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Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Review

Oversized smartphones, endearingly referred to as phablets, were once seen as outrageous monstrosities procured by only a select few in a niche crowd. The poster boy for the large form factor has long been Samsung’s Galaxy Note. Now in its fourth iteration, it has developed a large and loyal following while Samsung has diligently crafted and honed the product, simultaneously helping define the category.

Competitors have followed, most notably Apple, who have finally arrived on the scene with the iPhone 6 Plus in hopes of stealing Samsung’s thunder. Worse things could happen: they’ve also drawn mainstream consumer attention to larger screened phones as a whole. With a four year head start, does the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 retain it’s rightful place atop the smartphone elite? That’s the question we tackle in this comprehensive review.

Design & Build

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 has finally matured, ditching the cheap plastic wrapper from previous Notes and replacing it with a premium aluminum frame that a device of this caliber deserves. Despite growing slightly – it’s millimeters larger and grams heavier – it feels more compact and sturdy than ever, assisted by a more sleek, refined, and polished design than it’s predecessors.

The faux leather back? It’s still there, but it looks much more seamless and realistic, and gone is the leather stitching that formerly bordered the exterior shell. Some may still complain about the plastic back, but Samsung has done a much better job masking the material, and the fact remains that this choice allows for a removable cover providing access to additional memory, a battery, and SIM card.

Rather than a solid colored front face with a slight brushed look, Samsung has opted to embed subtle black stripes across a dark grey face. Better or worse is arbitrary, but it does create a weird effect where it overlaps with the illuminated backlit capacitive buttons.

The Note 4 also trades some of its straighter edges for graceful curves, partly for visual appeal but also to improve structural integrity. The corners of the phone flare slightly on the left and right, providing reinforcement for drops and accidents. Stronger curves around the headset jack, USB port, and S Pen add a nice touch.

Samsung has nudged the volume rocker and power button down a tad, which won’t be noticeable to most, but could make reaching these ever-important assets with one-hand a little easier. They’ve also been given some contour and silver lining to fit Samsung’s new premium theme.

As a Note 3 owner who doesn’t use cases, I found the plastic chrome wrap to be pretty susceptible to scratching, wear, and tear. At least on the surface, the Note 4 seems like a more resilient device, but it’s hard to know how 1 year of use will treat its decor. Scuffing up this beauty would cause much more heartache.

You’ll also find that the speaker has moved from the bottom of the Note 3 to the back of the Note 4. This may seem like a step in the wrong direction, but a tiny bump on the speaker grill creates the smallest of gaps when laid flat, allowing audio to escape and vibrate. The sound on the Note 4 is loud and full enough to make it a non-factor, but I must admit that I’ll miss cupping my hand around the edge of the phone to aim the audio my way when watching videos. The only thing better here would be front facing speakers.

The Galaxy Note 4 is a gorgeous Goliath, taking everything that was right about the Note 3 and graduating it. From the looks of it, the Note 4 is like the teenage boy whose parent’s already loved him, but are now proud to finally see him become a man. Now let’s find out what that man is made of…

Hardware & Specs

Considering the Galaxy Note 3 was already an industry front runner, Samsung had a tall order to impress consumers with spec improvements. Although there are no shocking surprises in the Note 4, the device improves in pretty much every area possible, taking great hardware and making it greater.

The show stopper on the Note 4 is it’s screen- a 5.7-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display that is an absolute beauty. For those wondering, Quad HD means it can display four 1280 x 720 HD images on the screen at once! That’s possible due to a resolution of 2560 by 1440, an improvement most naked eyes won’t be able to fully appreciate. I’ve often maintained that Samsung makes the most gorgeous displays and the Note 4 is the most gorgeous of the gorgeous.

We’re not the only ones who think so: according to DisplayMate not only does the Note 4 have the highest resolution of any smartphone on the market, it also has the brightest display, incredible scores in power efficiency, great performance at various viewing angles, accurate color profiles, and the list goes on. We can’t say enough good things about the Galaxy Note 4 screen. But if you want to know more, see for yourself.

The Note 4 is powered by a 2.7 GHz QuadCore processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory (expandable by MicroSD), immediately making it one of the most powerful devices on the market. That power is supported by a 3220 mAh battery, giving it the juice necessary to get the typical user through a full day. Not that it matters, but the Note 4 battery is an interestingly skinny shape compared to the typical mobile phone battery.

