IFA 2014: Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Made Official in Berlin
Samsung’s anticipated Galaxy Note 4 has been made official in Berlin as the fourth member of the Note phablet series. Do you want to find out more about it? We are sure that you do, so this is exactly what we have prepared for you! After all, this is our chance to enjoy an elegant look, a Quad HD display and the latest Snapdragon 805 chipset, as well as an impressive 16-megapixel camera and a new S Pen.
New design for Samsung Galaxy Note 4
The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 incorporates the new design introduced by the Galaxy Alpha, so here we have a stylish metal chassis with a high-quality rear plastic cover and protective screen glass with rounded edges and flared corners which prevent your fingers from slipping off the rounded corner. Like that, the handset feels zippier and it is much easier to use than ever before.
Besides the QHD Super AMOLED display, the Note 4 has a very familiar control set at the front. Above the screen we can find the earpiece, a couple of sensors, as well as the new 3.7MP selfie camera, while below the display are the Home button flanked by the capacitive Task Switcher and the usual Back keys. The sides have a Power/lock key on the right, as well as a Volume rocker on the left; two mics, the S-Pen compartment and a microUSB 2.0 port at the bottom. Surprisingly or not, it seems that Samsung has dropped the microUSB 3.0 port in favor of a microUSB 2.0 and we must admit that this is actually a downgrade from the Galaxy Note 3 model.
Moreover, don’t hesitate to flip over the Note 4 and you’ll find a heart-rate monitor, while the S5’s fingerprint scanner integrates into the home button as well. And you can even peel off the back cover in order to access the battery and microSD card slot. So, despite of the fact that Note 4 lacks the water-resistant body that many of you might be dreaming of, there are other advantages that compensate that.
Quad HD resolution, Powerful Processor and OS version
As we have told you from the start, this new Note 4 comes with a quad HD resolution, meaning 2,560×1,440 pixels. The jump from 1,920×1,080 full HD comes with obvious advantages in terms of clarity and sensitivity for graphical movements like gaming.
So, we like the 5.7″ Super AMOLED screen of QHD resolution, but we must also tell you that the handset packs the latest Snapdragon 805 chipset with a quad-core 2.7GHz Krait 450 CPU, an Adreno 420 GPU and 3GB of RAM. And don’t forget that Samsung will be offering us a different version of the Note 4 with its proprietary Exynos 5433 chipset, an octa-core processor with four Cortex-A57 at 1.9GHz and four Cortex-A53 at 1.3GHz, as well as Mali-T760 graphics and 3GB of RAM. The main difference between the two models is that the Snapdragon-powered version offers LTE Cat.6 (300Mbps) connectivity, while the Exynos one stops at LTE Cat.4 (150Mbps).
And don’t forget that the Note 4 model has 32GB internal storage, with the option to expand by 64GB more or that the new device runs on Samsung’s TouchWiz interface on top of Android 4.4 KitKat, just as Galaxy S5 does.
16-megapixel Camera
The new Galaxy Note 4 has the Galaxy S5’s 16-megapixel camera, but it is the first in the Note series to get optical image stabilization, which is a major advantage. This recent version of TouchWiz means there are several settings that are easier to access than in the Note 3, HDR preview mode or improved low-light performance being the best examples for that.
Here we also have an impressive 3.7MP selfie camera with f/1.9 aperture that has 90-degree viewing angles and is capable of 120-degree panoramic shots. And don’t forget that Samsung has even declared that it has improved low-light performance by 60 percent, so we are expecting decent photos taken even in low-light environments.
Battery
The included 3,220mAh battery coming along with a special ultra power-saving mode also found in the company’s Galaxy S5 seems an ideal choice. Samsung claims no less than 24 hours more life with 10 percent of the battery left, not to mention that Note 4’s battery is supposed to charge to 50 percent of its capacity in just half an hour.
Special S-Pen
Have you ever imagined using the new Note 4 without an S-Pen? The new stylus looks a lot like the old one, but don’t be fooled by that. It is slightly thinner and has fine ribs carved in the plastic for better handling, not to mention that it has a new functionality.
To be more precise, you can use it as a mouse on your Note 4 – just drag it around and click with it. Samsung has managed to improve the S-Pen digitizer’s pressure levels from 1024 up to 2048 and added several extra levels of thickness for the drawing pens. As for the new S-Pen widget, it gives you the possibility to take notes straight on your homescreen, while the new Snap Note easily scans whatever you put in front of your camera and then reads all the text and pictures from there.
Dimensions and Color Versions
The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 weighs a few grams more than the Note 3, but at no more than 6.04 x 3.09 x 0.33 inches with a weight of 6.21 oz, you’ll hardly notice it. And don’t forget that we are expecting it in Frosted white, Charcoal black, Bronze Gold and Blossom Pink color versions no later than this October.
Pricing and Availability
Yes, we also know for sure that Samsung will launch the Note 4 in October, with market dates depending on the region and the carrier.
We are used to see the Korean company letting each carrier and retailers to announce their own pricing, but we can already imagine that the cost should not be much different than what we have seen on last year’s model; we are talking about about $300 on-contract in the US and no more than $600 off-contract; about £600 or £650 in the UK, as well as $1,000 in Australia.
So, if all major US carriers: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon are going to release this Samsung Galaxy Note 4 in October, in the UK, O2 has just announced that it will offer the Note 4, from “late September.”
