If people have been talking about one upcoming phone release it has to be the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Samsung seems to be able to do no wrong in the mobile phone industry and this latest release, which hit the market a couple of days ago, looks set to continue the trend.

Having a little hands-on time with this new product has allowed me to create a great review for you.

In this article we will take a look at;

• The Samsung Galaxy Note 3’s design characteristics
• The camera
• The features of the Galaxy Note 3

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3’s design characteristics

The first thing to note is that this device fits into the new category of phablet; these are phones that are larger than a smartphone but smaller than a tablet PC.

This however enriches the experience on offer greatly and the large 5.7-inch display is a visual gateway to a world of fun. I loved the slim-line feel (8.9mm thick) and although it weighs more than most smartphones at 168g it’s not too heavy and I liked the security of knowing it was still in my pocket!

The most notable design feature however is the back case with its stitched-leather-look and I think this will appeal to professionals along with the addition of a stylus, called the S Pen by Samsung.

Although not a design feature I will mention here that inside there is a 3GB RAM and a quad-core 2.3GHz processor, which to the user simply means that it completes tasks extremely quickly.

The camera

It’s another great job from Samsung here with a 13 mega pixel camera and 2 mega pixel forward facing camera for video calls.

There are loads of features to play with here and these include burst shot for taking a sequence of images, sound and shot for recording an audio snippet of the moment and surround shot which allows a 360 degree panoramic picture to be captured.

These panoramic images are great fun to view afterwards as you can pan around by leaning the phone from one side to the other.

The features of the Galaxy Note 3

There are many features mentioned in my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 review but here let’s take a look at some of the most interesting.

Smart scroll, first seen on the Galaxy S4, is installed and this really works well now that there is a large display area to really enjoy the benefits. If you like to read e-books, long internet pages or check out the content in Samsung’s My Magazine (a tailored news feed of what’s interesting to you) then this automatic scrolling feature operated by tracking the motion of your eye will really impress.

The S Pen of course offers hand writing input and to make operation easy there are air gestures built in as well.

Just like all smartphones and phablets the main story is about apps and I found YouTube, Gmail, Facebook, maps and many more pre-installed in the app tab to the right of the home screen.

The Galaxy Note 3 also automatically removes the notification bars when entering apps for a better experience and from standby you can wave your hand over the screen to see the time and those notifications without touching the phone.