I finally saw it and touched it, It is a great phone, just a little disappointed

Andy847

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I went to Best Buy and got to get my hands on one today. I played with it for about a 1/2 hour. It's a really nice looking phone and does feel great in the hands. The things I really liked were:
Great Screen (of Course)
Speaker sounded Awesome and no distortion at highest volume to me anyways
Camera took Incredble pics, was limited to being tied down, but took pictures of the samsung sign and was very clear. I didn't try the selfie mode though..
The S Pen and S note features seemed Nice, the handwriting recognition was more accurate to me. I don't use this feature enough to tell the difference, but my N3 is better than my N2 was in that respect.
Calendar in Touchwiz now has the option to show tasks also in the month view, which doesn't no my N3 ( I know I can get calendars in the Play Store with that, so not a biggie, just glad they have that now.)
Settings menu seems nicer to me. Like it better than on my Note 3.
Storage Like others have mentioned, the display units were around 17gb available storage, and I looked the OS itself takes up over 11gb. So you're at 21gb just with that and the Miscellanous files was at about 2.6gb on the one I was looking at. Not sure what all that was, but I know that was always the thing that ate most of my storage on my Note 2, which Is why I will not get another 16gb phone again. Just can't believe how much space is taken up on the N4 already.
The phone was fast and no lag that I could tell. It was nice to see. Very happy with that aspect of the phone. The guy told me Oct. 17th they would have them in stock at Best Buy.

Now the disappointments (Not a lot of them, just a couple):
Multi-Window This is where I'm really disappointed. It's not too intuitive, at least to me. I was looking forward to being able to move around the window instead of the 1/2&1/2 window like on the N8 and N3, which you can make bigger or smaller, but that is it. You can move the 2nd window around the screen. I first thought you couldn't resize it though, but a salesman showed me how and you can resize, BUT, You can't make it smaller that a certain size and when you resize, the Aspect Ratio stays the same. Meaning it's always a tall rectangle, like the shape of the phone. Only gets so small, and goes to full screen. I was hoping you can stretch the sides or change the shape of it either taller/shorter, wider/thinner. It would seem like a natural way to have it. Maybe I just couldn't figure out how to do it, or there is a setting for that. Someone else on here might know.
On my N10.1 2012 edition, I can play draw something and open a browser window and make it any size I want. I like to draw from pictures as a reference, I was so hoping to do this with the Note 4, but it is a phone, so maybe not a deal breaker. I still have my larger tablet for that. Just disappointed at the limitation the window has. I would think it would get in the way even at the smallest size.
Camera Settings Very confusing to me. It took me a little bit to see the HDR setting is on the left now with it's own on/off. The Modes are a little confusing, at first I thought we lost some and there weren't that many. Then I saw they are listed under different categories in the camera settings, so a little hard to find. Which after time is easier as with anything new. Just didn't like it myself.

I didn't have anymore time to play with it and talking with the Sales Rep a little bit, I was surprised to hear some info I didn't know about the Note Edge. I didn't get to play with the one on Display, because some guy was playing with it and I had to leave. To me the Edge seemed like a gimmick. My first impressions on seeing it and hearing about it online was that it was a continuous screen that bent around the edge. I didn't know it was a separate screen on the side. It still doesn't make too much sense to me. It is small for a separate screen, but they were explaining you can lay it on it's side as an alarm clock and see the time, I guess also like a ticker tape have things show across it, which seems kind of cool I guess. Not $800 cool, but still cool. I will have to check it out in the future. I can't justify the N4 for what they are asking, especially with AT&T. Maybe Next summer for me, but the N4 is a nice phone, I'll say that much. Glad I got the chance to play with it.
 
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mastaofdacat

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I wasn't surprised being a tad disappointed when I also got a chance to finally play with the Note 4 today at Best Buy . I messed with some of the stuff on it and it seems it really is only a marginal update from my Note 3 . The screen is more crisp and it you can tell major difference from the Note 3. Colors pop and very sharp ! Best screen i've seen !I like the way new icons and color on settings pages. Like the new recent open apps card style pages. I watched demo videos on the Note 4 and looks really nice. Can you always pinch and zoom on videos while playing ? I tried it back on my Note 3 video and didn't do that. Man zooming all the way up close on pics and videos , still insanely crisp! Phone feels better to hold. I already preordered the Note 4 knowing about what I heard and seen about being marginal update from the media . If you already have a Note 3 , your going to say to yourself again " yeap its only a Note 3.5 !" What excites me is seeing what android L on here is going to be like and knowing I'm getting that update on a new phone.

