We go hands-on with Samsung’s latest phablet

Samsung has officially unveiled the Galaxy Note 4 to their eagerly waiting fans. As we expected, the Note 4 wasn’t a big departure from the previous device, with Samsung simply iterating from the Note 3’s design. That doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s absolutely amazing to look at and hold, and comes packing hardware that’s up to the challenge of asserting its place at the top of the smartphone food-chain.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

• Samsung Exynos Octa processor (1.9GHz quad-core processor + 1.3GHz quad-core processor)
• Mali-T760 GPU
• 3GB of RAM
• 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED display, Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2560 x 1440 resolution
• 32GB of storage, expandable via microSD
• 16-megapixel rear camera with AF and Smart OIS
• 3.7-megapixel front camera with f1.9 lens
• WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, A-GPS
• 3G, LTE
• Android 4.4 KitKat with TouchWiz UI
• 3200mAh battery

Initial Impressions: A refined phablet experience

Several leaks of the Note 4 has been released before in the web, suggesting a metal frame, a move away from the plastic designs of Samsung’s previous products. As the Galaxy Alpha showed, Samsung can apparently do metal well, and that’s what they did with the Galaxy Note 4. We’re not entirely sure if the entire chassis is made of metal or it’s just the sides, but regardless, this is a step in the right direction for Samsung’s design language.

While the Note 4 has the same display size compared with the Note 3 at 5.7-inches, the resolution has been bumped up to QHD (2560 x 1440). The Note 4 uses Samsung’s Super AMOLED panel, producing extremely beautiful colors and contrast. If you’ve ever seen the Tab S up close, the experience is pretty similar.

The Note 4 still comes bearing Samsung’s S-Pen, and the company says that they’ve improved its functionality and the note-taking capabilities. The Note 4 can now recognize words written on paper, and immediately digitizes it and allows users to immediately edit them right away. The S Pen also introduces a more user-friendly Air Command functionality along with other intuitive features such as Action Memo, Screen Write, Image Clip and Smart Select that allows users to create and collect content with ease. A new Smart Select feature enables users to easily piece together content from different origins, and share it quickly and easily.

The camera has enhanced selfie features, which includes a smart-selfie mode which uses the main camera to take selfies. Samsung has put in a Smart OIS feature in the camera as well, which should reduce blurred photos.

As far as performance is concerned, the Note 4 is a monster. The Note 4 that will arrive in the PH will not use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor, instead it will use Samsung’s latest Exynos Octa processor. The octa-core processor in the Galaxy Note 4 is capable of producing extremely high benchmark scores, as evidenced by several benchmark score leaks in the past.

The Galaxy Note 4 will arrive in the PH around mid to late October, though no pricing has been announced.