Intro
I was struck the moment I pulled out the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 from its box – this is a classy device. Many claim that the standout feature of the Note 4 is the exceptional stylus; I posit that it is more so the quality of the build, design and display. For the average user, one probably wouldn’t use the stylus all that much; but one does spend a good chunk of one’s modern day life interacting with, consuming information, and holding your precious smartphone. This phone is precious indeed (and others will notice).

Design and Build – ‘so executive; quite large’
Following the new design cues from early last year’s Galaxy Alpha, the Note 4 has a metallic frame in a very dark chrome finish, bordered by thin, shiny silver accents on both sides. The metallic frame feels very good to the touch. The silver accents on the home button, the volume rockers, and the power button adds to the premium theme. The faux leather backing is slightly textured for solid handling. The design is congruent with the stature of high-powered execs.

Coming from a LG G2 as my daily driver, where the volume rockers and power button is on the back, I frustratingly accidentally press the volume rockers and power button on the Note 4, which are on the side. Since it is a big phone with a bit of weight (176g), the added grip that is applied causes these button presses to happen. I learnt to minimise these occurences, but it would be nice of Samsung could take the volume rocker / power button design cue from their fellow Korean competitors.

If you are not familiar with the Galaxy Note lineup of phones, you have to be alerted: this is a very big phone. It fits into my pockets, but barely. When I walk up stairs, I can feel it bulging and constricting movement a tiny bit. One-handed operation can get tricky.

However, all the above ‘alerts’ are trivial when faced with the following: the beautiful 5.7 inch screen.

Display – ‘stupendously brilliant’
And boy, what a display that is – never before have my eyes beheld such a splendiferous display. The Quad HD Super AMOLED screen, at 551 pixel density, is way beyond the 300 ppi ‘retina’ pixel density, and by far beats out the 401 ppi of the iPhone 6 Plus. The colours are very vibrant and strong, as is usually the case with Super AMOLED screens. However, with such a high pixel density on such a large screen, your eyes feel like they are feasting on a swimming pool brimmed with saturated sweets; only, you are busy working. The screen has great sunlight legibility.

Although usually the forte of larger sized tablets, the large and brilliant screen behooves me to mention the use case for reading. I do a ton of reading on my smartphone: whether it be website articles (I scan and selectively read over a 500 tech articles a day); reading a Kindle Book; being active on various social media platforms – I have never been this satisfied using a smartphone for this purpose before. The large and pin needle sharp screen truly helps to read more efficiently – though that should go without saying, it is worth mentioning if you are a great consumer of the internet, like I am. The same could be said for watching videos on one of the best screens on a smartphone to date.

Performance Data, processor, battery life – ‘buttery smooth and fast’
The Note 4 sports a Snapdragon 805 system-on-a-chip, and the graphics processor is an Adreno 420 GPU. This is very state of the art, and it shows – the phone runs buttery smooth. Multi-tasking is a treat, and you will fly through anything and everything you can throw at this phone. Switching between applications is very fast, though I would have expected it to be even better than the 0.5 second delay. However, this is still on par with other high-end Android devices.

With intense usage (Youtube streaming, constant social media interactions, emailing and messaging, the gaming session, working with cloud computing office apps), the 3,220mAh battery manages to consistently leave me with about 20-30% to go at the end of a day. I suspect this may be higher for the average user.

Camera and Video – ‘sharp, clear, beautiful’
The Note 4 takes great outdoor photos, and good enough indoor / lower light photos. The main camera is a 16 MP camera that natively shoots in a 16:9 ratio – meaning that photos and videos will fill the screen when reviewing them, as well as on most monitors (including TV’s).

The detail one can pick out in a photo is superb; no doubt (partly) thanks to the 16 MP capability.

The Note 4 takes prides in its 3.7 megapixel front facing camera – Samsung wants you to have quality video conferencing / Skype sessions, as well as to take good selfies. The camera app has an extra mode for taking wide angled selfies: it is possible to take a selfie shot of a group of people. You could fit in approximately seven people in a selfie photo. My only problem with this wide angled selfie mode, was that it might distort the image closer to the edges – thus slightly distorting the faces appearing on the edges. Still, a very nifty feature!

Unique features to the Note 4:
Besides its great, premium design; mind-boggling display and great performance, the main added feature of the Note 4 over and above other competing smartphones, is the S-Pen stylus and its concomitant functionality. It is only fitting that we delve into it a little deeper here:

Quick overview of various S-Pen functions:
Action Memo – jot a note from anywhere; action that note, depending on type of note.
Smart Select – make quick rectangular cuts from anything on the screen; save to scrapbook.
Image Clip – same as Smart Select, only you can draw out the clipping (not rectangular).
Screen write – takes a screenshot, can annotate that screenshot, then save or share it.
Pen Select – easily copy text to paste elsewhere using S-Pen button whilst dragging.

