Note 3 Stutter, Lag, and Other Issues

megalomanic14

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For some reason I have noticed that my att note 3 n900a stutters and lags when playing games that my mega 6.3 and note 2 have zero issues playing. Games like, Fifa14, Nba2k13, Homerun Battle 2, Real Basketball, and Frontline Commando. This baffles me, give the fact the adreno 330 and quad core a15 based krait 400 is theoretically capable of nearly double the computational capacity of the exynos 4412 of the note 2, and around 1.25x faster than the dual core a15 based s400 chip in the mega with adreno 305. The only thing I can figure which would cause this stuttering, frame dropping, and lag is lack of optimization or compatibility with the newer gpu, but given the fact the mega has the same basic architectural framework, albeit dual vs quad core a15 and higher clock, the compatibility should not be the issue. Im wondering if the insane overheating is causing massive throttling of the cpu and gpu, as my n3 heats up and dims the screen by 60% in only a few minutes of play, which is extremely annoying.

Ive also noticed that pictures take appx 4 to 6 seconds to process upon capturing the image, when set at 13mp and superfine quality. Again, with the power of the soc this is ridiculous.

There is also a bad delay between hitting the lock button and the time it takes for the phone to turn off the screen and lock the phone.

Lastly is the worst problem with the note 3...the call quality and speaker quality. While others may attempt to justify the hideous sound quality of the speakers baffles me, as the ear piece is quiet and tinny, and the speakerphone is so tinny and filled with digital artifacts it makes calling or talking on the note 3 an absolute chore. I realize the fact that its a phone and am not expecting dolby 7.1 hd audiophile quality, but the call quality of the note 3 is atrocious and has kept me on the edge of retunring it, as it fails to be even a decent phone.

All in all, im a massive note fan, I own all 4 note devices and love them, and bought the note 3 to be a backup to my mega 6.3 but to be honest. Its nowhere near the phone the note 2 is. For all its power and benchmark bragging rights, it performs identical or worse in nearly every aspect to the note 2 and mega 6.3 in real world use. The ui transitions are identical, as is the scrolling animations. The call and sound quality cannot stamd up even to my nearly 2 year old note 1 and are an absolute joke for an 800 dollar flagship device.

Another decision by samsung that I cannot comprehend is the s pen and software for the s pen. The s note app has had the entire premium suite stripped feom note 2 in the note 3 inexplicably, missing formula match with wolfram alpha, global search, and shape fixing. The handwriting recognition either doesnt work at all, or when it chooses to work, is a horribly ineefective "scrolling style" input vs. The intuitive and precise input of my note 2, note8, and note 10.1. The action memo is a redesigned ui of quick command ripped directly from note 2, except minus the customizable inputs and actions which quick command allows for in the rest of the note series.

If I wasnt a massive note series fan, and hadnt waited almost a year for the note 3 I would never have purchased it at all. Especailly given that its .13 inches larger than note 2, which is appx 3.2mm taller screen which is so tiny of a difference even side by side its hard to tell them apart. Subjectively, I much prefer the note 2 look and design, and overwhelmingly love the mega screen size over note 3, on top of the tacky fake stiching back panel, I am having to force myself to find anything at all which I like or serves me better than the note 2. Worse s pen input, worse s pen shape and size, stuttering laggy gameplay, overheating and screen dimming...EXTREME BATTERY DRAIN vs note 2, giving appx 2 hours less screen on time at identical settings of brightness and features active, and call quality so bad I try to avoid it if possible any time I carry the phone.

All in all, the only upgrades ive seen in the week 9 days ive had the note 3 is a slightly clearer picture quality in bright lighting, but this is offset with terrible mid and low light quality due to lack of any night mode for shooting, and slightly brighter screen. Hopefully samsung and att will update the note 3 soon to adress several of these issues in the software, as I do see great potential for the note 3 given the hardware kit inside, but the speaker and call quality is a hardware issue that is doubtful to change.

I am making this post as an honest objective take on my experience with the note 3, a phone I was absolutely ecstatic to get at 10:01 on day 1 of launch, but has left me dissapointed and havent seen these issues adressed honestly and openly. Again, I love the note lineup, I now have all 5 note devices and will be getting note 10.1 2014 after the first update releases, so please dont mistake where im coming from, as im sure much of these issues will hopefully get sorted out soon.
 

Xandlinger

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Feb 10, 2010
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Hm..

I'm loving every aspect of this phone. I am coming from an HTC One, though.

I hardly ever play any games, mainly Hero of Many and Fieldrunners 2. I'm not having any issues with them. I'll see if I can try out the games you listed to check out the lag.

With the camera you can turn off Smart Stabilization and the processing time goes away completely. I don't really notice a difference with it on or off, but then again I hardly take pictures.

I love using the S Pen and the handwriting recognition works flawlessly for me; not sure what is going on there.

Power button lag is weird, I'll give you that one. Sometimes it's instant, other times I hear the locking sound but the screen stays on for 1-2 seconds afterwards.. doesn't really bother me, though.

