Note 4 Quality Control?

[Haalcyon]

I have the Note 4 and really love it's capabilities. However, it seems like I notice a lot of reported issues with this phone.

Frome it dropping calls where other phones next to it on the same network are fine, to phones shipping with cracked camera glass, volume problems, and cameras that don't want to focus. I, myself, had the latter issue. I had to return the phone for a replacement and have discovered no new issues as of yet, thankfully.

I don't recall reading of all $800 flagships having all these different issues. Am I just being overly sensitive because I love my phone and am reading through the forums on it OR did Samsung drop the ball on quality control with the Note 4? Does the G3 and iPhone 6+, etc. (markedly less expensive too) have as many reported issues?

I feel like we have one of the most expensive handsets you can buy. Quality-control should be paramount with the Note 4...better than the rest when a handset costs so much more than its competition yet I keep reading of strange new Note 4 problems.

Interesting to say the least...but I love my heavy Note 4.

from the S5

 

[makie]

You will see loads of problems when being on specific forums. Most people who got problems with their phones go and seek help/advice on forums.

So even if there are 1000 faulty phones which sounds like a lot, it actually Issnt compared to how many are perfectly fine

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Haalcyon]

I did consider that, it just seemed like there were ALOT of Note 4 issues and I feel like quality control should be better, it at least not as good, as its less expensive competiton. I guess the reality is the high cost is not for superior quality but bells and whistles. I admittingly haven't browsed the Moto X, iPhone 6/6+, Nexus 6, and G3, etc. forums but it sounds like what your saying is the Note 4 is par for the course. I guess I was hoping its quality would be better reflected in its costs. I allowed my expectations to be incorrectly set by the price of the phone.

Sent from my LG G-PaD 8.3

 

[SteveISU]

I did consider that, it just seemed like there were ALOT of Note 4 issues and I feel like quality control should be better, it at least not as good, as its less expensive competiton. I guess the reality is the high cost is not for superior quality but bells and whistles. I admittingly haven't browsed the Moto X, iPhone 6/6+, Nexus 6, and G3, etc. forums but it sounds like what your saying is the Note 4 is par for the course. I guess I was hoping its quality would be better reflected in its costs. I allowed my expectations to be incorrectly set by the price of the phone.

Sent from my LG G-PaD 8.3

Nexus 6 has screen burn in issues (myself included), random restarts or flat out shutting off forcing you to manually reboot, back cover coming off, letters coming off, memory leaks, blown speakers. As said earlier, people who are gonna post do so cause they have problems. Happy people generally don't post to sing praise. Reading the forum after anything has been release you'd wonder how any of us buying anything the place is riddled with complaints. Those devices make up a small fraction unless their is a software issue, then they're likely all affected.

 

[Haalcyon]

I understand your point. So iMore is likely just as full of various iPhone issues, I suppose.

from the S5

 

[dpham00]

Had issues with my iphone 6 plus, crashing to the point that it was non responsive(had to hold power and home to force a restart) , not detecting any wifi networks, and some other issues.

With the Moto, both my Droid razr maxx and moto g had occasional very poor call quality(the other person kept saying they could barely hear me and I could barely here them, didn't encounter this issue on my note 4. On my moto g, I also had an issue with it going from 90% plus to shutting down in a second. And charging was finicky... Some chargers would make it run slow as a snail.

I also had quality issues with htc, granted with older devices, that required warranty replacement on both my Thunderbolt and rezound.


I have been using the s3,n2,n3,and n4,none of which have required a warranty replacement.

I am not saying Motorola or HTC or apple is bad, just that I have had bad luck with them... You can find people who have had bad luck with any device.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 4

 

[belodion]

OP: I don't know about the iPhone world but as well as my Androids I use a couple of WP Nokias. When trying to decide between buying the Lumia 930 or the 1520 recently, I noticed in the forums there that both have well-known issues, and offputting ones at that. Despite that I bought a 930 and have had no problems. I doubt that there's any device running any OS that doesn't have issues, but it's my guess that most users don't encounter those issues.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[wizzrah]

I moved from an HTC One X to a Note 4 and have not encountered any problems with it. If I REALLY wanted to complain, I would say that it occasionally warms up a lot when I use it heavily, but that is to be expected. Other than that, I can't find anything to complain for. So count me as a happy person that came here to sing praise. With such a high output of phones, there's bound to be faulty phones. I agree with your believe that if a phone cost 800+, it better have great build quality. I think is one of the best built phones I've held, but that's just my opinion. I think in your case it might have been a bad first cookie...

Sent from my splendid Note 4.

