I've taken my sweet time in reviewing this week's product, in part because I wanted to see what it can do. But, there's another reason: I'm in love, and I don't want to let this one go.
The product that has me enamored occupies the cellular world, but it isn't really a phone or a tablet. It's one of those in-between products, commonly called a "phablet."
Where it’s @
The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 requires a cellular carrier for phone usage. The Note 4 is available from AT&T for $299 with a two-year contract or about $28 a month for 30 months on a Next Installment plan. The Note 4 retails for $825. More information is available at samsung.com.
The phablet in particular is the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. I tested a model provided by AT&T, one of several carriers available for this device.
I tend to be wary of phablets because of my small hands. Most phablets I've used have been too big and bulky for my short fingers to wrap around comfortably. As a result, I found them difficult to use or grip, and I constantly worried about dropping them.
The first thing I noticed with the Note 4 was that it's smaller than I expected, although still big enough to count as a phablet. Although it's still bigger than most cellphones, I didn't find it too uncomfortable to grip. It's thin enough to slip into a pocket easily, and the leather texture on the back (not real leather) made gripping it fairly easy.
The large-but-not-too-large size provides 5.7 inches for the screen, which is gorgeous. Bright, sharp and filled with vibrant colors, the screen makes it easy to watch streaming media or just see what you're doing.
The Note 4 comes loaded with great features, including some of the health features available on the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active smartphone. The Note 4 has a heart monitor on the back that lets a user take his pulse using the index finger and then keeps a record of it. It also has a built-in pedometer that will track the number of steps a user takes per day, although it's not scientific. Bumping the phone just right can record a footstep when there isn't one. Still, it's a nice tool to have.
The front of the Note 4 also includes a fingerprint scanner, along with a front-facing 3.6-megapixel camera -- more than double that of most of its competition. If that isn't impressive enough, the 16-megapixel camera on the back will fulfill the role.
As with its predecessor, the Note 4 includes a stylus that slides into the phone's bottom. The stylus is firmly held in place, so there isn't much worry about losing it. The stylus comes in handy, particularly when using the S Note app, which allows you to take notes by writing them by hand. That's right: If you don't want to hunt and peck on a digital keyboard, you don't have to with the Note 4. The stylus works like a pen, and it's surprisingly accurate. It's a step up from the previous model on the Note 3, which didn't have quite the accuracy.
The other great feature to the Galaxy Note 4 is its speed. With a 2.7 GHz quad-core processor and 32GB of built-in memory, the Note 4 does not shirk on speed. It also has a slot for a Micro-SD card, so you can add more memory if needed.
The Note 4 features a really nice speaker, in case a user wants to listen to music but doesn't have headphones available. My only complaint is that the speaker is squarely on the back. That means if you lay the Note 4 down to listen to music or watch a video, the sound is going to be muffled.
The only other downside I've seen thus far to the Note 4 is its battery life.
Granted, I did put it through some serious paces, spending several hours of the day streaming music from Spotify and playing it through wireless Bluetooth headphones. I also used the S Note app to write notes in a meeting. Still, after starting the day at 100 percent battery, I was down to about 10 percent in about nine hours and the phone was screaming to be charged. That's less than the 11 hours estimated by Samsung for streaming Internet use. The phone stayed on Wi-Fi most of the day, which drains batteries at a slower pace than using the LTE cellular signal.
I can't say I'm terribly surprised by the battery drainage. Given the screen's brightness and the processor speed, I expected it to use quite a bit of energy. I was hoping for a bit more time with the charge like I've seen with the Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5 phones. But, given the size, screen and speed of the Note 4, I can't say it's a major strike against it.
Overall, the strikes against the Note 4 definitely are limited. It's speedy, it's lightweight, it's just the right size for a phablet, it's loaded with features and it's got a gorgeous screen. For those looking for an Android-based phone or tablet, this is a fantastic compromise. It gives users more without being too much.
It's definitely going to be tough to let this one go.
SundayMonday Business on 02/23/2015