SAMSUNG
GALAXY NOTE 3 and 4
The
Ultimate James Bond 007 gadget
50
cool things about the Galaxy Note 3 and 4
.comparison with the iPhone 6 plus included.
FIRST
THE FULL SPECS
In November 2013, after saving for months and selling my iPhone 5, used my hard-earned
savings to purchase a Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Had the iPhone 6 Plus been around in 2013, I would have bought it instead. I had to settle for Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
With the Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus now out, I compare all three gadgets in detail.
If the Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus both turn out to be much better than the Galaxy Note 3, it will be a hard and tough decision for me to decide which one to upgrade too, so to have peace of mind and not go crazy, I will sit on the fence and wait and see which one is superior: Galaxy Note 4 or iPhone 6 Plus.
Here I share 50 cool things about the Galaxy Note 3 and 4. The specific new features of Note 4
will be included once I am able to test a Galaxy Note 4 and gain hands-on experience. Other than that I have been able to
have a good look at the Note 4 at London's big Samsung Store at Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford.
I include iPhone 6 Plus specs as well, having had a good look at it at the London's Convent Garden Apple Store.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 comes in several models: Model N9000 with 3G
connectivity; model N9002 with dual SIM card support; OR mine which is model
N9005 with 3G & LTE connectivity. Because the Galaxy Note 3 has a new update in the form of Galaxy Note 4, I will include data on the Galaxy Note 4 side by side with the Galaxy Note 3.
ENJOY!
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - all models
CDMA 800 / 1900 - Model N9009
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 Models N9005, N9002, N9006
CDMA2000 1xEV-DO - model N9009
4G Network LTE 800 / 850 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 Model N9005.
Galaxy Note 4 was released on September 3rd 2014. It comes in at least 9 models: N910H ,N910C, N910S, N910F, N910A, N910P, N910T, N910R and N910S. The two main differences in the Galaxy Note 4 models is the same with the Galaxy Note 3: type of 3G and 4G cellular and data network coverage AND the type of GPU/CPU used in the device, depending on which country you purchased it.
Both N910H and N910C and other models cover more 3G networks than the N910S. Also N910H and N910C covers LTE (4G data) Category 6 while N910S and other models cover LTE (4G data) Category 4.
Meanwhile model N910S uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084 (Quad Core) CPU running at 2.7 GHz, while the N910H, N910C and other models all models use Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5433 (Octa Core) CPU running at 1.9 GHz. The difference in CPU will mean a difference in GPU: model N910S uses Qualcomm Adreno 420 GPU (600 MHz), while the N910H, N910C and other models uses ARM Mali-T760 GPU (600MHz).
More differences between the Note 4 models will become apparent in due course, but thats the only two main differences between the Note 4 models, every other spec is the same for all three Note 4 models. To know the difference between the Note 3 and Note 4, continue reading.
One more thing......
Both Galaxy Note 3 and Note 4 will come with Nokias free superb offline navigation app called Here Maps (formerly Nokia Maps) by the end of the October 2014. If you have seen or used the Here Maps app on Nokias Windows 8.1 Lumia smartphones, you have an idea what it will be like on Note 3 and Note 4. Unlike Google Maps and Apple Maps, Here Maps will let you download all the hundreds of megabyte maps you need (all-you-can-eat maps!). This will mean no more expensive Internet access for a week long trip Christmas trip to Paris or New York and trying to find your hotel address!!
Here Maps is exclusive for only Galaxy Note 3 and Note 4, Samsung did a deal with Nokia to ensure the only Android phones with Here Maps will be the Galaxy Note 3 and 4.
The Galaxy Note 4 and 3 sure do have lots of compelling reasons to go for them.
SIM
type Micro-SIM. Same with the Galaxy Note 4.
Announced September 2013 and available since October
2013 on Orange, EE, 3 and Vodafone. Galaxy Note 4 announced September 2014 and available from October 2014
iPhone 6 Plus announced September 2014 and available from October 2014.
Dimensions 151.2mm x 79.2mm x 8.3 mm (5.95 x 3.12 x 0.33 in)
Galaxy Note 4 the dimensions: 153.5mm x 78.6mm x 8.5 mm (6.04 x 3.09 x 0.33 in). So while both are same slim thickness, Note 4 is taller, but Note 3 is wider. This means your external case for the Note 3 might fit the Note 4,when you upgrade.
iPhone 6 Plus has the dimensions: 158mm x 77mm x 7.1mm. So it is slightly tinnier than the Galaxy Note 4 and 3, and slightly taller than the Note 3 and 4 but Both Note 3 and Note 4 are wider than iPhone 6 Plus. However the days of Android fanboys and fangirls mercilessly mocking the 4-inch Apple iPhone 5/5S screen are over.
Weight 168 grams (5.93 oz)
Galaxy Note 4 weighs in at a modest 176 grams or 6.21 oz, so it is slightly heavy than Note 3.
iPhone 6 Plus weighs 172 grams. So Galaxy Note 3 is the least heavy of the three at 168 grams.
Display Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen,
16 million colours with Corning Gorilla Glass 2. Screen
Size and screen resolution 1080 x 1920 pixels or Full HD display, 5.7
inches (386 ppi ppi pixel density)
Internal Storage MicroSDHC or MicroSDXC slot, up to 64 GB. It has 32Gb internal storage.
