Difference between Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Note 3 Neo

Key Difference: Galaxy Note 3 comes with a 5.7 inch screen 1080p Super AMOLED display. Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo is a lower price version of the Note 3 and comes with a slightly smaller 5.5 inch Super AMOLED display.

Large screens have become a latest trend, with many people going big or going home – well mostly going big. Screens originally starting at 2.5in have steadily increased to now 5in being the norm. Then the Phablets and Tablets were introduced, which boasted even bigger and better screens. Samsung is one of the prominent players in the Phablet market with a wide range of products.

Samsung Galaxy Note series was a hit in the phablet and large screen phones market. Galaxy Note 3 was an upgrade (in terms of hardware and software) compared to the older Galaxy Note series. The Note 3 carried a more ‘sophisticated’ look with a faux metallic bezel and a rear cover made of plastic leather with faux stitching. It was also thinner and skinner compared to the Note II. The phone offered a 5.7 inch screen 1080p Super AMOLED display.

Under the hood, the international version of Note 3 was powered by four 1.9 GHz Cortex-A15 cores and four 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7 cores. It came with 3 GB RAM. It also came with superb camera capability with a 13 MP rear cam and a 2 MP front cam and multiple modes such as Golf, Sports and Surround Shot, etc. There were three storage options – 16 & 32 or 64 GB of internal storage. Samsung also added a 3200 mAh battery to power the high paced device. Keeping in tradition with the new Galaxy Flagship series, the Note 3 came with built in functions such as Air Gestures, S Health, Story Album, etc.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo is a lower price version of the Note 3 and offers many similar features, but also tends to leave out a few things in lieu of the lower price tag. Note 3 Neo was launched in February 2014 and came with a slightly smaller 5.5 inch Super AMOLED display. It also didn’t offer the Full HD, but rather just HD – which is not significantly noticeable. Note 3 Neo also sacrifices the camera and is given a 8 MP rear camera and 2 MP front camera.

Under the hood, the international 3G models and some 4G LTE models, use a hexa-core Exynos 5260, consisting of two 1.7 GHz Cortex-A15 cores and four 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7 cores. It also comes with 2GB RAM and allows only 16 GB of internal storage. It is powered by a slightly lesser 3100 mAh battery and also ships with an S Pen stylus, which has been updated to use a more symmetrical shape. One loss for the Note 3 Neo is that it doesn’t come with Air Gesture and Reading Mode – meaning, there will be no air swiping to turn the pages of the scroll through images.

Both are significantly similar in looks and usage. There is no lag on either of the phones and the Note 3 Neo still comes with many functions that are similar to the flagship Note 3, but with just a cheaper price tag.

Comparison between Note 3 and Note 3 Neo:

	Note 3	Note 3 Neo
Launch Date	September 2013	February 2014
Company	Samsung Corporation	Samsung Corporation
Size	151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3 mm	148.4 x 77.4 x 8.6 mm
Display	5.7 inches Super AMOLED	5.5 inches Super AMOLED
Screen Resolution	1080 x 1920 pixels	720 x 1280 pixels
PPI	~386 ppi pixel density	~267 ppi pixel density
Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 3	N/A
Weight	168 g	162.5 g
2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - all models CDMA 800 / 1900 - N9009	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - all versions
3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 - N9005, N9002, N9006 CDMA2000 1xEV-DO - N9009 HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 - N900W8	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 - SM-N7505 HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100 - SM-N750
4G Network	LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800) - N9005 LTE band 2(1900), 4(1700/2100) - N900W8	LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800) - SM-N7505
GUI	TouchWiz Nature UX	TouchWiz UI
CPU speed	Quad-core 2.3 GHz Krait 400 (N9005, N9002)/ Quad-core 1.9 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7 (N9000)	Quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex A7 & dual-core 1.7 GHz Cortex A15
GPU	Adreno 330 (N9005, N9002)/ Mali-T628 MP6 (N9000)	Mali-T624
OS	Android v4.3 (Jelly Bean), upgradable to v4.4.2 (KitKat), upgradable to v5.0 (Lollipop)	Android v4.3 (Jelly Bean), upgradable to v4.4.2 (KitKat)
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (N9005, N9002)/ Exynos 5 Octa 5420 (N9000)	Exynos 5260
RAM	3 GB RAM	2 GB RAM
SIM Size	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM
Internal Memory	16/32/64 GB	16 GB
Expandable Memory	Up to 64 GB	Up to 64 GB
Sensors	Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, temperature, humidity, gesture	Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot, Bluetooth v4.0, NFC, Infrared	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, WiFi Direct, hotspot, Bluetooth v4.0, NFC, Infrared
Data	GPRS, EDGE, WLAN, Bluetooth, NFC, Infrared and USB.	GPRS, EDGE, WLAN, Bluetooth, NFC, Infrared and USB.
Speed	HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE Cat4 150/50 Mbps	HSPA 42.2(LTE)/21.1(3G)/5.76 Mbps, LTE Cat4 150/50 Mbps
WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, WiFi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth	Bluetooth v4.0, A2DP, EDR, LE	Bluetooth v4.0, A2DP, LE
USB	microUSB v3.0 (MHL 2 TV-out), USB Host	microUSB v2.0, USB Host
Primary Camera	13 MP 4128 x 3096 pixels	8 MP3264 x 2448 pixels
Secondary Camera	2 MP, 1080p@30fps	2 MP, 1080p
Video	2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps (N9005, N9002)/ 1080p (N9000)	1080p@30fps, stereo sound rec
Camera Features	Dual Shot, Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, panorama, HDR, autofocus, LED Flash	Geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, panorama, HDR, autofocus, LED flash
Sound Enhancement	Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic; S-Voice natural language commands and dictation	Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic; S-Voice natural language commands and dictation
Audio supported formats	MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player	MP3/WAV/eAAC+/FLAC player
Video supported formats	MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264 player	MP4/WMV/H.264 player
Battery Capacity	Li-Ion 3200 mAh battery	Li-Ion 3100 mAh battery
Talk time	Up to 21 hours (3G)	Up to 18 h (3G)
Stand-by	Up to 420 hours (3G)	Up to 540 h (3G)
Available Colors	Black, White, Pink, Merlot Red, Rose Gold Black, Rose Gold White	Black, White, Green, Pink, Red
Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
Browser	HTML5	HTML5
Radio	No	No
GPS	A-GPS, GLONASS	A-GPS, GLONASS
Java	No	No
Additional Features	ANT+ support Air gestures Dropbox (50 GB cloud storage) Photo/video editor Document viewer	ANT+ support Dropbox (50 GB cloud storage) Photo/video editor Document viewer