Contract almost up, need new phone asap, torn between the S5 and Note 3....

nero0410

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My contract is almost up and I'll need a replacement phone as soon as it's up, and any help and advice would be great :)

I currently have a Galaxy Note (the first one released back in 2011), and I'm quite used to the size and feel of the phone, though I have large hands so a little bigger wont hurt (My pockets are plenty big enough to accommodate the large size phones; for example I can fit my nexus 7 in my pocket quite comfortably).

I'm also used to having to charge it once a day, but I still struggle for space with all the apps, games and media. I did have a 32GB microSD, but I haven't managed to get it to work for a while. I believe it's the card at fault as I can't even read it with a card reader.

I like to stick to a contract that's fairly low, so I usually pay about £100-150 for the handset in order to get it down to £25-28 per month max.
I then take it down further down the line, my note 1 was £25 a month with £104 up front, afer a few months I was able to take it down to £16 per month. I do this as all I need is unlimited texts as calls and net whilst out and about I just use hotspots for with BT etc.... (I have it included in my BT package via BT Talk etc....)

After a lot of reading here and everywhere else, I have boiled it down to two decisions.... either the:
Samsung Galaxy S5 (16GB)
- FREE Samsung Galaxy S5 upgrade deals and offers from £42 per month



| The Carphone Warehouse

or
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (32GB)
- FREE Samsung Galaxy Note 3 upgrade deals and offers from £30 per month



| The Carphone Warehouse


With either of the above, I'm going to be wanting a 64GB card:
- Sony 64GB microSD XC card with adapter Micro SD cards - all from £39.99 | The Carphone Warehouse

I like the camera, screen, size, resolution, features, proxessing/ram power of both and the fact that I can buy a spare battery (unlinke those such as HTC One/iPhone), and all of my bought and paid for apps and game's will be there ready to download when I sign into my google account.

- If I went for the Note 3, I'd have to pay £99 to get it on a unlimited mins/texts tarrif at £28 per month, which is just under the price I'll be selling my Note 1 for to a mate.

- If I went for the S5, I'd have to pay £149 up front, for the same price tarrif but with only 500 mins/unlimited texts (as mentioned, minutes/data I dont need).... BUT, I can take an old crap phone in for £100 trade in, so I'd have that plus another £110 from selling my Note 1, leaving £60 to grab a 64gb card, case and spare battery.

Clearly I'd have a better deal with the S5, but I'm still undecided weather the Note would be more for me as I'd have a bigger screen for watching media.... and I like bigger screens.

I imagine they would both perform the same, even though the S5 is a newer phone and has a better screen, but the extra screen size and 16GB of storage I'd certainly make good use of.

1. I presume both have the ability to stream to a tv with chromecast or similar with various 3rd party apps?

2. I have noticed that the Note 3 comes with Jellybean, but can be upgraded to Kitkat, though there have been some issues, have these been resolved?

3. On paper the specs for both seem very similar, with maybe the S5 being slightly faster?:
Samsung Galaxy S5 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - Phone specs comparison

4. Has anyone else had hands on with both devices and provide some input?
(I have had a play in the shop, but not really had the time trial them properly, they should have offered a weeks trial or something by now before tie-ing you into a 2 year contract)

Also, if anyone else has been in this dilemma, I'd appreciate your input on what you went for and why :smashin:

cheers

tris
 
My 2 cents are if your coming from a note 1 that you loved then the note 3 would be the great step up however the note 4 will be due around Aug/Sept? would it be worth holding on? depends if you want latest tech?

On the 5S I'm not sure what screen size the original note was? 5.5 maybe? the new S5 is 5.1 so you won't notice much of a screen decrease and as its just released will be good for another 12 months as latest tech.
 
That's my thinking regarding the Note 3 coming up from a Note 1. I'm not bothered about the latest tech so much, my upgrade time is up and I just need to take advantage of it.
The Note 3 was only released last year, it's pretty much up to date enough for me :)

I noticed the screen size of the S5 is a couple centimeters off of the Note 1, I was quite surprised.

Specs wise, they seem to be about the same. I do like the extra internal memory of the Note 3, as I'd make use of it seeing as whats left of 16gb of internal is actually nearer to 11-12gb, so there would be around 24gb to play about with instead.

I would like to know weather or not the issues that were with Kitkat on the Note 3 have been resolved or not, as I would ideally like to be using the latest version there.

I have had a bit of hands on with both phones, and I'm just trying to fathom out the actual differences before I go to the store again tomorrow (with staff who don't have a clue), hence asking here where the real experts lie.

Are there things one can do that the other can't, or can't do as well as.... does one have better or more features than the other etc.... As I'm finding it hard to see any, including regarding connectivity MHL/HDMI (both of which would be a big plus), etc...

tris
 
I'm no expert but I think spec wise there isn't a lot of difference 3GB ram in the note 3 compared to 2GB in S5, and like you said extra 16gb internal memory in the note 3.

Slightly sharper screen on S5 if you go into PPI stuff etc but not noticeable to the human eye and apparently battery life pretty similar.

Obvious main difference between the two is the S Pen stuff on the note range.

I think if you like the bigger screen, more memory etc and your used to the note if I was you I'd go for the note 3 as the natural upgrade.
 
Went for the Note 3 in the end, the extra space is needed really.

Can't really notice much different about them at all whilst having a play in the stores again, you can't really see a difference in speed and you can change the screen settings to get better quality on the Note 3 to match (almost) the S5.

Currently sorting all my apps, though have most of them done now, but I have room for more as I grabbed a 64gb card to go with it.

Kitkat is on there fine too so I'm happy so far.

tris
 

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