Samsung GALAXY Note 4 official: metallic frame, OIS, fast charging, directional audio recording, and more!

Samsung has come along way since its entry into the Android smartphone market. Three years ago, it introduced the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note which at the time seems like a very large device, but has since made this category a norm, with other manufacturers following suit. Without trying to mess with the winning formula one bit, it has just announced the new Samsung Galaxy Note 4 at IFA 2014 in Berlin which refines everything we know and love about the Note 3 into a much improved phablet.

The summary of the Note 4 would be that it now packs a Quad HD Super AMOLED display, a new high-resolution 16-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization technology, a more intuitive S Pen user experience, and a much improved Multi Window functionality for better multitasking. We’re going to lay down the specifications at the end of this post, to focus more on the features instead.

Galaxy Note 4 three key attributes would be:

• a new design language that further refines the Note to look more premium;
• its advanced technology, including a high-end processor and LTE Advanced (LTE-A Cat 6) speeds;
• the refined S Pen experience, which is the hallmark of what differentiates the Note series from other phablets;
• and the camera’s new optical image stabilization.

Design

From the front, the Note 4 looks very similar to its predecessor. The back plate is still removable, but its soft touch design now ditches the fake stitchings. It comes in Blossom Pink, Bronze Gold, Charcoal Black, and Frost White color options. However, it is surprising that with just a change of the perimeter banding — from the chrome-coated plastic to a chamfered metal frame — the Note 4 now looks and feels much more premium.

It is slightly taller, narrower, thicker, and heavier than the Note 3, but the display remains the same at 5.7 inches. It is still protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, but the exterior 2.5D glass now curves around the edges, creating a surface tension-like look.

While the TouchWiz UI still looks similar to that on the Galaxy S5, Samsung said it has been tweaked to make the user experience simpler and more intuitive. There is also the new dynamic lock screen feature where tickers and widgets can be displayed (similar to stock Android’s offerings).

Display

Retaining its 5.7-inch size, the Note 4 crams 1440 x 2560 pixels (Quad HD or WQHD) into its Super AMOLED panel making its pixel density at a whopping 515ppi. Samsung acknowledges that there are a number of WQHD smartphones already, but claims its Super AMOLED display is way superior and has “more access to the color space”. In other words, it is more vibrant and saturated.

To utilize the screen real estate, not only is TouchWiz optimized for multitasking, the Recents key can now also access the Multi Window feature, where two apps can be displayed at the same time, side-by-side or one on top of another.

S Pen

As mentioned, even though many players have been mimicking Samsung’s phablet design, it is the S Pen that becomes the hallmark of what makes the Galaxy Note, a Galaxy Note. This is not you usual capacitive stylus, but an active digitizer that the display could detect when it’s hovering above.

The first improvement is that the pressure sensitivity has been doubled from 1,024 to 2,048 levels. Trying to merge the “convenience of digital with the feeling of analog”, Samsung made TouchWiz to respond more intuitively to user commands. For instance, it is now possible to just fire up TripAdvisor, clip an entry of the review, clip some photos from the Gallery, add an S Note document, and drag-and-drop the whole bundle into the Email Compose window to be sent as an attachment. Also natural is that now, the S Pen acts more like the traditional mouse cursor, where you can just point and click with the S Pen, and drag to highlight text, as you would on the computer.

Other new features include an S Note widget, as well as the voice recording Snap Note app. The latter is particularly useful for students and executives alike, where one could snap a whiteboard full of text and diagrams, and it’ll automatically detect and straighten the sides (tilt correction). Once saved, the captured image can also be read through optical character recognition, and annotated.

Camera

It is not a smartphone launch if the camera is not highlighted. But Note 4’s camera deserves the airtime because its 16-megapixel sensor now comes with optical image stabilization, a feature many flagship smartphone lacks. Instead of touting numbers, Samsung this time focuses more on the ease of use, as well as the quality of the photos. It claims that photos taken are now “60% brighter”, meaning better-looking night shots and less blurry photos.

Though the front-facing camera is only 3.7 megapixels (from last year’s 2MP), the Camera app now has this Wide Selfie feature that could let you take panorama-like selfies. While capturing, you can pan left and right up to 120 degrees to create a wide self-portraits without messing with the subjects. The front facing shooter also has an impressive F1.9 aperture.

Battery

At first glance, one might think the battery life on the Note 4 could be subpar, considering its 3220mAh battery is only 20mAh larger that the Note 3’s 3200mAh pack, and has to power a denser Quad HD panel. But Samsung claims that its optimization is so good now that the battery life has been improved by 7.5%. Ultra Power Saving mode introduced earlier is also here, where you could turn the smart device into a feature phone brick to save even more power during emergencies.

Audio

It just goes on and on. The voice recorder has been enhanced too; now with the addition of three new microphones, Note 4 could detect up to 8 distinct directions of where the sound is coming from, in Meeting Mode. In Interview Mode, the noise suppression kicks in and will only pick up a person’s voice while canceling out the ambient noise.

Accessories

There will be a total of six official covers for the Galaxy Note 4:

• Flip Cover is your usual folio-like cover that replaces the back plate and covers the whole display.
• Flip Wallet is like Flip Cover, but it’s a casing that doesn’t replace the back plate.
• S View cover lets you view basic notifications on the top portion of the display.
• LED Cover is similar to HTC’s Dot View Case. I’ll just leave it at that.
• Swarovski back cover. That’s right. Samsung is collaborating with Swarovski to make a crystal-coated back cover that you can replace the Note 4’s original plate with.

Not stopping there, Samsung also partnered with Montblanc to produce two high-end and perhaps the most unnecessary pair of accessories ever — the “classic” Pix and the “contemporary” e-StarWalker styluses. Rather than the compact S Pen that can be tucked away. Montblanc’s full-sized ‘pens’ looks like the real thing, but underneath the cap is an active digitizer that the Note 4 could detect, 2,048 pressure levels and all. It goes without saying that the pens have buttons on the sides too, like the S Pen. The tips can also be swapped to mimic the different friction levels experienced when using real pens.

Montblanc has also made two Note 4 covers, creatively-named Extreme and Soft Grain.

Samsung Galaxy Gifts

Samsung has been offering its Galaxy Gifts for a while now; previously for the Galaxy S5 and Note 3. Even as early as the S III and Note II, Samsung has been offering owners free 50GB of Dropbox storage for two years (my Note II’s 50GB is about to expire in a few weeks). But this portfolio has been expanded ever since; now we’re talking about perks from services such as OnLive, Magisto, and even Parallels.

Other bells and whistles

Disappointingly, there is no water resistant feature here on the Note 4. But instead, the back cover can be replaced with ones that support the Qi wireless charging standard. Other goodies from the S5 are all here: fingerprint scanner, heart rate sensor, S Health, et cetera.

Perhaps one new feature that could be the winning factor, is that the Note 4 now supports fast charging (I remembered how slow the Note 3 charging was with micro-USB 2.0 cables). With the supplied charger, the Note 4 can go from 0% to 50% in about 30 minutes, give or take.

Availability

There is a possibility that Samsung will be doing a concerted global launch, meaning that when the Galaxy Note 4 does roll out on October 2014, we may also get it on the same month. The official retail pricing is not yet known.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 specifications

I’ll leave you now with the official specifications, provided by Samsung itself (apologies for the slightly skewed formatting):

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