Friday, November 21, 2014

Review of Samsung Galaxy Note 4: “spade” for work and creativity – BBC News

Having inherited a “family” design and an electronic pen S Pen, planshetofon Samsung Galaxy Note 4 received a huge screen with a resolution of Quad HD and – for the first time – a metal enclosure. What else is interesting is one of the most advanced “spade” on the market, find out Vesti.Haytek.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Galaxy Note 4 of planshetofonov – “star” of the first magnitude. Fulfilling the mission of technological flagship, this unit incorporates the majority of today’s top mobile technologies. Note that the family of Galaxy Note, in addition to a business audience is positioned as the people of creative professions, where required, in particular, the ability to draw or photo editing skills and texts. It’s no secret the fact that smartphones with large screens are often jokingly called the “spades”. So, in the Galaxy Note 4 seems to have everything to easily rake debris daily tasks. So, we estimate the main features of the new device.

Specifications

  • Model: SM-N910C
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  • Operating System: Android 4.4.4 (KitKat), interface TouchWiz
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  • Display: 5.7-inch capacitive Super AMOLED, resolution Quad HD (2560h1440 points), the density of dots per inch 515 ppi, glass Corning Gorilla Glass 3
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  • Processor: 8-core Samsung Exynos Octa 7 5433 (4 core ARM Cortex-A57, 1,9 GHz and 4 core Cortex-A53, 1,3 GHz), big.LITTLE GTS
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  • Graphics: ARM Mali-T760 MP6 (700 MHz)
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  • Memory: 3 GB RAM, 32 GB of built-in card support up to 128 GB microSDXC
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  • Camera: Primary – Sony IMX240 Exmor RS, 16 MP, 1 / 2.6 inch BSI-sensor aperture of f / 2.2, 31 mm EGF, autofocus, optical stabilization (Smart OIS), video UHD 4K (3840×2160 @ 30fps); Front – 3.7 MP, aperture f / 1.9, 2560h1440 video @ 30fps
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  • Communication: Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac (2,4 and 5 GHz), VHT80, MIMO (2×2), Bluetooth 4.1, USB 2.0, OTG USB, NFC, ANT +, IR
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  • Connectivity: GSM / GPRS / EDGE, 3G UMTS, 4G FDD LTE (Cat.4)
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  • Navigation: GLONASS / GPS / Beidou
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  • Type SIM-card: microSIM (3FF)
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  • Sensors: proximity, lighting, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetic field sensor, heart rate sensors, hand movements, finger prints, UV
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  • Battery: removable Li-Ion 3220 mAh (3.85 in)
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  • Dimensions: 153,5×78,6×8,5 mm
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  • Weight: 176 g
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  • Colors: black, white, brown, pink
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Design, ergonomics

New to the family of Galaxy Note has retained a recognizable appearance, despite the new trends in the design of the company’s smartphones.

In particular, this applies shaped metal frame with a slight bend extending along the perimeter of the unit, which provides the necessary rigor of its exterior and style. However, in contrast to, for example, the Galaxy Alpha, the frame is painted now in the main body color, which can be black, white, bronze or pink. The presence of the metal silver is said only the bevel on the edges of the frame. As for the size of the new planshetofona, then, compared with the Galaxy Note 3, they changed only slightly – 153,5h78,6h8,5 mm against 151,2h79,2h8,3 mm. This is easily explained though that the device screen size remained unchanged (5.7 inches). But weight has increased by 8 grams (176 g versus 168 g). Incidentally, we note that in planshetofone not seem concerned about dust and moisture protection devices, such as in the case of the flagship Galaxy S5 (IP67).

Hardly noticeable “bulge” of the screen, to round off the edges of the body, due to the use in Galaxy Note 3 safety glass 2,5D Gorilla Glass 3 companies from Corning. Incidentally, the display covers the front surface of 74.39% planshetofona, though, for example, Galaxy S5, this ratio is only 69,76%.

At the top of the front panel holes provided for the LED charging / events lattice” conversational “speaker, front camera lens as well as proximity sensors and lighting.

In an oval mechanical button “Home” / “Home Screen” under the display, as in the Galaxy S5, add a fingerprint scanner, which was not in the previous model of the family. Dedicated touch buttons “Recent Applications” and “Back” are not visible without light, which is adjusted during operation in a special menu.

A thin metal power button / lock still holds the right edge of the device,

and the left – the same metal volume rocker.

At the bottom there is a connector microUSB, two holes for microphones,

as well as the case for the electronic pen S Pen,

and the top – another hole for the third microphone, 3.5mm audiogarnitury and peephole infrared port.

A removable rear cover preserved pastiche” under the skin “, thus, the figure seems to have become more prominent. The material used here is pleasant to the touch soft-touch plastic. But emphasizing the texture of the decorative “stitch” the contour cover had disappeared. Under the rear panel allows access to the battery with an integrated antenna NFC, and microSD card slot and a microSIM. At the same time, to install the latest must first remove the battery.

in the upper portion of the cover provided two openings for the main camera lens and also for the LED flash unit and multifunction sensor (heart rate, blood oxygen concentration, and ultraviolet radiation). In the lower part of the grille moved “multimedia” speakers, which Galaxy Note 3 was placed on the bottom. On the left side of the cover (rear) made a small gap through which she quite simply removed.