As expected, the Note 4 also has an upgraded camera, both front and rear. In addition to increasing the rear camera from 13MP to 16MP and front camera from 2MP to 3.7MP, Samsung has added some software features to improve the experience. It’s also got all the connectivity features you’d imagine including 4G, Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1, USB 2.0, MHL3.0, IR Blaster, Accelerometer, Gyroscope and beyond.

Two noticeable additions to the Galaxy Note 4 are a fingerprint scanner and UV sensor, the former of which was introduced with the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the latter of which is brand new. Integrated with S Health, you can now read UV levels directly from the sun to determine recommended skin protection.

These bells and whistles are nice additions to the Note 4, but there are also noticeable absences from the spec sheet and other upgrades we’d hoped to see but didn’t, namely the backtracking from USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 and lack of IP67 weatherproofing found on the Galaxy S5.

The only real advantage of USB 3.0 over 2.0 is enhanced data transfer speeds, something approximately twelve people will miss. Although USB 3.0 also offers quicker USB charging when connected via laptop, that benefit is completely overshadowed by other improvements Samsung has made to the Note 4’s battery life (more on that later).

The lack of a water resistant body is the most disappointing non-upgrade of the Note 4, but it’s difficult to be too critical of this decision. The feature itself is relatively new to the Galaxy line, competing devices in the same class don’t have the feature, and let’s not forgot that the Note 4 has one huge difference that would make water proofing it a much more difficult task: the S Pen.

Next: S Pen Stylus

S Pen Stylus

The actual phone hardware isn’t the only thing improved on the Note 4: it’s stylus – dubbed S Pen – has also been upgraded.

The pens look almost identical – essentially the same shape, same size, and with the same single button in the same place. However, it’s now got a ribbed body that makes gripping the pen much easier, regardless of where on the stylus you honker down. More impressive are the technical improvements: Samsung has doubled the levels of pen pressure from 1,024 to 2,048, making the writing experience more fluid and the output more natural.

You may recall from previous Note devices that you can control the pointer of the S Pen without even touching the screen- simply hovering over it provides interaction. Samsung has greatly improved the hover distance and response time, turning what was once a lackluster feature into an enjoyable and helpful addition.

Previously the stylus needed to be closer to the screen to trigger hover features and at times would suffer from a delayed response, making its use a meticulous task. Now you can casually fly over the Note’s Mary Poppins-like bag of tricks, getting tool tips and reminders of what actions different buttons perform. Use this feature liberally as you explore… it’s the best learning tool for the Note 4 you’ll find.

The S Pen is capable of all its neat tricks thanks to a Wacom digitizer, a technology built-into the screen that cooperates with the S Pen, and generally regarded as the industry leading solution. The wonders of the S Pen would not exist if there weren’t companion software solutions that took advantage of the stylus, so we’ll cover the S Pen-centric software features before we dive into the rest of what the Note 4 offers.

The Best S Pen Features

The term “best” is relative, but I want to show you a few of the S Pen features that make the Note 4 a device I want to own. Your own opinions should be formed based on how you intend to use the device, what tasks you’ll perform most, and what you want to accomplish. Are you a student who wants to take notes? Author randomly dreaming up plot lines? World traveler constantly planning your next trip?

In this situation I think context is everything, so I’ll be sharing some specific ways that I’ve been using S Pen. Consider the similarities and differences to your own intended use when reading about how I personally use the Note 4.

Smart Select (for Article Ideas)

We’re always on the lookout for great article ideas at Phandroid, whether that means uncovering breaking news nuggets, discovering awesome new apps, or spotting something seemingly unrelated that could make for a great editorial. Our team uses a collaborative list making tool called Trello to keep track of article ideas and they’ve got an excellent Android App to make contributing on-the-go a breeze. Combine Trello with Smart Select on the Note 4 and you’ve got pure awesome.

From any screen on your phone simply pop open air command, select “Smart Select”, and draw a rectangle over the section of importance. With the tap of a button you can quickly convert text from the selected area into plain text to share in other apps. Was there a photo you wanted to include, too? No problem- Smart Select can save it as an attachment in addition to converting and embedding the related text. Pick from any number of compatible apps with which to share and the Note 4 immediately works it’s magic.

