Design
I don’t think that Samsung makes the most beautiful phones ever made, however, this phone looks good – really good! It still has the same design philosophy that Samsung applies on almost all of its phones, which means that the GALAXY Note 4 is basically a more handsome version of the GALAXY Note 3.
However, there are two major differences in the design of the GALAXY Note 4. The first one is that, now, the edges of the phone are made of dark-colored metal. Samsung has taken a leap of faith and finally replaced the cheap, sparkly-silver, plastic edges of the Note 3 with quality, elegant metal, making the phone not only look better but also physically stronger and easier to hold.
The second difference is that the phone’s back cover doesn’t have those fake leather stitches that the Note 3 had – thank God!
Size & Dimensions
Samsung was the first company to see huge potential in big phones and they were also the first to make them. Other companies thought Samsung was wrong, but it turns out the critics were misguided, with many consumers leaning to buy big phones and Samsung selling millions of the Note line. I’m pretty sure this argument is settled!
The Galaxy Note 4 is a huge phone, there’s no doubt about that. You can see from the below table that it’s almost bigger than all the devices competing in the same category.
Holding it, however, I didn’t feel that it was too big, it actually felt quite compact. The GALAXY Note 4 was much easier to carry and handle than the Note 3, and with the brushed metal edges and plastic back, it’s actually easier to carry and handle than an iPhone 6 Plus.
OS
The Note 4 runs Android KitKat 4.4.4, which isn’t the latest version of Android, but Samsung has announced that the Android Lollipop upgrade is coming to the Note 4 very soon.
Of course, the looks of the Operating System on the Note 4 is dominated by Samsung’s TouchWiz User Interface, which I’m not a fan of. Actually, the TouchWiz UI is the number one reason I don’t have a Samsung phone.
However, I have to say that the TouchWiz UI is seeing a lot of improvements in its current version. It looks good and functional, it doesn’t have as much clutter as before and it seems that you can access what you want easily.
Display
Although it’s got the same 5.7-inch display as last year’s model, Samsung boosted the Note 4 display resolution from 1080p HD up to a 2,650 x 1,440p quad HD AMOLED display.
This means that this screen carries a whopping pixel density of 515 ppi, one of the highest pixel dynasties available on a phone. The Note 3’s screen pixel density was 386 ppi and the iPhone 6 Plus’ density is 401 ppi, which means that the Note 4’s screen is absolutely gorgeous! It is, by far, the best screen I’ve ever seen in a smart phone – period.
Hardware
Processor
The guts of the Note 4 are top notch. It comes with two different processors depending on your model; one model rocks a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor and the other carries a Samsung Exynos 5433 processor.
I’m sure of the monster performance of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, and I haven’t tested the Samsung Exynos 5433 processor performance yet, but I doubt there will be a remarkable difference between the two.
RAM
The Note 4 doesn’t only rock a powerful process, it also carries 3 GB of RAM, which means that this phone is a beast! You will be able to play any games you want with no lags and use applications and switch between them smoothly.
Battery
The battery is huge. It’s a 3,220mAh battery, which should be plenty of power. I will not say that the battery performance is fantastic, but it’s good. At worst, the phone will survive a whole day without the need to charge if you are a heavy user.
Camera
As with all phones now, the Note 4 has two cameras. The rear camera is 16 mega pixels with an LED flash and the front-facing camera is 3.7 mega pixels, which is great for selfies.
The rear camera is solid and can capture very detailed and vibrant pictures. If you are into videos, this camera is the best in any smart phone at the moment with a quality of 2160p (30fps), 1080p (60fps).
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