 

[MightyMike]

I did consider that, it just seemed like there were ALOT of Note 4 issues and I feel like quality control should be better, it at least not as good, as its less expensive competiton. I guess the reality is the high cost is not for superior quality but bells and whistles. I admittingly haven't browsed the Moto X, iPhone 6/6+, Nexus 6, and G3, etc. forums but it sounds like what your saying is the Note 4 is par for the course. I guess I was hoping its quality would be better reflected in its costs. I allowed my expectations to be incorrectly set by the price of the phone.

Sent from my LG G-PaD 8.3

I've thought about What you're saying but remember AC is Not a social site...it's an Android forum. We give and get help. When people have trouble with an andoid phone or device this is where they come. Yes I am sure some folks make friends on here and that's great, but when you mainly use the app you loose a lot of functionality that the website gives.

As you are aware Note 4 is Not the only forum here but for me it's the only one I see. All phones have some problems. My wife has the Alpha and just for kicks I visited that forum and isn't nearly the forum this one is...and according to that forum the alpha is junk. It's Not, my wife loves it.

While the Note 4 has it's issues I Love being able to come in here and try to help a convert from iPhone with their new Note. I also like being able to read the different threads and say "Hey, I wanna try that." I have learned tons ! Just yesterday my Note started lagging like hell. I read a thread about clearing the cache partition on the phone...man that did wonders! Back to her old self!

One last thing...Im Glad I didn't spend over a grand on an 128 gig iPhone 6+ when they first came out. Bend gate, reboot loop troubles from hell with 700 apps, very little support from apple and numerous other problems, I am Happy this was my choice, but to be honest, and iPhone was never an option. My only options were Note 4, wait for the edge or nexus 6. I'm Glad I got my Note 4 and Note 5 edge will be next!

This device has it quirks, but man I Love it!

MAY THE 4 BE WITH YOU!

 

[KreepyKen]

I have the Note 4 and really love it's capabilities. However, it seems like I notice a lot of reported issues with this phone.

(Snipped to save space)

I feel like we have one of the most expensive handsets you can buy. Quality-control should be paramount with the Note 4...better than the rest when a handset costs so much more than its competition yet I keep reading of strange new Note 4 problems.

Just want to make a couple points about QA:

1. Samsung sold 4.5 million Note 4 units in their first month. They've got to be up to 10 or 12 million by now. They can't check every feature on every phone before it leaves the factory...there's just not enough time or employees to do that. (Can you imagine the size of that checklist?)

2. Electronics are delicate and very, very tiny. There is just so little room for error that any manufacturing defect can introduce problems. Which leads to...

3. Samsung is not the sole manufacturer of this phone. The main processor and GPU are made by Qualcomm (US variants), the screen is made by Corning, the camera is made by Sony, the GPS chip is made by Broadcom, all the s-pen functionality runs on Wacom technology, the audio processor is made by Wolfson, the barometer is made by Bosh, and a whole host of other companies like Yamaha, Maxim, TDK, TI and Murata contribute parts. The quality of the phone is highly dependent on the quality of each of these parts, and in turn, on the QA processes of each of these companies.

So if 100 bad GPS chips come off the assembly line at Broadcom, you get 100 defective Note 4 units with bad GPS functionality.

4. The phones pass through a lot of hands before they get to you. They are partly assembled by machine and partly by hand. They are boxed, warehoused, shipped all over the world using a variety of shipping services, warehoused with distributors, shipped to vendor warehouses, distributed to individual outlets and handled by the people who stock the shelves. At any point, a box of phones could fall off a truck or high shelf. While the packaging will prevent most damage, a box could fall at just the right angle to break a piece of solder or crack a lens. Angle is everything. How many of you have lifted heavy crap all over the place only to hurt your back with something relatively light because you "picked it up wrong"? Same principle.

So basically, what I'm saying is that these phones are very delicate devices and there are a lot of potential reasons why one may end up in your hands not operating at 100%. I don't think it's fair to blame Samsung's QA when so many factors are outside their control.

Actually, now that I think about it, it's damn near a miracle any of these things work in the first place. Must be magic.

 

[MalinoisK9]

This being my first Android phone and wanting to learn and see what they all are about I have read through a lot of the forums here and seems you will find problems and complaints in most every phone. The note 4 probably be a more popular phone and attracts a certain kind of user may account for why it seems more widespread?

I have used iphones since the 3 and only had issues with the iPhone 5. Went through 3 phones within 6 months with problems ranging from stuck pixels to home and lock buttons that just stopped working. With that said I am really enjoying my android experience thus far.

 

[MightyMike]

...
Actually, now that I think about it, it's damn near a miracle any of these things work in the first place. Must be magic.

isn't this the hard truth? Think about it, you have more power and technology in your hand then NASA had in the entire control room during the Apollo missions. We have come a loooong ways and it is a miracle.