Covering the back cover not only provides pleasant tactile sensation, but also together with the edges and ridges of the metal frame protects the device from slipping out hands. In addition, the settings are special tools for easy management planshetofonom one hand.

screen, camera, sound

Display, by far, the main hardware “chip” Galaxy Note 4. Experts from the company DisplayMate, which specializes in the testing screen, even noted this new element planshetofona as the best on the market. At the Super AMOLED-matrix with a diagonal of 5.7 inches provides a resolution of 2560×1440 pixels (Quad HD, 2K). Compared with the screen Galaxy Note 3 (Full HD, 1920×1080), the number of dots increased nearly 1.8 times the density of pixels per inch increase, respectively, from 386 ppi to 515 ppi. Whereby the display is formed very clear picture, rich colors and wide viewing angles. Special role is not played even used a scheme with two subpixels PenTile RGBG, where “sin” all the Super AMOLED-display.

In order to correct the color, which may seem too” acid “in the settings screen is available four profiles:” Main “,” Photo AMOLED “,” Movie AMOLED “and” Adaptive Display “. In the latter case, the automatic optimization of the color range, saturation and sharpness of images for only a few applications, but it does not guarantee compatibility with third-party applications. Planshetofonom can manage with gloves, if you include the option to increase the sensitivity of the sensor layer of the screen in the settings.

When you have a good anti-reflective properties of the screen is pretty decent stock of brightness that makes it comfortable to use it, including sunlight. The brightness level can be adjusted manually or use the automatic setting it on a light sensor. Capacitive screen Galaxy Note 4 supports multitouch, with programs AntTuTu Tester and MultiTouch Tester confirmed that recognizes up to ten simultaneous keystrokes. The manufacturer claims that the response time of the matrix is ​​one-millionth of a second. The advantages of the screen stands also include a very good oleophobic coating.

The main camera planshetofona received photomodule Sony IMX240 Exmor RS, where a 16-megapixel sensor is located on the 1 / 2.6-inch BSI-matrix, and the aperture 31 mm lens is f / 2.2. Not forgotten as autofocus and LED flash. “Smart” optical stabilization system (Smart OIS) compensates with a little shake shake the smartphone, allowing you to avoid “camera shake”, and automatically extends the exposure time under low light conditions. Maximum image resolution is 5312h2988 points (16 MP) at a ratio of 16: 9 and 3984h2988 points (12 MP) with the aspect ratio of 4: 3. Examples of the photo you can see here ().

At the front camera proved an impressive 3.7-megapixel sensor with an aperture of f / 1.9, and, quite apart from the expected “Self-portrait”, supported by the panorama mode (viewing angle of 120 degrees) for group “crossbow”. Get a self, as usual, can be adjusted to decorate and improve. Maximum resolution for “sebyashek” here 2560h1440 points (3.7 MP, 16: 9), as in the classical aspect ratio – 1920×1440 pixels (2.8 MP, 4: 3).

The organization and design of the interface in the application “Camera” is virtually identical to that used for example in a smartphone Galaxy Alpha. Desired labels frequently used settings can be easily installed on the main screen. In addition to “Auto”, here in the presence of more than a dozen specialized modes, including “Self-Portrait”, “selective focus” (after the shot is made, you can choose a proximal and a distal or panoramic focus) and “Panorama”.

The main camera can shoot 4K-, or UHD-video (3840h2160 pixels, 16: 9) at 30 fps. And the front camera the best record at the same frame rate is obtained only as a Quad HD (2560h1440 dots, 16: 9). All content is retained in the container file MP4 (AVC – video, AAC – audio).

The sound in “multimedia” speaker Galaxy Note 4 is not very loud, but pleasant. He almost muted, even when the smartphone is the screen up (but on a solid surface, of course). Playing fairly clean, with tangible bass and treble.

Three microphones (two on the bottom and one on top of the phone) successfully cope not only with noise reduction. Thus, in the application “Voice Recorder” added another three recording modes. In “Interview” record sounds made from two directions (with different ends planshetofona). On “Meetings / Meeting” the device can distinguish up to 8 audio sources, with the completion of recording some of them can be eliminated. A “Voice note” allows you to immediately convert the recorded voice into text.

Toppings, performance

Currently, the Galaxy Note 4 – one of the most powerful smartphones in the world. His model SM-N910C is made based on the latest SoC production Samsung – Exynos 7 Octa 5433. Recall that planshetofon previous generation Galaxy Note 3 hides under its hood crystal Exynos 5 Octa 5420, created with the less restrictive design rules (28 nm vs. 20 nm), which affects its performance and power consumption.

