All in One

[James Willing]

After owning this phone for Six months now I feel that I know it rather well. I have always stayed away from Samsung phones because I felt they were tacky but the Note 4 is great! However the camera is a double edged sword. If you are after a pull out the phone and grab a shot then yes its great, it offers great all round performance although the low light does suffer a little. I just wish that it offered a little more manual shooting. you can set ISO but that's really it.. However I don't know any smart phone that has a fully manual camera. At the end of the day it works and I'm not sure about you but I don't carry my DSLR around 24/7 with me.

 

[Michael EOS5D]

I bought a new Note 4 in July. After a month the rear camera stopped focusing, so I sent it back and they sent me a refurbished one. I bought a spare battery for it, be warned they are hard to find. Most places have to order one. The camera has nice color saturated images, though I have noticed some halos with people. Over sharpening or processing. It's nice having the micro SD card slot. Don't think I'll use up my 128gb card anytime soon. (Plus the internal memory itself )
.

 

[markyboy81]

After owning this phone for Six months now I feel that I know it rather well. I have always stayed away from Samsung phones because I felt they were tacky but the Note 4 is great! However the camera is a double edged sword. If you are after a pull out the phone and grab a shot then yes its great, it offers great all round performance although the low light does suffer a little. I just wish that it offered a little more manual shooting. you can set ISO but that's really it.. However I don't know any smart phone that has a fully manual camera. At the end of the day it works and I'm not sure about you but I don't carry my DSLR around 24/7 with me.

I owned the Note 4 and also found it fantastic. However, the Note 5 is even better AND has a full manual mode, which means you can finally adjust shutter speed for stills and video. The latter is a fantastic way of extracting 8mp stills from 4k video when the subject is moving.
To top it off it was also quite a bit cheaper than my Note 4.

 

[James Willing]

Yes I hear you about the note 5! The full manual must make it amazing! So many times I find my self wishing that I could slow down that shutter to get low light landscape shots! But its a toss up... new tele lens or new phone...

 

[Dierkdk]

Alas, with the Note 5 you GIVE UP both 1) User Replaceable Battery, and 2) "External Storage" (micro-SD card slot).

Those two factors - PERSONALLY - easily outweigh any Advantages the Note 5 may offer, and the Note 4 purchase was not made until the 5 was released.

As for Spare Batteries, have been very happy with the Anker kit purchased for a Note 2.

That kit came with 2 batteries + a wall charger, and all 3 units have performed well.

Recall seeing that Anker had batteries for the Note 4, and would not hesitate to purchase one when that seems appropriate (barring convincing reports that their Quality has fallen, of course!).

[The Note 2 remains in Daily Usage as a "PDA" - it still works Just Fine, and hope is that this continued usage will prolong the lifespan of the Note 4....]

 

[markyboy81]

Alas, with the Note 5 you GIVE UP both 1) User Replaceable Battery, and 2) "External Storage" (micro-SD card slot).

Those two factors - PERSONALLY - easily outweigh any Advantages the Note 5 may offer, and the Note 4 purchase was not made until the 5 was released.

As for Spare Batteries, have been very happy with the Anker kit purchased for a Note 2.

That kit came with 2 batteries + a wall charger, and all 3 units have performed well.

Recall seeing that Anker had batteries for the Note 4, and would not hesitate to purchase one when that seems appropriate (barring convincing reports that their Quality has fallen, of course!).

[The Note 2 remains in Daily Usage as a "PDA" - it still works Just Fine, and hope is that this continued usage will prolong the lifespan of the Note 4....]

This is a good point but it has to be a matter of personal preference. A few years ago I would have agreed that having expandable memory was a must - however, I have fibre broadband at home and unlimited mobile data so every photo or video I take gets uploaded to the cloud the day it gets shot. I'd have to do this (eventually) regardless of how much memory I had so for me it's easier to just do it every day.

As for the removable battery there's no denying this is a plus. However, again personally I'm never far from a power outlet and also have a 10000mah portable charger and this thing charges FAST. I guess there's also the issue of the battery degrading over time but in all honesty I don't keep phones longer than a year, although this Note 5 is so good I'm hoping to keep it much longer.

 

[Dierkdk]

Alas, with the Note 5 you GIVE UP both 1) User Replaceable Battery, and 2) "External Storage" (micro-SD card slot).
........