In our case that may mean finding something interesting on Android Forums, Smart Selecting the interesting snippet, and sharing to the Phandroid Trello board. I did just that while writing this review when I saw Android Forums member lestat897 already received his device, well ahead of the scheduled release date. I highlighted his post, shared to Trello, and an enterprising young Phandroid author named Quentyn Kennemer claimed journalistic ownership- you can read his article here.

It’s not perfect. You may notice that there is no URL in the Trello card- that would have been helpful for the bloggers. Oddly enough, I tried several methods and selection combinations in hopes of including the URL, sometimes with luck and sometimes without. It’s far better than nothing and the performance will vary from app to app. For example, integration with Evernote is nearly flawless, but that’s not a service I typically use. Developers can also leverage As far as I know, Samsung offers APIs to improve integration with the S Pen and I’m especially hoping Trello gets on board (no pun intended).

That being said, it’d be nice if – when using Smart Select within a web browser – Samsung would collect and share the page’s URL in the transferred data by default. Which brings up another point: Smart Select can be used anywhere on your screen, within any app, while doing anything.

Screen Write (for Web Designers and Publishers)

I probably use Screen Write more than any other feature on the Galaxy Note 4. The concept is simple: tap the Screen Write button, it snaps a screenshot, and you’re then able to use the various pens, colors, and editing features of the S Pen to annotate, save, and share the image. As a web publisher and blogger, I use it constantly for these three reasons:

Here’s an example of all three scenarios below:

Screen Write is not only the easiest of the S Pen features to find, learn, and use, it’s also (for me) one of the most productive and entertaining.

Voice Memo (for eureka moments)

I’m the type of person whose always thinking of random ideas. Far too many of those random ideas are stupid random ideas, but there is nothing worse than having an “aha” moment, only to completely forget about it later. Or worse, remembering you had the moment but being unable to recall the idea itself. This seems to happen a lot when I’m driving. Since I try my best to never text and drive, the Voice Memo feature comes in handy.

It records up to 5 minutes of audio, dictates as you go, and saves the dictation as an S Note. Unfortunately, Samsung doesn’t automatically attach the audio file to the S Note which leaves something to be desired, especially considering the audio files are generically named and numbered. You can rename a file and then attach it to the dictation S Note, but really this is an extra step that shouldn’t be manual.

Still, though, the Voice Memo feature is nice to have especially considering it’s integration with the rest of the package. Speaking of packages, gift ideas are a great use for Voice Memos for those who perpetually wait until the last minute but feel like they’ve had various great ideas throughout the year (that’s me).

Air Command

When you first remove the S Pen from it’s holster, a circular set of four options fans out- this is Air Command. You can access it manually at any time by pressing the S Pen button while hovering directly over the screen. The four commands are:

  1. Action Memo
  2. Smart Select
  3. Image Clip
  4. Screen Write

We’ve discussed all but Image Clip and Action Memo above. And really, I’m not sure why Image Clip exists; like Smart Select, you’re able to snag an area of the screen for saving to your Scrapbook, S Note, or sharing with another app. There are two main differences:

These should be merged into the same feature. Samsung creates and creates and creates and creates, causing overlaps that eventually cause more harm than good. They’ve improved Air Command since the Note 3 by axing Scrap Booker, S Finder, and Pen Window, but there are still opportunities to make things more usable and streamlined. Such is the case with Action Memo, S Note, and Scrapbook.

Action Memo, S Note, and Scrapbook

The only member of this trio found in Air Command is Action Memo. With a tap of the S Pen you can quickly scribble a note, save it, and even pin it to your home screen as a widget. What’s a bit less obvious is that an Action Memo is really just a kind of S Note, with the latter housing lots of different kinds of notes, memos, templates and features within different notebooks that you create and name.


Left to right: Action Memo, S Note, Scrapbook

S Note takes Action Memos to the next level by offering a myriad of options, allowing you to add text, pictures, sketches, illustrations, videos, and audio recordings to an unlimited number of note pages within a notebook.

Then you’ve got Scrapbook, which like S Note can store many different kinds of data, but its organized more loosely using tags. I’d liken it to Samsung’s version of Pinterest. Or, consider it your “I don’t have enough time to enter a full S Note” solution, snagging the content for your Scrapbook and connecting the dots later.

