Samsung Galaxy Note 4 – Samsung’s phablet of 2014

The Galaxy Note 4 is the phablet of Samsung for 2014. Let’s take a quick look at the Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

Design

As always I will start with the design. You can say now that finally the galaxy line now is including metal in their designs. You really do have to feel this to believe it as the flat size with this metal frame really makes this feel like a great device in the hand especially over the original note 3 which I thought was pretty good designed to begin with. The Note 3 has metal on the sides and also has quite a bit on the top and bottom where all of the different ports are going to be held. It is essentially the same design as you can remember from before, except this metal frame really enhances the feel, but on the back you still get that full leather that has that textured feel which feels pretty comfortable in the hand.

The obvious improvement, when it comes to the display, is in regards to the resolution. You now get Quad HD resolution in this 5.7 inch screen with 1440×2560 resolution which allows you to really enjoy a lot of media. The videos look very vibrant because of that Super AMOLED display and on top of all of that you also get a pixel density of over 500 pixels per inch which makes for a great experience when it comes to text. I enjoy the display.

Hardware

Performance continues to get the needed boost as this year you’ll still be able to get this version of the Note with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 or the Exynos 5433 that they will have another versions of the phone for the performance is still as great as it can be especially with all that this phone can do.

Speaking at the hardware we do get in extra microphone on this phone this time with 2 on the bottom and 1 on the top. What this allows is for selective recording where you will be able to put the phone down and it will be able to detect the voices and sound of 8 different directions, in order for you to turn off or turn on various voices. You will find the extra mic on the bottom. Here we see also that USB port and we do have something to say about the fast charging that Samsung has apparently introduced here. I weren’t able to really test it myself. Apparently it will get up to half a charge in 30 minutes which I’m super excited to test out.

And now the cameras. They have their own improvements as well as a 16 MP resolution on the rear-facing camera but now also cause a smart OIS, another optical image stabilization is huge for smartphone photographers out there. The front-facing camera has also been bumped up to 3.7 MP and an f1.9 aperture, with which you can make gorgeous 120 degree selfies which allows you to use panorama mode to get everyone in your shot, so you will be able to get the best selfies you can possibly get.

Software

And finally the software. The Note 4 comes with Android v4.4.4 KitKat and now upgradable to v5.0 Lollipop. I will obviously do a focus on the S Pen in a little.

Multitasking has been given a big focus here as the recent apps screen right here has been enhanced now to be able to allow you activation of multi-window straight from it. You can activate two applications for example Gallery and Facebook, and you are also able to create a floating Facebook here on the fly just by holding the dot in the middle. You will see that multitasking has really become a bit streamlined because you can go in between all these different modes especially on the fly even with apps like the camera and the app list for multi-windows and floating apps has been expanded somewhat to allow you to be able to use a lot of different applications at once in any way or fashion that you choose.

But of course it won’t be a Note device without the S Pen as far as the actual pen itself goes it has been given a bit of a thinner profile but also some texture on it bit it’s largely the same pen that you remember from the Note 3 was an added functionality. We do still have the air command menu but has been changed somewhat a little bit. Start off the action memo which allows you to take non on the fly already and after that you can manipulate the text inside of the note in order to perform a number of tasks. But now you also have a shortcut on the bottom right of the note which allows it to convert into an S Note application. Now speaking to S Note there have been a couple of pens introduce here the calligraphy pen and the fountain pen which take advantage of the now enhanced touch recognition, the pressure sensitivity of the S Pen to give you even more freedom over what kind of strokes you have on the actual screen itself, in order to really make your handwriting your own.