Samsung Galaxy Note 4: Review

                                                  Samsung Galaxy Note 4: Review
                                         Is it really one of the best (but old) phablets?


The Galaxy Note 4 was released back in September 2014. Possibly. With current SIM-free prices hovering around £390 (originally reviewed at £600), that's still a lot of money for what's essentially a two and a half year old phone. It might have a metal frame, but it is starting to look a bit long in the tooth in terms of design compared to its S series stablemates. 

However, there's no denying the Note 4's excellent build quality. Rather than take its design cues from the Galaxy S5, the Note 4 is essentially a giant Galaxy Alpha, borrowing the metal trim from its smaller cousin. It's a massive improvement over the plastic phones from Samsung's past, and helps make it feel much more rigid, without dramatically affecting the weight of the phone. 

It's similar to the Alpha then, but not identical, as Samsung's also added what it calls 2.5D glass to the front of the handset. This gives the front panel a slightly rounded edge, making it look a touch more stylish than the completely flat Alpha and catching the light around the sides, though we wouldn't say it makes a significant difference to how the screen looks during everyday use.

This is still a fabulous smartphone display though, as it uses a Super AMOLED panel. These have always scored highly in our screen quality tests, and the Note 4 is no exception. Our colour calibrator showed it was displaying a full 100 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut on its default settings, and its black levels were a perfect 0.00cd/m2, so you can be sure that your videos and photos will always look their best. These results are also much higher than the measurements we got from the iPhone 6 Plus, which only covered 90.5 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut and had blacks of 0.40cd/m2.

Where the Note 4 falls down slightly is its low maximum brightness level. At just 265.71cd/m2, this is much dimmer than both the Galaxy S5, which measured 339.43cd/m2, and the iPhone 6 Plus, which was almost twice as bright at 572.14cd/m2. However, we found the Note 4 was still bright enough to use outside even in bright sunshine, although you'll need it at maximum brightness to cope. Those who spend a lot of time in deserts and on beaches might want to look elsewhere, but most us poor brits need not worry.