RAM capacity 3GB RAM using LPDDR3 (biggest
RAM in any smartphone) Data
Speed HSDPA, 42 Mbps;
HSUPA; LTE, Category 4, 50 Mbps UL, 150 Mbps DL WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band (5GHz n) ,
DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot Bluetooth Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, LE, EDR NFC
Yes Infrared
port Yes USB
Yes, micro USB v3.0 (with MHL 2 to view the Note 3 on a TV), USB
Host (USB on-the-go) Camera 13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus,
LED flash, check quality, Secondary Yes, 2 MP, 1080p@30fps Camera
Features Dual Shot,
Simultaneous HD video and image recording, GPS geo-tagging, touch focus, face and
smile detection, optical image stabilization, panorama, HDR Video
recording Yes,
2160p@30fps or 4K and 1080p@60fps, 1080p@60fps (N9005, N9002) / 1080p (N9000) Features OS Android
OS, v4.3 (Jelly Bean) upgradable to Android 4.4 Kitkat in 2014. CPU 2.3 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (models N9005,
N9002) / OR the 1.9 GHz Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5420
(model N9000) Chipset
super fast Quad-core 2.3 GHz Krait 400 (N9005, N9002) / Quad-core 1.9 GHz
Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7 (N9000) GPU Qualcomm Adreno 330 (N9005, N9002) / OR the ARM Mali-T628 MP6
(N9000) Sensors Accelerometer, gyroscope, ANT+ sensor, proximity sensor, compass / magnetometer sensor, thermometer (temperature sensor),
barometer, Hall effect sensor, humidity sensor (hygrometer), RGB light sensor, gesture sensor etc (smartphone with the biggest number of sensors!!)
Messaging SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail,
IM, RSS etc Browser with HTML5, Java, Flash Radio
Yes and No, depending on which country it was bought! GPS
Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS (Russian GPS) and BEIDOU (Chinese GPS). Java
Yes, via Java MIDP emulator Colours Black, White, Pink Other
features: - S-Pen Wacom Digitizer with apps - ANT+ sensor built-in (monitors biometrics
like fitness variables) - S-Voice natural language
commands and dictation - Air gestures - SNS integration - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - Dropbox (50 GB, Samsung only exclusive
storage) - TV-out (via MHL A/V link) - MP4/DivX HD/XviD/WMV/MKV HD/H.264/H.263
player - MP3/WAV/WMAeAAC+ Dolby AC3 (AC3 codec included) and FLAC
player. - Organizer - Image/video editor - Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
PDF) - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, - YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa. Same for Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus - Voice memo/dial/commands - Predictive text input (Swype) Battery Li-Ion
3200 mAh battery Stand-by (2G) / Up to 420 h (3G) Talk time (2G) / Up to 21 h (3G) SAR EU 0.29 W/kg (head) 0.36 W/kg (body) Battery life Endurance rating 75h or 3 days with full
charge and light use I have not tested the Galaxy Note 4 overall performance and new software features, since I do not have the phablet in my hands, but I will visit the big Samsung store at the Londons Stratford Westfield shopping centre in the coming weeks over the weekend and spend about 5 hours trying it out, before commenting about its new features here. FRONT
BACK Now
50 cool James Bond 007 things about the Galaxy Note 3 (and Galaxy Note 4 in due course) 1) S Pen new features The
new S Pen reinvents and modernises the classic note-taking experience by
providing the ability to accomplish everyday tasks with just one click. The S Pen is NOT
a stylus like the one popularised by Windows Mobile 6 iPaq devices from HP back in 2003.
S Pen uses the advanced Wacom Digitizer technology. The
advanced S Pen is designed to be fully functional as a communication driver
between the phone and the user by creating essential input and control
features. It plays an integral role in how users interface with the device,
making all daily routines easier. A
simple click of the S Pen button while hovering over the screen introduces
users to Air Command. The
Air Command feature provides access to the following key functions: Action Memo allows you to make a memo. Draw a
line on the memo to select it and do the actions on that memo. In other
words, it allows users to handwrite a note and automatically execute a function
or convert that handwritten information into formatted content. Action Memo can
instantly initiate a call, add to contacts, look up an address
on a map, search the web, save a task to a to-do list, etc etc.. Scrapbook allows your device to collect
available contents and save these contents into the Scrapbook. In other
words it enables users to organise or track down content and information from
various sources including the web, YouTube and Gallery in one place so that
users can easily look back at collected content all at once. When consumers
save content for future use, Scrapbook also collects source material or URLs
allowing them to easily refer back to the original source. Screen Write allows you to capture a screen
shot of your device and edit the captured picture using the S Pen feature.
It can capture the full screen image of the current page on the device and
allows users to write comments or additional information onto the captured
image. S Finder allows users to expansively search
for content on their device regardless of the type. By putting in keywords
or filters such as date, location and content type, users can search related
documents, events, communication threads, and even the Help page - all in one
place. In addition, users can also search for hand-written content in their
Notes and memo applications, as well as symbols and formulas. Pen Window allows you to launch many
applications. It allows users to use the S Pen not only for drawing
sketches or writing notes, but now also for opening a small application window
for a true multitasking experience. Simply by drawing a window of any size,
anywhere on the screen, users can easily and quickly open another application
window such as YouTube, calculator or Browser without pausing current activity
on the screen. For
more advanced note-taking, the new S Note presents a comprehensive solution
that enables consumers to easily write, organise, edit and browse notes with a
user-friendly interface and the Easy
Chart feature. 2) S Note + Evernote integration The new S Note can also
be synced with Evernote
or a Samsung account and be enabled for accessing and viewing from different
devices. Furthermore, when a user wants only a certain part of an image to be
taken from the web or Note 3 content, the advanced new Easy Clip feature allows
them to roughly draw around the desired image and then it converts that content
into a more precisely cropped image. S
Note is Samsung's main notepad app, designed for use with the S Pen. And
with the Note 3, you can set it up to sync automatically with your Evernote account,
so all the notes you jot on the go will always be accessible on any phone,
tablet, or PC. Not only can you get to your notes via Evernote -- you can
search them there, too, thanks to Evernote's handwriting recognition system. 3) S Pen Keeper The danger of having a S - Pen -- even one
that's stored inside your phone -- is the distinct possibility of taking the
thing out and leaving it behind. After all, no matter how you look at it, a lost
S Pen is not a useful S Pen. The Note 3 has a feature to prevent this from
happening. Once activated, S Pen Keeper will sound an alarm and alert you on
your phone anytime you move a certain distance away from the pen. The function is off by default for some
reason, by the way, so you'll probably want to go into the main system settings
and activate it ASAP if you end up getting this phone.: Settings/Controls/S
Pen/ then choose Pen Detection and S Pen Keeper 4) Information on region SIM lock In
order to provide customers with the optimal mobile experience in each region
including customer care services, Samsung has incorporated the regional SIM lock feature into GALAXY
Note 3 devices. The
product is only compatible with a SIM-card issued from a mobile operator within
the region identified on the sticker of the product package. When the device is
activated with a SIM card issued from the other region, the device may be
automatically locked until it is released at the dedicated service center. The
regional SIM lock does NOT affect the devices features and performance. Users
can continue to enjoy all the advanced features of our products. Am not sure if
this is indeed a cool feature!! 5) USB 3 on Galaxy Note 3 A
new important feature of Galaxy Note 3 is its USB 3 port. Its the first smarphone that uses USB 3.0. The benefits of the switch to
the more modern standard are two-fold. The obvious plus for USB 3.0 is that it
offers far faster data rates, potentially increasing the speed of
transferring music, videos, and photos to and from your phone.