Battery life is absolutely amazing so far. ~4-5 hours screen on time with 20% left is amazing in my book. Much better than my HTC One.

Loudspeaker quality does suck, unfortunately. Not enough for me to care, though.

Edit:

I play some of the games you listed for a bit and didn't notice any slowdown or lagging. I did not clear my RAM or close any applications prior to installing/playing the games.
 
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megalomanic14

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Thats great man im gkad your enjoying it.

The handwriting recognition is the text messaging input or other conversion from handwriting to text, not the free hand part which works as it should. I take it youve never used note 2 or youd know the massive difference between the handwriting recognition imput styles...n2 50x better homestly. The s pen itself is also much thinner and narrower which makes it awkward to hold when writing, thankfully I have my note 2 one laying around or note 8 that I use so Im not stuck using the note 3s tiny little one.

The screen on time like I said is appx 2 hours less than note 2, and 3 hrs less than mega 6.3...never touched an htc phone so I have no cluewhat you were getting there...but my note 3 at full brightness only manages around 3 hrs, at 75% around 3.5 hrs...identical to my buddies sprint variant as well. Not exactly steallar when note 2 at full brightness pulls 5 to 6 and my mega easily goes 7 hours plus 20 hrs of standby time.

Im aware of the stabilization mode for the camera, but that doesnt automatically fix the processing as it occurs at random vs everytime with it activated. But the quality is the bigger issue, great bright light pictures but horrible mid to low light pics.

Try actually playing the games my man and you will see, as these issues have popped up on 4 different variants including the intl exynos that ive peraonally played on, not solely on my note. Play a half a game of fifa14 and wait till your soc is 160 degrees and tell me it diesnt dim or lag lol

Congrats coming from the dark side (htc) lol...the note 3 is a good phone but will be stellar once these issues get resolved like I said before, except the call and soeaker quality which is atrocious.

Mega
 
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megalomanic14

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Try a custom ROM such as cyanogen

Sent from my SPH-L710 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Thanks for the suggestion, but id rather not have an 800 dollar paper wight. My best friends intl n9000 got bricked remotely as samsung knox registry does periodic pings, and samsung will brick rooted devices. I watched it happen in person. Plus no warranty...ill wait for the update lol
 

kennonk

Senior Member
Early in your post you mention overheating. Did you apply an early version of the Vega root method? I've heard the original firmware had some issues. I've had my Note3 since Tuesday last week and I haven't had any of the issues you are describing in your post.

You definitely use the S-Pen more than I do, I just scrapbook and do simple SNote taking for meetings with mine but the handwriting recognition has been perfect for me so far and I have awful handwriting.

I don't play any high end games really just stuff like Candy Crush, Plants vs. Zombies, Osmosis HD, Sushi Chop and Ingress but in those games I have seen zero stutter or lag and have had zero overheating issues.

I've also not had any power button lock lag. I have, a couple times now, had wake lag but maybe only 2-3 times in the last week and only right after I've received a SMS message so I might have hit the button while the screen was awake from incoming message and actually turned it off before looking at it.

Also picture processing for me has been fast. I went to an event this weekend and took a ton of pictures and video and although the picture quality was decent I wasn't blown away, but I think that is a common complaint for a lot of Note3 owners. I've had zero issues with picture processing times with Smart Stabilization either off or on.

If you have not applied an old firmware via the original Vega root then is it possible you just have a defective unit? The screen dimming and overheating you are describing would concern me a lot if that were happening on mine.
 

mutantblack

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Background of me, I came from HTC one and S4 but I previously had Note 2 and 1 as well.

I just tried Fifa14 and Homerun Battle 2 on my Note 3 and there's zero lag. Mine is rooted with no issue of heating up or dimming screen. It gets warm a bit and that's it.

Like other suggested, turn off smart stabalization and problem's solved.

I notice that it happens random on mine as well but rarely the screen hang before it turns off. Most of the time, screen shut off as soon as I hit lock/power button.

Call quality is prefectly fine. I get better signal than my HTC one and call quality is excellent. Speakers can be better compare to Note 2 I must admit but on Note 2 I have registry hack going on so I wonder if I can change the value to make the Note 3 speaker louder. The sound quality is definitely better on N3 compare to N2 except it's a bit quieter IMO. Headphone output is excellent. I must say N3 is far from being fail to be a decent phone as you've said.

Compare Spen between N2 and N3, I prefer N2 stylus as well due to it's heavier weight and feel better but N3 stylus is a lot better on sensitivity and accuracy. To each it's own. I get use it pretty quick.

Can't comment on the battery life since I just got this phone 2 days ago but I can say it is better than HTC one battery life. I can go through HTC one with viper rom which supposed to be pretty darn good battery life and yet I have to charge twice a day with the way I use the phone. On N3, it lasted me a whole day. That's really more than I can ask for and it should be about the same as N2 battery life or better.

