Gadgetory

it's past versus present in this look at the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and its predecessor the Galaxy Note 3 when it comes to the overall size and looks the note 4 is actually very similar to the note 3 of course the major design difference is the presence of a metal frame that was originally seen in the recent Galaxy alpha the note 4's corners also come with a bit of a curve to them but it's really not something that is very noticeable this flat side a profile when it comes to that metal frame really helps refine the feel of the note 4 though when you look at the back it is still made of the plastic that was originally introduced in the note 3 that textured plastic that's made to look somewhat like leather though it does lose that stitching from last year but on the front side both of the Samsung handsets have essentially the same iconic look with the physical home button though now the note 4 does add a fingerprint scanner to the formula underneath that home button the note forced front also features what Samsung does refer to as 2.5 D glass which basically just means the edges of the protective glass are a bit rounded for a better look and speaking of that display you can really see it for yourself that both of these devices feature the beautiful crisp Super AMOLED displays that Samsung is very much known for that bring vivid colors deep contrast and excellent viewing angles the screen sizes themselves remain the same though the note 4 now comes with the quad HD resolution and it's very impressive from what we've seen already the pixel density on the note 4 is through the roof over 500 pixels per inch which really Trump's the original galaxy note 3 though we will say that any pixel density above let's say 350 pixels per inch might be a matter of debate as to whether or not it really adds to the sharpness but nonetheless the resolution on the note 4 is sure to bring you a great experience with all media and text as we've seen for example on the Galaxy Tab s line of tablets which all have that quad HD display as well once you get underneath the surface you can bet that the updates needed for the Galaxy Note 4 are definitely here as we are going to get the two versions one that is powered by a Snapdragon 805 processor and the other by samsung's new Exynos octa-core processor as well the two processors are going to be the best on the market right now as we're going to get even the best GPUs underneath as well for all of the gaming pleasure that you might be needing now both of these versions four gigabytes of RAM which should further help with multitasking which has been given a big boost in the galaxy note 4 but even if it's only one year old by now the note 3 is still very respectable in its package with 3 gigabytes of RAM and a powerful Snapdragon 800 or XT nosed processor of its own in terms of hardware the note 4 comes with 16 32 or 64 gigabytes of storage with the obligatory microSD card slot that lets you plug in another up to 128 gigabytes worth the note 3 has the same basically in this front and it's still a really great device for day-to-day usage now while the battery capacity hasn't substantially changed between the two generations we will say that the note 4 comes with the addition of fast charging which we have been told will allow you to fill up to 50% of your battery in just 30 minutes of course when we're talking about hardware we do have to talk about the S Pen and it does mostly look the same as last year's iteration but this time is just a little bit thinner and also gets a bit of a texture design on the actual pen itself for a better handling feel after that the actual touch sensitivity of the s-pen has been improved which paved the way for a couple of new pens inside of the S no application the calligraphy and the fountain pen for you to truly customize the type of strokes that you have when your handwriting your notes and then when it comes to the camera Samsung has finally adopted that optical image stabilization we've always waited for on the note 4 which means you'll get smoother video clearer pictures and possibly even better shots in low light which should give it a bit of a boost over what might otherwise be the same type of experience that you would get on the 13 megapixel camera of the Galaxy Note 3 the front camera has received a nice update that now has a three point seven megapixel unit in the front of the galaxy note 4 with a wide viewing angle 90 degrees as compared to 77 on the note 3 if that's not enough you can use the wide selfie mode to capture an even wider image that is perfect for group selfies and finally we take a look at the software where we see that the Galaxy Note 4 has been given that aesthetic upgrade that the galaxy s5 had which just put it over the top in terms of looks when you compare to the original Note 3 but we also have a lot of enhancements when it comes to the features which include the smart select which lets you copy content from different sources and collect it in one place to be used later in a number of different ways but we also have the updated multitasking features on the note 4 in which from the recent apps screen you see these cards here where you have a little button where you can launch the multi window mode automatically and from there you can actually move in and out of the multi window mode and a floating app mode seamlessly to make the multitasking experience even easier for you but from there we take the S Pen out and we see the Air Command menu which was also tweaked to include the smart select and also be a little bit more streamlined but from there the action memo is easily activated by holding the button down and tapping twice on there and you will be able to have really quick notes because you can easily convert the action memo into an S note note now one other feature is the Selective voice recording mode which takes advantage of the extra mic on the note 3 2 on the bottom and one on the top at this point which lets you record sound that comes from let's say the front and back of the phone only and can detect up to 8 different voices that you can turn on and off in your audio really all these consider you're not losing that much if you stick with the galaxy note 3 when it comes to software but we will say that the additions of the note 4 greatly enhance the kind of experience that was already there so if you want the bleeding edge then you can go for the note 4 and all those enhancements will likely make the experience even better if you compare it to the note 3 and so there you have it for this quick look at the galaxy note 4 versus the galaxy note 3 like we said in the galaxy note 4 first look it is basically an improvement across the board from the galaxy note 3 that we will say that the experience might largely be the same it has just added those little enhancements that might put it over the top for a lot of you out there we definitely love the design and all of these software enhancements we then just make life a little bit easier even if many of those features were already available in the note 3 so keep it tuned to Android authority for all of the best coverage of the galaxy note 4 here at the samsung live event in Berlin for Aoife 2014