At Wednesday's live event in New York, we got a chance to check out the new monster phone from Samsung, the Galaxy Note 4. The phone packs a crazy 2560 x 1440 resolution with a 5.7-inch screen (518 ppi).
The phone also offers a cool way to shoot selfies. In a demo, a Samsung rep showed that users can take a selfie by merely pressing the heart rate monitor on the back of the phone, keeping smudgy fingers off the screen. This method also allows the user to take selfies more rapidly. Selfies can even be taken using a wide angle so that the user can tilt the phone and capture what's going on to the left or right. (And that's as much about selfies as we can handle in a single day.)
The phone comes with a 13MP camera on the back with Optical Image Stabilization, and there's a 3.7MP camera on the front. Load up a video, and you can zoom in and out using the pinch gesture while the video is still running. We found that the zooming action was extremely quick and fluid.
Using the S Pen, users can grab multiple objects on the screen all at once, such as pictures in the gallery, by drawing a square across the whole screen. This screen can also be minimized by drawing inward from one of the corners, and the window can be moved to any place on the screen, enabling users to open another application and perform the same action. There was no indication of how many windows the user can have open simultaneously.
By pressing a button on the S Pen and hovering over the screen, a circular menu pops up that can be customized. For instance, you can add the sticky note app, allowing you to write a little note and then drag it onto the main screen.
According to Samsung, the phone can charge to 50 percent in thirty minutes. Unfortunately, we weren't permitted to run any benchmarks to test this. We couldn't check its overall speed either, although we could see that the phone was extremely zippy.
The Note 4 is impressive in both performance and looks, sporting metallic trim and a (fake) leather backing.
Although Samsung didn't provide us with a list of specifications, the phone is expected to have 3 GB of RAM, 32 GB of internal storage, Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon 805, Wireless AC and Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity, and a microSD card slot for adding up to 64 GB of extra storage. There's also a fingerprint scanner, 8x optical zoom and Android 4.4 "KitKat".
The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is expected to launch on all five major wireless carriers here in the United States. Samsung didn't offer any pricing, but count on this phone to be priced at $300 with a new two-year commitment just like the former Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
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