The phablet war is a new competition and manufacturers like Samsung want to bring out the best, but is the new Samsung Galaxy Note 4 a real upgrade from the Note 3? As with any newer version of a device, improvement is necessary. Let’s see just how the Galaxy Note 4 outdoes its predecessor.
Design-wise, we don’t see a big change. The Galaxy Note 4 measures 154 x 79 x 8.5 mm (long, across, deep) and weighs in at 176 g. The Galaxy Note 3 measures 151 x 79 x 8.3 mm and weighs 168 g. The difference between the two in terms of size and weight is thus negligible.
The build on the Galaxy Note 4 is not very different given the fact that the back is a faux leather build with metal edging, while the Note 3 has a plastic edge and faux leather backing. In terms of color options, the Galaxy Note 4 offers one extra color, gold, opposed to the three variants of the Note 3 (black, white, pink).
The display on both machines measures the same 5.7 inches. In terms of resolution the Galaxy Note 4 has a UHD, 2560 x 1440 with 515 ppi, outdoing its older brother that only packs a resolution of 1920 x 1080, with 388 ppi.
Regarding the utilities aspect, both handsets pack a stylus, while only the Galaxy Note 4 has an incorporated fingerprint scanner and a heart rate monitor. Neither device comes bearing the new water resistance feature, even though the Galaxy S5, the Galaxy Note 4’s cousin, has such a feature.
The camera on the Galaxy Note 4 bears an upgrade: 16 MP rear and 3.7 MP for the front snapper, opposed to the Note 3 which has 13 MP rear and 2 MP front. Also, the Galaxy Note 4 benefits from the implementation of the Optical Image Stabilization feature.
The capacity of the batteries on both devices isn’t too different. While the Galaxy Note 3 has 3.200 mAH, the Galaxy Note 4 only gets an extra 20 mAH. The thing that sets them apart here is the Ultra Power Saving Mode on the Galaxy Note 4, that can squeeze out a lot of extra power. One other thing that sets the tone for the Galaxy Note 4 is the fast charging feature, that reportedly can boost up your battery from 0 to 50 % in roughly 30 minutes, according to Samsung.
The storage options on both handsets are the same: 32/64 GB with a microSD card slot. The processor on the Galaxy Note 4 is not that big of an upgrade; a quad-core at 2.7 GHz, while the Note 3 packs a quad-core at 2.3 GHz. Both devices pack 3 GB of RAM. Both the Note 4 and Note 3 run on Android 4.4.4 KitKat with some TouchWiz features packed on top. Rumor has it that both machines will get an upgrade to the new Android 5.0 Lollipop early in 2015.
The difference between the two is evident when looking at the new features. The specs of the Galaxy Note 4 are not much superior to the Note 3, with only a slight upgrade to the chipset, but it shines when talking about feature improvements. The starting price for an off-contract Galaxy Note 4 in the U.S.A is $699, the cheapest option, while the Note 3 started off at around $600. All in all the improvements to the Galaxy Note 4 should make it worth the upgrade, given that the pricing difference is just $100.