The architecture of the chip Exynos Octa 7 5433 – big.LITTLE GTS (Global Task Scheduling) – also includes eight cores, four of which are high, and the remaining four – energy efficient. However, in this case, place cores ARM Cortex-A15 and the ARM Cortex-A7 took the ARM Cortex-A57 and the ARM Cortex-A53, respectively, operating at a maximum frequency of 1.9 GHz and 1.3 GHz, respectively. The main difference between the new kernels is that they are based on a 64-bit architecture ARMv8, of course, with full support for existing 32-bit applications. Performance they were allegedly about 50% superior to their predecessors. Recall that support heterogeneous multiprotsessinga allows all core chip simultaneously. For graphics chip has a special accelerator ARM Mali-T760 MP6. Six powerful execution units operating at a frequency of 700 MHz, allowed him to gain a reputation as one of the fastest in its class. Basic configuration of the machine completes 3 GB of RAM. 8-core processor with graphics accelerator cope with the high resolution screen without any problems.

In the synthetic tests AnTuTu Benchmark 5.2.0 new planshetofon looked the most immaculately. Received the title of “monster” and typing 49,839 “virtual parrot,” he said, in particular, did not leave any chance, for example, the flagship HTC One (M8). Note that the Galaxy Note 3 could count in this test about 35 thousand “virtual birds”.

In the benchmarks Vellamo 3.0 with multi-core test (MultiCore) Galaxy Note 4 in the lead with a score of 1883 points, but he was only the second in the evaluation of” horsepower “on the CPU test (Metal ), yielding a “killer flagships” OnePlus One (1570 vs. 1653).

On the visual test Epic Citadel with variable settings, High Performance and High Quality (performance at the expense of quality and vice versa), the average frame rate at a resolution 2560h1440 points differed in importance only after the decimal point – 58.7 and 58,5 fps. Changing the settings on Ultra High Quality predictably lowered the value of this parameter (up to 46,8 fps).

Very confidently made planshetofon and universal game benchmark 3DMark, where the results obtained on the Galaxy Note 3 tests Ice Storm Extreme, simply read off scale.

Of the 32 GB of internal memory available approximately 24.4 GB which can be extended for another 128 GB with the help of maps microSDXC. In addition, external flash drives are easily connected via OTG USB-cable.

The flagship set includes communications planshetofona seems everything you need: 2-band Wi-Fi-module 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac (2,4 and 5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.1, ANT +, the infrared port, NFC. In addition, Galaxy Note 4 can operate in Russian networks LTE (Cat. 4). Incidentally, we note that the use of Bluetooth 4.1 allows to reduce interference with LTE in adjacent frequency bands.

To determine the location and navigation systems can be used satellites GPS, GLONASS, and Beidou. There is also support A-GPS. This, in particular, by the testimony of the test program AndroiTS GPS Test.

Compared to last year’s version, the capacity of the lithium-ion battery in the Galaxy Note 4 rose very slightly from 3200 mAh to 3220 mAh hours. Thus, for the Galaxy Note 4 manufacturer stated time surfing the Internet (3G / LTE / Wi-Fi) – 11, 10 and 13 hours, respectively. But for video playback is given up to 12 hours. Thus, our test video in MP4 format and Full HD-quality at full brightness spun continuously for just over 9 hours, which, in general, very good.

On battery test AnTuTu Tester planshetofon earned 6872 points, ahead on points 6-inch Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro ( 4837) with the same Quad HD-resolution and a fairly capacious lithium-polymer battery 4000 mAh. In practice, the autonomy of the new planshetofona is approximately at the same level as that of the Galaxy Note 3. quick charge function allows you to fill the battery from zero to 50% in about half an hour, however, this would require a special 2-Mode (5 V, 2 A and 9; 1.67 A) of the charger or kit, or meet the specifications Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0.

Have not gone away traditional for Samsung power-saving modes, including extreme that turns the device into a simple” dialer “. Typical conventional measures of energy saving – a restriction on background data and / or performance, as well as the rejection of a color picture interface.

Software

Over the latest version of Android 4.4.4 (KitKat) in the Galaxy Note 3 uses familiar proprietary shell from Samsung – TouchWiz. Compared with that used in the Galaxy S5, it has changed little, although some differences are still there. And most important of them is the multitasking. Recall that in 2012, Galaxy Note II offered the ability to simultaneously run two programs, dividing the space between the big screen.

Function Multi Window in Galaxy Note 4 makes good use of multi-tasking device, choosing the most convenient way to access applications – to full screen, split into multiple windows or popups. The size and location of the windows on the screen, which, incidentally, may overlap each other, it is easy to change. Minimized over all will hang round icons denoting the application window. Translation of any program in the reduced window mode runs a simple gesture (swipe your finger from the top corner of the screen down diagonally).

By the way, a private news feed application forms are now not My Magazine (as in the Galaxy Note 3) and Briefing.

Among the pre-installed software on the Galaxy Note 4 worth noting customers popular services, including including such as Evernote, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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