I thought it would be a good idea to get the Samsung Note 3 again. It arrived yesterday at 11am, took over 2 hours to complete 7 software updates one after the other. If that wasn’t bad enough every app installed seemed to have an update even after 7 software updates. Then every Samsung app or service had same issue.

I have tried two hard resets wiping the phone clean and starting again. 2 restores after a hard reset. And despite the Samsung and Google backups in place, the restore process is crap compared to that provide by Apple for iPhones and iPads. None of the layouts are remembered in the restore and no app data either. Useless.

As I write this at 6pm I still don’t have a fully working phone. The positive. It’s a great piece of tech. Lovely sound quality via headphones, camera better than expected actually took best photo to date of my dog George. See below. This compares even to the amazing Nokia Lumia 1020 and iPhone 5S. It has the kitchen sink of specifications and I love every aspect of it.

But it cannot play music streamed via Google, using Google Play Music. It plays one track, maybe a second, but on third no sound comes out of the headphones even though the track is playing. If you pause song and press play again you hear sound immediately.

So, I have to ask why were there 7 software updates? Why not consolidate them into one, and update the default applications at the same time?

Not sure whether I have a faulty phone re the music issues, as I have read about other people having same issues. It’s a real pity as the technology inside the device is magical.

As an update it appears Google Play Music app got updated and became incompatible with many Note 3’s, see screen shot below of review of app..