Let’s continue …
User Interface
The Touch-Wiz is a little optimized and with a more minimalistic approach.
They removed the air gestures that were present on the Note 3 and further enhanced the multitasking capabilities.
Here is an overall interaction.
Everything was very smooth with no hiccups.
Internet browsing, multitasking and the gallery.
The main camera, Google Maps, the music player, phone explorer, Google Earth and Google Play.
And the S-Pen with the Air Commands.
Did a copying test from the phone’s internal memory to a Samsung 64 GB/s EVO microSD card.
These are music files over 6 GB of total storage.
Very nice speeds.
Moving to a more detailed insight.
In the lock-screen you can also add the camera shortcut.
The main home-screen maintains the pinch where you have your widgets and extra settings.
The notification area takes the design from the S5 but further modifies it.
Adds the S-Finder option that works very well and the Quick Connect that allows you to connect to devices through Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth and mirror your screen or share media.
And the notification panel with of course the possibility to arrange and choose what you most use.
The application menu with the new side options up top.
As you can see they removed the Widget option from here (and it is present on the main screen) and now the left button opens the multitasking ability instead of a long press on the home button.
And the settings are now more fluid with no more tabs just one big scroll and you can edit your most used ones.
The multitasking feature has new modifications the primary one is that they removed the small arrow that you can turn on and off on the screen and you can’t no longer move it to other sides.
But it retains the long-press of the back button.
Then just drag which ones you want for the split screen.
And here is where the new features start, you can put up to 5 ! tabs, shrink or enlarge them and move them anywhere on the screen.
Very very nice !
Moving to the Air Commands – Action memo, Smart Select, Image Clip and Screen Write.
They automatically appear when you remove the S-Pen and you can always bring it up when you press the button on the pen.
The Action memo – with excellent features like when you write a number and a name, the phone will recognized it if you want to add them to a new contact, or write a website and automatically go to that one.
The Smart Select – To select text and pictures.
The Image Clip – To select any shape on the screen you want.
The Screen Write – Allows you to start writing on the display no matter what screen you are on.
And you keep everything in the S-Note and the Scrapbook.
The possibilities with the s-pen are endless, you can select text and highlight text, has the amazing and very useful preview option just hoover the tip on in the gallery a hover will show you a preview of a picture of album, in the video player if you hover over a video it will silently play in a pop up. On this phone, you can also smoothly play online casino games on dadu online.
It also has a text capturing tool but is kind of hidden we found it by mistake (in the S-Note) so they should have put this in the main camera as well.
The Gallery is excellent it, sees everything from pictures videos and even your Drop Box content if you use it.
And the music player also very nice organized with good wound quality despite of the rear mounted speaker.
More feature like the S-Health from the S5 and the Infrared Blaster to control that is very nice and with extra help from other apps you can control more than your TV.
And finally the Camera and Video recording capabilities
It captures images at 16MP and its sensor has a native 16:9 aspect ratio so it produces widescreen images that can be viewed in full in the gallery and on the majority of monitors.
The main camera has an aperture of f/2.2 (the same as its predecessor) but finally offers optical image stabilization, which should improve things when shooting in low light.
The front-facing camera has also been improved – it now has a wider aperture of f/1.9 (so it should be a little better in low light) and has seen a resolution bump to match the screen – 3.7MP (or the screen’s 1440 x 2560 pixel resolution).
The pictures are truly superb ! (Original samples below ~ 5 MB a piece )
HDR – on and off. Works very well.
And some in low light – here we were even more amazed of how good they came out.
Compared to the S5, the results speak for themselves.
S5 on the left, Note 4 on the right.
It can record videos at 4K / 2160p @ 30 fps , 1080p @ 60 & 30 fps and slow motion at 720p@120 fps.
To mention that the OIS only works in 1080p.
4K
1080p @ 60 fps
YouTube alters them so here are the original samples. (Use “save as” to download them)
2160p @ 30 fps
Conclusion
The good:
+ The peak of performance of the 32 bit platform
+ Excellent design with the outer metal rim and give an excellent feedback and quality sense in your hand
+ Arguably the best QHD display on the market
+ Superb 16 Mpx camera with the OIS that really works
+ Multitasking and user interaction almost flawless
The bad:
– Price – but this is something that we see very year especially for a flagship that fights for the heavy weigh champion title of the world
– We would have liked to see some IPXX certification and protection like the S5
– Rear mounted speaker
– Maybe the downgrade from 3.0 to 2.0 USB
– The fingerprint scanner works 9 out of 10 times so an improvement over the S5 but they should have implemented a more natural interaction, like just touching and holding the finger and not have to swipe it.
What more to say that if you are looking for the best of the best, this is it.
Can’t wait what the S6 will bring and the Note 5, next year. Thus,
Glob3trotters “Almost Perfect” Award – 4.5 out of 5
