Last year I owned the Galaxy Note 2. I thought it was a near perfect phablet, except for just two main areas for improvement: Screen resolution/sunlight legibility, and after a while there was noticeable slowdown after too many apps were installed. Now that I have the Note 3, things are getting very very interesting....Lets do this review by bulletin points for easier viewing:PROS:1) The biggest and most obvious different when you first pick this up is the screen. There are a handful of improvements:* The resolution has been upgraded to 1080p(from 720p). You can noticeably tell that it is crisper.* You will also find out that it is a bit brighter. For us geeks, that means Samsung has upped the brightness levels to an incredible and unheard of 660 cd/m2 max(when auto brightness is turned on).* Sunlight legibility is MUCH improved over the Note 2. However, it is still not as good as the HTC One''s screen. The Super AMOLED has AWESOME contrast levels(velvety deep blacks). As a whole however, and because of its Pentile pixel system, it comes just a bit short of the HTC One''s Super LCD 3. It is really nitpicking though, so you won''t ever regret this.2) This phone flies, almost literally. The Samsung Exynos Octa-core/Snapdragon 800 processors mean this thing will hardly ever lag, and 3GB of RAM means you can multi-task to your heart''s content!3) Improved S-Pen hardware/software mean it''s no longer a gimmick gadget from the original Note. Too much to describe all the functions, and you can do without it for most functions. But business users will really appreciate this once you work on productivity/design apps.4) All those software features! Granted, you can do without most of them for day-to-day things, but being there nonetheless means it will improve your ease of use. The are also too many to go through all, I but what I love most is the Smart-Stay, which uses the front camera to monitor that you''re looking at the screen and won''t dim/turn off, which is super duper useful for when you are reading the news/web pages, etc., holding the phone up with one hand, and your other hand is pre-occupied. No more having to shuffle around to tap the screen when it auto-dims to bring the brightness back up. This is especially and specifically useful for me when I''m reading in bed on my Pulse News app.5) The sound is noticeably louder as well. It doesn''t have that immersive stereo effect of the HTC One''s dual stereo speakers, but by itself it is louder. This is useful when you are in a noisy environment, and having one loud speaker is more useful than having two immersive speakers that are softer and harder to hear. As good as the HTC One sounds, I hate that for most things like music and video, it is so darn soft and frustrating. I now appreciate this one loud speaker setup more for regular everyday outdoors use.6) Having a huge battery means I can do whatever the heck I want with it, and even after heavy use I can still not have to charge it until I''m in bed at night. The one thing that frustrates me most about the HTC One is this very flaw - I literally have to be near a charger/portable charger ALL THE TIME. I just use it to read the news for about 30-40 minutes and 20% will already be gone. And when I charge it, it trickle charges like a turtle! With the Note 3, being able to replace the battery is an added plus, and the USB 3 port means it can charge very quickly. But even these two advantages cannot compare to the simple fact that it has a huge-capacity battery in the first place.CONS:There are few things you can nitpick, like the design/material quality - for a flagship device it still feels a bit chintzy, not like the premium look and feel of the HTC One or even the Sony/Nokia phones. With rumors of a new Galaxy line, this may be changed very soon though. Also, the Touchwiz user interface can be hit or miss. It''s not for everyone, that''s for sure. Luckily, being Android means we''ll never have to settle. My recommendation - especially if you like the simple/minimalistic look, is Smart Launcher Pro. Try the free lite version and see for yourself.I can''t think of much else really to fault this phone, except for the fact that simply for what it is: It''s a niche machine that''s half tablet/half phone - it will never satisfy you as a tablet replacement(I feel the perfect size for video/game usage is the 8-9 inch range), and it will frustrate you as a phone because you can never comfortably hold it, and do all the things you need one-handed(I feel the perfect size for a PHONE is the Apple 5/5S). But if you can compromise to this form factor and accept it for what it is, then there is no better alternative. This is a nearly flawless phablet with an brilliant screen, powerful hardware, useful software, and awesome battery life.