The time has come, Samsung had their big press conference last night and unveiled two new devices: the new entry into their Note line of devices, the Galaxy Note 4 and the Galaxy Note Edge in addition to two wearables Samsung Gear S and the Samsung Gear Circle.

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The Smartphone Industry has been driven by Technology Innovation.

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Samsung began the announcement by noting the the smartphone industry has come to a crucial turning point at which “technology innovation” has become the driving force and will propel the smartphone into territory; making it the “hub of human interaction”. They also boasted creating the “phablet” or, as they put it, the “large screen smartphone”.  In addition, DJ Lee, President and Head of Marketing of the IT division, noted that as with the first Note device which was introduced in 2011, the main inspirations behind the GALAXY Note 4 is to enhance creativity, productivity and efficiency of its users.

“The Smartphone is not [just] a Smartphone anymore. It will be your wallet… It will be your personal television…it becomes your computer for work… and it will be your health coach…”

According to Samsung, the GALAXY Note 4 brings together three key attributes: “The most perfect and refined S-Pen and S Note Experience”, “The Latest and most advanced “GALAXY” technology” and a “New Design Language”. The device has been spec’d out to become one of the main components of the consumers’ lifestyle with new enhancements and added features whilst keeping in mind the hallmark features of the Note line of devices: a large screen with an S-Pen.

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“The original Note’s large screen and the iconic S-Pen launched [a] new standard in smartphone culture.”

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Specifications

The GALAXY Note 4 is a beast when it comes down to the specifications. It will sport an 2.7 GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor or a 1.9 GHz Octa-core (8 core) Exynos 5433 processor with 3GB of RAM. The processor which the device will come with will be carrier dependant, for countries which have carrier variants, and market or country dependant.  This will be coming with 32GB of onboard memory which is expandable by up to 64GB with the help of a microSD card slot.

[pullquote]”In the Internet of Things Era, the Smartphone will be [the] hub of human interaction and it will go beyond our imagination…”[/pullquote]

 The new entry into the Note line of devices sports a 5.7-inch  Quad HD Super AMOLED display with a 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution. The GALAXY Note 4 will be sporting an upgraded set of optics with a rear facing 16-MegaPixel camera with auto focus and Smart Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). Smart OIS technology will enable the Note 4 to counterbalance image instability and shaking mechanically and also extends exposure that will result in sharper and brighter pictures even under low light conditions. The front facing camera will sport a 3.7-MegaPixel sensor with f1.9 aperture which allows for a 90-degree shooting angle and up to 120 degree wide angle shots.

The GALAXY Note 4 will be able to support GSM, 3G and 4G LTE connectivity. Further, there will be built-in LTE Category 6 or LTE-Advanced connectivity support will be market and carrier dependant. In addition, the GALAXY Note 4 will have WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac connectivity, Near Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth v4.1 with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and ANT+ support, an Infrared LED blaster, USB 2.0 and Mobile High Definition Link (MHL) 3.0 connectivity. It will also support Global Positioning Satellite (GPS), GLONASS and Baidu services.

Additionally, the GALAXY Note 4 will be loaded with sensors which includes an accelerometer, gesture sensor, barometer, geo-magnetic sensor, Infrared sensor, gyroscope, and proximity sensor. These sensors are bolstered by the fingerprint, heart rate and Ultraviolet sensor.

Build

All of this will be packed into a sleek 153.5 x 78.6 x 8.5 mm body, coming in  at only 176g with a faux leather back. The GALAXY Note 4 will come with a metal frame; a design choice clearly brought forward with from the recently launched GALAXY Alpha. It will also be powered by a 3220 mAh removable Lithium Ion battery and it will also sport Fast Charging capabilities which are a hybrid of Adaptive Fast Charging and Quick Charging 2.0 features of the chipsets that they used.

The GALAXY Note 4 will be available in four colours at launch: Charcoal Black, Frost White, Bronze Gold and Blossom Pink.

Software Features

The Note 4 will becoming out of the box with Android 4.4.4 KitKat out of the box. Of course, Samsung’s proprietary skin over Android, TouchWiz will come in tow with its built in features which people have a love-hate relationship with. As per its siblings, the Note 4’s software features will be tied to its S-Pen which has been improved to have double the sensitivity of the S-Pen that came with the Note 3. For those that want the gritty details, the pressure sensitivities have been increased from  1024 points to 2048 points which makes it more sensitive and functional at different angles, rotations and speeds.

[pullquote]“The GALAXY Note 4 Will continue to set industry standards [on] how smartphones should help our lives become more enriched, more enjoyable and more efficient.”[/pullquote]

Air Command makes a return to the GALAXY Note 4 albeit after having a diet. The menu has been slimmed down to just four options: Action Memo, Screen Write, Pen Window and Smart Select; S Search and Scrap Booker have been scrapped from the menu but still remain on the device. Action Menu can now be triggered by double tapping the S-Pen on the screen while holding down the S-Pen. Smart Select has been expanded to let you select multiple items which will appear in a floating bubble where you are able to share, select or scrap book them.

S Note has been expanded to include two new writing types: Fountain Pen and Calligraphy which mimic their utensils. Also expanded is the multiwindow feature which has been built in to the multitasking/recent apps feature in Android where a multi-window icon will appear on the application’s thumbnail which will launch the application in multiwindow mode. In addition, swiping the window from the top right corner will enable floating mode

Accessories

Samsung will also be releasing a slew of accessories for the GALAXY Note 4 at launch. The Note 4 will launch with its own S-View cover, Wallet cover, Wallet S-View cover and LED cover. The new Wallet S-View cover hybridizes the S-View and wallet covers already popular with many Samsung GALAXY S5 and Note 3 users while the LED cover is Samsung’s answer to HTC’s popular Dot View casing which debuted with the HTC One M8.

However, probably the most notable accessory launching with the GALAXY Note 4 comes as a result of a new partnership between Samsung and Montblanc. The partnership has resulted in the release of a few pens by Montblanc which also act as an S-Pen.  In addition, Samsung has also partnered with Swarovski to answer the need to bling your device with a crystal clad back cover for the Note 4.

 

Source: Samsung