Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Armed with an incredible Quad HD AMOLED display, cutting-edge Snapdragon 805 processor, and Samsung’s newfound premium design, the Galaxy Note 4 is easily one of the most impressive smartphones that were launched recently. It’s a phablet that can convince entrenched one-handers that maybe the extra manual gymnastics might actually be worth it.

Useful software tweaks and stylus features continue to offer advantages beyond pure size. The Note 4 requires a bit more legwork on the part of users, but the rewards can be great. It’s the big-screen phone to get, earning our Editors’ Choice for phablets.

The Note 4 represents a new, premium breed of Samsung devices. The back is still plastic with a leather-like texture, but the cringe-worthy stitching and cheesy faux-chrome band are gone.

In its place is a handsome metal band, complete with blingy chamfered edges and subtly pronounced corners. The density and rigidity evoke a sense of luxury and craftsmanship that eluded Galaxy devices past.

It’s a beautiful device to behold, but still not comfortable to actually hold. Beyond its sheer size (6.04-by-3.09-by-0.33-inches and 162-gms), the Note 4 lacks the generously arched back of big-screen phones. And those beveled edges look great, but give the Note 4 a cold, sharp feel in the hand.

The slight bulges at each corner help secure a firm grip, but this is clearly a case of form over function. Yes, there is a razor-thin gap between the frame and display glass, but that concern has been greatly overblown.

It’s easy to clean away any debris, and that imperceptible space might be the difference between a cracked display and just a dented frame in the case of a drop. Our review unit picked up a handful of visible nicks along the polished edges, though, even without any drops. Get a case if you care about these things.

Small details like firm button feedback add to the premium feel, and Samsung ditches the unconventional micro USB 3 port for a more recognizable standard micro USB port. The back peels off to reveal SIM and microSD card slots, as well as a removable 3,220mAh battery, all must-haves for longtime Samsung loyalists.

In a battery rundown test, where we streamed a YouTube video over LTE with screen brightness set to max, the Note 4 lasted for an astounding 7 hours, 56 minutes. That’s over two hours more than last year’s Note 3 (5 hours, 46 minutes).

On top of that, the same Ultra Power Saving Mode that we saw on the Galaxy S5 is featured here, promising over a day of standby battery life on the last 10 percent of battery. The Note 4 is also compatible with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge technology, meaning speedy topoffs with the right accessory.

The 5.7-inch, Quad HD (2,560 by 1,440 pixel) display is one you’ll have to see firsthand to really appreciate. There’s virtually no aliasing to be found and everything pops to the surface, like it was printed on the glass itself. Inky blacks and a retina-frying maximum brightness make for incredible contrast and readability.

Reception and call quality are good. The earpiece gets loud enough to hear over noisy streets, with good depth and natural tones, even at maximum volume. Transmissions through the mic are a bit distant and lack richness in the low end, but overall sound true to life. Noise cancellation was also only average, struggling on a particularly windy day and indoors in a crowded coffee shop.

Rounding out some of the connectivity features are dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, and NFC. The Note 4 had no issue connecting to our Wi-Fi network or an Era by Jawbone Bluetooth headset. The Note 4 is one of the first devices we’ve tested sporting the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 SoC, here with four cores clocked at 2.7GHz. The processor gets a clock speed boost, but it isn’t dramatically different than the processor in the Snapdragon 801.

The new Adreno 420 GPU is notably improved over the Adreno 330 found in phones like the Galaxy S5. As expected, the Note 4 cruised through our set of synthetic benchmarks, besting phones like the S5, but not by a huge margin for overall system tests.

The Note 4 really shines in graphical tests like GFXBench, where it notched 11.2fps onscreen and 18.7fps offscreen in the Manhattan test. The Note 4 appears to be better equipped to push all those pixels.

The Note series continues to lead the charge on stylus integration. Air Command is back, offering instant access to the most useful stylus features whenever you unsheathe the pen or press the button while hovering over the display.

S Note is as robust as ever, easily letting you create quick handwritten, text, or voice memos. The tip of the stylus has been reworked to better mimic the feel of pen on paper, but I couldn’t detect a significant difference. Latency does appear to have been improved, though, which could be thanks to the new GPU onboard. The stylus is more responsive and fluid than ever.

The Samsung Note 4 comes with 32GB of internal storage. As mentioned before, there is also a microSD card slot that helps you expand the internal storage space. The 16-megapixel, rear-facing camera is one of the best we’ve seen. In good light, the Note 4 captures pictures that are incredibly rich in detail, with accurate exposure and reliably instant focus.

It’s easily in the same class as the Galaxy S5. In low light, image quality begins to degrade a bit, with noise creeping into shadows and inconsistent white balance that skews towards pink. Detail is still very good, though, and the optical image stabilization helps keep low-light images sharp, granted your subject is stationary.

Video resolution tops out at 4K, and the Note 4 can maintain 30fps at maximum resolution. 4K video looks spectacular with good outdoor lighting—footage is alive with detail and shows good dynamic range. The results aren’t quite as impressive under indoor lighting, but frame rates held steady and the optical image stabilization definitely helps with smoothing out footage in any situation.

Around front is a 3.7-megapixel sensor for selfies. Aside from the resolution bump, Samsung uses a wider and faster lens than the previous interation, meaning more people can fit into shots and performance will be better in low light. That mostly plays out as expected—the front-facing camera takes good selfies, but image quality is a far cry from what the rear camera is capable of.

Selfie fanatics are in luck, though, since Samsung added a new rear-camera selfie mode that cleverly uses audio cues to help with framing and the heart-rate monitor as a shutter button. There’s also a front-facing panorama for larger groups. Like its predecessor, the Note 4 is a welcome refinement of an already excellent phone, and is available for AED 2799. It’s an easy pick for our Editors’ Choice award for phablets.