I’ll be honest- if you hadn’t used a Galaxy Note before and tried to figure out the above inter-software relationship on your own, it might take you awhile. Having read the above- it’ll still take you awhile. That’s okay. Learn it. It’s a bit confusing and there’s a lot going on, but once you find your own personal work flow that suits you best, you’ll be on a roll.

S Export

What if you don’t want to use Samsung’s proprietary Action Memos, S Note, or Scrapbook? What if there’s another online service or app that better fits your needs? You can still take advantage of the S Pen’s power as I demonstrated above in my Smart Select with Trello example.

Unfortunately, your default “Save/Share” option with both Smart Select and Image Clip is Scrapbook and that cannot be changed. You can press the share button and select from a long list of 3rd party apps, but if you’re using S Pen regularly, this will get old and tedious very quickly. What’s more, you can’t even change the default save option to Samsung’s own (and more powerful) S Note. You have to either follow the share dialogues to S Note or save to Scrapbook and then share from Scrapbook to S Note.

This is one of many things I hope Samsung improves about their S Pen experience.

It’d be really cool if…

S Pen is awesome, but features breed feedback, Samsung stockpiled the former and now I’ve got plenty of the latter. As I found myself getting into a certain usage pattern with the S Pen, I began wishing for some tweaks to the S Pen experience that would make my life easier.

That may seem nitpicky, and it is, but I just want to see a service I use get better. Different people will use S Pen differently and I’m sure many people will disagree with my above sentiments. Let us know how you would improve S Pen in the comments.

S Pen – the bottom line

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is an absolute treasure trove of productivity thanks to the S Pen and its related features. It does have more features than you’ll need. It does have some features that you won’t use and won’t like. That’s expected, but consider this: when’s the last time you heard someone complain that Adobe Photoshop has too many features, making it too complicated. Use the parts you like.

All sorts of people will be using the S Pen for all sorts of tasks. Doctors, artists, students, web developers, coaches, fashion designers, personal assistants, soccer moms and dads, and the list goes on. Surely they won’t all want the same thing. And even within professions and lifestyles, preferences are personal and cover the whole spectrum. What Samsung has done is create a wonderful set of tools – a whole tool shed in fact – allowing you to handpick your favorites and make them your own.

The S Pen isn’t perfect, nor are Air Command, S Note, Scrapbook, or any other stylus-based feature on the Galaxy Note 4… but there is a lot to love, it’s already the best productivity smartphone on the market, and it’s only getting better. Once you find your S Pen sweet spot, you’ll be glad you have it.

Next: Software

Software

The Galaxy Note 4 runs on Android 4.4 KitKat with Samsung’s good old TouchWiz custom UI resting on top. It’s stuffed with so many features that the experience can be overwhelming if you aren’t prepared and informed. Many of the features are awesome and worthwhile, others not so much, and many blame the extensive nature of TouchWiz as a memory hog that drags down an otherwise zippy experience.

I can’t say I completely disagree- the Galaxy Note 4 isn’t the zippiest phone I’ve ever used, having the occasional hiccup or stammer, but for the most part it was an enjoyably smooth experience. The TouchWiz trolls will undoubtedly suggest “Nexus or bust”, but until a Nexus device rocks a stylus with a billion features, I’m happy to wait the extra 1/10th of a second for S Note to open. A thorough adjustment of the Galaxy Note 4 settings will greatly optimize speed, performance, and battery life.

Immediately after booting up the Note 4 for the first time and getting it set up, I had two primary irritations. Before we talk about all the awesome software features in the Galaxy Note 4, let’s get those out of the way.

Flipbook Briefing

Every manufacturer seems to have their own home screen solution to aggregate news and social updates (or both) directly to the user in a magazine style interface. The Galaxy Note 4 reserves the far left home screen for “Briefing”, a Flipboard powered news app that I find absolutely horrendous.

  1. It’s embarrassingly slow and laggy
  2. It offers very little customization
  3. You can turn it off!

Just remove it, pretend it doesn’t exist, and let’s move on.

App Drawer Disorganization

If you’re like me, you visit the Google Play Store often looking for new apps and games, and at any given time you’ve got dozens and dozens of apps. After piling on the preloaded apps from the manufacturer and carrier, digging through your app drawer can make your thumb numb. The Galaxy Note 3 solved this problem by allowing you to display all your apps in an easily scrollable vertical list with a quick jump alphabet at the right. It works just like most contact apps (but with app names replacing people’s names).

