The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Review
by Joshua Ho on October 15, 2014 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Android
- Mobile
- Galaxy Note 4
WiFi Performance
While the Galaxy S5 LTE-A Broadband had a Qualcomm Atheros solution (QCA6174), the Note 4 moves back to Broadcom's WiFi solution. In this case, we see the BCM4358, which is a revision of the BCM4354 that was first seen with Samsung's Galaxy S5. This shouldn't have any major differences outside of improved Bluetooth coexistence but antenna design can and does change between revisions. In order to test this, we use iperf and Asus' RT-AC68U router to try and achieve maximum performance.
As one can see, the Galaxy Note 4 has a strong showing in this test, easily surpassing every other device we have available for testing.
GNSS
At this point, it really goes without saying that the GNSS solution of choice is the one built into Qualcomm's modem. This allows for fixes based upon initial location and time data that the modem has, and therefore in practice every GPS fix is a hot fix and takes around 5 seconds for a lock in good conditions. In the case of the Note 4, with airplane mode on and no assistance data I saw that it took around 50 seconds to achieve a lock, but this is strongly dependent upon environmental conditions. Once locked, I found that the Note 4 had quite a strong lock and quickly went down to 10 foot accuracy level without issue.
Misc
Similar to the new Moto X we see a Cypress CapSense solution in the Note 4 but this is likely used for the capacitive buttons rather than any impedance-matching antenna tuner. The UV sensor appears to be a Maxim design win, although there's no information on the specific part. The battery's fuel gauge is also a Maxim part, as is the speaker amplifier and pulse sensor. The NFC chip used is NXP's PN547, so host card emulation should be supported and therefore Google Wallet's tap and pay system should work as well.
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MattL - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link
Not strange at all, often certain places will get early review devices, they got an early iPhone 6 and 6+ too.Arcetnathon7 - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link
Yes, but every early review of iPhone 6 and 6+ are "strangely" without any benchmarks.We always have to wait for Anandtech :)
MattL - Friday, October 17, 2014 - link
Well Display Mate had Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus screen reviews up for a while now... I honestly would trust them more on the screen side of things anyways (they are far more comprehensive in their analysis and are obviously specialized experts in screens)... just curious as to the differences seen between theirs and the analysis here since they found the Note 4 definitely more accurate vs here.I do agree that you see very few iPhone 6 reviews with benchmarks though.
I would be very interested in other sites doing in-depth screen analysis runs, should give a better picture... but unfortunately not many sites do and the couple others I have seen are *horrible*, they didn't even realize that the Note 4's screen modes actually supported different color gamuts so they critiqued the color accuracy on the Adaptive mode specifically designed to have a high saturation of the color gamut to fend off ambient light washing out that saturation or the Photo mode which supports the Adobe RGB color gamut (17% larger than sRGB) do a high degree of accuracy, but when viewing non Adobe RGB content it will analyze off obviously. While the Basic mode is designed to be extremely color accurate to the sRGB standard (again Display Mate found it to be the most accurate of any smartphone or tablet screen, even the iPhone 6 screens)... so those sites results are pointless.
tralalalalalala40 - Saturday, October 18, 2014 - link
Does the user have to manually change the color scheme on the note4 for every app?tralalalalalala40 - Saturday, October 18, 2014 - link
The golden phone review, hand picked by robots maybe? At least they aren't programming their phones to cheat benchmarks anymore (most likely)trynberg - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
So, the iPhone 6+ is declared the best phablet with no supporting statements or qualifications. The Note 4 gets "remains one of the best phablets on the market, but whether it's the best for a given user is a matter of priorities and personal preference rather than any absolutes".I mean, how blind do you have to be to not see the bias there?
KPOM - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
This is actually a much more positive review of the Note 4 than ArsTechnica. AT basically said it comes down to your OS preference.MattL - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link
Ars had the most negative Note 4 review I've seen anywhere on the web... really surprised about that, very disappointed.tralalalalalala40 - Saturday, October 18, 2014 - link
Go to samsung's website, they have a great review of the note 4 that should cheer you up.TrackSmart - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Thanks for the review! As always, this is much more complete information than you find at competing sites.That said, the Battery Charging Speed Test is not as useful as it could be. Supposedly this phone charges to 50% in the first 30 minutes. That means most of your testing time represents "topping off" the battery. Consider adding 50% or 75% charge speeds instead of (or in addition to) 100%. It would tell us which phones allow a user to quickly get back to business.