I went hs-on with both the Galaxy Note 4 Galaxy Note ge at IFA in Berlin, where both devices were just announced. They each exist to serve a particular purpose, while the Galaxy Note 4 seems like a worthy product, I’m still scratching my head about the utility of the Note ge.
The best Note yet
In my 20 minutes of woman-hling the Galaxy Note 4 I can already say that I feel more optimistic about it than I did about its predecessor. The Galaxy Note 4 looks feels better than any other Galaxy Note device I’ve held. Its matte–faux-metal trim on the edges are a seriously nice touch I like how pearly white the rest of the chassis is. Its backside still sports that faux-leather outfitting, but if you’re sick of that you could always break the bank to get the Swarovski version, which is fabulously gaudy. As for the rest of the phone, you’re seeing the same great Super AMOD technology Samsung used with the Galaxy S5 packed into a Quad HD, 2560×1440 resolution display. I maintain that Samsung’s smartphone displays are still too saturated for my liking. The company also swears that the display’s increase in pixels won’t affect its 3,220mAh battery pack, but I’m skeptical about that, too. I’ll be looking forward to seeing how it performs in an official battery test. Samsung also touted its new voice recording capabilities its ability to recognize different voices at once. As a journalist, I definitely appreciate that capability, but I’m more concerned about that rear-facing speaker. It’s still just one measly little speaker that’s putting out all of the Galaxy Note 4’s sound, it still sounds strained. y won’t Samsung convert to front-facing speakers? Of course, I can’t write about the Galaxy Note 4 without writing about its wide-angle selfie mode. Unfortunately, it uses Samsung’s panoramic abilities to take the photo, which resulted in a messy-looking selfie (seen above). Can you imagine asking your friends to hold still while you pan from left to right to take the photo?
The S n returns
My penmenship never did transfer very well to the screen via Samsung’s S n, but this new version is huge improvement. The pen offers textured feedback, making it easier for those of us who normally write messily press hard on a piece of paper to actually write on the Note 4’s screen. I didn’t feel like the stylus was slipping sliding from edge to edge. In its presentation, Samsung said that Mutli ndow users had complained that the feature was hard to find get working. I don’t think the new version is easier to use than previous versions, but I attribute that partly to the fact that I’m still not entirely used to using a stylus on a smartphone. I’ve been using my fingers to do things for years I’ve never had a Galaxy Note as a daily driver. And for the most part, if you’re not using the stylus to do things like Multi ndow, you might get frustrated at how tedious it is to move windows apps around. Or maybe I’m just afraid of change.
A curved-edge phone is a gimmick
Imagine this: Samsung stopped production on he Galaxy Note 4 swapped out the regular flat screens with curved Super AMODs. It’s called the Galaxy Note ge, it features a display that drops off steeply on the right-h side. This particular area of the screen acts like a scrolling ticker of sorts—as if you didn’t already feel bombarded by information on a constant basis. I didn’t have a chance to see what other apps look like on the curved portion of the phone, but I wasn’t particularly impressed with the ticker’s different abilities. I think Samsung jumped the gun on this product, just so it could say it was first. It risks another company taking the curved screen idea making it better, however, thus making a mockery of this device. ’ll have more on either phones later this fall when when we get a chance to spend more time with the devices suss out how they perform in the real world.