It seems this simple option has disappeared. Thankfully, Samsung makes it easy to replace TouchWiz Home with another HomeScreen replacement app like Nova Launcher. I don’t typically use home replacements but I might now. Samsung kept the ability to hide or remove apps from the app drawer, which helps, but the real answer here is more strategically organizing your home screens with apps, folders, and widgets to make your most used items easily accessible.

Now let’s do a 180 and talk about my favorite feature of the Galaxy Note 4 software.

Multi Window

When you’ve got the most gorgeous screen on the market with the highest resolution in the industry, you’ve got to take advantage of it and Multi Window does just that for the Galaxy Note 4. Just like the Note 3, you can multi-task by dropping one app into the top of the screen and one app on the bottom of the screen, seamlessly jumping between them and resizing their windows. But this year, we’ve got a few pleasant surprises.

Flick to multi-task

The old way of initiating Multi Window was holding down the back button to bring up the right panel of options. This still works (and it now auto-hides after a few seconds idle). But now, if you’re already in a compatible app that supports Multi Window, you can pull from beyond the top left of the screen towards the middle and it will instantly minimize that app into a floating pop over.

Previous Note owners would liken this to Pen Window but this is a much more elegant solution. It’s awesome and you’ll find yourself multi-tasking that much more often because of its existence.

You can minimize this hovering window with a feature I like to call “App Heads” because it works just like Facebook’s Chat Heads. Tap the middle circle, tap the minimize button, and it’ll become a floating bubble ready to help you at a moments notice. Hmm… maybe I should call it Glinda the Good instead.

Recent Apps to multi-task

This is perhaps even better. Power users enjoy Android’s “Recent Apps” button incredibly. Now, when viewing your recent app cards, any app with Multi Window support will display an icon in the top right of its card. Tap that icon and say no more- you are now multi-tasking.

Together with the back button long press menu, jumping into multi-tasking mode has never been easier and it’s what the Note 4 does best. And best gets even better when you consider the Quad HD display.


On the left: Recent Apps Multi Window Selection
On the right: Multi Window with BrooksBrothers.com and How To Tie a Tie Youtube video

Multi-task in High Definition

Remember: the Note 4 screen is Quad HD meaning it can display up to four 1280 x 720 HD images on the screen at once. Multi-Window is only two windows and both tasks are equally gorgeous. Should you so desire to use multi-window in landscape, you can do that too.

Youtube videos still look big and beautiful playing in HD. Text and images look sharp and crisp. You’re sacrificing half of your 5.7-inch screen by multi-tasking but you’re not sacrificing HD quality. Seriously… once you start multi-tasking you won’t be able to stop.

Multi-window in action

Similar to the S Pen features, different people will use Multi Window for different purposes. I’d like to share with you a few of the ways I found myself enjoying this feature.

You’ll notice they have a consistent theme: 3 of the 4 examples use messaging apps. When involved in conversation, topics come up that suggest research would be helpful. Rather than go back and forth repeatedly, Multi Window allows you to include information discovery in the conversation process rather than as a separate, exhausting activity.

IMDB (in Chrome) + Facebook

I loved the HBO show True Blood. Well… I loved the first 3 seasons and I got dragged through the mud for the rest, but that’s beside the point. A conversation with a friend about the Season Premiere of The Walking Dead somehow deteriorated into a conversation about who was the hottest character on True Blood. I curiously scrolled through the entire cast list on IMDB while chatting with her, bringing up characters we had both long forgotten about. Of course she was talking about dudes, I was talking about Sookie, and aside from that we were mostly dismissing everything the other person said, but it was a fun conversation. (Friend’s identity altered to protect the innocent)

Photo Gallery + TXT Messages

Another friend of mine was traveling while the Orioles were in town playing the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS. As you’ll see in the battery review, I bought tickets through StubHub at the last second, sat in the 6th row, and got a bargain. I was talking to her about the game while I glanced over the pictures I had taken and sent her a few of my favorites. She’s a big Adam Jones fan.

Google Maps + Hangouts

When you’re planning to meet up with friends for dinner, drinks, or activities, “where do we go” becomes a common question. The indecisiveness in many of these back and forth dialogues can singlehandedly break your spirit (what do you want), but Multi Window eases that pain. Having access to search nearby establishments and attractions, read ratings and reviews, make suggestions, and discuss the options without smashing your phone is a welcome addition to any smartphone repertoire.

