I, unfortunately, have a host of issues to report. First, some background information and then my list of issues. I bought the Note 4 as an upgrade to my three-year-old Droid Bionic, which has become so extremely laggy that it is nearly unusable. I'm on Verizon and received my pre-ordered black Note 4 on the Verizon release date, October 23. It worked flawlessly for maybe three or four days, at most, before beginning to develop many of the same problems that plagued my Bionic.
Now, my issues:
1. CPU performance. The general performance of my Note 4 is EXTREMELY is EXTREMELY spotty. I will frequently be typing and the keyboard will just stop responding. It won't vibrate, the text in the text box won't change, and the little letter popups won't appear. I'm using Samsung's keyboard. At first, I thought the issue was due to ununoptimized third party apps. However, it's begun to manifest itself in everything from Chrome and Facebook to the stock Messages app, so I don't think this is the explanation. Somewhat disturbed by this development, I downloaded Geekbench. I'd seen all the reviewers claim to be getting single core scores around 1000 and multi core scores well over 3000, both of which are very good. However, even with all other apps closed, I got a single core score of 800 and a multi core score of 2500, which is considerably lower than what the S5 gets. I did manage to get one run that scored 1100 and 3200, but all my other tests were much lower. Just a few minutes ago, I ran the benchmark again. I didn't bother closing all my apps this time, which could be part of the reason behind my absolutely abysmal single core score of 564 and my even worse multi core score of about 1600. Those numbers are both considerably lower than what was seen on the S4.
2. GPU. In addition to the problems my CPU seems to be having, my GPU is also encountering frequent issues. I can no longer open Instagram, read an article, scroll down a Web page, or even watch a YouTube video without my screen locking up for several seconds before suddenly jumping to where it should be. All of the aforementioned operations worked flawlessly for the first several days, but are now at a point where my ancient Bionic performs better.
3. Build quality. Along with my various software issues, I have some bones to pick about the hardware design. The volume keys and power button both feel extremely loose and can easily be wiggled in all four directions with at least a quarter of a millimeter of travel. It may not sound like much, but it's absolutely noticeable and extremely annoying, particularly in what is essentially a $1000 device. There is also a considerable amount of wiggle in my home button, but it's less of a problem.
4. Heat. My Note 4 runs very hot. Even when I'm not using it heavily, the back gets fairly warm. It's never gotten to a point of unusability, but it is really irritating. It seems to get hottest when it's running into any of the problems mentioned above. I'm not sure what the cause is, but I've noticed that it runs very warm since Day 1. It's just recently gotten to a point where I would describe the temperature as "hot". I can occasionally even feel the device's heat on my leg when it's in the pocket of my jeans.
5. Crashes. Many apps that I've downloaded recently have either failed to open, crashed immediately upon opening, or crashed shortly after opening. This can largely be attributed to software issues, but there have been a few cases which lead me to think that the phone itself may be at least partially responsible. The app/process "Google Search" crashes several times a day. Even if I haven't used Google Now or my browser, I'll randomly get a popup that says "Google Search has stopped responding and needs to close." or something along those lines. Because Google Search (I believe this is the name used internally by Google Now) is such a centrap feature of Android, I can't imagine that its crashes are being caused by a software issue rather than a hardware issue. On a side note, Words with Friends worked perfectly for the first week or so, but suddenly stopped opening altogether. I would tap on the app again and again, but nothing would happen. Not even after mumultiple restarts and battery removals. I have no idea what caused this and have since uninstalled the app.
6. App Drawer folders. (SOLVED) This is something that apparently was a problem on the Note 3 which has reappeared on the 4. When you create folders in the app drawer, you're given an opportunity to name the folder and then add apps. If you later decide you want to add more apps, the natural thing would be to open the folder, click the "+" button, and then select the apps you would like to add. This works, but only until you turn the phone off. Once it powers back on, you'll find that all the apps which were added to folders using this method have been kicked out of their folders and returned to the app drawer. Fortunately, there is a simple solution. Just tap the icon in the corner with three dots and select "Edit". Then open the folder you would like to add apps to, tap the "+" button, select all the apps you want to add, and press "Done". Your folders will now be saved and should remain exactly as they are no matter how many restarts you do. It's a stupid issue and, I would think, relatively easy to fix. It's fairly well documented as well, so the fact that Samsung STILL hasn't fixed this is unexcusable, and speaks volumes about the quality of their software development team.
Anyway, I think that's about it. If anyone has any advice or experience with these problems, please let me know. Otherwise, I'll keep looking around the Web for solutions and will keep you guys posted of anything I find as well as any new problems that develop.
At this point, I'm seriously exploring my return/refund/exchange options, and I would VERY strongly advise against purchasing one of these phones. This set of issues, combined with the debacle of the Bionic, has me seriously questioning Android's merits. In fact, if these problems continue and I'm able to get rid of my Note, I fully expect to switch to the 6 Plus, as my experiences with Samsung, Motorola, and Android have been nothing but bad.