"Potential" is an important word here: the speeds you'll actually
achieve will depend on the quality of the storage Samsung has included in the
Galaxy Note 3. Another
less obvious benefit is you'll be able to charge your phone directly from your
PC or Mac much faster
(assuming you have a USB 3.0-enabled device). USB 2.0 ports generally provide
up to 500mA current, while USB 3.0
is 80% faster at 900mA, making
plugging your phone into your laptop more akin to connecting it to a wall
charger. 6) ANT+ Sensor The
Galaxy Note 3, supports the ANT+ protocol. ANT+
protocol is the wireless technology that allows accessories such as heart rate
monitors, speed/cadence sensors, foot pods and power meters to talk to your
compatible Galaxy Note 3,. Now ANT+ has gone a step further by allowing certain
Galaxy Note 3, and accessories to link to fitness equipment. This unique
technology allows you to bridge the gap between your indoor and outdoor fitness
activities so you can track and store data even from a treadmill run or a spin
bike workout. Once
your workout is done in gym, ANT+ keeps on working. When youre in range of
your PC, your Galaxy Note 3, device can wirelessly send the data to ANT+ servers
via the USB ANT Stick. At
website of ANT+ servers, you can analyse, store and share your data with a
worldwide community of fitness enthusiasts. 7) Proximity, Light and Gesture Sensors The
proximity sensor detects the distance between your phone and another
object. When making calls, it automatically locks your phone screen when it
senses that you ear or head is going near the sensor. This is set so you won't
accidentally tap anything on your device's screen while a call is on-going. The
light sensor detects the ambient light available and automatically
changes your device's brightness settings so you can use your device without
problems of screen visibility due to your surroundings being too bright. The gesture
sensor allows you to use gesture and air commands on your Note 3. 8) Smart Scrolling When
enabled at (Settings/Controls/Smart Screen/Smart Scroll), the Galaxy Note 3 can
smart scroll. By tilting your head up or down, the Note 3 scrolls up or down
while viewing it, so you can scroll without using your finger or S pen!! This can helpful when you are viewing web
pages or reading your emails. 9) Control Motions The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 can also be
controlled without S - Pen or hands to do other things other than scrolling, by
using the simple control motions. Knowing how to use these control motions
allow you to have more control over your device as well as getting the most
from it. First switch it on at : Settings/Controls/Motions/ON. Now try these:
Picking up. When Note 3 is on idle mode or the
screen is turned off, your device will vibrate if it has missed calls or new
messages. Pick up to use it. Holding the phone to ear when you are
viewing a call log, a message or contact will automatically call the contact
being viewed Pan to browse. When you are zooming to an image,
you can tap and hold any point of your Note 3's screen then move it to any
direction to pan and browse through the whole image Turn over your Note 3. You can automatically switch your
phone to silent or pause a video or audio playback by turning your Note 3 over Tilting. You can zoom in or zoom out of your
device by tapping and holding on to two points of your Note 3's touch screen. 10)
4K Video
Recording The
Galaxy Note 3 can record and play video at both 1080p@60fps AND at 4K or Ultra HD videos at 2160p at 30fps, i.e. 3840 x 2160 pixels. It is
the first smartphone with this feature. Only the model N9005 with 3G & LTE
connectivity can record 4K video, the other models record Full HD videos or
1920 x 1080 pixels or 1080p. There is a 5 minute
limit on video recording though as the 4K video files ARE huge!! The
problem with 4K though is that Ultra HD televisions are VERY VERY expensive - a 55-inch Samsung 4K TV costs over £5000 (horrible money to pay for a bloody TV!).
LG plans to introduce a 4K display for smartphones, but the size of the devices
will be too small for human eyes to really pick up the difference between 1080p
and 2160p 4K UHD videos!!! 4K
TV costs will hopefully come down below £5000 is 2 years time (2016 onwards). 11)
Smart
Stay The
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a neat feature that detects if you are still
looking at the screen and prevents the backlight from turning off. This
way, you won't get disturbed if you are reading something, and your backlight
would turn off due to inactivity. To activate the Smart Stay feature of your
Samsung Galaxy Note 3, do this: Settings/ Controls/Smart Screen/ ON Once
turned on, Galaxy Note 3 will keep the back light from turning off as long as you
are still looking at your device's screen. 12)
Multi
Window Samsung
Galaxy Note 3 has one of the most powerful mobile processors on the market
today, so you won't have problems with running multiple applications on the
device. In the diagram below, both the pictures app and web browser app are
open at the same time. The massive 3G RAM in the decide helps with
multi-windows multi-tasking. To activate this feature go to:
Settings/Device/Multi Window 13)
NFC and
S Beam The Galaxy Note 3 Near Field
Communications (NFC) radio allows it pair with a number of NFC-enabled gadgets
with a tap, including the Samsung Galaxy Gear watch. Its also very required
for sharing files and photos with a tap and for mobile payments via Google
Wallet. To make sure Note 3 has NFC enabled, look under the Connections tab in
Settings. Samsungs S Beam feature uses its NFC radio to share
files, particularly photos and videos, even more quickly than traditional
Android Beam. Appropriately, the toggle for S Beam is located directly below
the NFC switch in Settings. In 2010 Google released the NFC-enabled
Nexus S, leading the way for other manufactures to integrate NFC within their
Android smartphones. As a result NFC is now available in the majority of
Android NFC-enabled mobile phones worldwide. NFC
Data transfer is either between two NFC-enabled devices such as smartphones or
one device and an RFID-enabled sticker, which typically costs around £2. Within each NFC tag is an NFC chip,
and it is this chip that determines the compatibility of the NFC tag with your smartphone.