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SAMmarked1

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Jun 23, 2014
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I went to Best Buy and got to get my hands on one today. I played with it for about a 1/2 hour. It's a really nice looking phone and does feel great in the hands. The things I really liked were:
Great Screen (of Course)
Speaker sounded Awesome and no distortion at highest volume to me anyways
Camera took Incredble pics, was limited to being tied down, but took pictures of the samsung sign and was very clear. I didn't try the selfie mode though..
The S Pen and S note features seemed Nice, the handwriting recognition was more accurate to me. I don't use this feature enough to tell the difference, but my N3 is better than my N2 was in that respect.
Calendar in Touchwiz now has the option to show tasks also in the month view, which doesn't no my N3 ( I know I can get calendars in the Play Store with that, so not a biggie, just glad they have that now.)
Settings menu seems nicer to me. Like it better than on my Note 3.
Storage Like others have mentioned, the display units were around 17gb available storage, and I looked the OS itself takes up over 11gb. So you're at 21gb just with that and the Miscellanous files was at about 2.6gb on the one I was looking at. Not sure what all that was, but I know that was always the thing that ate most of my storage on my Note 2, which Is why I will not get another 16gb phone again. Just can't believe how much space is taken up on the N4 already.
The phone was fast and no lag that I could tell. It was nice to see. Very happy with that aspect of the phone. The guy told me Oct. 17th they would have them in stock at Best Buy.

Now the disappointments (Not a lot of them, just a couple):
Multi-Window This is where I'm really disappointed. It's not too intuitive, at least to me. I was looking forward to being able to move around the window instead of the 1/2&1/2 window like on the N8 and N3, which you can make bigger or smaller, but that is it. You can move the 2nd window around the screen. I first thought you couldn't resize it though, but a salesman showed me how and you can resize, BUT, You can't make it smaller that a certain size and when you resize, the Aspect Ratio stays the same. Meaning it's always a tall rectangle, like the shape of the phone. Only gets so small, and goes to full screen. I was hoping you can stretch the sides or change the shape of it either taller/shorter, wider/thinner. It would seem like a natural way to have it. Maybe I just couldn't figure out how to do it, or there is a setting for that. Someone else on here might know.
On my N10.1 2012 edition, I can play draw something and open a browser window and make it any size I want. I like to draw from pictures as a reference, I was so hoping to do this with the Note 4, but it is a phone, so maybe not a deal breaker. I still have my larger tablet for that. Just disappointed at the limitation the window has. I would think it would get in the way even at the smallest size.
Camera Settings Very confusing to me. It took me a little bit to see the HDR setting is on the right now with it's own on/off. The Modes are a little confusing, at first I thought we lost some and there weren't that many. Then I saw they are listed under different categories in the camera settings, so a little hard to find. Which after time is easier as with anything new. Just didn't like it myself.

I didn't have anymore time to play with it and talking with the Sales Rep a little bit, I was surprised to hear some info I didn't know about the Note Edge. I didn't get to play with the one on Display, because some guy was playing with it and I had to leave. To me the Edge seemed like a gimmick. My first impressions on seeing it and hearing about it online was that it was a continuous screen that bent around the edge. I didn't know it was a separate screen on the side. It still doesn't make too much sense to me. It is small for a separate screen, but they were explaining you can lay it on it's side as an alarm clock and see the time, I guess also like a ticker tape have things show across it, which seems kind of cool I guess. Not $800 cool, but still cool. I will have to check it out in the future. I can't justify the N4 for what they are asking, especially with AT&T. Maybe Next summer for me, but the N4 is a nice phone, I'll say that much. Glad I got the chance to play with it.

Let me ease some of your dissapointment, our devices have a huge demo load on them, the phone is 32gb and only 5. Gb will be used for the OS.
As for the multi window u have 2 options the one u used and the Spen- pen window. This allows u to have the mini windows and move them around like previous N3. Snap note is also worth a try and really nice, just open Snote- click the camera icon when focused on a chalkboard or piece of data and it will take a pic. You can then convert that picture in to a file where every note or drawing can be edited.

