Hardware Display The Galaxy Note 4 features a 2560×1440 Quad HD (“
WQHD”)
Super AMOLED 5.7-inch display with 2.5D damage-resistant
Gorilla Glass 4 and provides a pixel density of 515 ppi (pixels-per-inch).
Chipsets The Note 4 came in two variants, one powered by a 2.7 GHz quad-core
Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset with Adreno 420 GPU, the other powered by Samsung's
ARMv8-A
Exynos 7 Octa
SoC with two clusters of four cores; four Cortex-A57 cores at 1.9 GHz, and four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.3 GHz, which is the same processor cluster sold for the
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in markets that mostly use or only have
3G (such as
HSUPA and
HSPA), and/or '2G', such as unaltered
GSM and
CDMA networks, similar to how the Galaxy Note 3 is sold. The phone has an aluminum frame with a plastic, faux leather back cover.
Connectivity Both devices that use
4G,
LTE/
LTE-A and Hybrid 4G-LTE Networks were only sold in
Canada,
Australia, the
U.S., the
United Kingdom (for some carriers),
Sweden,
Norway,
Denmark, and
South Korea, which have widespread
4G LTE Markets, or are solely 4G/LTE/LTE-A dependant such as Canada and Denmark, which did not use any 3G or older networks, except for
HSUPA (Used as a fall back network should the signal strength be weak due to being underground or in the middle of a building), as well as
HSPA+, which is a 3G network, though considered by some to be the Original 4G. The
GPU in charge in the Exynos chipset is the Mali-T760. The Chinese variant utilizes the
TD-LTE and
TD-SCDMA Plus Network.
Storage Both variants came with 3 GB of
LPDDR3 RAM and 32 GB of internal memory that can be expanded using
MicroSD-XC cards. The memory card slot has been relocated to allow
hot swapping without physical blockage by the battery.
Design The Note 4's back-cover has a strong resemblance to the Note 3, with a faux leather texture (although without the simulated stitching). It has a new aluminum frame design, bearing resemblance from the
Galaxy Alpha, but lacks an
IP67 certification (water and dust resistance), which was present in Samsung's other flagship, the Galaxy S5, released half a year earlier.
Stylus Like the predecessors, the Note 4 also includes a
stylus pen, branded
S Pen, incorporated into the design. Samsung touted new S Pen features including tilt and rotation recognition but these features were either not implemented or not supported. The
Wacom digitizer has been upgraded to be able to distinguish between 2048 pressure sensitivity levels, twice as much as the predecessor. The
Scrapbook feature introduced on the
Galaxy Note 3 has been extended by a so-called
Intelligent Selection feature that allows for
optical character recognition of highlighted screen areas.
Battery The Note 4 also incorporates a user-removable 3,220
mAh lithium-ion battery. It is the last Samsung flagship to be equipped with a user-replaceable battery. The device is the first flagship phone by Samsung to support
Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 for fast charging up to 15 W. The Note 4 features a
USB 2.0 charging port instead of
USB 3.0 (as was in the
Note 3 and
S5), in favor of a new feature called
Fast Charge, which Samsung claims can charge the phone from 0% to 50% in about 30 minutes and from 0% to 100% in less than 100 minutes. With the wireless charging rear cover accessory, which exists in both a plain rear cover form factor and an S View flip cover (or
S Charger View) form factor, the battery can be
charged wirelessly using
Qi technology.
Miscellaneous The Galaxy Note 4 uniquely features an
ultraviolet ray measurement sensor. Like the
Galaxy S5, it is also equipped with heart-rate monitor, oximeter, among other, more common sensors (
barometer, digital compass, front-facing proximity sensor,
accelerometer,
gyroscope). However, the Note 4 lacks the
thermometer and
hygrometer sensors which the
Galaxy S4 and
Galaxy Note 3 from 2013 were equipped with. The
Air View feature is no longer useable with fingers like it is on the
S4,
Note 3,
S5 and
Alpha. However, it is still usable with the stylus. The capacitive key on the left side of the home button is now a task key, whereas it has been a menu key for previous
Galaxy Note series models. However, holding the task key for one second simulates a press of the menu key. Unlike its successor, the Galaxy Note 4 supports
Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL), which can be used to connect the mobile phone to an
HDMI display.
