Gadgetory

Samsung turned a lot of heads with the unveiling of its new Galaxy Note 5 last week but it also stirred up some discontent for all the style it brings to the lineup the newest note also omits a few features the line has carried since its inception alienating some of the fan base that catapulted it to popularity this week rival smartphone maker LG capitalized on some of the controversy trying to entice fans away from the note and onto its newest smartphone so we thought it worth asking if that's a jump worth making I'm Michael Fisher with PocketNow and let's find out with galaxy note 5 vs. LG g4 you know those comparisons where the phones are practically the same - a few little details yeah this isn't one of those about the only thing the note 5 and g4 have in common is that there are each roughly rectangular and even that falls apart from some angles let's start with the note 5 Samsung's handset does retain some elements of the Note legacy one of which is the philosophy of bigger is better its display is larger more vibrant and much brighter than the GeForce it's powered by a burlier processor with more RAM it's got a wider range of sensors including blood oxygen and fingerprint readers and the close range radios for Samsung pay and in a purely physical sense it's more massive which joins with the glass and metal construction to make it feel significantly more lavish but more fragile and fingerprint prone than the g4 naturally the Samsung phone also packs the accessory that makes a note a note the S Pen Stylus tucked away in its silo on the bottom edge which makes possible everything from quick memo jotting to contract signing to precision scrolling the g4 may not pack a stylus but it does offer something just as compelling to some folks a removable back panel that opens the way for a user replaceable battery letting users carry a fresh pack around and swap it in when they need to there's also an expansion slot here providing a path to more storage for the price of a micro SD card the removable backplate itself is another standout it allows a user to customize the g4s look and feel or add features like wireless charging like the cover glass up front the battery door is also slightly curved making the girthier g4 a more comfortable to hold than the note 5 unlike Samsung LG has also retained the venerable IR transmitter allowing you to flip channels with your phone rather than your remote as with any feature faced off you're going to need to decide for yourself which of those you value and which you can live without and that degree of personal preference also extends to the hardware controls Samsung keeps it consistent with physical home button and capacitive companion keys with conventional side mounted volume controls LG gives up some screen real estate for software buttons and expands the camera bezel round back to accommodate its rear key control collective it takes some getting used to but it's cool once you do on the software side both LG and Samsung hold on to the past but only one of them pulls it off Samsung retains the look and feel of previous generations of the interface formerly known as TouchWiz but it's substantially sleeker and smoother in this generation with a more modern look partially inspired by Google's material design and if you don't like the look you can change it up using Samsung's built-in theming engine and it's attached store LG offers its own theme store for the g4 but its themes are less impressive and don't hook as deeply into the interface moreover the stock themes mishmash of circles and squares earth tones and pastels was already pretty struggling when it first debuted and the three months scents have done little to cure the beatings from the ugly stick to be fair it does offer some stuff that Samsung doesn't like the context-sensitive smart notice widget and the quick toggle to some of the notification shade but the note 5 hits right back with a wider assortment of multitasking choices and a more cohesive and consistent feeling overall while LG is Q memo might earn it a convenience point or two in any other comparison the note 5s S Pen just destroys it and in the higher density dpi setting of the notes display and you're left with the sense that only one of these is a true phablet in the literal sense that is a smartphone that can take the place of a tablet Samsung's earlier galaxy s6 made a big splash in the Android camera space and the galaxy note 5 basically imports that same shooter an optically stabilized 16 megapixel sensor with an F 1.9 aperture and a view finder offering both automatic and manual controls not to be outdone the g4 brings an optically stabilized camera of the same resolution with an even larger aperture and laser autofocus as well as a viewfinder that provides even more granular control of manual settings you can take exposures up to three times as long and set the ISO over three times as high with the g4 both of these are also capable of raw shooting and the size of those dmg files is one of the most compelling arguments for the g4 s microSD card to hardly add results these are so close that sometimes I can't tell the difference the g4s laser autofocus does help but resolve the shot in very dark settings that the note 5s phase detection can't quite deal with but Samsung's manual focus is available to correct for that otherwise sometimes I prefer the note 5 shot and sometimes I favor the g4s one isn't consistently better than the other in fact these are so close then I'm going to take a break from talking for a minute and let you see for yourself these are just stills by the way video samples can be found in the full reviews as we tie off the loose ends with some test notes these phones trade punch for punch sometimes in the same category so get ready for some butts the note 5 speaker is in a better position for facedown listening and speaker phone calls but it's a worse location for gaming because it's more easily blocked and it's not as bass E as the geforce driver if you stick to earphones you'll like the note 5 better as it's capable of louder output it possibly thanks to the differences in audio controllers if it's call quality that tickles your Tim panics we can't directly compare these as they're on different networks but the g4s shape does make for a more comfortable handset for what that's worth the added RAM in the note 5 makes me tempted to call it out for superior app juggling and indeed the note 5 does feel smoother and silkier than the g4 here in everyday taps and swipes but at this point it's a little premature to render a performance verdict here and the same goes for endurance impressions thus far the Samsung has been giving us about four to four and a half hours of screen on time per cycle which is exactly on par with the battery life we got from the g4 during our initial review period but and this is the final but remember that the g4 lets you carry a spare battery in your pocket to pop in on the fly so is the g4 as suitable stand-in for disillusioned note fans looking for an alternative well if you noted all the differences we called out earlier you'll probably already know the answer now man despite the sacrifices the note 5 makes it's still a damn solid smartphone at the leading edge of the high-end in some ways it's an even better phablet than before and the features the g4 presents as analogs really aren't as good so if what you want is an abundance of excellence the note 5 is your ticket it's a different story if you don't really care about our tablet replacement and just want a more versatile smartphone the g4 has some concrete wins here in its chameleon equality and hardware extensibility and it brings a camera that's just as good or better than the note 5 also the g4 is $300 cheaper at least a t-mobile's full retail price that kind of savings is tough to dismiss if you can get past its underwhelming software the g4 is a better choice for the more pragmatic purchaser especially if you can score a deal on a spare battery and charger well your our full review of the Galaxy Note 5 is still waiting in the wings folks stay tuned for that both here on YouTube and at pocketnow.com and hey feel free to share this comparison on the social if you did enjoy it till next time this has been michael fisher captain two phones on twitter reminding you that we're happy to have you whether you go for the next big thing or decide to feel the good feel the great thanks for watching everyone we'll see you next time