Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Versus HTC One Max – A Full Comparison
At the very moment, two of the smartphone manufacturing giants, namely HTC and Samsung are involved in a race of attracting the customer’s attention and their intention to buy a new smartphone. So, their most recent products, HTC One on one side and the Samsung Galaxy S4 on another, are actually trying to gain the customers confidence. This is why we are going to present you in this article pro’s and con’s regarding both devices. And this is not going to be the last battle of this kind of the year, because as you know, both Samsung and HTC are going to release more products towards the end of this year. We’re sure you already heard about the upcoming release of the phablets HTC One Max ( HTC T6) and Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
Samsung released in 2012 an improved version of their original Samsung Galaxy Note, the Galaxy Note 2. The new phablet had improvements and upgrades in both the hardware and software area and landed on a lot of network carriers in the US. Not only the Note 2 became shortly one of the best choices available in the Android market, but it reached a huge number of sales.
One of the biggest advantages of the phablet, besides from being an amazing phone, is that there weren’t any worthy rivals on the market. We could count LG’s Optimus G Pro, but even though it looks like a pretty good device it cannot even the Note 2, especially now when rumors about a Note 3 are sprouting everywhere online.
The most decent rumors claim that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will be on the shelfs of retail stores by the end of this year. But, this year the phablet will be facing some real competition, as a lot more companies are releasing similar products.
One of those competitors is HTC which is supposedly preparing for launching its own phablet product, which is expected to be a bigger version of the HTC One, the HTC One Max or HTC T6. Rumors about such a device have been going wild in the past couple of weeks and it looks like HTC is trying to turn it into a milestone.
As we’ve heard, HTC is putting quite the effort in building and designing the phablet with the main objective of ending Samsung’s supremacy on the market of the large-display phones and of course to expand the HTC One series.
So, how will this battle turn out? We can’t say for sure how will this turn out, but we summed up the five most relevant things you should know about the two devices, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the HTC One Max.
Launch dates expected in the same period
If we look at the launch calendar we can see that the Samsung Galaxy 4 and the HTC One were release dates were quite close. And, the rumors claim that both the HTC One Mini and the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini are going to be launched in the summer. Can you discover a pattern in this calendar?
But, while the release dates are expected a few months away from now, we can’t say precisely when the devices will be out. In the case of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, rumors say that the launch is set for September, meaning that we should expect it to arrive in October or early November in the United States. As for the HTC One Max, we do not have any due time for the release, but we believe it is going to come out approximately in the same time period.
Why do we believe so? Because of the holiday shopping spree. If you remember, the Galaxy Note 2 came out just a bit before the Black Friday and landed at the beginning of the season. This wasn’t a coincidence. The entire thing has been thoroughly planned by the carriers hosting the phablet and of course, by Samsung. This is why we believe they are planning the same scheme with the Note 3. Thus, they don’t risk diminishing the sales of the Samsung Galaxy S4 during the summer, and in the autumn they can come up with a new headliner for the Samsung Galaxy series.
We believe that HTC will have a similar plan for the HTC One Max this year. Thus, not only they can steal some of the attention from Samsung’s Note 3, but they can also maximize the sales income.
Matching Hardware
So far, the specs related to the hardware have been inconsistent and remained unconfirmed and all we can tell you so far is that they will be almost identical. We summed up some of the rumors we found regarding this matter. Here you have it:
HTC One Max (HTC T6) Specifications:
- Display of 5.9-inch with 1080p
- A Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 with Quad-Core Processor
- An Ultrapixel Camera
- Internal memory of 16GB
- Battery of 3,300 mAh
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Specifications:
- Display of 5.9-inch with 1080p
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 with Quad-Core Processor and Exynos 5 Octa
- Camera of 13MP
Furthermore, we can expect in the case of the Note 3 to be sporting 16GB internal storage, and 3100 mAh battery. As you can notice, the display size seems to be increasing so we might see a bigger battery attached. We can’t say exactly how large it will be, but it should be at least a 3,300 mAh battery.
As mentioned above, this info is lacunary and more specs are going to come out in the open as the release date approaches. What you as a customer should know, is that the technology used in building both their softwares and hardwares is going to be top of the line and we might not see a huge difference between the two devices.
Plastic case vs. Metal case
The Major Difference Will Be in the Software
We expect to see the other key difference in the software these two devices will feature. Even though both of them will be running on Android’s Key Lime Pie, the difference will be made by the user interface the companies will be putting over the basic Android stock.
Related to the UI, we can tell you that Samsung’s latest is the TouchWiz Nature UX, which brought a lot of new features available on the Galaxy S4. We will probably be seeing many of those functions on the Note 3 as well. But, the Galaxy Note 3 also has an S Pen Stylus which can provide a big number of different applications. And as a plus, Samsung provides multitasking features on the Note series too.
We expect to see new or at least improved software for the S Pen on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and maybe some new multitasking functions which will be using the entire screen. We always considered the Multi-Window View function to be just the beginning.
For the HTC One Max, the software will be making the difference in the eyes of the costumers. Rumors regarding HTC’s phablet claim that the device will be sporting a stylus and we can expect to see some appropriate functions along with it. If the rumors are true, then we can relate to the HTC Scribe interface which could be reinstated with the release of the new smartphone.
Even though the Scribe was a pretty good software, HTC will have to make some considerable updates to the program so that it can keep up with Samsung, who keeps reshaping these softwares every year.
Landed Carriers and Pricing Differences
And the last mark we are going to put a highlight on is the pricing and the carrier options the devices will be coming with. As we could find out, these two characteristics are going to be pretty similar. We don’t have anything marked in stone by now but we could tell you that the Galaxy Note 3 should be released among US’s top five carriers: T-Mobile,AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and U.S. Cellular which also supported the Note 2 and the Samsung Galaxy S4. We know how that went, so we believe Samsung wouldn’t change anything.
On the other hand, the HTC jumped over their habit of launching devices only in exclusive carriers as the HTC One came out on four of the United States biggest carriers. We are not surprised at all to discover chatter over some of these carriers being interested in offering the HTC One Max, because it’s going to be quite the device and a solid variant on the costumer’s shopping list.
Regarding their price, we can tell you that it’s going to be quite competitive. The Galaxy Note came out on the market with the price of $299.99 and we believe that this is where the companies will set their scores this time as well.
For now, you should know that these phablets are going to be reportedly more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One, because of their display size.
