A Note on Note 4

February 3, 2015 | By Rakhitha | Filed in: Me, Myself & I, Tech.

Note 4 Box FrontNote 4 Box Back

I bought myself a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 couple of days ago. Plan was to replace the need for a phone, tablet / kindle and a personal laptop with a single device. Because I am not a big fan of taking care of too many gadgets. This would also greatly simplify my digital existence. After playing with the new phablet for couple of days, here is what I think of it.

What I liked most was obviously the 5.7 inch QHD screen. If you are moving from a phone to a phablet, it is a game changer. Many of the work that would need a tablet or a laptop such as reading, writing, checking / sending e-mails can be done with ease once you have a screen of this size.

I am one of those people who hated using on-screen touch keyboards. Because I could never hit the correct key without touching nearby keys. But with a larger screen, that never happened. Keys are larger and there is plenty of space between keys.

Voice recognition and s-pen make writing feel lot more natural. Both need connection to internet to work with acceptable accuracy. I tried to dictate this post using voice recognition. But it was lot slower than typing. Now I am writing this using s-pen. It takes a bit of getting used to. But this makes writing something that you can do anywhere, any place. However if you write for a longer time you might get a bit of a pain in the hand. This is no different from writing with pen on paper. I never felt that when typing.

Note 4 comes with an Octa-core CPU and 3GB of RAM. This means apps run smoothly. 32GB storage means you can install a lot of apps without needing a memory card. In fact I am yet to buy a SD card.

Battery is enough to last for one and half days. However pre-loaded Facebook app drains the battery a lot so I replaced it with Facebook Lite. charging took only one and half hours with the fast charger.

Camera is pretty good. I was quite impressed with image stabilization. I was able to take pictures from a moving train and buses without any issues. It produced good results during both day and night. However it has same problem that all cameras in phones has. It is a tiny sensor that get light from a tiny hole.

LTE enabled means you have fast internet anywhere you go. This going to seriously change your usage habits. In my case I ran out of my free data allowance within first hour of buying the phone. Also this meant that my 3.5G Mobile WiFi router is slower than my phone.

Now comes the part that I did not like.

It’s a large phone. Which means you have to relearn how to handle it. For example, it took me a while to learn how to hold the phone in a stable way using only one hand for taking pictures. Also if you are not being careful you might misplace s-pan. It does not come out on its own. But when you get it out make sure to put it back or loose it. There is a feature to remind you if you walk out without having the s-pen in its place holder. But some say it drains the battery. And also if you are forgetful, it will probably not help much. But with all the good things this is noting.

I haven’t played with any other sensors or features other than above and some apps. Probably I never will. Because for me a phone is another computer that is small enough to hold in my hand. But based on what I experienced I am already loving it.


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