This is a good point but it has to be a matter of personal preference. A few years ago I would have agreed that having expandable memory was a must - however, I have fibre broadband at home and unlimited mobile data so every photo or video I take gets uploaded to the cloud the day it gets shot. I'd have to do this (eventually) regardless of how much memory I had so for me it's easier to just do it every day.

As for the removable battery there's no denying this is a plus. However, again personally I'm never far from a power outlet and also have a 10000mah portable charger and this thing charges FAST. I guess there's also the issue of the battery degrading over time but in all honesty I don't keep phones longer than a year, although this Note 5 is so good I'm hoping to keep it much longer.

Absolutely agree with your comment on Personal Preference, within which I would include the Intended time of ownership.

Our preference is to (hopefully....) buy well, and keep things until they no longer perform their function. In the past, we carried separate PDAs, and our phones WERE swapped out at around the 2 year mark, because our carrier provided an incentive to do so (or, at least, FAILED to provide an incentive NOT to do so!), however, that has been changing, with carriers (in the US) trying to separate the Cost Of Service from the Cost of Device.

Currently, we save $75 / month by NOT taking a "Subsidized" Phone (3 lines) - which makes a nice incentive to keep our devices for as long as they remain viable.

This goal makes a Replaceable Battery a desirable feature: the batteries in ALL of our mobile devices has been the first sub-system to show signs of reduced function, other than in cases of Accidental Physical Damage.

Admittedly battery technology has changed over this time frame (going back to the age of "Hand-Held Computers," Monochrome Laptops, and through Palm, Handspring & Dell PDAs) - but my wife ended up with a Note 4 because her still-rather-new HTC Android (within 2 years) developed a flaky battery AND she ran out of internal storage - and she did not want to risk either event when choosing a replacement.

And - sadly! - we do not have Unlimited Data, speed throttled or otherwise... :-(

 

[bs1946]

I've had the Note 4 for about 10 months. It replaced my dying iPhone 5 and to be honest, I'm thinking of going back to Apple. Especially now that Samsung has joined Apple with non-replaceable batteries and no memory cards.

• Sometimes the camera is great and at other times I have to play with it to get it to focus. I have an app from mike bank that allows remote check deposits from the phone using the camera to take pictures of the checks. Sometimes I have to take the same photo four or five times before the bank will accept.
• I have hardly found a use for the S-pen other than using it as a keyboard stylus. Unless you're into drawing, there aren't a lot of useful S-pen apps.
• When I used smartswitch to move all my data and musing from my iPhone and iTunes it was easy and everything seemed good. But when I used the music player, it had all my playlists, but wouldn't play any of them. I had to rebuild them manually.
• I was running out of memory very quickly because the apps were putting all my music, photos, and data in main memory. I had to use the file manager to move all that stuff to the SD card manually. I still haven't found out how to set apps to store their data on the SD card automatically.
• I kept finding different apps running so I started using a lock code on the screen. I can't access anything except the phone or camera without unlocking the screen but I still find app, some of which I've never used, running.

 

[CAcreeks]

I have hardly found a use for the S-pen other than using it as a keyboard stylus. Unless you're into drawing, there aren't a lot of useful S-pen apps.

For me the S-Pen is very useful for backing up in a Netflix or Hulu video, when you want to rewind a bit to watch a scene again, or if you missed some dialog. Same is true when watching an MP4 video in a browser. The finger does not have sufficiently fine grained resolution. The S-Pen does.

 

[markyboy81]

I have hardly found a use for the S-pen other than using it as a keyboard stylus. Unless you're into drawing, there aren't a lot of useful S-pen apps.

For me the S-Pen is very useful for backing up in a Netflix or Hulu video, when you want to rewind a bit to watch a scene again, or if you missed some dialog. Same is true when watching an MP4 video in a browser. The finger does not have sufficiently fine grained resolution. The S-Pen does.

Also, it's quite fun to use the spen in Picsay Pro, where you can photoshop objects into photos and then fine tune using the spen.
Other (less novelty based) uses include accurate copy and paste, signing pdf documents and jotting down stuff. I can't say I use the pen that much but when it's not in use it tucks away so nicely you forget it's there anyway!