Standards that ensure compatibility are set by the NFC Forum, a worldwide
oversight body that includes representation from major manufactures such as
Samsung, Sony, Nokia and Motorola. To ensure compatibility with your
Android smartphone you should only purchase NFC tags that contain the NFC chips:
Ultralight, Ultralight C,
NTAG203 and Topaz. Some manufactures have also released their own NFC tags such
as Xperia SmartTags or Samsung TechTiles. NFC tags are designed to work with
specific apps. Google Play offers a wide range of free and low cost NFC enabled
apps that work with NFC tags. Remember the NFC radio is at the back of the Galaxy Note 3,
so place your NFC tag underneath your Galaxy 3 or your Galaxy Note 3 ontop of the NFC tag. Two of the best NFC apps for the Galaxy Note 3 are: NFC
TagWriter This app allows you to
programme NFC tags with a wide variety of data. This could be a command such as
launching a webpage, prewritten SMS or plain text. For more experienced users
you can switch the app into the Advanced Features mode and programme additional
commands such as custom URIs. NFC
Task Launcher (from RapidNFC, Europe's largest
supplier of NFC tags and products) RapidNFCs Task launcher app allows you to
update your phones settings or launch an application by simply tapping your
NFC-enabled phone to an NFC tag. The app is very intuitive, for more details go
to http://rapidnfc.com/nfc_task_launcher With an app like NFC Task Launcher for
Android you can automate all kinds of things in your house. For example, you
can set it up so when you swipe your NFC enabled phone across a label your
phone will automatically silence the ringer and set an alarm. It's a bit of a
process to set up though!!.
14)
Air
View with Either S Pen or Finger The Galaxy Note II introduced
Samsungs Air view, a feature which shows you previews of content such as
images in the gallery or the text of emails in your inbox when you hover over
on-screen items with your S pen. The Galaxy S4 added the ability to get Air
view features with your finger instead of a S pen. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Note 3 can detect
either the S pen or your finger for Air view, but by default, it only
recognizes the pen. To enable both finger and S pen
support for Air view, tap Air view in
the Controls tab of the settings menu, make sure Air view is toggled to on and
then select Auto from the Air view mode menu. 15)
Smart
Pause The
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a Smart Pause feature, which in a clever way pauses videos when you
look away from the screen. So if you were just glancing to check
your watch, your whole movie stops. This feature is enabled by tapping
Smart Screen under the settings menus Controls tab 16)
Other Sensors
There seems to be an ever growing range of James Bond-style sensors that are packed into smartphones these days, which is even more impressive when you consider that handsets are getting thinner and thinner and thinner (like on a diet). In total, the Galaxy Note has the following James Bond-style sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope, ANT+ sensor, proximity sensor, compass / magnetometer sensor, thermometer (temperature sensor), barometer, humidity sensor or hygrometer, Hall Effect sensor, RGB ambient light sensor, and gesture sensor.
ANT+ Sensor, Proximity, ambient Light and Gesture Sensors have been previously covered. The brief details of the rest are:
17)
USB Host
Imagine this scenario, your on a spying mission to retrieve a USB stick a.k.a flash drive from a car and read its top secret contents. Your laptop is not with you, so how do you read the flash drive? Luckily The Galaxy Note 3 has USB Host (USB-On-The-GO) built-in. Using a cheap £5 USB host cable, you simply attach it to the cable to the Galaxy Note 3, then connect the flash drive.
Using the file explorer app on the Galaxy Note 3, you then locate the flash drive and read or copy its contents onto the Galaxy Note 3. No need for bulky laptops, tablets or desktop computers to read flash drives, just a smaller hand-held Galaxy Note 3. Touche!!
18)
Screen Mirroring
This feature relies on Samsung's ALLShare DLNA technology and it works in the same way as the iPhone 5/5S AirPlay (with Apple TV), to display whats on the Galaxy Note 3 screen onto a TV screen, without using MHL 2.0 HDMI cables. The Galaxy Note 3 itself is used as the remote control.
Activate it at the Connections tab within Settings. You will probably need a recent Samsung TV, or else an extra hardware in the form of £40 Samsung AllShare Cast Dongle for other TV models like Sony, LG and Panasonic.
19)
Enhanced GPS
While most smartphones have GPS chips from companies like SiRF, Broadcom and Qualcomm built-in, just a handful include extras such as a chip to access the Russian GPS system known as GLONASS. On a GPS app like "GPS TEST" the GLONASS satellites are those numbered 65 to 88. Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy note 3,
also have support for the BEIDOU navigation system. Launched globally in 2012,
BEIDOU is the new Chinese version of GPS. Its satellites cover 95% of the world. iPhone 6 Plus supports A-GPS and GLONASS too, but sadly no BEIDOU support. 2015/16 will see the arrival of GALILEO, the European Union's version of GPS. I expect Galaxy Note 5 or 6 to have access to GALILEO satellites as well alongside GPS, GLONASS and BEIDOU.
20)
NSA-proof Security
With the NSA in the news for all the wrong reasons such as global interception of phone calls, emails, faxes and SMS texts or bugging German Chancellor Angela Merkel's BlackBerry phone, Samsung has invested in providing
NSA-proof security to make the Galaxy Note 3 very secure, given that Android OS is an open-source OS. The security feature is called KNOX.
