Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Note 4, the phablet that has been the subject of intense media rumour and speculation, at its Unpacked event in Berlin. We were one of the lucky few able to put the handset to the test ahead of time, in order to bring your some early hands-on first impressions.
As predicted in a string of leaks ahead of the official announcement, the Galaxy Note 4 has a 5.7in, QHD resolution AMOLED display. That means 2,560x1,440 pixels, equalling the LG G3 smartphone and Samsung's highest resolution handset to date. It's a simply beautiful display, with vibrant colours, deep blacks, great viewing angles and incredible detail. It looked brighter than our Galaxy S5 when placed side-by-side, and it was impossible to make out individual pixels without a magnifying glass.
Samsung has used what it calls 2.5D glass on the front of the handset, with slightly rounded edges and corners to fool the eye into thinking whatever's onscreen is closer than it looks. It's an interesting effect that certainly does its job; videos in particular had a clarity we've not seen from a smartphone before.
Despite having the same size screen as the Galaxy Note 3, the Note 4 stands out thanks to its metal frame. Taking design cues from the Galaxy Alpha, the metal entirely surrounds the front glass and rear faux leather cover (that's right, fleather makes a return whether you like it or not), giving it strength and rigidity as well as looking every bit like the premium handset. It also has the premium features added to the Galaxy range by the S5, including a fingerprint sensor built into the home button and heart rate monitor on the back.
If you're used to large handsets the Galaxy Note 4 won't feel unwieldy in your hands; the curved frame edges, rounded glass and thin chassis meant we could concentrate on using the phone, rather than worry about losing our grip and dropping it.
As the Note 4 has the same dimensions as the Note 3, Samsung hasn't found room inside to add a bigger battery; the 3,220mAh cell is removable, and supports fast charging, meaning you can top it up to 50% in half an hour for when you're in a rush. Interestingly, Samsung has used a standard microUSB connection rather than the USB3 port it used on the Note 3 and Galaxy S5, suggesting users weren't seeing the benefit of faster transfer speeds.
Samsung has improved the cameras on the front and back of the handset versus the Note 3. On the rear, the 16-megapixel sensor last seen in the Galaxy S5 is upgraded with optical image stabilisation, helping reduce camera shake and letting you capture blur-free photos. We weren't able to take our test shots away with us, so we'll reserve judgment until a full review.
The front-facing camera uses a 3.7-megapixel sensor with an f/1.9 aperture, meaning it captures 60% more light than the previous generation, and the 90 degree field of view is roughly 20 degrees wider than that of the Note 3. Never one to miss an opportunity to add extra software features, Samsung has included a Wide Selfie mode for capturing up to 120 degrees in a single image; by tilting the phone to the left and right, you can capture yourself and your friends in one go. Our trial run looked a little distorted, so we'll have to wait for the final firmware to see how it performs in real life. You can also double tap the HRM to snap a photo rather than stretch to hit the onscreen button.
Samsung has tweaked its Touchwiz user interface yet again for the Note 4, upgrading all the text, icons and UI elements to support the higher resolution screen and borrowing a few design ideas from Google. The Recent Apps window appears as a stack of tiles, just like Android L, although an icon next to compatible tiles throws you straight into the Multi Window mode for multitasking.
Of course the Note 4 includes Samsung's S Pen stylus and S Note software, which have both received upgrades for 2014. The pen itself is made of a new, grippier material and now supports up to 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. This has opened the door for two new brush effects, calligraphy and fountain pen, which as their names suggest mimic their real world equivalents.
Smart Select has been added to the air command menu; it's able to select multiple objects and save them independently, or import them all together into the relevant app. Pulling down from the top right corner of the screen automatically turns the currently open app into a floating one, that you can display over the top of other apps. You can now use the pen like a PC mouse too, clicking and dragging to select anything onscreen to save to your scrapbook. The most impressive new addition is Snap Note, which takes a photo of writing and converts it into an editable object. It can capture at an angle, then flatten the image, with every line available to edit independently of the rest of the image.
Even with all these customisations to Android 4.4 Kitkat, the Note 4 feels incredibly fast thanks to the Snapdragon 805 processor. It's the fastest mobile chip Qualcomm makes, running each of its four cores at a whopping 2.7GHz, and is paired with 3GB of RAM. You also get 32GB of storage as standard (no 16GB version here) and the option to add more using the microSD card slot. There will also be an Exynos version of the phone, with the only other difference being the internal modem; the Samsung-powered handset will support Category 4 LTE bands, while the Qualcomm version will support the faster Category 6. We were told both models would be launching in Europe, but it's not clear which one will come to the UK.
We got to try both models, and they felt flawlessly smooth; even with multiple apps open on screen at once, it showed no signs of lag or slowdown. We can't wait to get one in to our labs and run a full set of benchmarks on it to see exactly how powerful it is.
Until Samsung reveals a price and availability, we don't know how the Note 4 will shape up against the competition, but based on our short time with the phone fans of big screen Android phablets have a new object of desire. It's expected to launch later in the year in a choice of frosted white, charcoal black, bronze gold and blossom pink colours.
We're hoping to bring you a full review a little closer to launch.
