By Pedro Cipoli | 20/01/2015 at 10:20 – Last Updated on 01.21.2015 at 11.50
Aside from the original Galaxy S, in 2010, the Samsung held a launch pattern of their two advanced lines: a Galaxy S in the first half and a Galaxy Note in the second half of the year, bringing a larger screen, more wattage specifications and of course with the S-Pen. Now it’s time to know the Galaxy Note 4, inspired by the Galaxy S5, and see how it is one of the best smartphones released to date.
Design
The construction of the Galaxy Note 4 more reminiscent of the little-known Galaxy Alpha than the Galaxy S5. The edges are made of metal, which certainly goes a quality concept absent in S5, which comes with painted plastic edges peeling over time. Like much of the Galaxy line, the back is still plastic, but this time mimics leather as in Note 3. Despite the similarity in Note 4 the material appears to be of better quality than that used in the S5, tending, again, for the Galaxy Alpha .
The positioning of the buttons is standard Samsung, with the Power of the right side, volume control left, USB connector at the bottom (2.0 standard, instead of the USB 3.0 used in Note 3 and Galaxy S5) and connector for headphones in top. We miss a resistance to water and dust, as with the Galaxy S5, since it would be an important advantage for a device that cost so much.
Although large, the Note 4 is pretty thin: it has only 8.5 mm thick. We do not feel a mechanical fragility as with the Galaxy S5, something probably provided by the metal edge. Still, the 176 grams of the device are heavier than average. – Something to be expected, considering the 5.7-inch
Display
Note 4 follows the trend of the year 2014. With Quad-HD display (2,560 x 1,440 pixels), the pixel density is slightly lower than the Moto Maxx:. 515 dots per inch, which is a density beyond high
Just like the Galaxy S5, technology is the Super AMOLED, which means a very high color saturation, contrast ratios and levels black. We’d be lying if we said that despite the higher pixel density, we saw a difference in relation to the Galaxy S5 screen, but this does not exclude the fact that this is one of the best screens available yet.
Settings
The Brazilian version of the Galaxy Note 4 comes with the chip Exynos 5433, manufactured by Samsung itself, finally challenging the supremacy of Qualcomm in every line of tops that we have seen so far. It comes with eight core and architecture big.LITTLE with four cores aimed for energy savings running at 1.3 GHz (Cortex-A53) and four performance running at 1.9 GHz (Cortex-A57). Remember that, depending on the processing demand, you can have eight active at the same time.
Following the trend of the main line of tops of the moment, Note 4 comes with 3 GB RAM and GPU Mali-T760, one of the latest launched by ARM . These are plenty of specifications to run any app with plenty of slack, in addition to providing an extremely competent multitasking.
Comparing performance with the Snapdragon 805, this in another version of Note 4, is hard to say if there is any performance difference in execution of the tasks. Only benchmarks noticed a real difference, though invisible in everyday life, with more processing power, especially in apps that can use all cores, and a little less graphics processing, compared with the Adreno 420, but what happens more by further optimization made by Qualcomm than actually less breath.
As the Note 3, the Brazilian version comes with 32 GB of internal memory by default, and support for more 128 GB with a micro card SD. That is, you can get up to 160 GB of storage, one of the greatest figures available so far, since models that bring 64GB (Moto Maxx and iPhone 6/6 PLUS) or 128 GB (iPhone 6/6 PLUS) do not bring support micro SD cards.
There are several apps optimized for the S-Pen, although the Note 4 bring less bloatwares than we used in Samsung’s smartphones, adding 7 GB of the 32 GB available to the user. Of course, the TouchWiz is the default GUI and it is worth mentioning that we did not observe the common slow interface as with the Galaxy S5 at times (most severe in the Galaxy S4).
The solution from Samsung has nothing to do with interface optimizations, but with the Exynos chip 5433. That is, offer more brute force, not the best solution, but minimizing the problem. The Android factory is 4.4 KitKat and we will certainly see an update to the still Lollipop earlier this year, since it is one of the main devices of Samsung so far.
Camera
With the same 16 megapixel Galaxy S5, the rear camera of Galaxy Note is one of the best we’ve seen so far, competing directly with the Xperia Z3 and Lumia 930. It is capable of recording videos in 4K, comes with HDR, image stabilization, fast focus and everything you’d expect from an advanced camera smartphone
The front camera also stands to come with a 3.7 megapixel sensor and record videos in Quad-HD. To close, a nice difference is that the Note 4 has three microphones that record audio independently, it is possible to isolate the tracks without major problems.
Drums and extras
Battery life has never been a problem on the line Note from Samsung and here is no different. In case we have a generous with 3,220 mAh , and still it is far from secure two days of use as the Xperia Z3 (which comes with a smaller battery) , leaves the user in hand even with heavy use. We do not bring the charger in the backpack in any of our test days.
The power management system is the same as the Galaxy S5, with the possibility of limiting the application of energy consumption in the background To extend battery life and also with the emergency mode, which disables a number of functions and leaves in black and white screen
With the exception of digital TV and FM radio, almost any extra available at this moment is present in Note 4. We do not understand why there is no FM radio from the Note 3 (Galaxy Note II brought this feature), but we still have a very complete kit.
- 4G LTE quadriband, compatible with all national operators
- Wi-Fi dual-band in patterns A, B, G, N AC and with support for Hotspot and Wi-Fi Direct
- Bluetooth 4.1 with A2DP and EDR LE
- GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS and Beidou
- NFC
- Infrared Port
- USB 2.0 supports MHL 3.0 and USB Host
- Stylus Pen (S-Pen) with 5 extra tips included in the package
- Fingerprint sensor
- Sensor heartbeat (the same flash region), integrated with S-Health
- Air gesture
One point that did not like was the speaker on the back. Although the quality is up to “OK”, most of the manufacturers are finally placing the speakers on the front for a better experience. It would be nice Samsung take this into consideration in future versions of the Note. Already the sound quality in the headphones is excellent and the headset included in the package leaves the user in hand.
In the box, we have the charger (5V, 2A), micro USB cable and the headset used in the Galaxy S5.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is the most expensive Android available in Brazil, bringing the salty price of $ 2899. It is natural that the cost-benefit ratio is not as good as that of competitors such as Moto X 2014 Ascend P7 and several other models, but the price is expected, since it is one of the most advanced Androids what’s out there.
With the exception of the battery, where the Xperia Question Z3 and the Moto Maxx are more interesting, he has the most powerful set we saw in 2014, with plenty of performance, camera jaw-dropping, great design and one of the best screens What’s out there, and bring the S-Pen and applications optimized for attachment as a differential that few competitors offer at the time
For those seeking the best and are willing to deal with the gigantic size of 5.7 inches of Note 4, is difficult to find a competitor who is at the same level, but it is important to remember that much of it is price positioning of the market, not necessarily reversed resources to the end user .
Benefits
- high quality screen
- S-Pen
- Design of above average
- plenty of Performance
- Camera perfectly capable of handling any situation
- 32 GB of internal memory by default
Cons
- High price
- The battery life could be higher, considering the 3,220 mAh capacity
- No digital TV or FM radio
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