Does the Note 4 improve/fix these horrendous Note 3 issues?

[HothTron]

Hey all, been awhile since i've been around. So it looks like a new generation of Note is here once again and once again, I find myself wondering if its worth shelling out the money to pay off the remaining "half" of my Note 3 cost with T-mobile through the Jump! program as I don't have a full year of payments on my Note 3 as I got in in March this year.

I've been a Note user since Note 1 after I left VZW to get it on ATT and by far, the Note 1 was my favorite of them all. The Note 2 was pretty good over all but the lag on the Touchwiz was annoying and the camera was a bit less friendly and by far, the Note 3 has been the worse with T-Mobile. I had to go through THREE phones with T-Mobile due to the HORRENDOUS battery life loss after Kit Kat was installed on the Note 3 on T-Mobile.

Yes, I did EVERYTHING I could to help troubleshoot the following issues from clean cache wipes, to reformatting the SD card, to resetting the entire phone ect..ect.. but the following are STILL issues with my Note 3 that I'm wondering that are FIXED and or are IMPROVED with the Note 4 on T-Mobile before I decide to shell out $200 plus Tax to switch to a Note 4 or just wait until next year and see what Sony or HTC has out that may end my Note ownership days.

1. Continual droppage and reconnecting of Wifi at home. No matter what i've done and no matter what wifi network I connect to, my Note 3 continually just "drops" and "reconnects" to wifi, and YES I have taken off the smart switch. This problem has been continual even after 3 Note 3 replacements.

2. Horrendous camera quality. My Note 1 would take awesome photos, even in low light situations. My Note 3's camera quality all around is outright terrible. 90% of my decent indoor lighting shots are blurry or smudged, and you can pretty much guess that low light shots are utter crap all around with very high amounts of ISO grain noise and not to mention poor contrast and outline of subjects. Only in very nice, outside sunlight days does my Note 3 give me decent quality shots. Beyond that, it sucks, VERY hard.

3. Crap battery life. Most likely due to KitKat software issue that STILL HAS NOT been fixed with T-Mobile. This has been a known issue about Kitkat 4.4.3/4.4.2 since earlier this year and im wondering if 4.4.4 has fixed this issue, especially on T-Mobile.

4. SLOW SD response/reading/writing. I've used two Class 10 microSD cards from Samsung and Sandisk and photo browsing/copying/deleting on local phone or over USB 3.0 and i've been really dissapointed on the overaul performance of Note 3's ability to use a high quality SD card.


Any information, incite or feedback would help me decide if I should ditch my Note 3 and its crappy issues or suck it up until next year and see if HTC M9 Prime or Sony Xperia Ultra 2 prove to be worth giving up on the Note lineup and Samsung in general.

 

[penningtonsm]

I have come over from the note 3 some can comment a little on your questions.
1. Never had such an issue so really can't comment on this one.
2. My note 3 took amazing pictures and the note 4 takes even better ones. However, if you couldn't take great pictures with your nots 3,then you won't with the 4 either.
3. I have seen folks post battery results for 1 day with 8 hours screen on time and some post 9 hours with 3 hours screen on time. It all depends on how you use your phone and what are you willing to sacrifice tinged longer battery life. I get about 4 hours screen on time because I watch a ton of videos. I buy a separate battery so it really doesn't bother me, though I would love to get a full day. Ultra saving mode is pretty sweet though. You can still access the Internet, which pretty much means you can access everything.
4. Don't need SD card, this is almost 2015. With all the places that will host your picture and free music streaming sites, 32 gigs should be plenty. However, if you must use one, then it didn't get any better on this phone.

All in all, I love the 4 much better than the 3. The things I use the most have Been much improved.

 

[1812dave]

If you hate the N3 so much, I think you will likely have a sub-par experience with subsequent Samsung phones. Perhaps it's time to make a switch. Good luck with your next choice.

 

[SpookDroid]

Never had "horrendous" issues with my Note 3, but to some extent, I do agree with the camera issue. Wouldn't call it horrendous, though.

