The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is powered by Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa 5420 processor which is basically a set of two quad-core processors- a 1.9GHz Cortex A15 quad-core processor and a 1.3GHz Cortex A7 quad-core processor that work together to optimise the processing power. It comes equipped with 3GB RAM onboard, and a Mali T628 MP6 chip for processing graphics.
With Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, the navigation is smooth with no signs of any lag. Users can easily launch apps, play games, scrol web pages and switch between apps. Besides the default browser the Galaxy Note 3 comes with Chrome.
On the other hand, the Z1 joins the Sony Xperia Z Ultra and the LG G2 in getting a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor clocked at 2.2GHZ with Areno 330 graphics. It's accompanied by 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (12GB available to use) and can be expanded by a further 64GB via microSD. This makes the Z1 a seriously powerful smartphone. It comfortably runs Real Racing 3, and graphics look polished on the full HD display. Likewise, streaming HD content is handled with ease. Browsing the web and swiping through homescreens show no signs of lag or a delayed response.
Strikingly, a couple of benchmark apps measuring the overall performance of each device – Quadrant, AnTuTu, and Vellamo Metal, throw up striking results. All figures meant the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is one of the top performers overall. But the LG G2 and the Sony Xperia Z1 are well capable of reaching similar results.
On Quadrant, the Note 3 revealed a score of 22,270 with Sony Xperia Z1 at 20,277. On AnTuTu, the Note 3 came out with a score of 31,543 as against Z1's score of 30,838. Similarly, on Vellamo Metal, the Note 3 scored 1214 while the Z1 has a score of 1115. Thus, it comes out that both the smartphone run neck to neck in terms of performance.
On GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex HD Offscreen, used to measure graphics performance, the Note 3 delivered a result of 23 while the Z1 scored 21. Similarly, on GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex HD Offscreen, the Note 3 delivered a result of 26 while the Z1 delivered a score of 23.