If the NSA cannot hack into KNOX, then the phone with KNOX is the most secure consumer phone on the planet (em... President Obama's or Putin's BlackBerry phone probably use KNOX-like technology). KNOX is very secure because it is hardware implemented, not software implemented, so it works different from using a software
like Symantec's Norton Utilities, McAfee or Karpersky apps to protect against malware.
KNOX is hardcoded into the hardware internals of a device featuring KNOX. Among other things it can allow secure boot so only authorized apps
are on the device. KNOX can create isolated environments to run specific apps, which will ensure Android
isn't compromised. KNOX easily creates secure VPN (virtual private network) connections,
or to prevent keylogging. Samsung takes advantage of the TrustZone hardware-based security layer
to store security keys and create isolated environments, a bit like the method used by Microsoft's Windows 8 Professional (or Windows 8.1) for
its ultra secure BitLocker technology that securely encrypts and locks down any Windows hard drive or
external hard drive or FileVault 2 technology in Mac OSX Mavericks to encrypt and lock down MacBooks.
Same for Galaxy Note 4 However the Note 4 has a big screen upgrade: it uses Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with 2.5D Super AMOLED display.
Galaxy Note 4 has a screen resolution of 1400 x 2560 pixels or Quad HD (QHD) or 2K display. It is 5.7 inches with 515 ppi. In comparison, the iPhone 5S Retina screen resolution is 330ppi. With its 2.5D Super AMOLED display, the Note 4 looks absolutely gorgeous when viewed in the dark or in sunlight.
not fall in love with the Note 4 display, its only a gadget.
iPhone 6 Plus is 5.5 inches with a Full HD 1080 x 1920 screen resolution with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Its ppi is 401 (larger than Galaxy 3, but much smaller than Galaxy 4). iPhone 6 Plus uses IPS-TFT capacitive touchscreen, instead of Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen.
While phablets will soon follow Galaxy Note 4 and offer screen resolution of 2K, it unlikely that we will see a 4K screen resolution on a
phablet. 4K or Ultra HD or 3840 x 2160 pixels screen resolution will only suit bigger screens like TVs
and also desktop computers like the new October/November 2014 iMacs running Mac OSX 10.10 Yosemite.
The reason for this is that the screen resolution of the phablet under 6 inches will be just too small for human eyes to really pick up the difference between 2K and 4K screens. Some engineers even tell us that on a 6 inch screen you need to look a bit harder at the screen
to pick up the difference between Full HD and 2K screen resolution. But 4K screen resolution on a 7 inch or more screen size, on say a tablet like iPad mini or the 9.7 inch iPad Air will be noticeable. So I suspect that one day 2K instead of 4K screen resolution in tablets will appear on the market from 2015, but engineers of smartphone, tablet and phablet companies need to sort out how to accomplish good battery life for 2K screen resolution first. 2K screen resolution is a very BIG drain on battery power, and is only possible in Galaxy Note 4, because the Samsung engineers smartly increased battery capacity to 3300mAh and used latest low power but powerful versions of Qualcomm CPU (Qualcomm Snapdragon 805) and GPU (Qualcomm Adreno 420).
Nvidia Tegra K1 is another GPU that can handle
2K screen resolution with low power requirement for phablets (it will be used in the new Google phablet, the new Google Nexus 6 (made by Motorola), which is has a 5.9-inch 2K display resolution. But while Qualcomm Adreno 420 can handle 4K video recording for the Note 4, Tegra K1 cant handle 4K video recording.
Another potential GPU competitor to Qualcomm Adreno 420 and Nvidia Tegra K1 is the new Imagination Technologies PowerVR GX6650 used in the iPhone 6 plus, it too can handle 2K display resolution but no 4K video recording.
All three powerful mobile device GPUs support the new 2014 powerful graphics technology known as OpenGL ES 3.1 (made by Khronos Group),
allowing 3D graphics games to be played on the devices with spectacular results.
However as a benchmark comparison OpenGL ES 3.1 is obviously not as powerful as OpenGL 4.5 used in
high-end laptops and high-end powerful desktop computers.
Due to OpenGL ES 3.1, all three mobile devices (Galaxy Note 4, Nexus 6 and iPhone 6 Plus)
can thus record and play videos at the massive high-end level known as 1080p@60fps video
recording/play back. But only Galaxy Note 4 (and of course Note 3) can record and play video at 4K.
Because playing games at 4K resolutions requires much higher hardware specifications
than recording video
at 4K, do not expect any phablet or tablet to be able to play 4K video games anytime soon, even if they support
OpenGL ES 3.1. For starters, the chassis of a tablet will be too small or narrow to employ crucial coolers, heatsinks and radiators needed to keep the very hot GPU cool.
To play 4K games on High-end powerful desktop computers, you need a minimum $800 plus GPU card
such as Nvidia's GeForce GTX Titan Z ($3500) the most expensive GPU on the planet and world's fastest graphics card or AMD's Radeon R9 295X2 ($1600).
Galaxy Note 4 has 64GB internally and can be additionaly upgraded up to 128 GB with MicroSDXC card
iPhone 6 Plus still has no MicroSDXC slot and the biggest internal storage capacity is 128GB version. You can use Wifi MicroSDXC card devices to use MicroSDXC card over WiFi with the iPhone 6 Plus (e.g PQI Air Drive from Amazon).
Of Course any Android device can use PQI Air Drive as well. Its a draw here.
Galaxy Note 4 has the same 3 GB RAM.
iPhone 6 Plus has 1 GB LPDDR3 RAM
, hence it cannot do memory-hungry multitasking multiple windows like the Notes can (display two or more open app windows at the same time on the screen just like computers can.
Such as checking emails and browsing the web at the same time.
Galaxy Note 4 models N910H and N910C both use Category 6, not Category 4. so faster uploading (UL) and downloading (DL) of data. iPhone 6 Plus uses Category 6 too.
Same for Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Galaxy Note 4 uses Bluetooth 4.1. iPhone 6 Plus uses Bluetooth 4.0
Same for Galaxy Note 4. iPhone 6 Plus finally is first iOS device with NFC,
but for now iPhone 6 Plus NFC chip will only work with Apple Pay NFC devices.