That being said, here you go:
1) The Note 3 did suffer from WiFi issues that only appeared with certain routers (which is why some experienced it and some didn't). The Note 4 does away with these, and I do have a T-Mo version.
2) Note 3 had a great camera with a slow shutter issue. It wasn't of horrendous quality. It was of great quality, it only suffered from poor implementation of the shutter. The Note 4 takes away quite a few options from the camera, but OIS helps A LOT. However, and although faster than the Note 3, the slow shutter is still there. If your subject is moving too fast, it will be blurry, but thanks to OIS, the rest of the picture will not. This also means much better night pictures. For moving subjects I suggest you use the Sports mode (which on the Note 4, now you have to download first).
3) I've been getting up to 50% more battery out of my Note 4. And my Note 3 never had terrible battery, quite the opposite in fact. With the Note 3 I used to get around 12 hours per charge with a lot of e-mailing, whatsapping, and about 4 or 5 hours of Spotify streaming. With the Note 4, sometimes I come home from work with 50% left on my battery. I even made it through a weekend without even charging it.
4) The Note 3 didn't have slow SD response, but I've had bad experiences with SD Cards and Samsung Devices, the Note 3 included, to know that I should no longer use SD Cards. So, I cannot comment on this since I'm not using one on my Note 4.

 

[HothTron]

4. Don't need SD card, this is almost 2015. With all the places that will host your picture and free music streaming sites, 32 gigs should be plenty. However, if you must use one, then it didn't get any better on this phone.

Nope, I need an SD card as I don't trust my photo's to stay secure and safe on a smartphones memory if the device crashes or locks up and I have to rebuild it/replace it.

If you hate the N3 so much, I think you will likely have a sub-par experience with subsequent Samsung phones. Perhaps it's time to make a switch. Good luck with your next choice.

I was a HUGE Note supporter series with my Note 1 and mostly 2, but the Note 3 has been a trainwreck experience and unless Note 4 has improved a lot, this will be the end of my purchasing history them and Samsung in general and will be switching to HTC or Sony who seem to be making more creative, reliable and usefull devices

 

[SpookDroid]

Nope, I need an SD card as I don't trust my photo's to stay secure and safe on a smartphones memory if the device crashes or locks up and I have to rebuild it/replace it.

Well, then you should know that SD Cards are waaaaay less reliable than internal memory, if more flexible. I do strongly suggest you back up your photos on a Cloud service like Dropbox or Google Drive or at least make it a habit to back up to your computer or an external hard drive. From personal experience, do not trust SD cards for your pictures. Use it only for media consumption of files you have somewhere else.

 

[HothTron]

Well, then you should know that SD Cards are waaaaay less reliable than internal memory, if more flexible. I do strongly suggest you back up your photos on a Cloud service like Dropbox or Google Drive or at least make it a habit to back up to your computer or an external hard drive. From personal experience, do not trust SD cards for your pictures. Use it only for media consumption of files you have somewhere else.

Hell no, I do not trust ANY cloud source based backup system for my privacy and information reasons being at IT proffessional. I back my stuff up to an external HDD which is then stored in a fire and water proof safe in my home.

That being said, i've never had any SD type media fail on me on my years of using them. No way I trust my photo's on the internal memory of a phone, even if "statistically" it "might" be more reliable.

 

[brucedbr]

Hey all, been awhile since i've been around. So it looks like a new generation of Note is here once again and once again, I find myself wondering if its worth shelling out the money to pay off the remaining "half" of my Note 3 cost with T-mobile through the Jump! program as I don't have a full year of payments on my Note 3 as I got in in March this year.

I've been a Note user since Note 1 after I left VZW to get it on ATT and by far, the Note 1 was my favorite of them all. The Note 2 was pretty good over all but the lag on the Touchwiz was annoying and the camera was a bit less friendly and by far, the Note 3 has been the worse with T-Mobile. I had to go through THREE phones with T-Mobile due to the HORRENDOUS battery life loss after Kit Kat was installed on the Note 3 on T-Mobile.