Youtube + Chrome

How many of you are on a laptop or your phone when you watch TV? Probably a lot of you… so it’s safe to assume that YouTube videos don’t always need your undivided attention. Or even better, maybe they inspired you to look something up! The Quad HD screen on the Note 4 allwos you to still enjoy an HD video watching experience while browsing the web. The uses for this are literally quite endless. I apologize in advance for instigating your new addiction.

I absolutely love Multi Window… and trust me, you will too.

Action Memos

Knowing humanity, I’m guessing there are a fair number of people who still e-mail themselves when they have something they need to remember. And knowing the internet, I’m guessing over 80% of those people have Yahoo or Hotmail e-mail addresses. The Galaxy Note 3 addresses this web epidemic with Action Memo.

Action Memo is essentially a modern age post-it note. Pull out your S Pen, tap on Action Memo, and you can jot down a quick note to save for later. All of  your Action Memos get stored in an “Action Memo” Notebook in S Note, so if you jotted something down that you now can’t find, look in S Note. And if you want to keep something top of mind you can pin it to your homescreen as a widget. Unfortunately you’ll need vacant space on your home screen, and that’s prized territory, so chances are it won’t be as top of mind as you might like.

If Action Memos are your thing, I’d recommend reserving the screen immediately to the left or right of your home screen for them, then they’re always one swipe away. Here’s how I organized my home screens to maximize access to S Note and Action Memos while keeping focus on the apps I use most:

A couple quick notes about Action Memo:

The lasso tool on Action Memo let’s you link your doodle to a type of content such as contact, web address, or phone number, following through with the action immediately after. I found this to be cumbersome and slow at first, but if you’re taking down someone’s number so you can call them later for example, it creates a very relevant bookmark for following through on that action. I haven’t gotten in the habit of creating Action Memos in this manner, but I anticipate it will be useful once I do.

Action Memo doesn’t integrate directly with any 3rd party apps, so if you’ve already got a Post-it Note style solution, you might find Action Memo less exciting. Even so, keeping a few action memos around for later transferring into your app or service of choice can be pretty convenient.

S Health

The personal health tracking, motivating, and analyzing market has become huge in recent years and its only going to get bigger. Samsung’s foray into this cross section of tech comes in the form of S Health, an app that quite literally attempts to do it all. Samsung is competing with the Fitbit’s of the world the best they know how- by throwing the kitchen sink at it. Case and point are two new hardware improvements on the Galaxy Note 4 that directly target health and fitness: a heart rate monitor and a UV Sensor.

Measuring Heart Rate, Stress, UV, Oxygen

Pro Tip: for best results put the BALL of you finger (not the tip) on the sensor and center it to the RIGHT of the camera flash (not on top of it)

We reviewed the heart rate monitor in the Galaxy S5 and not much has changed: it’s still finicky to use. Located directly next to the rear camera flash, you’ve got to hold your finger tip over it, covering it just right, without making noise and movement that would throw off the reading. I’d be willing to bet that the inability to get a proper reading has led to the heart rate monitor increasing its fair share of heart rates. Ironic, huh?

Samsung has extended the utility of the heart rate monitor to perform another test: a stress test. In this case, your heart rate variable is used to calculate your level of stress. Again, it’s ironic, but failure to consistently provide a successful reading actually increased my stress level. There’s also an Oxygen Saturation indicator which takes S Health one step further. I like and appreciate Samsung’s effort here, but the product needs to be improved before it truly becomes useful.

There may only be a small percentage of people regularly use the heart rate monitor and stress test, but for those that do it’s neat trick. Consistently tracking your heart rate at rest and after exercise could lead to a pretty interesting build up of historical data.

Another new capability of the Note 4’s S Health Sensor is a UV sensor to determine how harmful the sun’s rays are on any given day. It gets a reading every time, but I have a feeling it will be the least used of the above four features.

Samsung could have something huge with S Health as technology continues to evolve. Government, health insurance agencies, and hospitals are becoming more connected and smartphones could become an integral part of tracking, analyzing, and maintaining personal health. If that’s the case, Samsung is one step ahead of its competitors.

