Gadgetory

there's a new galaxy note about to hit the US and for the third year in a row the question is the same buy the new one or save some cabbage by picking up last year's model i'm michael fisher with pocket now and we're about to find out in samsung galaxy note 4 vs samsung galaxy note 3 these may not look too different on the surface but as usual the real story is in the subtleties in the hand the Galaxy Note 4 is sleeker but larger spelter but more massive simpler yet more sophisticated the stitching that evoked the feel of an old notebook gone that weirdo USB 3.0 port kicked out the fake chrome plastic side rails replaced with an aluminium magnesium alloy even the buttons have gotten a mechanical redo with increased travel and feedback and the display protection on the note 4 is more robust than the note threes with the glass also tapering slightly at the edges rather than writing slightly below the edges as before while the screens are the same diagonal size the resolution takes a huge step up on the note 4 its quad HD versus the Full HD of its predecessor and color accuracy has been improved as well can you discern these improvements with the naked eye honestly it depends on your eyeball then given how fine the detail and how powerful the colors on even the note 3's display the difference here really feels like splitting hairs unless you're downloading a lot of Super HD content one benefit to this added resolution is that minimized memos on the home screen remain readable even at very small sizes so if that's your bag well there you go while things like the display and internals will grab their share of headlines the big difference for us comes down to feel and hand the note lineup is Samsung's showcase for muscle flexing it's where the company shows off how much raw power it can cram into a single handset and in that context the new note doesn't just feel superior in the hand it's fortified construction actually makes more sense and plays a role in telling the story of the note family we're comparing AT&T review units here so our note 3 is actually quite a bit behind the times on its software build well you can obviously get a newer OS on the note 3 on a different carrier or just use a custom launcher the gulf gives us a fun window into how much samsung's interface design has changed in just a year now Samsung's UI remains thick and heavy on each but it's far clunkier on the old note 3 the multitasking screen is a long press of the HOME key away and it's that old multitasking ribbon not the new card like interface with its own dedicated button the gaudy bright colors have been replaced by transparencies on the for those black square high contrast toggles have become friendly low-impact circles and my magazine has been rebranded as briefing and given a much more modern look it's also somewhat faster one of our favorite elements from the note 3 has been expanded in the 4th gen the ability to run two apps side by side in multi window now you can start it right from the card stack you can drag apps into floating windows via a swipe down from the corner you can even collapse them into bubbles like Facebook chat heads and one-handed usability has been further improved a side panel is available that gathers some system controls right under your thumb you can also shrink the entire screen to one side as on the galaxy s5 all these options fall under a dedicated section of the note force settings and it's good to see Samsung thinking smartly about how to make bigger devices easier to use lest you think we've got universal praise for these changes that's not entirely the case the settings screen has been redesigned twice in the years since we saw the note 3 and it's really neither better nor worse there's still an unacceptable delay when calling up briefing or the multitasking screen or other system elements the one-handed mode is difficult to call up consistently and much of the iconography is still cartoonish this is still Samsung software and we go into greater detail on what that means in our full review part of what makes the note the note is the s-pen the only smartphone stylus that makes sense in 2014 the new s-pen is a bit longer than the texturing has been changed but otherwise these are basically identical it's the software that's been redesigned and mostly for the better Samsung added a bunch of s-pen features to last year's Note 3 and while we'd still like to see some of the clutter eliminated there's been some honing here to make it more like the mouse we want it to be you can press and hold the Pens button to highlight text which you can then copy or share more easily or you can hold the button and drag a box around multiple files to select them all and the Wacom digitizer pressure sensitivity has been doubled on the new note allowing for more precise doodling among other things shortcomings do remain of course auto scrolling with the s-pen still won't happen in some apps while it will and others annoying also the s-pen itself now feels a bit cheap and plasticky next to this year's metal rimmed handset and some interface wrinkles persist even after four generations of note but overall we're happy with the new features and we're glad Samsung continues to improve one of the notes halo differentiators the jump from 13 to 16 megapixels isn't the cool part of the new notes camera versus the old one it's the optical image stabilization the note 4 brings to the equation which gives the new phone a much smoother viewfinder experience lets it shoot video with reduced handshake and helps it take longer exposures in low light modes sure enough the note 4 delivers much better focus and truer colors in those darker settings especially where the previous generation struggled with artificial light differences are harder to make out in broad daylight but look closer and change up the illumination a little and you'll see how the camera has gotten better at fighting blowout in overexposed areas colors are also more authentic now in artificial lighting the enhanced contrast and the added resolution make photos noticeably crisper and cleaner on the note 4 even in less than ideal shooting situations there seems to be a slightly wider field of view on the note 4 as well which helps when framing close shots and HDR mode is just as effective at drawing up detail from the darkness videos a little smoother but the real benefit to the note Forest camcorder is that it keeps focus more easily other improvements are in line with what we saw on the stilt and all we're very pleased with the optical upgrade here we criticized the note 3 for its lack of adaptability and Samsung seems to have taken the criticism to heart even the front-facing camera on the note 4 brings much less noise and blur than its predecessor a note is more than an S Pen more than a big chassis as much as anything else Note stands for horsepower then the fourth generation takes it up a notch in the specs departments the silicon on our us review unit is a Snapdragon 805 versus the 800 in the year ago model with a faster clock speed and enhanced graphics processing the ram count is the same though as is the 32 gigs of on-board storage and the microSD expansion not the same is acoustic performance noise cancellation has been improved on the revised note which comes in handy whenever the breeze kicks up Samsung has moved the speaker from the bottom edge back to its former position on the back cover which to be honest we're not happy with but in doing so the company has made the speaker louder and clearer so we'll call it a draw that added audio punch is also appreciated when gaming where the note 4 keeps up the family honor we put it through our trio of high demand games and found nothing to complain about in terms of graphics or framerate and just like last year's note there's not even that much heat coming off it in stress tests what we're mainly concerned about with heavy use like this is battery life and despite its higher resolution screen and nearly identical battery capacity as last year the note 4 seems to keep pace with its predecessor in this department the new note also lets you go dimmer on the display and it brings ultra power saving mode and much faster charging taking all that into account the 4 is probably the one we'd want with us on a binge browsing session if you're wondering when we'll talk about the heart rate sensor and fingerprint scanner or how the note 4 performs all on its own good news we've got all that waiting for you in the full video review up now for this comparison which generation of note will be a better fit for you will depend on whether you're a pragmatist or someone more fanciful if it's the former well last year's note holds up pretty well its screen is still beautiful and its capabilities still outstrip most of today's large format smartphones if you really need to save money but really want to note the note 3 is still a good purchase if you're an appreciator of the finer things though and you have the dead presidents to spare the note 4 is a significantly better device it looks better it feels much better in every respect and its revised software is at least an improvement if not a quantum leap if only a few weeks worth of saving is the difference between buying last year's note and this year's well you're better off being patient with your pennies because the note 4 is certainly worth it again for more detail check out our full review of the Galaxy Note 4 and tune in for our special note 4 edition of the pocket and weekly podcast Friday October 17th and also please subscribe if you haven't already until the next video this has been michael fisher with PocketNow reminding you to keep your s-pen safely siloed when you're not scrawling we'll see you next time you you know what I really want to do is one of those sit-down takes flight yeah weird like yeah no Jeff don't say not the host car