S View cover The
S View cover, a horizontal flip
case with preview window, shares the functionality of the
predecessor's, except the ability to create
Action Memos (digital
post-it notes) without unfolding the cover. A
flashlight shortcut, optional
analogue clock designs (next to the default,
digital clock), as well as the ability to record video, a shortcut to dial contacts (phone numbers) marked as
favourite, and access to the
heart rate monitor, all without opening the cover, have been added.
Software The Galaxy Note 4 originally shipped with Google's mobile operating system, Android, specifically version 4.4.4, with its user interface modified with Samsung's custom skin named
TouchWiz Nature UX 3.5. The Note 4 contains most of the original Note's software features and functions, but also adds more significant upgrades from the predecessors, such as a new multitasking interface, expanded S Pen functions, gestures, and refreshed menus and icons. However, some Samsung
Smart Screen and air gesture control functionality which was present on the
Galaxy S4,
Galaxy Note 3,
Galaxy S5 and
Galaxy Alpha, including
Air Browse,
Smart Pause,
Smart Scroll and
Air Call Accept, has been removed.
Software updates The device can be updated to
Android 5.0.1 Lollipop in many regions, bringing a new, refined UI, and new runtime. This version has been criticized for poor battery life. A further update to 5.1.1 is available, depending on the wireless carrier. Most Note 4 devices can also be updated to
Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, bringing Android features like Android Doze (a feature introduced in Marshmallow that saves battery life) and greater control over app permissions to the device. The Note 4 TouchWiz UI was also evolved featuring the home screen icon pack known from the
Galaxy S6 and also features new
S Pen features known from the
Galaxy Note 5 such as the new Air command menu design with custom shortcuts and Screen-off memo. However, the UI is still very similar to the previous UI and slightly similar to the S6 UI, but most of the
TouchWiz UI resembles the original UI for the Note 4.
Multi-window The new multitasking interface merges the
Galaxy Note 3's “S Pen window” feature and the split-screen feature known from the
Galaxy Note 2,
Galaxy S4,
Galaxy Note 3 and
Galaxy S5, into one feature. Applications (including the camera application) can be transitioned from floating pop-up view to flexible split-screen view and vice versa, and can be put from normal into pop-up view by dragging diagonally from an upper corner.
Gallery software The Galaxy Note 4 uses a gallery software very similar to
that of the Galaxy S5, with support for functionality such as
"Shot & More" and
"Selective Focus". Additional camera modes can be downloaded from a store provided by Samsung. The gallery software is compatible with the
Air View feature that allows previewing photos from albums when hovering the stylus above it. User reports suggest that the
Exif (meta data) viewer has been removed from Galaxy Note 4.
Camera The main (rear-facing) camera is a 16-megapixel (5312×2988) autofocus camera with 16:9 aspect ratio
image sensor (Sony
Exmor RS IMX240), featuring Smart OIS (optical image stabilization + software image stabilization), being the first mobile phone of the
Samsung Galaxy Note series and the first original variant Samsung flagship phone to feature an optically stabilized rear camera. It allows
optically stabilized 4K (2160p) video recording at 30 fps, 1080p video recording with 30 fps and 60 fps (
Smooth Motion) options and also 120 fps
slow-motion video recording in 720p resolution. An option for
1440p video has been added in the camera software. Like the
Galaxy S5, its rear camera supports
high dynamic range (HDR) video recording with up to 1080p at 30 fps. While the camera software and user interface is largely inherited from the
Galaxy S5, some changes have been made.
Digital zoom is allowed up to 8x, twice as much as on the S5 and Note 3. The option to separately preserve the standard dynamic range version from
high dynamic range (HDR) photographs and the
Wi-Fi Direct remote viewfinder have been removed. The secondary (front-facing) camera is a 3.7 MP camera with a f1.9
aperture that can record 2560×1440 QHD videos and capture wide-angle pictures. The Galaxy Note 4's front camera is the first front camera in any mobile phone that is able to record videos at
1440p (
WQHD) resolution. After the
LG G3, the Galaxy Note 4 is the second mobile phone to be able to record
optically stabilized 2160p (4K) video. == Sales ==