MAY THE 4 BE WITH YOU!

 

[KreepyKen]

isn't this the hard truth? Think about it, you have more power and technology in your hand then NASA had in the entire control room during the Apollo missions. We have come a loooong ways and it is a miracle.

MAY THE 4 BE WITH YOU!

Yes we have. I compare the Note 4 to my first computer (Commodore 128) and I'm absolutely awed at where we are now.

Not only does it make the C128 look like an ancient relic, it also takes the place of my alarm clock, boombox, TV, calculator, writing stationery, library, newspaper, and probably a whole pile of other things I can't think of off-hand.

If Ben Franklin or Thomas Edison could only see us now.

 

[MightyMike]

Yes we have. I compare the Note 4 to my first computer (Commodore 128) and I'm absolutely awed at where we are now.

Not only does it make the C128 look like an ancient relic, it also takes the place of my alarm clock, boombox, TV, calculator, writing stationery, library, newspaper, and probably a whole pile of other things I can't think of off-hand.

If Ben Franklin or Thomas Edison could only see us now.

Oh God...my first computer was a 486 dos operated system that only had files. Lol. What was it...128 megs of ram and 256 megs of memory! Lol. Now...wow! And only had a floppy disk...do they even exist now? Lol

MAY THE 4 BE WITH YOU!

 

[FBA]

I have had no issues with my Note 3 or Note 4...other than the usual software bugs. No hardware issues and nothing short of an overall great experience. My only gripe is the POS bloatware SamDung puts on these phones - and I don't really want to root my device to eliminate it. All it really does is just use a bit more data and battery. Other than that complaint, I'm happy with my Note's!

Also, I believe many of the reported issues are generally a case of PEBKAC, not faulty devices, although you won't see admissions to it.

 

[KreepyKen]

Oh God...my first computer was a 486 dos operated system that only had files. Lol. What was it...128 megs of ram and 256 megs of memory! Lol. Now...wow! And only had a floppy disk...do they even exist now? Lol

MAY THE 4 BE WITH YOU!

Commodore 128:

• 128 KILOBYTES of RAM...not megabytes...kilobytes
• No hard drive; I had a 5.25" floppy drive
• No mouse...I had a keyboard an an Atari joystick plugged in for games (up, down, left, right, fire)
• Initially didn't have a monitor...was plugged into an 8-inch black and white TV
• OkiMate 10 dot matrix printer...with a whopping 80 characters across a page

And this was our version of the Internet: One of my friends and I would leave school, walk to his house, grab his floppy drive (yes, they were external) and games, walk the two miles to my house, daisy-chain the floppy drives together, and spend hours copying games (that we copied from other people in the same manner). Each game could take anywhere from one to 4 hours to copy.

 

[MightyMike]

Commodore 128:

• 128 KILOBYTES of RAM...not megabytes...kilobytes
• No hard drive; I had a 5.25" floppy drive
• No mouse...I had a keyboard an an Atari joystick plugged in for games (up, down, left, right, fire)
• Initially didn't have a monitor...was plugged into an 8-inch black and white TV
• OkiMate 10 dot matrix printer...with a whopping 80 characters across a page

And this was our version of the Internet: One of my friends and I would leave school, walk to his house, grab his floppy drive (yes, they were external) and games, walk the two miles to my house, daisy-chain the floppy drives together, and spend hours copying games (that we copied from other people in the same manner). Each game could take anywhere from one to 4 hours to copy.

Lol...this is Cool to read. Thanks for sharing!

MAY THE 4 BE WITH YOU!

 

[Haalcyon]

You all have made a lot of good points. My current Note 4 is without flaw, as far as I know. Perhaps the Note 4 should just cost a little less but I truly do enjoy it.

from the S5

 

[KreepyKen]

You all have made a lot of good points. My current Note 4 is without flaw, as far as I know. Perhaps the Note 4 should just cost a little less but I truly do enjoy it.

?????? from the S5 ?????? ????????????

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about what others are experiencing. If your phone is working properly, take it and run (gently, of course). Could be a million different issues (or combinations of issues) that cause other peoples' woes.

I didn't even touch on the whole treasure trove of possibilities introduced by software conflicts. People install all sorts of battery savers and cleaners and then wonder why they lose various radio functionalities.

And who knows, a phone could have been sitting unopened in its box when it was picked up by some sugar-high four year old and thrown across the store, then put in the stockroom to wait for its eventual owner. Yeah, it's unlikely, but not everyone between the factory and the eventual owner handles then like delicate flowers.

 

[Haalcyon]

This issue just irritated me: http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?p=4157938



from the S5