Action memo: allows you to make any handwritten note, no matter what app is currently open – you can even do this if you have an ongoing call. This might be useful if you need to take down an email address whilst on the phone, a street address, a phone number, or anything of the like. What’s better, is that Action Memo can recognise your handwritten note, and if you tap on the ‘link memos to action’ button, you are presented with an array of options to action your memo with. For instance, if you took down a street address, you can tap on the ‘map’ action link, and it will open Google Maps for you on that street address’s spot. You can also save memos (even if you don’t mean for it to be ‘actioned’ in a smart sense) as an S-Note file, where you can review it later.

Personally, I have found quicker and different ways to save information that I can use later. Pressing the home button and opening my contacts app, even whilst on a call, allows me to enter whatever contact or address information I need at the right place. Plus, I type much faster on the touch keyboard than I can write with a pen. If I need to make a plain note for review later, I open Google Keep or Google Drive, and type my note in a much faster fashion. If I need to make a task entry, I just quickly open my task management app, and enter it there.

However, for folk who aren’t yet that tech savvy (like a tech reviewer), it nonetheless does a good a very good job with handwritten notes, and the ability to action them.

Smart Select: you can use this feature to easily cut out images (or text) in the screen in a rectangular fashion, and save it in your ‘scrapbook’, from where you can open it in your gallery. Perhaps you would like to clip out ideas for birthday gifts as you browse various sites? I find this more useful than simply long-pressing on a photo and tapping ‘save image’, as with smart select, you can include more than just the picture – like a description of the product you are clipping.

A nice, little-known feature, is that make a clipping of text (from a website, for example), and you share that clipping out of your ‘Scrapbook’ app, you can extract the text to edit it elsewhere – it has optical character recognition built-in.

Image Clip is basically a more customised version of Smart Select – you can draw out a custom clipping, for instance clip out the shape of a human (instead of a rectangular clipping).

Both Smart Select and Image Clip can be used to quickly share your clips to anyone else, using any compatible app – email or whatsapp, for instance.

Screen Write:
The S Pen is a great tool to write on screenshots to archive for later use or to share information with others. When you find content to capture, open the air command panel and tap Screen write. The current screen is automatically captured and the editing toolbar appears on the screen. Enter text or drawings with the S Pen.

A practical business use-case: when reviewing a pdf, you can annotate the document with your comments, underlying areas you want to change, pointing arrows, etc. It is then easy to ‘share’ that screen clip annotation, via email for instance. Or if you work in a creative agency, and you need to review a mock-up on the fly – this can be useful. Or to point out directions on a map.

It is a handy method to simply take plain screenshots, too.

Pen Select
The S Pen acts like a mouse when capturing text. Press and hold the S Pen button, then drag the S Pen over text or item lists to select multiple items or text. Copy and paste the selection into another app to share with others.

Pen Select I find particularly useful, as I am always copying and pasting between apps on my phone. It is quicker and more precise than long-pressing the screen, and dragging the selections handles with your finger.

Handwriting messages, instead of typing:
I find it much quicker to type out my messages, but I am a fast touch-screen typer. If you are new to touch-screen smartphones, or are aversive to touch-screen keyboards, I can recommend handwriting your messages. Hover your pen over a text entry field, and tap on the resulting little blue icon with a ‘T’ and a pen next to it.

Conclusions regarding the S-Pen:
In my one month trial of the phone, I did not run into an opportunity where I ever felt I had to rather use the S-Pen, despite full knowledge of its function. I have grown accustomed to complete those tasks much quicker in a different manner. That’s just me, though – you may very well have use for it, as indicated above.

Who would we recommend this for?
● appreciate the executive and premium aesthetic
● find especial use of the S-Pen, as noted in this article
● if you do a lot of reading and video watching
● require very fast performance
● have some added money to spend, over and above competing products of similar (non-stylus) performance

Intro

Users want significant updates when manufacturers bring out the next round of smartphones, especially if it is once a year. This time round (unlike with iPhone 5), Apple did not disappoint: expectations for a new look are thoroughly met, and even more so with iPhone 6 Plus.

Finally caving in to market pressure to build a large phone, it is Apple’s first foray into the ‘phablet’ category. I wonder if Steve Jobs would turn in his grave.

But does it excite? The answer is a resounding ‘YES!’

