With 4 Galaxy Note, Samsung still leads among giant cell – The Wall Street Journal Americas

I was convinced that Samsung was crazy when I saw her first handset that was a mix of phone and tablet, Galaxy Note, in 2011.

While most smartphone manufacturers were increasing the size phones to fit comfortably in the human hand, Samsung has decided to release one the size of a billboard in Times Square. And what better way to navigate that huge screen than with a pen the size of a toothpick?

I was crazy, of course. People started buying the eccentric invention and giant Samsung. Other companies stopped laughing and started producing their own giants. Now, nearly three years later, Apple caved to the pressure, releasing an iPhone with a screen of 5.5 inches.

The Samsung does not plan to stand behind those who decided to follow his footsteps. The Galaxy Note 4, which costs US $ 300 with two-year contract with carriers, has a high resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, 5.7 inch screen and a much improved design. Its software also has new abilities that take better advantage of the larger screen than its competitors.

At this point, it is a mistake to call the Note a giant smartphone. It is a portable computerized device with multitasking power. But while Samsung is well ahead in resources sofware to the big screen on other counts does not go so well. The Note 4 still needs something essential on mobile devices: a user interface clean and intuitive user

A brilliant back showing my fingerprints and greasy plastic toy child sewing with faux leather does not exist. More. Instead, an aluminum frame protects Note 4, making it a well-made device. The back of synthetic leather of the current version is justified by being incredibly soft and smooth – and easier to hold than the iPhone 6 Plus

The design is far from perfect.. The cutout edges (curves rather iPhone Plus and 6 of the new Moto X) can be sharp, the corners of subtle lines do not match the rest of the cosmetic and, unlike the Galaxy S5, the note 4 is not resistant or . Waterproof

Do not get me wrong, the Samsung did what I thought was impossible:. create a phone that looks good

How the iPhone 6 Plus, the Note 4 battery lasts longer than the phones with small screen because it has a larger battery. After a journey of 14 hours of continuous use, including web browsing and logging lots of pictures, hit the 5% mark battery – and he continued on until the time you went to sleep in the “ultra mode power savings “. By disabling various services and leave everything black and white, it can work for 24 hours using only 10% of the battery, according to Samsung.

In a challenge to see which would shut down first raised the brightness to maximum both the Galaxy Note as the iPhone and accessed 6 Plus videos. The battery of both lasted 8 hours and a half.

Note The front camera has a 3.7 megapixel, which ensures more clearly, and it can have the shutter driven by a heartbeat sensor which is on the back of the phone. The 16-megapixel rear camera also makes “selfies”, using face recognition and voice command. And the photos are stunning quality, even those taken with digital zoom.

How the iPhone 6 Plus, the optical image stabilization helps you capture the night and sharper moving images.

However, I found that the fastest shutter of the iPhone 6 Plus and autofocus along with best photos taken in low light situation leave the Apple model in advantage.

But while iPhone 6 Plus can take better pictures, they look sharper and vibrant in the Note screen. This is because the Super AMOLED screen of the Samsung has about 1.5 million pixels more than the 5.5 inch screen and 1920 x 1080 pixels of the iPhone 6 Plus. Texts seem crisper and colors are more vivid, though not necessarily natural.

With software features that take advantage of the big screen, the result of the new model from Samsung is a more productive device closer a tablet or laptop than the devices of other manufacturers.

As noted in previous models, you can put two apps side by side or one above the other on the screen. But now, you can also drag text between windows.

The downside is that the user experience with Note 4 ends up being bad. The neon green, bright icons and the cheesy, all this makes the phone hard to look at. Despite the quad-core processor, booked moments of slowness, caught many applications and message “This app has stopped.” Still, no other phone manufacturer can provide such a clear vision for the future will be written by these hybrid of smartphone and tablet.