mobile

Where I came from: HTC Desire Z to HTC One S to Sam GS3 to G Note 4

Why I bought it:
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Size, microSD, Sound and speakerphone quality presumed to be same as GS3, camera, Android, good experience with GS3 once I sorted out all the issues, larger typing surface and screen, sensors

First Impressions
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The Note 4 is the first pain free phone I have ever bought. The GS3 was a groundbreaking phone but it took me almost 2 weeks, and 3 microSD cards to get it working. There were a lot of GS3 issues that required a lot of pain to sort out. Once it worked it served me well until Google stopped supporting that version of Android properly and even Google apps cause overheating and battery drain that allocated to fast dormancy and deleted wakelocks.

I haven't had a single issue with the Note 4. Sammmy and Google finally learned a little about software QC. If your 32GB+ microSD card has a legacy FAT 32 format (required to work in the GS3) it needs to be reformatted to exFAT for it to work properly with default apps. PowerAMP still works. Formatted exFAT Android 5.0.1 actually catalogs a 64GB music collection properly and without corrupting the card (64GB Sandisk). The stock music player actually is as good as PowerAmp and better integrated with Lollipop. I removed PowerAMP and that is unprecedented.

Input
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The keyboard is large enough for my man fingers and both Google Handwriting recognition and Voice Typing are very accurate, especially with the stylus. Google Voice recognition even works in a noisy car so Sammy hardware and Google software must be doing some heavy DSP. It is fun trying to mess them up and it is pretty hard if you play fair. Handwriting recognition is much more relaxing especially on the big Note 4 screen, but not as fast as swiping if you are good at it.


Sound Quality and Playback
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Sound Quality is amazing with a good set of phones. The stock ones are only good. The speakerphone is much better under 5.0.1 it seems and music playing over the speaker is good but not great.

The default video player doesn't play mkv which is sad, but VLC works great on this phone and video plays smoother than my PC. That said if you have a big music collection you need to exclude it from where VLC looks ..... VLC can't handle it, but PowerAMP and the Stock player can nicely.


Sensors
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The health functions are actually fairly useful if you turn off the features which aren't and disable the notifications. SPO2 seems very accurate. There are no wearable tech worth buying yet to go with the phone.

All the sensors seems to work and the GPS doesn't try endlessly to get a fix indoors.


Camera
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The camera is superb for a smartphone and everything works smoothly ...... even the modes which is surprising. I haven't tried selective focus yet and hear thats crap, but panorama is so smooth and natural that I couldn't even figure it out. It was too logical and user friendly and it works. The magnifier function is great and the double shot is very cute .... I might actually use that one.

Gmail and Google Calendar
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I love the notifications and integration with gmail and Google calendar. They are appropriate even. How did Google manage to hire the right people to actually make this fly?

Battery life ......
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Google and Sammy obviously finally admitted that google and rogue apps killing the battery was the Achilles heel of Android. It was killing them. There were 1000 posts a day probably about battery life. I have had no issues with battery life yet with Note 4 on Bell with 5.0.1. I can go an entire work day and still have 40% left. I can leave the phone overnight and only lose 5%. My stock GS3 would lose 30% locked overnight and no amount of messing with BBS could fix that. Maps doesn't overheat the phone like it did on the GS3.

Charging is a dream with the stock charger ..... it really does charge that fast.

Call Quality
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Call quality is great. Speakerphone is great but seems to have an issue with Blackberry's mode of DSP. My GS3 would often chirp and howl if on speakerphone with another GS3 also on speakerphone. None of that yet but I havent tried another Note 4.

Chrome works great with the Note 4 under 5.0.1. Firefox is a mess ..... sabotage? Integration and sync between PC and phone actually works.

Security
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Fingerprint scanner actually works well for my fingers ...... A little worrying though but Homeland security had forced many people to have their fingerprints scanned at the airport, and knowing how poor government agencies handle security I would bet those databases have been hacked 100 times over.

Build Quality
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No issues there .... the charging port looks like it may actually last 5 years, unlike the GS3

Samsung Case
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Expensive but probably worth it and very well integrated with the phone.

Stylus
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A nice feature as you can type without dirtying up the screen. May be awesome with games like Blek but aren't supported.
Google handwriting recognition is fantastic with the stylus, but google voice recognition is so good now that I don't know if I will use it.