Phablets don't get much better than the Samsung Galaxy Note 4
I had previous had the Note 3 and was a huge fan of that phone. The Note 3 was my first so-called phablet, and I definitely wanted either a new Note or something similarly large. For the Note 4, it was the specs that really sold me. Even though the 5.7" screen of the Note 3 was gorgeous, the Note 4 has an upgraded 5.7" Quad-HD display (2560 x1440), and the difference is truly stunning. Text looks crisp even when you zoom in, colors really pop while still looking natural, the blacks are deep and rich... The display is astonishing, a real sight to behold and an absolute joy to use.
In terms of performance, I was slightly disappointed that the Note 4 doesn't have a more future-proof 4GB of ram, but 3GB is sufficient for the most part. Every game I've play has been smooth and multitasking is usually without any hiccups. The average user and even most power users will find the Note 4's performance to be very admirable.
I've added a 64GB microSD card in the Note 4's microSD card slot, which is a feature infamously absent from the Note5. With plenty of storage space, I'll be able to save thousands of pictures taken with the Note 4's impressive 16MP rear camera, which boasts the optical image stabilization (OIS) that was disappointingly absent in the Note 3. Like virtually every entry in Samsung's Galaxy line, the Note 4 takes pictures that are crisp, have little to no noise and excellent color reproduction, and the smoothing that comes with image stabilization is minimal. The front-facing 3.7MP shooter is also very adequate although it would have been nice to get 5MP like some of the other phones available.
The S pen is one of the Note line's biggest selling features and it works better than ever with the Note 4. According to Samsung, the Note 4's sensitivity is double that of the Note 3, meaning that it can sense over 2000 different pressure levels. This translates into significantly improved and more realistic performance when you're using the S pen to write or draw on the Note 4. The S pen itself has been spruced up too, although it's missing the awesome spring mechanism that the Note5's S pen dons.
Thankfully, the Note 4 has a decently-sized battery at 3220mAh and the microUSB port has integrated fast charging, but with the screen being Quad-HD it would have been nice to have a bit larger battery as the battery life of the Note 4 can be pretty low if you're a heavy user like myself. However, if you're smart about power conservation and keep things like WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, and location services turned off when you're not using them, you'll easily get through an entire day on a single charge, perhaps even more.
This may or may not be true, but it feels like the Note 4 doesn't have quite as much bloat as the Note 3 and other Galaxy devices, which is appreciated. However, it's still easy to disable the apps you don't want to use, which makes them disappear from the app drawer.
In addition to the usual accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, gesture sensor, and other Samsung staples, the Note 4 incorporates a fingerprint sensor for biometric security. Unfortunately, the fingerprint sensor in the Note 4 is the same sliding-based sensor as in the Galaxy S5, which isn't always the most reliable. Instead of simply pressing down on the home button and allowing it to read your fingerprint that way, you must slide your finger downward over the home button so that it can take a reading of your entire thumb (or whatever other finger you're using). If you have your finger at a slight angle or closer to one side of the button than the other, you'll get an error message and have to try again. At times, it'll take me two or three swipes to unlock my phone, which is disappointing when you see that other phones like the Nexus 6P or OnePlus 2 have excellent, responsive fingerprint readers that are touch-based rather than swipe-based. It's worth noting that the Note5 has the more reliable touch-based fingerprint reader, but the Note5 is missing several features that make me prefer the Note 4.
Currently, the Note 4 is running Android 5.1.1 with reports indicating it will get Android Marshmallow (6) sometime in December or January. With the new version of Android, the Note 4 will get expanded support for the biometric finger reader, expanded per-app permissions, and a new Doze mode that allegedly minimizes background activity while the phone is on standby, greatly increasing battery life. If that's the case, the Note 4 will be an even better phone once it receives the new OS. As of now, I'd say that the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is still one of the strongest and most feature-rich smartphones on the market, and arguably one of the top phablets that money can buy.
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned