The Galaxy Note 4 has been one of the best Samsung phones ever, but since we're so close
to the launch of the Note 5, is it still worth it?
So to decide wheter it is still worth buying I'm going to check its absolute value and
its capabilities compared to the present state of art in the smartphone world.
Let's begin with a quick recap of the specs. The Note 4 sports a 5.7" Super AMOLED Quad
HD display, at an insane 515 pixels-per-inch resolution. All of those pixels are pushed
by its Snapdragon 805 and its 3 Gigs of RAM. The expandable storage allows for a real use
of its 16 Megapixels rear-facing shooter, capable of 4K video in 30p, Full HD in 60p
and 120p Slow Motion in 720 HD. To keep you going with all of that all day
long you have the pretty big 3220 mAh battery, quick-charging, and of course the standard
connectivity package from WiFi to LTE to Bluetooth 4.1.
To be honest, that spec-sheet is a pretty solid presentation by itself, but what about
actual everyday usage? Well, the Note 4 has been my daily driver
in the last few months, and I can guarantee you that my experience as been nothing less
than fantastic. Awesome screen quality, great battery life,
great camera, solid connectivity and overall really enjoyable experience.
To be honest, I still don't dig the Touchwiz interface, which no matter how hard you try
keeps popping up, but you can hide it pretty well if you want to.
Something I still don't like is the multitasking, which still feels unexplainably sluggish.
Again, other than that, really really solid experience. For more thoughts on the whole
software experience, you can check our full review in the links right below that like
button.
As for the hardware and design, the phone definitely looks and feels solid in the hand,
thanks to the metal band around the sides, which is light-years ahead of the fake metal
on the Note 3. I did expect it to be really durable, and
it was: I've used it consistently since I got it, and it has no aging signs whatsoever,
it really held up well, and I dig it. The removable back cover has also turned out
to be useful for some quick battery switches, but you could also easily buy a third-party
back cover and change its look whenever you want.
Finally, the glass on front also held up perfectly, zero scratches, still perfect as day one,
so yeah, totally a durable phone and I would recommend it even to the less careful users
out there, maybe accompanied by a solid case.
So when it comes to the phone itself, I still hold the same opinion I had when I first reviewed
it: ridiculously good hardware, somewhat limited by a not-so-great software.
However, all of that considered, it does not imply that you can't find something better,
so what about the competition? Right now, there are quite a few phones that
can compete in the same range as the Note 4: the first that come to mind are the iPhone
6 Plus, the LG G4, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the newly announced OnePlus Two and Moto X
Style. And if you compare it side by side with each
one of these, you'll have a bad time in proclaiming a winner.
Some will have a slightly better camera, some will have a smaller footprint, or maybe a
marginally faster processor, but that's it: marginal improvements.
At the present state of art, you won't find a phone that you take a look at and you say
"Wow, that is much better than the Note 4". And I think that will still hold true when
the Note 5 comes out.
So at the end of the day, is the Galaxy Note 4 still worth it?
In my opinion, absolutely yes. It still has top-notch specs, it still holds
up really well to the latest flagships, and with the Note 5 release its price will only
go down, making it even a better buy than it already is.
So for me that was it for this video, but I'd love to know your opinion on the matter,
and there's a wide open comment section right below just for that; also feel free to leave
a thumbs up if you enjoyed this one, thanks for watching, and I'll see you guys, in the
next one.
Expandable Storage via MicroSD, which seems to be missing in all the major flagships...