Samsung Galaxy Note 4: Everything You Need to Know

Samsung has just announced the new Note flagship, the Galaxy Note 4 at the IFA conference in Berlin. The new Note 4 flagship has been updated on all fronts compared to its predecessor, so people looking forward to the Note 4 should not be disappointed.

So, if you have been one of the people who have been looking forward to the Note 4, here’s everything you need to know.

Hardware

Talking about the hardware first, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 looks a lot like the Note 3 and that’s not a bad thing, considering the Note 3 is one of the best looking Samsung smartphones but the Note 4 improves that design. Along with the design, the hardware has been updated and should please the latest spec loving crowd.

Display

We have always loved the displays on the Samsung flagships and the Galaxy Note 4 should be no different. While the screen size remains the same at 5.7-inches Super AMOLED, the resolution has been bumped to Quad HD (2560x1440p) making the pixel density up to 515 ppi. We are not really sure if the QHD resolution brings any notable advantages when compared to the Full HD displays but we’ll surely take it.

Design

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 features a metal frame similar to the recently unveiled Galaxy Alpha and the design is more rectangular than the Note 3. The back is still the same faux leather back but there is a new texture and the faux stitches on the ends are now gone. The S Pen has also been updated with improved sensitivity.  The home button now features the fingerprint scanner as well along with the heart rate monitor. The device also comes with the rumored UV sensor and SpO2 sensor.

The Note 4 measures 153.5 x 78.6 x 8.5 mm and weighs in at 176 grams. The device will come in various colors including Charcoal Black, Frost White, Bronze Gold, and Blossom Pink.

Camera

The camera units on the Galaxy Note 4, both the front and the rear have gone through some major updates. On the rear, the device features the same 16 MP camera from the Galaxy S5 and with Optical Image Stabilization, we can expect things to get better. There’s also a new 3.7 MP front-facing camera with a wide angle lens for better selfies.

Processor

The Galaxy Note 4 comes with the very powerful Quad-core Snapdragon 805 clocked at 2.7 GHz and Adreno 420 GPU.  The Note 4 should e the very first international smartphone to pack the beastly processor, which brings better performance for higher resolution devices such as the Note 4 and notable improvements in graphics. In certain markets, the Note 4 will be powered by Samsung’s very own 64-bit Exynos 5433 processor, which should be great too. The device comes with 3 GB RAM for all your multitasking needs.

Storage

The new Samsung flagship comes with 16 or 32 GB of internal storage and like most Samsung smartphones, the Note 4 comes with microSD expansion and that too up to 128 GB. So, if you get a Note 4, the memory shouldn’t be an issue.

Battery

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 comes with a 3220 mAh battery, which Samsung claims will bring better performance than the Note 3. Samsung has also included Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0, which will charge the Note 4’s battery to 50% in half an hour.

Software

The Note 4 runs on Android 4.4 KitKat with the TouchWiz we all love and hate. It’s the same TouchWiz we saw in the Galaxy S5 and while it’s better looking than its previous incarnations, it’s still not as pleasing as HTC’s Sense or LG’s latest Optimus UI. As with every new flagship, Samsung has loaded TouchWiz with some new features, tailor made for the Note 4.

The new software on the Note 4 brings improvements to the multi window feature. You can now access multi window from the recent screen and you can choose to run multiple apps and resize them according to your need. The recent apps interface has been changed and it looks a lot like the Android L recent app UI. There are improvements to the S Pen software capabilities. You can now select several pictures in the Gallery by just dragging through the S Pen, similar to what we can do on a PC. You can also copy and paste using S Pen by just hovering over the text and then pressing the button when you want to copy.

Cases and Accessories

Along with the Galaxy Note 4, Samsung announced five new cases for the smartphone. There’s the usual S View Cover, Flip Wallet, S View Wallet, an LED cover (similar to the HTC Dot View case) and a cool Swarovski crystal back cover.

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Pricing and Availability

While Samsung is yet to reveal the pricing of the Galaxy Note 4, we can expect the device to cost north of Rs. 50,000. The device should hit stores in India in October.