Samsung Galaxy Note 4 officially announced - Here's all you need to know

Samsung had a healthy lineup of devices to unveil at its IFA event today in Berlin, but its highlight was clearly the newest member of the Note family - the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Samsung has managed to pack their fourth generation Note with everything they can, including the latest hardware and a premium design, ensuring that their newest flagship doesn't disappoint.

Design

Samsung devices have been previously criticized for their excessive use of plastic, and Samsung didn't want to make the same mistake again. Following in the footsteps of the recently announced Samsung Galaxy Alpha, the newest Note features a metal frame around its side. This gives the Note 4 a more distinguished premium feel which won't go unnoticed. Samsung has also changed the overall shape of the Note 4, making it more rectangular in order to ensure it doesn't get too tall. Samsung has also reused the faux-leather design from the Galaxy Note 3 on the back of the device to make sure your Note 4 won't slip out of your hands. The pattern though has been changed a little and no longer features the stitching effect from the previous generation Note.

The Galaxy Note 4 is just 8.5 mm thick and weighs 176 grams. You can pick up the device in four distinct colors - Charcoal Black, Frost White, Bronze Gold, and Blossom Pink.

Display

The Galaxy Note 4 features a 5.7 inch Super AMOLED display with a 1440 by 2560 pixel resolution. This Quad HD (QHD) display offers a resolution of 515 ppi with extremely detailed image quality. The 2.5D glass used for the display is now stronger and elegantly curved.

Camera

Samsung has outfitted the Galaxy Note 4 with an improved version of the 16 megapixel ISOCELL camera, found on the Galaxy S5. This unit includes Smart optical image stabilization (OIS). OIS is very useful for video and image capture (compensates for hand shake), as it allows the camera to snap photos at higher shutter speed without having to worry too much about blur. That's great to have when doing night shots. The 'Smart' part in the name is attributed to the camera combining both Optical and Digital stabilization to lower processing time.

Samsung has also included a 3.7 megapixel front camera with a very wide f/1.9 lens. This front camera is capable of capturing 60% more light and has a 90% wider viewing angle than its predecessors. With a new 'Wide Selfie' mode you can now capture 120 degrees of panoramic selfies.

Samsung has managed to double the heart rate sensor as a shutter button for the front camera, allowing you to capture photos by placing your finger on the sensor to focus and letting it go to capture your photos

Sensors

The Galaxy Note 4 features an improved version of the fingerprint sensor found on the Galaxy S5. The heart rate monitor from the Galaxy S5 is also present and adds some new camera functionality we mentioned before.

Samsung has also included a new UV sensor, which is a first on a mobile device. will be used to measure the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, and be incorporated to prevent users from burning their skin, bringing premature wrinkles and moles, and increasing the risk of melanoma.There are a five UV index levels: Low, Moderate, High, Very High and Extreme, and the S Health app will issue tips for tanning and sun exposure, based on the place and time you are using the sensor to measure the radiation rating. For the measurement to happen, one will have to maintain more than a 60 degree elevation angle against the sun with the back of the sensor.

In certain markets will apparently also see a model with an SpO2 sensor that can measure the oxygen saturation in your blood. Right now, we don't know exactly how that one will work, as you'll likely need external accessories to do that

Processor

Samsung will be using two different processors to power their Galaxy Note 4. First we have the quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor from Qualcomm, which is clocked at 2.5GHz. This processor is coupled with Adreno 420 GPU, which not only introduces a non-trivial performance boost over Adreno 330, but also allows for a higher-end graphics content to be rendered by the unit. The new silicon is also capable of category 6 LTE, which can theoretically reach speeds of 300 Mbps. That's more bandwidth than you can hope to get from carrier.

Samsung's own 64-bit Exynos 5433 chip powers a separate variant of the device. This 64-bit chip is of the octa-core flavor and utilizes four Cortex-A57 and four Cortex-A53 cores in an ARM big.LITTLE configuration, meaning that loads are transferred between the two clusters, depending on the lightness (or heaviness) of the task. If maximum power is required, the two clusters work together for superior speed.

Both processor variants of the Note 4 come with 3GB of RAM, which should help manage the resource intensive apps and services exclusive to the Note family.

All this additional power would demand an extremely efficient battery, but Samsung has only included a 3220 mAh battery in their newest Note. Given that it is only 20 mAh more than the Galaxy Note 3, one would expect lower battery life on the new Note. However Samsung has managed to optimize the Galaxy Note 4 to offer 7.5% better battery than the previous generation. The battery also features Fast Charging (Adaptive Fast Charging &  Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0) which should allow your Note 4 to be charged 50% faster than the previous generation Note. According to Samsung, the device will charge from 0% to 50% in just 30 minutes. For comparison, the Note 3 needed 55 minutes to reach 50% charge.

In terms of software you get the latest version of Android 4.4 KitKat, which has been customized with Samsung's TouchWiz user interface. Being a member of the Note family means you also get Note specific apps and services with the S Pen stylus. Additionally Galaxy Note 4 owners will be treated to 50GB of free cloud storage on Dropbox for 2 years. The additional storage will be useful to save all the content you create on your Note 4.

The S Pen on the Galaxy Note 4 is meant to help achieve tasks more efficiently that your fingers. This new S Pen offers a much more authentic pen experience, with a more natural brush effect that perfectly emulates writing on paper with a fountain or calligraphy pen. 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 allow 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 with ease.
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​The Galaxy Note 4 also provides users with a choice of multiple, seamless note-taking methods integrated with Samsung’s S Note application that allows everyday tasks to get done faster and more easily. In addition to typing and writing, the innovative Snap Note feature allows users to take a picture of their notes on a paper or a classroom board, and then quickly and easily convert to the S Note. They can also further unleash their creativity by jotting down their thoughts quickly with the Voice Memo.

Pricing and Availability

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 will be released in October and will likely carry a subsidised cost of $299 with a  two year carrier contract. Those looking for an off-contract device should be willing to pay around $750 or more depending on where you live.

The price in Russia is said to be around 34,490 rubles ($940) before carrier subsidies,while the price in India is said to be around Rs. 55,000 ($900). We will be bringing you more details on the pricing availability so stay tuned.

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