Same for Galaxy Note 4. iPhone 6 Plus has no Infrared port
Galaxy Note 4 supports USB host, but has reverted to USB 2.0 with MHL 2 support.
iPhone 6 Plus uses USB 2.0 (no MHL support but has Air Play support with Apple TV) but does not support USB host.
For Galaxy Note 4, camera specs is slightly different: it shoots stills at 16 MP and has Dual LED flash not a single LED flash in the Note 3..
iPhone 6 Plus shoots stills at 8 MP and uses Dual LED flash.
Same for Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Same for Galaxy Note 4. N.B. The ability to record or run videos
at 1080p@60fps, let alone 4K, requires cutting-edge technology. Both PS4 and XBox One consoles can only run a few video games at 1080p@60fps like the latest Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed games, as the hardware requirements are top notch.
fps means frames per second, the motion of a video is always measured in fps.
Slow motion Video or Slo-Mo Video. This is good for sports videos like seeing who came first in a 100 metres sprint in the Olympics, football tackles or watching a bird fly
..video is fantastic to view. While Galaxy Note 3 can record Slo-Mo videos at 120fps, both Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus can record Slo-Mo videos at a jaw-dropping superb slooooooowly 240 fps as well as 120fps. How on earth is this possible in a tiny device?. Only bigger high-end camcorders and Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras are supposed to do 240 or more fps Slo-Mo videos. I applaud this feat! Bear in mind though that the electronic light sensor size is much smaller in iPhone 6 Plus and Galaxy Note 4 compared to the bigger (so much better ) sensors found in DSLRs (e.g. Full Frame or APS sensors) and camcorders. Remember that Slo-Mo video cameras are different from high-speed cameras used
for recording fast-moving objects as a photographic image. The aim is the same though: dealing with fast-moving situations. The world record for the top high-speed camera was broken in August 2014: Researchers in Japan have developed what they believe is the worlds fastest high-speed camera, which can take 4.4 trillion fps images. It is used for capturing super-fast
chemical reactions and heat conduction. Such speeds are virtually impossible to achieve in the most expensive Nikon or Canon EOS DSLRs.
Galaxy Note 4 comes with 4.4 Kikat already pre-installed. Both Notes will be upgradable to the new Android 5 (i.e. Lollipop) in November 2014.
iPhone 6 Plus runs a different OS known as iOS 8.
Galaxy Note 4 model N910S uses 2.7 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805, while the other Note 4 models use the 2 GHz Samsung Exynos 5 Octa-core 5433. Both are thus obviously more powerful and faster CPUs than the ones used in the Note 3.
iPhone 6 Plus uses Samsung-made 1.5 GHz Dual-core Apple A8 CPU.
Galaxy Note 4 model N910S uses the more powerful Qualcomm Adreno 420 , while all other Note 4 models use ARM Mali-T760 GPU.
iPhone 6 Plus uses the Imagination Technologies PowerVR GX6650 GPU.
Same for Galaxy Note 4, which also has Ultra Violet Radiation Sensor, Heart monitor Sensor and
other health-related sensors. iPhone 6 Plus has all the above sensors except: Ultra Violet Radiation Sensor,
humidity sensor, ANT+ sensor (??), thermometer sensor, barometer sensor (??) and gesture sensor.
Same for Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Same for Galaxy Note 4. iPhone 6 Plus Safari web browser does not support Java or Flash but does support HTML5. Its a draw here.
Same for Galaxy Note 4.
Same for Galaxy Note 4.
Launched globally in 2012, BEIDOU is the new
Chinese version of GPS. Its satellites currently cover 95% of the world. Samsung and Qualcomm collaborated to allow the
Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 chip to have access to BEIDOU via thier IZat Gen8B technology. Other smartphones with
access to BEIDOU satellites include the new 2014 Nokia Lumia 830 smartphone running
Windows Phone 8.1 Demin update.
iPhone 6 Plus supports A-GPS and GLONASS too, but sadly no BEIDOU support.
2015/16 will see the arrival of GALILEO, the European Union's version of GPS. I expect
Galaxy Note 5 or 6 to have access to GALILEO satellites as well alongside GPS, GLONASS and BEIDOU satellite.
Imagine a device with four different navigation systems...... Awesome!!
Same for Galaxy Note 4. iPhone 6 Plus does not use Java. Steve Jobs did not like Java.
Galaxy Note 4 has a more metallic appearance because it uses aluminium metal for the sides, back and edges. No more annoying plastic as in the Note 3. Also Note 4 comes in Copper Gold. iPhone 6 Plus comes in black, white and gold colours.
Same for Galaxy Note 4. iPhone 6 Plus does not use S-pen. 3rd-party electronic pens are available using Wacom technology. However unlike the Galaxy Notes which have a nice pocket for the S-Pen, iPhone 6 Plus has no pocket for the electronic pen, so easy to lose or leave behind.
Same for Galaxy Note 4. iPhone 6 Plus comes with a Health app that may use ANt+ technology.
Same for Galaxy Note 4. iPhone 6 Plus uses the competitor called Siri
Same for Galaxy Note 4. iPhone 6 Plus does not use Air Gestures, or an S-Pen. 3rd-party electronic pens are available though.
Same for Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus, but different implementation..
Same for Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus. Galaxy Note 4 actually has 3 microphones to cancel noise and get good accurate voice memo recordings and video sound recordings. But iPhone 6 Plus has an ace card: Dr Dres BEATS technology built-in!
Same for Galaxy Note 4. I am not sure if the
FREE 50GB Dropbox deal also applies to the iPhone 6 Plus
(Maybe because of Apple new iCloud Drive which competes with Dropbox).
Same for Galaxy Note 4. iPhone 6 Plus uses it own proprietary adapter to connect to a TV via Apple TV set-top box.