Yes, I did EVERYTHING I could to help troubleshoot the following issues from clean cache wipes, to reformatting the SD card, to resetting the entire phone ect..ect.. but the following are STILL issues with my Note 3 that I'm wondering that are FIXED and or are IMPROVED with the Note 4 on T-Mobile before I decide to shell out $200 plus Tax to switch to a Note 4 or just wait until next year and see what Sony or HTC has out that may end my Note ownership days.

1. Continual droppage and reconnecting of Wifi at home. No matter what i've done and no matter what wifi network I connect to, my Note 3 continually just "drops" and "reconnects" to wifi, and YES I have taken off the smart switch. This problem has been continual even after 3 Note 3 replacements.

2. Horrendous camera quality. My Note 1 would take awesome photos, even in low light situations. My Note 3's camera quality all around is outright terrible. 90% of my decent indoor lighting shots are blurry or smudged, and you can pretty much guess that low light shots are utter crap all around with very high amounts of ISO grain noise and not to mention poor contrast and outline of subjects. Only in very nice, outside sunlight days does my Note 3 give me decent quality shots. Beyond that, it sucks, VERY hard.

3. Crap battery life. Most likely due to KitKat software issue that STILL HAS NOT been fixed with T-Mobile. This has been a known issue about Kitkat 4.4.3/4.4.2 since earlier this year and im wondering if 4.4.4 has fixed this issue, especially on T-Mobile.

4. SLOW SD response/reading/writing. I've used two Class 10 microSD cards from Samsung and Sandisk and photo browsing/copying/deleting on local phone or over USB 3.0 and i've been really dissapointed on the overaul performance of Note 3's ability to use a high quality SD card.


Any information, incite or feedback would help me decide if I should ditch my Note 3 and its crappy issues or suck it up until next year and see if HTC M9 Prime or Sony Xperia Ultra 2 prove to be worth giving up on the Note lineup and Samsung in general.

I too came over from the Note 3. I had such issues with it...that's the only real reason why I bothered with the switch to the Note 4. I'm THRILLED that I did, however. On your particular issues:

1. I didn't have a big issue with it in the first place, but I did notice it happening occasionaly with my Note 3. I've yet to see it at all on the 4.

2. I am not a huge picture taker, so I can't really comment too much here, except to say I have taken a few pictures with the N4, and they've been awesome!

3. I've been generally impressed with the battery life. I went a full day yesterday with off and on usage in environments that would normally have drained my battery (searching for signal, etc). I was a good 15 hours or so on-battery yesterday and when I got back home, I still had about 27 or 28 % battery left. And, by the way, I'm not on any of the battery saving settings that are available. I'll be interested to see how they do. (in case you've not read aobut this, there is a "Super Saver" setting and and "Ultra Power Saving" setting. I've read good reports about them, but haven't had the need to try them out myself

I have an SD card in my phone, but haven't really used it...sicne I don't know when.; kinda makes me wonder why I bothered with moving it from my N3.

I know you didn't mention this, but I was able to verify another BIG improvement on the N4 this morning. On my N3, there were SEVERAL areas of town where I live (outside of DC) where my N3 would just go completely out of service. And I'm NOT talking about in buildings either. One of them is on a particular highway running between one town to another, so not particularly a country area. I was on that highway this afternoon and I had perfect service all the way through. The ONLY time my Note 4 has gone out of service was at one point yesterday when I was on the Metro commuter train and we were in a tunnel. I expect that to happen, so I'm not complaining there!

Overall, I'm VERY happy with my N4!! Mind you, I'm on Verizon, so I can't say how T-Mobile would be with their version, but I'm thrilled with VZW's

 

[Haalcyon]

Never had "horrendous" issues with my Note 3, but to some extent, I do agree with the camera issue. Wouldn't call it horrendous, though.

That being said, here you go:

2) Note 3 had a great camera with a slow shutter issue. It wasn't of horrendous quality. It was of great quality, it only suffered from poor implementation of the shutter. The Note 4 takes away quite a few options from the camera, but OIS helps A LOT. However, and although faster than the Note 3, the slow shutter is still there. If your subject is moving too fast, it will be blurry, but thanks to OIS, the rest of the picture will not. This also means much better night pictures. For moving subjects I suggest you use the Sports mode (which on the Note 4, now you have to download first).

