Take 4: The Note
The first thing you’ll notice about the new Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is that it’s extremely light at 176g and feels quite posh despite its plastic rear cover. Seriously Samsung, enough with the plastic fetish.
Since you should never judge a smartphone by its plastic cover, let us focus on what lies beneath. The Note 4 runs on a quad-core 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 processor with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and external memory capabilities of up to 128GB via a microSD card.
It features a 5.7-inch display with a quad-HD resolution of 2560x1440, which you would notice instantly as one of the sharpest displays you have ever seen on a mobile device.
Aesthetically, the Note 4 doesn’t feature a revolutionary design that sets it apart from the rest. It bears several similarities to its predecessor except for a thin metal edge at its front and rear.
The device features an intuitive fingerprint sensor built into its home button in front and a fitness sensor on the back, below the rear camera. Its S Health feature includes a pedometer, and a sleep, weight and food tracker, while the fitness sensor measures the amount of oxygen in your blood, your heart rate, how stressed you are and outdoor UV intensity.
Since it’s a Note, users are blessed with the S Pen. One of its major positive points is pressure sensitivity. But the S Pen is also extremely light — I had hoped Samsung would make it a little top heavy so it rests comfortably between your index finger and thumb when you write. Unfortunately, it is so light that it feels like you’re writing with six toothpicks sellotaped together.
One main feature of the Note 4 that deserves a mention is its camera. It is phenomenal. The device uses 16MP rear and 3.7MP front cameras — powerful upgrades when compared to the 13MP (rear) and 2MP (front) cameras on the Note 3.
The camera also features a wide range of in-built modes such as a rear-cam selfie and a virtual tour and the device is capable of UHD 4K video recording as well.