Same for Galaxy Note 4.iPhone 6 Plus does not support WMV (Windows Media Video), MKV HD or Divx HD video files, only MP4 and H.264 video files. MKV HD is the best video file with same quality as a Blu Ray video especially the high bitrates.
Same for Galaxy Note 4. iPhone 6 Plus does not support WMA (Windows Media Audio) files. Just AAC and MP3 files audio files. iPhone 6 Plus cannot play Dolby AC3 audio files (i.e the AC3 codec not included).
Same for Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus but different implementation.
Same for Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Same for Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Same for Galaxy Note 4. Both Note 3 and Note 4 will come with Nokias superb offline navigation app called Here Maps (formerly Nokia Maps) by the end of the October 2014. If you have seen or used the Here Maps app on Nokias Windows 8.1 Lumia smartphones, you have an idea what it will be like on Note 3 and Note 4. Unlike Google Maps, Here Now app can let you download all the maps you need. It will mean no more expensive Internet access for a week long trip Christmas trip to Paris or New York and trying to find your hotel address!!
iPhone 6 Plus will not have Nokia Here Maps, but only Google Maps and Apple Maps.
Same for Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus but different implementation.
Same for Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus but different implementation.
Galaxy Note 4 comes with a bigger capacity 3300mAh battery..
iPhone 6 Plus used a 2195mAh battery, much smaller than the Notes. Maybe the iOS 8.0 uses
less power than Android 4.4 or the different CPU/GPU make the difference.
In December 2013,
Samsung revealed that the Galaxy Note 3 had sold over 10 million worldwide,
thats 10,000,000 Galaxy Note 3 devices sold. By June 2014, a total of 15 million units had flown
of the shelves in phone stores. Amazing figures!
Galaxy Note 4 will hopefully sell twice as many units for 2014/2015.. iPhone 6 Plus may sell as much as well, who knows!
Apple finally joined in with the iPhone 6 Plus running iOS 8, announced September 2014.
An interesting mother-of-all battle will explode in Autumn (this Fall in American and Canadian terminology):
Which device is hot and just too cool?: the Galaxy Note 4 or the iPhone 6 Plus? Only time will tell.
May the best device win!
Lets have a nice clean fight between the two competing phablets, not biting, no scratching, no low blows
. a clean fight please!!!
As the legendary boxing ring announcer says before a big fight: Let's get ready to Rumbleeeeeeeee!!
Meanwhile the following phablets joined much earlier before iPhone 6 Plus:
Finland/U.S. Nokia/Microsoft (Lumia 1530 and Lumia 1320)
France Alcatel (OneTouch Hero)
U.S./China Motorola/Lenovo (Droid Max and Nexus 6)
China's Huawei (Ascend Mate); OnePlus (One) and ZTE (Grand Memo) and Oppo (N1 and Find 7a)
Taiwan Asus (PhonePad FHD), HTC One Max and Acer (Liquid S2)
South Korea LG (LG G3, G Flex, G Pro 2 and LG Optimus G Pro)
Japan's Sony (XPeria Z, Z2 and Z3 and XPeria T2 Ultra)
All have already joined the
phablet market invented by Samsung. All measuring 5.4 inches (LG G3) to 6.4 inches (Xperia Z Ultra and Samsung Mega) in screen size.
N.B. Other companies are free to copy Samsung's intellectual idea (inventing the phablet).
No law suit will be filed, for the copying. No pun intended here Apple fans.
Big screen size drain batteries, luckily phablets all have massive battery capacities.
Huawei Ascend Mate has a 4050mAh battery, the biggest battery capacity, followed by LG G Flex
(3500mAh) and HTC One Max, (3300mAh). Then there are 5 phablets with 3200mAh batteries,
these are Samsung Mega, Sony Xperia Z2, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, LG G Pro 2 and ZTE Grand Memo and Supreme.
The rest of the phablets have under 2800mAh to 3000mAh batteries. Meanwhile a 2100mAh battery is standard
normal sized smartphones, but just not enough for phablets.
Big screen size requires more F1 sports car raw power, luckily phablets have both massive RAM and powerful CPU/GPU processors.
Octa core processor (8 cores) or the quad core processor (4 cores) of Samsung Galaxy Note 3, LG G3,
Samsung Galaxy Mega, Huawei Ascend Mate, HTC One M8 and Sony Xperia Z Ultra, is pretty awesome.
Interestingly Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo brand also has an hexacore (6 cores) processor: a quad core and a dual core (2 cores) that work together!.
LG G Pro 2, Sony Xperia Z1s, LG G3, Galaxy Round, Sony Xperia Z Ultra and Sony Xperia Z1 also use
quad core processors and so do the ZTE Grand Memo and LG Optimus G Pro among others.
Most phablets have 2GB of RAM except LG G3, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Sony Xperia Z2 and LG G 2 Pro
which have a massive 3GB of RAM so they are the fastest. Will the Galaxy Note 4 used 4GB RAM?
1 GB RAM and dual or single core is standard for normal sized smartphones
Wellcome aboard Apple!! em..... why did it take you so long join in anyway?
With
the switch to USB 3.0, the Galaxy Note 3 now has a different-shaped connector
to most smartphones. It uses USB 3.0 Micro B (pictured above), the same
connector found on quite a few portable hard drives. Although it's much wider
than the Micro USB connector you're used to, the new port is actually
backwards-compatible: a regular Micro USB cable can STILL plug into one side
of the port. Given the size of the port, it's unlikely we'll see it used in
every smartphone, but we could see new high-end handsets move over to the
standard in the coming months.
N.B. The ability to record or run videos
at 1080p@60fps, let alone 4K, requires cutting edge technology. PS4 and XBox One can only run a few video games at 1080p@60fps, as the hardware requirments are top notch. 
Smart
Stay icon is shown in the red square. It shows only if Smart stay is activated.
HOT TIP: If you use an Oyster Card to travel on the London Underground, you can use
NFC Task Launcher and the Oyster app to view your journey data and remaining credit, each time you place your Osyter card underneath your Galaxy 3. In this case, the NFC tag is inside your Oyster Card.
