The South Korean smartphone maker launched its nw flagship phablet at the IFA Berlin conference yesterday. The Galaxy Note 4 has a 5.7 inch Quad-HD Super AMOLED display along with a 16 MP rear camera and 3.7 MP front camera. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad-core SoC clocked at 2.7 GHz.
We'll start with the likes.
Like: Quad-HD Super AMOLED display
Samsung's Quad-HD Super AMOLED display looked quite amazing on the Galaxy Tab S. We're hoping it does the same for the Galaxy Note 4.
Like: OPTICAL IMAGE STABILISATION
This is the first Samsung smartphone to boast the optical image stabilisation technology. This is a plus, considering that the Galaxy S5's 16 MP shooter was already pretty amazing without OIS.
Like: Improved S-Pen
The S-Pen is a handy little thing that Samsung developed for its Note series. The new Note 4 has a number of added features for the S-Pen and comes with two kinds of tips — rubber and plastic. While the first helps you in writing and such activities, the second is good for gaming etc.
Like: More powerful
The Galaxy Note 4 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad-core chipset, clocked at 2.7 GHz. This would definitely be a delight for multitaskers and power users. We like.
Like: Wide Angle Selfie
It is not surprising that Samsung paid attention to the selfie side of things. The front camera on the Note 4 has a 90 degree viewing angle, meaning you can include a lot more in the frame than before. You can also use the Wide Selfie mode, which works somewhat like a panorama mode to include more people or space in the selfie.
That's it for what we like about this phone, let's take a look at what we don't like about this phone.
Don't like: Same design
Complaints about Samsung's design philosophies have become almost as redundant as the designs themselves. The Galaxy Note 4 is essentially the same design as the Note 3, but with a metal frame on the sides.
Don't like: Battery life
While Samsung did boast 7.5% longer battery life on the Note 4, this doesn't seem like a big improvement to us. We would much rather have a 1080p display with longer battery life than a quad-HD display that sucks all the juice out of the phone.
Don't like: Feature overload
There is something called too many features and Samsung has reached that threshold. With the features related to the S-Pen and everything else about the Note 4, it is not easy to get used to this smartphone. If you've never been a Samsung user then you're looking at a very steep learning curve. Even otherwise, the phone is too complicated for many.
Don't like: Evolutionary upgrade
Overall, the Note 4 is an evolutionary upgrade to the Galaxy Note 3. It doesn't dazzle us or have a 'wow' factor to it, which would make it very different from its predecessor.
Don't like: Exynos SoC for India
While the device does have a Snapdragon 805 chipset, there is also a version that sports the Exynos 6 SoC. This is the same processor that Samsung put in the Galaxy S5 and it is much inferior to the Snapdragon 805. This is especially troubling for Indian users, since Samsung has been introducing the Exynos version of its devices in India, followed later by the Snapdragon variants.
The company also takes a pretty long time to brings the Snapdragon variants to the country. This means that early adopters will actually be losing out on the performance that the Snapdragon 805 brings.