Gadgetory

you could basically call this an improvement on the previous note in every way hey it's Joshua regard from Android Authority and this is your first look at the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 as always we're going to start off with the design and yes you can finally rejoice that the galaxy line now is including metal in their designs you really do have to feel this to believe it as the flat size with this metal frame really make this feel like a great device in the hand especially over the original note 3 which we thought was a pretty good design to begin with you can see here the metal on the sides and we also have quite a bit on the top and bottom where all of the different ports are going to be held it is essentially the same design as you remember from before except this metal frame really enhances the feel but on the back you still get that faux leather that has that textured feel to it and does feel pretty comfortable in the hand still the obvious improvement when it comes to the display is in regards to the resolution you now get quad HD resolution in this 5.7 inch screen which allows you to really enjoy a lot of media as you can see in this video right here which looks very vibrant because of that super amoled display and on top of all of that you also get a pixel density of over 500 pixels per inch which makes for a great experience when it comes to text in the short time we've already had to play with the Galaxy Note 4 we really enjoyed what we were seeing when it came to this display performance continues to get the needed boosts as this year you will still be able to get this version of the note with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 or the Exynos that they will have for in other versions of the phone but the performance is still as great as it can be especially with all that this phone can do speaking of the hardware we do get an extra microphone on this phone this time with two on the bottom and one on the top as you're seeing right now what this allows is for selective recording where you will be able to put the phone down and it will be able to detect the voices and sounds of eight different directions in order for you to turn off or turn on various voices you can see the extra mic here right now but also we have that USB port on the bottom and we do have something to say about the fast charging that Samsung has apparently introduced here while we weren't able to really test it ourselves apparently it will get up to half a charge in 30 minutes which were super excited to test out and then we move on to the cameras which have their own improvements as well it's a 16 megapixel resolution on the rear facing camera but now also comes with smart oh is I know that optical image stabilization is huge for a lot of you smartphone photographers out there but the front-facing camera has also been bumped up to 3.7 megapixels and an F 1.9 aperture to really make the selfie game a lot better for all of you what you're seeing here is a 120-degree a selfie mode which allows you to use a panorama mode to get everyone in your shot so you will be able to get the best selfies that you can possibly get and finally in software we will obviously do a focus on the S Pen in a little bit but we did want to say that TouchWiz continues to do its improvements despite looking pretty much the way that we would expect it to but multitasking has been given a big focus here as the recent apps screen right here has been enhanced now to be able to allow you activation of multi window straight from it as you can see here I'm activating these two different applications gallery and Facebook but I'm also being able to create a floating Facebook here on the fly just by holding the dot in the middle you will see that multitasking has really become a bit streamlines because you can go in between all of these different modes especially on the fly even with apps like the camera and the Apple is for multi window and floating apps has been expanded somewhat to allow you to be able to use a lot of different applications at once in any way or fashion that you choose but of course I want to be a note device without the S Pen and as far as the actual pen itself goes it has been given a bit of a thinner profile but also some texture on it but it's largely the same pen that you remember from the note 3 with some added functionality we do still have the air command menu but it has been changed somewhat a little bit I'll start off with the action memo which allows you to take notes on the fly already and after that you can manipulate the text inside of the note in order to perform a number of tasks but now you also have a shortcut on the bottom right of the note which allows it to convert into an S note application now speaking of s notes there have been a couple of pens introduced here the calligraphy pen and the fountain pen which take advantage of the now enhanced touch recognition the pressure sensitivity of the S Pen to give you even more freedom over what kind of strokes you have on the actual screen itself in order to really make your handwriting your own voice memos typed notes and handwritten notes are all still par for the course when it comes to the note device but probably the biggest enhancement here has been the snap mode it is addition that allows you to snap a picture of any surface items let's say handwriting on it and it will be able to recognize what is handwriting and what can be used as images and I'm doing that exactly here with my notes in which the section on design that you can see will be manipulate like handwriting is in the S note application I will be able to select the entire block by holding the button down with the S Pen and then dragging down much like you would with a mouse and then from there I'll be able to take all the information and paste it somewhere else it is also editable in the way that you are able to edit handwriting and within that I can erase the writing and add more to it that selection that you are that you saw already with the handwriting also applies to other places as well you can use the s pen like a mouse and you will be able to select a lot of different elements at once by holding down that button and dragging and so there you have it for this first look at the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 there are so many enhancements across the board and we really like what we see that even this video that I've given you it doesn't really feel like it's even scratching the surface for example the heart rate monitor on the back can now be tapped while using the front facing camera to easily take selfies but that's only another example of further enhancements that Samsung has been putting into the note line and in this particular version we do feel like the note line has matured to what we feel like it should have been this whole time the metal frame around allows it have a very great feel in the hand the software enhancements especially with multitasking really give it an even better feel and of course the s-pen is a better companion even now for all of you who love to handwrite notes and to be able to jot anything down on the fly stay tuned to android authority for all of the best coverage of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 we will have plenty more for you especially with our coverage at Aoife and also at Samsung's unpacked event where we will see even more devices that Samsung is putting up for this year so until then keep it tuned here at Andrew authority because we are your source for all things Android