Re: Giving up the Note 4 for the Nexus 6
Having had, and returned, the Note 4, and having had the Note 2 and 3 in the past, I don't believe they make the most of the screen size. Yes, they have multi window features that some claim make them true phablets, but what's funny about that is that I've never had an actual tablet with multi window features so how can that be a requirement of a phablet? Then there ate the people that argue the S Pen makes it a phablet, but I say again, I've never had an actual tablet with a capacitive stylus, how is that a requirement of phablets?
Anyway, screen size... The Note phones just seem to blow everything up to fill the screen. Yes, this makes text bigger and easier to read, but you're not actually getting more content on the screen at the same to reduce scrolling and whatnot. When I had the LG G3 I recall it displaying more content, not just bigger content, so it seems to be an issue with how Samsung makes use of the screen and not just an Android thing.
When I got the Note 4 I gave my month old S5 to my wife and I did a comparison using the following apps:
Facebook
Plume (Twitter)
Gmail
Chrome
Internet
I looked at the same content in each app on both phones and on both phones I saw the same amount. The browsers showed identical amounts of text, pictures, etc. My Facebook feed had the same number of posts, same number of tweets in Plume, same number of emails in Gmail.
I thought maybe I had some zoom enabled by accident in the Note 4, but I didn't, it was all set to 100% zoom, normal text size, etc. I then compared all the apps to my Nexus 7 and the Nexus 7 kept the text size reasonable and readable from a natural distance but showed waaaay more content. I don't expect the 5.7" screen to match a 7" screen, but it should show more than a 5.1" screen. I don't know if any of you have played with the iPhone 6 Plus, but the Note 4 feels like it has the 6 Plus's zoom mode enabled at all times, but has no way to turn it off.
Speaking of the 6 Plus, I checked and compared what I could in the apps I could (pretty much just the browser) when I returned my Note 4 and the iPhone 6 Plus, with a SMALLER screen, shows way more content in the browser compared to the Note 4. I'm talking like a full paragraph of additional text.
Yes, the Note 4 has cool multi tasking features and the pen that some find useful, but I don't feel it makes good enough use of its screen space and, to me, that actually hurts it as a phablet. Then again, to me a phablet isn't about a bunch of proprietary multi tasking features added via a nasty UI like Touchwiz. To me a phablet is a phone that has a larger screen and uses it to give you more content with less scrolling, just like an actual tablet. That makes it easier to work on things, consume content, use your favorite apps, etc.
The Nexus 6 may end up the same in the end, but I hope it doesn't. I'm hopeful because the screen is only 1" smaller than the Nexus 7 and the Nexus 7 shows waaaaay more content than the Note 4 - more than the extra 1.3" would have you believe. Some of you may like having the same amount of content displayed as smaller phones with nothing but bigger text, by my eyes are fine and I just want more of it with less scrolling - blowing everything up should be an option, not the norm, and the Note 4 fails at this.
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