.
Magnetometer Sensor:
It measures the Earths magnetic field which combined with gravity (measured by an accelerometer) can be used to determine the 3-dimensional orientation in which the phone is being held. The cardinal directions with respect to any orientation of the device can then be determined and used to display contextual information, such as tracking the nearest subway stations as a phone is moved around. If the phone also knows its rough geographical location, a compass app can translate magnetic north into true north.
This means without using the built-in GPS / GLONASS navigation chips, the Galaxy Note 3 compass is 3D and very accurate. Pretty cool huh!!
Accelerometer Sensor (or G-sensor): This is a motion sensor and gravity vector sensor, e.g. measuring your altitude or if you are walking or in a bus or car. It works in a similar way to the iPhone's M7 motion co-processor, but this chip in the iPhone is more advanced.
On its own, an accelerometer alone is unsuitable to determine changes in altitude over distances where the vertical decrease of gravity is significant, such as for aircraft, but this is overcome by the navigation chips like GPS. Thus together with the GPS/GLONASS chips, the accelerometer sensor helps provide motion data to apps like Nike+ Move app, pedometer apps, running for fitness apps, or navigation apps like Google Maps. In this case your movement is correctly shown on Google Maps, whether you are stationary, moving slowly or very fast like on a British Airways jet liner on the way to Istanbul.
Gyroscope Sensor: This is for measuring or maintaining orientation (i.e. rotation or angular momentum), so if you tilt the Galaxy Note 3 clockwise 90%, the device will switch to landscape mode, if you revert back, the portrait mode is activated, the gyroscope can be deactivated if your prefer. It's been around on smartphones for years, but it's cool enough to make the James Bond list.
Barometer Sensor along with Temperature, Hygrometer (Humidity) Sensors:They all measure atmospheric pressure, temperature, and humidity (moisture content) It is used in weather prediction apps like Yahoo Weather and Accuweather apps and some geology apps as well. Good for a spying mission to the Sahara Desert!!
Hall Effect Sensor: This is a transducer that varies its output voltage in response to a magnetic field, therefore it senses the presence of a magnetic field (thereby aiding the Magnetometer Sensor). Hall effect sensors are used for proximity switching, positioning, speed detection, and current sensing applications. Two other cool uses are for automatically turning off the Galaxy Note 3 screen when a Galaxy magnetic cover is closed if you buy the additional 3rd party Galaxy Note cover, and in car docks that automatically put the phone in driving mode when Galaxy Note 3 is docked. Now thats is cool!!!
Galaxy Note 3 also uses another smart technique
(common in iPhones, iPads and iPods) known as WiFi positioning a.k.a WiFi triangulation built-in. WiFi positioning is achieved Location technologies such as Skyhook or Google etc, which all use
WiFi hotspot beacons, such as the MAC addresses of nearby WiFi routers worldwide to triangulate accurate longitude / latitude locations. Remember WiFi positioning will only work on a Galaxy Note 3, if Google Maps is running. If you
plan to use another GPS app such as Navigon, then let Google Maps run in the background.
When you upgrade your Galaxy Note 3 to Android Kitkat 4.4, it includes an enhanced GPS option knonw
as
High Accuracy. This allows WiFi positioning on the Galaxy Note 3 without the need to have Google Maps running. It must first be activated at:
Settings/Location/Mode/High Accuracy
Galaxy Note 3 also uses GSM Cell Network triangulation, which is a common feature in iPhones, it uses the thousands of cell phone towers (they are essential for a phone to work) to calculate position the same way GPS works. All five
navigation systems i.e: GPS, GLONASS, BEIDOU, WiFi Positioning and Cell Network triangulation (a.k.a A-GPS) ensure the Galaxy Note 3 alongside navigation heavyweight apps such as Google Maps, TomTom, Garmin, Co-Pilot Live or Navigon, makes the perfect Satnav device with a 5.7 inch screen.
It's time to sell that aging TomTom GO 1000.
You probably still need proven secure communication encryption technologies like Phil Zimmermann's asymmetric encryption system PGP (a.k.a OpenPGP),
(to encrypt SMS texts, e-mails, files etc) while KNOX securely handles the phone hacking, app malware, trojan horse, keystroke logging parts.
PGP is currently so secure and a tough cookie to crack. RSA Key-depths of 3072-bit to 4096-bit are the norm these days with PGP (2048-bit is deemed by the U.S. NIST to the bare minimum for safe encryption in 2014), and the current fastest 2013 supercomputers from China, Russia, Japan, Europe and the U.S. will take at least 45 years or more to try to crack an encrypted file with a 3072-bit PGP RSA key, (or double that for a 4096-bit PGP RSA key) using computer brute-force attack.
The only way to get around PGP is to force a person to reveal his/her PGP passphrase via a court order, or try to use dictionary attack on the passphrase (if the passphrase was very poorly choosen like using the name of a dog or cat or food). All that will one day change in the future, if and when a working prototype quantum computer is finally built, these types of computers can carry out code breaking 100 times faster than any of the current supercomputers.
To prove how secure KNOX is, devices built to support
KNOX and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 were both approved in May 2013 by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) or the Pentagon. The IT Dept of the Pentagon, known as the Defense Information Systems Agency,
which certifies commercial technology for defense use, did the approval after doing several tough security tests.
Approval of KNOX means that government-issued Samsung Galaxy Note 3 devices are approved for use when
connecting to DOD networks inside or outside the Pentagon or at CIA headquaters.
Key to KNOX is its secure container technology that, like BlackBerry Balance, gives users a single click separation of personal data on the device from corporate data and apps. Centrify is an American identify management software maker that has teamed up with Samsung to enhance KNOX.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 became the first device to be preloaded with KNOX. More devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy S III and Samsung Galaxy Note II will receive Samsung Knox at the end of 2013 with the Android 4.3 Samsung Premium Suite Upgrade. With licensing agreements, maybe other non-Samsung devices will get KNOX too.
MORE TO COME!!!! Check back later