I love my Note 3...except for the camera! The shutter is way too slow! Look, I understand it's a phone and not a DSLR or even a point and shoot but WTH!? I have no other big issues with the Note 3 but why an iPhone 5s' camera flat-out smokes it (IME) is annoying.

I sincerely hoped the Note 4's camera was heads and tails better. Should not the camera be remarkably great in a flagship phone? At least as good, if not better than the iPhone 5s'?

 

[HothTron]

I love my Note 3...except for the camera! The shutter is way too slow! Look, I understand it's a phone and not a DSLR or even a point and shoot but WTH!? I have no other big issues with the Note 3 but why an iPhone 5s' camera flat-out smokes it (IME) is annoying.

I sincerely hoped the Note 4's camera was heads and tails better. Should not the camera be remarkably great in a flagship phone? At least as good, if not better than the iPhone 5s'?

Yeah, see, im not the only one who thinks the Note 3's camera was utter suckage

 

[LegalAmerican]

unless Note 4 has improved a lot, this will be the end of my purchasing history them and Samsung in general and will be switching to HTC or Sony who seem to be making more creative, reliable and usefull devices

I think this right here makes it very clear that you're ready for a change of scenery. Sony, Motorola, HTC, and LG make amazing alternatives if you're tired of Samsung. I certainly wouldn't say any of them are more creative except maybe HTC, and possibly LG with the buttons on the back. My opinion on that however, is irrelevant to what we're discussing here. Both my brother's have Note 3's and I see them every other week at least while staying in touch between that time as well, and neither of them have the issues you've mentioned. In fact i've gone to many baseball games with one of those brothers and his Note 3 took the best photos of the group by far (even on rainy games with lots of cloud cover and no sun). Having spent a few years on this forum, it's always very easy to spot someone who is ready for a change, but just can't quite commit to it for whatever reason. In the most polite way possible i'd say do yourself a favor and give another manufacturer a try. We're lucky that this isn't like 2011-2012 where Samsung was almost the only very good option.

 

[HothTron]

Unng, no LG, their button placement idea is an utter joke.

 

[LegalAmerican]

Unng, no LG, their button placement idea is an utter joke.

I can understand that. My best friend got the G3 and said it was horrible at first, and makes screenshots a living he** but he absolutely loves everything else about it. But I do have to give them credit for creativity and being brave enough to be different. Kinda like Samsung with the Note Edge.

 

[SpookDroid]

I toyed a bit with a preview unit of the Edge... and my suspicions are correct. Someone will drop this on day one and go: OH FUDGE!!! THERE GOES MY SCREEN!!!
Plus, it's slippery, but it's a different way of thinking. Then again, Nokia did some weird stuff in the past, and see where that landed them...
Sometimes before thinking 'different' you shouldn't forget Ergonomics 101.

 

[Haalcyon]

I don't think the Edge will sell that great (at least not to those that care about the condition of their phones).

 

[HothTron]

I don't think the Edge will sell that great (at least not to those that care about the condition of their phones).

Meh, its an intriguing idea but its not gonna do well in American market for a variety reasons

 

[Almeuit]

1 . My connections are great. I keep WiFi connected at home and have no complaints.

2. The camera is good enough for me. It still has some issues with moving objects.

3. Battery is AMAZING on the Note 4. I get way better life than my Note 3.

4. No comment -- I don't use SD cards.

 

[Haalcyon]

1 . My connections are great. I keep WiFi connected at home and have no complaints.

2. The camera is good enough for me. It still has some issues with moving objects.

3. Battery is AMAZING on the Note 4. I get way better life than my Note 3.

4. No comment -- I don't use SD cards.

I want a Note 4 and iPhone 6+. Best of both worlds for me.

 

[Almeuit]

I want a Note 4 and iPhone 6+. Best of both worlds for me.

Yeah not going to lie I want to play around and use a 6 + for awhile. Mainly because most of the things I jail-broke an iPhone for when I had it have been fixed .. So the curious side of me wants to play with it .

 

[biggunspaul]

TBH you just sound like a moaner and no phone will be good enough.

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