Pedometer & Excercise

I’ve grown to love the front-and-center step counting feature of S Health. At a quick glance it gives you an idea of how active you’ve been in any given day and it takes no effort to make it work. As long as you carry your phone with you it’s counting your steps. Samsung has beefed the Pedometer up with more options and better reporting without cluttering the interface. It’s really a job well done.

If you want a more advanced interface than the Pedometer, S Health has an “Excercise” option that records your walking, running, cycling, or hiking sessions, recording the fitness data accordingly. Combined with a Google Maps overlay that tracks your path, embedded music player, and Audio Guide, Excercise is a nice option when you’re specifically headed to workout. Don’t worry: it continues to keep tracking steps in your pedometer too.

Since I work from home and am at a computer all day, I’ve also enjoyed the inactivity alerts on S Health. If your phone has been stationary for a set duration of time (default is 1 hour) during a specified time of day (ex: 9am to 5pm work day), you receive a notification suggesting you stand up, stretch, and take a quick walk which can both improve your health and increase your productivity.

Food & Diet

Everyone loves to eat, but the calories in vs calories out formula doesn’t lie. Exercising and heating healthy are the two key variables of fitness and S Health helps you keep track of both. It’s a great feature in theory, but similar to Fitbit and Jawbone, entering meals into S Health Food is a tedious task that could drive you crazy. Quick Add buttons let you ballpark meals which is helpful, but you then have to question the consistency and accuracy of the data being entered. Not likely very accurate.

Nevertheless there are some nice features in the Food option and if you can stick to the routine, it’ll help complete the full S Health picture. I’d like to see a less structured “Scrapbook” like Food feature that helps you collect healthy recipes, suggest healthy restaurants and dishes nearby, deals for healthy food at nearby restaurants, and act as more of a food butler than a food accountant.

Other S Health options include weight, sleep, and coach. You can also download more apps that act as extensions to S Health.

The NeverEnding S Tory

If we tried to go through every software feature of the Galaxy Note 4, by the time we were done, Samsung would be releasing the Galaxy Note 5. Trust us when we say it’s worth exploring the ins and outs of the phone. Here are a few specific features we suggest:

Don’t forget the fingerprint scanner!

Just like with the Galaxy S5, the Galaxy Note 4 features a fingerprint scanner for the first time. Samsung says they’ve improved the input and detection accuracy, making it more reliable when unlocking your screen, and it seems to be correct. It’s improved to the point that it’s usable, but since you have to glide your hand over the button and can’t simply rest it on top, you really need 2 hands to unlock your device with any consistency. As an Android enthusiast I don’t take great joy in saying this, but Apple’s fingerprint unlock is far superior, easier to use, quicker to read, and undoubtedly more consistent.

It sounds like you’re ready to explore…

Next: Camera

Camera

The Galaxy Note 4 boasts an excellent 16MP camera along with optical image stabilization and it’s capable of some pretty amazing pictures and video. As with any camera – from Polaroid to DSLR – the quality of pictures largely depends on the lighting and the subject of the photograph. During most of my time with the Note 4 the weather was lousy, which somewhat limited my ability to fully show off the cameras features, but as you can below it’s fully capable of delivering a premium photo experience.

Camera Samples

In low light situations, HDR (high dynamic range) can really help. When not using HDR, though, you have access to a few additional filtering options that Instagrammers will enjoy.

Notice the paired pictures with one zoomed in and one zoomed out? They use a new feature of the Galaxy Note 4 called Advanced Digital Zoom, taking several images and combining them to create a much more clear photo. This happens when you zoom from anywhere between 4X and 8X, the latter of which is the zoom max.

Samsung also added a bunch of Selfie helping modes for its 3.7MP front facing camera:

Again, the quality of the photos will always depend on the lighting and subject matter, but holding all else equal the Galaxy Note 4 consistently matches or exceeds the competition from other smartphone cameras.

Video Samples

The first video is a quickie from Camden Yards where the Baltimore Orioles were playing the Kansas City Royals. You can hear fans chanting Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes which has become (and Baltimore isn’t alone in this) somewhat of a theme/chant song. The batter breaks his bat on the pitch and the Royals make the out at third base. I recorded an awful lot of video and hoped to capture some Orioles magic… but thus far in the ALCS it’s been all blue.