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Yk Chin

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I guess there's no 100% perfect. As long as the Pros are more than the Cons, you're good to go. Be happy that the Note 4 has very few Cons. :)
 

prakash99

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I was not expecting a big leap from Note 3 so I was not disappointed at all. I hardly ever use multi window, so I did not even test it. Yes camera was very good. As for Touchwiz, I don't dislike it although I have almost always used a third party launcher. Nova is my current favorite. It is Android L I am waiting for. I wonder when Verizion Note 4 will get it.
 

canonBoy

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I've played with the Note 4 a couple of times, and I have to admit as well, that the first time I walked away from the Note 4, I was a little disapointed as well. I have a Note 2 now and I was really expecting a noticeable difference in screen quality (I mean, come on, 720 to 1440, should be obvious, right?) But opening up youtube, searching for HD videos and playing one of the first HD earth videos and setting both phones to the highest resolution via the youtube menu selection, watching both videos sycned right next to eachother (top and bottom), I really couldn't see a crispness difference. I know, I know, you probably think I'm crazy or didn't have the videos set up correctly or I forgot my glasses or whatever, but honest to goodness, the only noticable difference I could detect was that my Note 2 had a warmer cast to the screen (whites appeared to have a yellow hue compared to the Note 4), but focusing on tree branches and small dots of light from city scapes or stary nights in the video, I could see with just as much clarity on my Note 2. So I'm a little dejected and having second thoughts about upgrading.

Also, the lack of the option of having a multi window tab anywhere on the screen bugs me. I don't know that pressing and holding the back button and picking apps using the recent app button will be as fluid as I have it now. For example, some apps react to the initial button press of the back button, and not the release of the back button. So if I just open up an app and decide I want to have hangouts open too, I HAVE TO press and hold the back button to open the multiwindow drawer, and on first contact with the back button, it closes the very app I wanted to share a screen with! I wish the option for the tab was still there where you could click and drag an app to be on the top or bottom of the screen without HAVING TO press the back button...

first world problems, right?
 

TheDonJ77

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I checked out the multi window functionality on the Note 4 and it is top notch. To the OP, perhaps you should go back and use the S pen with the multi window, it has more options and functions than just using your finger. I can't wait to get my Note. Very excited. First note ever.
 

Andy847

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Nov 1, 2010
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I've played with the Note 4 a couple of times, and I have to admit as well, that the first time I walked away from the Note 4, I was a little disapointed as well. I have a Note 2 now and I was really expecting a noticeable difference in screen quality (I mean, come on, 720 to 1440, should be obvious, right?) But opening up youtube, searching for HD videos and playing one of the first HD earth videos and setting both phones to the highest resolution via the youtube menu selection, watching both videos sycned right next to eachother (top and bottom), I really couldn't see a crispness difference. I know, I know, you probably think I'm crazy or didn't have the videos set up correctly or I forgot my glasses or whatever, but honest to goodness, the only noticable difference I could detect was that my Note 2 had a warmer cast to the screen (whites appeared to have a yellow hue compared to the Note 4), but focusing on tree branches and small dots of light from city scapes or stary nights in the video, I could see with just as much clarity on my Note 2. So I'm a little dejected and having second thoughts about upgrading.

Also, the lack of the option of having a multi window tab anywhere on the screen bugs me. I don't know that pressing and holding the back button and picking apps using the recent app button will be as fluid as I have it now. For example, some apps react to the initial button press of the back button, and not the release of the back button. So if I just open up an app and decide I want to have hangouts open too, I HAVE TO press and hold the back button to open the multiwindow drawer, and on first contact with the back button, it closes the very app I wanted to share a screen with! I wish the option for the tab was still there where you could click and drag an app to be on the top or bottom of the screen without HAVING TO press the back button...

first world problems, right?


Yeah, I noticed that too. It was annoying to me, also. I kept doing exactly what you are describing. The cards with the apps, is a little confusing to me. It was different, just something else to get use to. Sometimes if something isn't broke they shouldn't try to fix it or change it. I missed having the tab on the side to pull it open also. Forgot to mention that. Thanks. It's all a change and I guess we would get use to it after awhile.
 

canonBoy

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I'm hoping there is some xposed framework quick fix to give us the tab back... I thought it was weird that they made some floating thing where you can have soft home, back and recent apps page buttons. You can place that tab where ever you want, but they are just duplicate buttons of the hardware buttons on the phone. Funny how that little floating thing was was actually a virtual button app a long time ago for phablet users... now integrated into the OS.
 

Bianca Horkan

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My husband and I went to our local Best Buy and the had no clue when they'd be getting any demos in the store.

"Maybe October 17th..."

Disappointed we couldn't see it in person. 😕

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk Pro.