my model, but I would like to know if it follows the same procedure of using Odin, flashing the files and then running it on the device. It appears that some people are saying that my device needs to be rooted, which I'm not that keen on doing and on another video they say that it doesn't require any rooting. These videos I've seen and tutorials all deal with the n9005 model and in the one video I've seen of the N900 model they say it needs to be rooted.

Thanks for the help. Oh and my phone isn't networked locked, I got it via FNB last year.

No phone in this country is network locked. It's against SA laws.