Sadly the note 5 had to go back due to a bluetooth issue so I'm back on the note 4 - I'll stick with this for the moment as the only area that it's *slightly* lacking compared to the note 5 is the camera, and in fact the only thing I'd like to see different is to have the note 5 manual mode - the sad thing is samsung could bring this to the note 4 (but won't)

 

[CAcreeks]

I have hardly found a use for the S-pen other than using it as a keyboard stylus. Unless you're into drawing, there aren't a lot of useful S-pen apps.

For me the S-Pen is very useful for backing up in a Netflix or Hulu video, when you want to rewind a bit to watch a scene again, or if you missed some dialog. Same is true when watching an MP4 video in a browser. The finger does not have sufficiently fine grained resolution. The S-Pen does.

Also, it's quite fun to use the spen in Picsay Pro, where you can photoshop objects into photos and then fine tune using the spen.
Other (less novelty based) uses include accurate copy and paste, signing pdf documents and jotting down stuff. I can't say I use the pen that much but when it's not in use it tucks away so nicely you forget it's there anyway!

Have you found any Apps that translate handwriting with the S-Pen into words of text?

Probably it's slower than typing, but maybe not. It's worth a try.

I know about dictation Apps but don't use them myself. Only voice search and voice commands for radio and music in my automobile.

 

[markyboy81]

I have hardly found a use for the S-pen other than using it as a keyboard stylus. Unless you're into drawing, there aren't a lot of useful S-pen apps.

For me the S-Pen is very useful for backing up in a Netflix or Hulu video, when you want to rewind a bit to watch a scene again, or if you missed some dialog. Same is true when watching an MP4 video in a browser. The finger does not have sufficiently fine grained resolution. The S-Pen does.

Also, it's quite fun to use the spen in Picsay Pro, where you can photoshop objects into photos and then fine tune using the spen.
Other (less novelty based) uses include accurate copy and paste, signing pdf documents and jotting down stuff. I can't say I use the pen that much but when it's not in use it tucks away so nicely you forget it's there anyway!

Have you found any Apps that translate handwriting with the S-Pen into words of text?

Probably it's slower than typing, but maybe not. It's worth a try.

I know about dictation Apps but don't use them myself. Only voice search and voice commands for radio and music in my automobile.

Yes, the standard Samsung keyboard has this feature and you can also set it to automatically launch 'handwriting mode' if the spen is detached.
Personally I use SwiftKey keyboard so if I ever want to have handwriting transcribed into text I have to manually change the keyboard, which isn't a massive deal.
It actually works quite well and accurately though.
Whether it's quicker than typing I'm not sure..

 

[Glen Barrington]

I've had the Note 4 for about 10 months. It replaced my dying iPhone 5 and to be honest, I'm thinking of going back to Apple. Especially now that Samsung has joined Apple with non-replaceable batteries and no memory cards.

• Sometimes the camera is great and at other times I have to play with it to get it to focus. I have an app from mike bank that allows remote check deposits from the phone using the camera to take pictures of the checks. Sometimes I have to take the same photo four or five times before the bank will accept.
• I have hardly found a use for the S-pen other than using it as a keyboard stylus. Unless you're into drawing, there aren't a lot of useful S-pen apps.
• When I used smartswitch to move all my data and musing from my iPhone and iTunes it was easy and everything seemed good. But when I used the music player, it had all my playlists, but wouldn't play any of them. I had to rebuild them manually.
• I was running out of memory very quickly because the apps were putting all my music, photos, and data in main memory. I had to use the file manager to move all that stuff to the SD card manually. I still haven't found out how to set apps to store their data on the SD card automatically.
• I kept finding different apps running so I started using a lock code on the screen. I can't access anything except the phone or camera without unlocking the screen but I still find app, some of which I've never used, running.

 

[bolador]

The lack of api camera 2 is a shame on samsung. Using ISO to force a fast shutter speed is not ideal. IQ is good to be a phone and OIS works great even in video. But have to envy some LG G4 for the camera interface. Is really good..
Other not so good thug is the rear camera lens (glass cover) is practically the foot of the phone.. mine got cracked. Thanks god is cheap and easy to replace but it should be more protected...
Is a great device. but I bought it because the camera (have a DSLR too) and this is a bit disappointing.