Sorry you don't have good experience with N3. May be you got the bad one out of the bunch. I suggest try to exchange it with a new one and try it out.

PS> You talk about your friend phone got bricked by Samsung Knox thing and I just don't see this is valid. My N3 is rooted and all the knox related stuff is freezed by Titanium Backup. Even without freezing it, I still don't think samsung is bricking the phones. Your friend must have done something wrong and don't wanna admit but to blame to Samsung Knox. No offense.
 

BarryH_GEG

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Jan 16, 2009
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This is my 5th Note and I'm quite pleased with it. Formula match and convert handwriting to text are still there. You draw them with the pen on the main Note page and then select them with the cloud tool. This menu pops up.

 

megalomanic14

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This is my 5th Note and I'm quite pleased with it. Formula match and convert handwriting to text are still there. You draw them with the pen on the main Note page and then select them with the cloud tool. This menu pops up.

Barry...nice find, im in my 4th year of med school going thru physics, and biochemical analytics and use the wolfram based formula match constantly and couldn't find it.
 

megalomanic14

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Background of me, I came from HTC one and S4 but I previously had Note 2 and 1 as well.

I just tried Fifa14 and Homerun Battle 2 on my Note 3 and there's zero lag. Mine is rooted with no issue of heating up or dimming screen. It gets warm a bit and that's it.

Like other suggested, turn off smart stabalization and problem's solved.

I notice that it happens random on mine as well but rarely the screen hang before it turns off. Most of the time, screen shut off as soon as I hit lock/power button.

Call quality is prefectly fine. I get better signal than my HTC one and call quality is excellent. Speakers can be better compare to Note 2 I must admit but on Note 2 I have registry hack going on so I wonder if I can change the value to make the Note 3 speaker louder. The sound quality is definitely better on N3 compare to N2 except it's a bit quieter IMO. Headphone output is excellent. I must say N3 is far from being fail to be a decent phone as you've said.

Compare Spen between N2 and N3, I prefer N2 stylus as well due to it's heavier weight and feel better but N3 stylus is a lot better on sensitivity and accuracy. To each it's own. I get use it pretty quick.

Can't comment on the battery life since I just got this phone 2 days ago but I can say it is better than HTC one battery life. I can go through HTC one with viper rom which supposed to be pretty darn good battery life and yet I have to charge twice a day with the way I use the phone. On N3, it lasted me a whole day. That's really more than I can ask for and it should be about the same as N2 battery life or better.

Sorry you don't have good experience with N3. May be you got the bad one out of the bunch. I suggest try to exchange it with a new one and try it out.

PS> You talk about your friend phone got bricked by Samsung Knox thing and I just don't see this is valid. My N3 is rooted and all the knox related stuff is freezed by Titanium Backup. Even without freezing it, I still don't think samsung is bricking the phones. Your friend must have done something wrong and don't wanna admit but to blame to Samsung Knox. No offense.


If you read my post you would have understood...I laid out the issues my and a few of my close friends are all having, mainly related to software issues that I said will get patched or fixed....the call, sound, and speaker quality of the PHONE part of the note 3 sucks...its no where near the clarity of the note 2, mega 6.3, or s4...the speakers and mic of the note 3 are hideous...maybe its difference for me since I have 7 other flagship phones laying around to compare it to, but in my opinion, that of my 3 best friends, and several people on xda and vast amounts across other forums the speakers are terrible, and filled with digital whitenoise as I said previously.

The s pen sensitivity can be tweaked on all s pen so that makes no difference to the feel or physical dimensions hahah...its an awkward, narrow, weightless piece of plastic compared to the note 2 pen, luckily for me I can keep it in the silo and use my other note pens.

And knox is causing hard bricks as validated by samsung tech support...its a mechanism in place to stop data mining if the device is stolen. So no, he didnt do anything wrong as it functioned rooted for several hours, then he went to unlock it after pulling it out of his pocket and it was off...upon reboot he got an error message and a symbol I had never seen before, then proceeded to call samsung tech for the next hour and a half. Just search xda for note 3 brick or note 3 know brick and you shall see many others my man....ps you realize the difference between att n3 and Intl right? Wheras att disabled the knox protocol except for the mainframe security, whereas intl phones have an app with knox that allows dual booting...

Anyway, as a device note 3 will be great once some bugs and kinks get worked out, but as a phone it sucks

mega
 

shaolinx

Senior Member
Feb 26, 2009
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I have no lag playing games nor any power button issues. The only annoying part of the phone so far is the brightness levels not gradually changing. I think you have a defective phone/software installed.
 
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nespid

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Oct 21, 2008
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I have trouble believing samsung would want to or care purposely brick rooted devices. Seems like good ground for a class action lawsuit if a manufacturer remotely accesses and bricks your device.

Anyway, try turning off one handed operation. Someone posted that it greatly affects benchmarks and it really does. It might be hindering your devices gaming performance.
 
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