Next up is a pretty awesome video I was only able to capture thanks to the 16MP prowess and zoom capabilities of the Note 4. Walking in Baltimore’s Harbor East I spotted a huge Seagull in the water, devouring something. Obviously it was a fish, but this guy had a unique way of eating it. Or was he playing with it? Either way, Baltimore’s harbor water is pretty disgusting, so there’s no way that fish tasted very good.

Did you hear how windy it was in the above video? It was shaking the trees like crazy. I used it as an opportunity to record a slow motion video of the leaves waving in the wind and then recorded a fast forward video of part of my walk home. The latter you should watch at your own risk, it’s completely dizzifying.

There’s also a Smooth Motion setting that records at 60FPS and plays at normal speed. Slow motion 1/8X speed is 240fps and 1/4X speed is 120FPS.

I was definitely impressed with the Galaxy Note 4 camera and can safely recommend it as one of the best smartphone cameras on the market.

Next: Battery

Battery

The one downfall to having the biggest and brightest screen on the market is that it takes a lot of energy to power and illuminate the darn thing. The 3220 mAh battery sounds humongous, but that’s the same size as the Note 3 and it’s got a lot more pixels to push. Based on my limited testing the Galaxy Note 4 gets comparable battery life to its predecessor. It’s doesn’t seem better, it doesn’t seem worse, it seems on par- but Samsung has sweetened the pot to improve the overall battery experience dramatically.

My favorite new feature? Fast charging.

Fast Charging

According to Samsung, new battery and charging technology leveraged in the Note 4 allows for a “Fast Charging” feature when using the proper connection. With a completely dead phone and 0% battery life, they claimed you could plug it in with Fast Charging and reach 50% battery in 30 minutes. Fast Charing, where have you been all my life?

Interestingly enough, it didn’t take long before I was put in this exact position: a last minute ticket opportunity for the Orioles Playoff game came up and after purchasing a ticket, I had only 30 minutes to leave my house. And the Galaxy Note 4 was at 0% … alright, Fast Charging, let’s see what you got.

Adaptive fast charging requires an AFC or Quick Charge 2.0 compatible charger to work and supports Samsung Fast Charge charging and Qualcomm’s Quick Charge solution. Fear not: as long as you don’t buy your Note 4 on the black market, a compatible fast charger will come in the box.

Power Saving Modes

Once again following suit ofthe Galaxy S5, the Galaxy Note 4 has two specific features to help you conserve battery life: Power Saving Mode and Ultra Power Saving Mode: don’t underestimate their capabilities.

Power Saving mode will immediately shut off access to all non-essential connectivity tools like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and background services while allowing you to customize how severe the restrictions go. You should consider using Power Saving Mode regularly whenever you know you won’t be using your phone for an extended period of time. Ultra power saving mode is the Macho Man Randy Savage of power saving modes: it’s extreme. Once you’re in this bad boy you can only do the most basic of things. On the upside, though, your battery could last days in this mode. Definitely handy for extenuating circumstances.

Lastly, make sure you’ve quick access to the most important battery intensive settings and toggle them off manually when you’re not using them. Samsung’s custom notification and settings drawer is one of the best in the business, so use it wisely. Keep your Wi-Fi, Location, Bluetooth, NFC, and all that jazz off when not in use. It will go a long way.

Next: Conclusion

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is an epic beast. It’s the best productivity smartphone. It’s got the best screen. It’s arguably got the best camera and it undoubtedly has the most bells and whistles. In fact, the Galaxy Note 4’s biggest challenge is that it’s predecessor was so good, it’s difficult to make enough upgrades to impress. With a newly designed metal frame and an array of noticeable feature improvements, Samsung has done just that.

There are three solid reasons you might not want to buy the Note 4: it’s too big, it’s too expensive, or you prefer the iPhone 6 Plus or newly announced Nexus 6 (see our comparison)… if you don’t fall in one of those categories, you won’t regret this purchase.

The Good:

  • Unrivaled productivity and multi-tasking features
  • Huge, bright, and vivid display
  • Premium redesigned metal frame
  • Great camera quality
  • Powerful specs built to last
  • Ultra Fast Charging helps keep phone powered up

The Bad:

  • Not as zippy as some stock Android competitors (TouchWiz)
  • Extensive feature set requires learning curve
  • Not IP67 water resistant like younger brother Galaxy S5

Overall: 4.65 out of 5

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