Design and Build – ‘so exquisite; so big’

The iPhone 6 Plus is gorgeous. Its metal frame and back cover is shiny and cold to the touch – it is like picking up precious metal. And it is precious. Like previous iPhones, it’s made of matte aluminium, but where strong lines and edges give the iPhone 5 a stark, industrial feel, the new phones are more rounded and smooth. They don’t ‘cut’ into your hands, but are nestled into it.

Size dimensions:
158.1mm x 77.8mm x 7.1mm

Besides being one of the thinnest flagship phones around, it is the thinnest phablet currently out. Combined with the matte aluminium finish, such a large phone with such a thin dimension instantly lets you know that you are holding a marvellous piece of tech.

The iPhone 6 Plus has a great quality and premium feel to it – that is undeniable. For myself, it is the most premium feeling phone that has ever graced my palms. Even the smaller design elements are elegant: the aluminium finishes around the camera lens, around sim card port, around the volume rockers and power button – as per usual, Apple took no shortcuts in designing a premium product.

Although gorgeous, it has its critique: The iPhone 6 Plus is at times a bit slippery – its smooth, thin, all-metal rounded frame, and large size can cause it to slip or fall out of your hands. I have been very fortunate to catch the device the three times this happened to me over the period of a month. It would be very wise to invest in a good cover, although that will reduce the visible premium ‘bling’ of this device.

For a guy who usually pockets his smartphone in his jeans, it can be uncomfortable to walk around in, and the phone does stick out of even deep pockets a tiny bit. When typing on the device for the first week, it feels a bit oblong – its length to width ratio is a bit more than other phone. The result is, that when typing at the bottom of the screen (where the keyboard is), you need to apply more sidewards pressure than usual to keep the phone at the correct angle for typing. However, I did eventually get used to this.

Coming from LG G2, where bezels are very thin, one would expect Apple – masters of design – to follow the same design cue. The bezels are too big for such a modern, pricey phone, making an already large phone larger than it needs to be. The screen to body ratio is ~67.8%, versus the LG G2’s ~75.9% .

The above three paragraphs are typical critiques of what might be levelled at phablets – but if these aren’t critical to you, they all fade away very quickly when faced with the splendour and function of a large screen.

Display – ‘crisp and clear’

Finally, Apple has joined the industry standard of 1080p displays. This means that for the first time the iPhone can show FullHD video at 1:1 and also represents the first jump in pixel density (401ppi) since the iPhone 4 (even the smaller iPhone 6 is still at 326ppi). It still doesn’t come close to the Galaxy Note 4’s ppi of 518 – but at this pixel density, one can hardly notice the difference. The LED-backlit IPS LCD screen is plenty crisp and sharp! The colour reproduction, in contrast to the Samsung Galaxy range of phones, is more true to life and not as saturated.

The brightness capability is quite high, making this phone very legible in sunlight. It is a joy to read books and web pages on this large screen. It is particularly wonderful to view your media – photos, videos, youtube – on this beautiful large screen.

Performance Data, processor, battery life – ‘buttery smooth and fast’

The iPhone 6 Plus sports a Apple A8 chipset, which packs a dual-core 64-bit Cyclone processor clocked at 1.4GHz, and an upgraded dedicated GPU, the PowerVR GX6450 GPU.

Without getting too technical, all you need to know is that is either on par or better than all other contemporary flagship devices in terms of performance. This phone is a beast! Operations, graphics and general performance is exceptionally smooth and fast. Multitasking and switching between applications is a treat.

Games perform exceptionally well. I have never enjoyed ‘Minion Rush’ this much; I must admit, it is difficult to put this phone down with such addictive games. Very rarely a stutter, and games load quickly. Games that are even more graphically intense, like Asphalt, run and perform very smoothly. Who needs a dedicated gaming console anyways?

The battery performs very well compared to other similar phones, lasting about a day and a half under very heavy usage (which includes gaming). Under normal usage, one could expect the device to go two days.

Camera and Video – ‘clear, fast, fun, beautiful’

The iPhone 6 Plus offers some of the very best photography you can get in a smartphone. Although it is only a 8MP shooter, we all know that megapixels isn’t a large factor in image quality nowadays. Apple have added focus pixels to the sensor, which makes autofocusing much faster – resulting not just in quicker photo taking, but more regularly getting the photos you take in the moment, just right. Low light performance is better, thanks to optical image stabilization.

We found that the front facing camera is better placed than most other phones – it is more central. This tends to cause less photo distortion in selfies. The front facing camera also seems to smooth the skin, not too much so it looks photoshopped – just the right amount.

Thanks to the new A8 processor, the iPhone 6 Plus is very fast in moving from one shot to the next – there is barely a delay.

Videos on the device is brilliant, and a particular improvement is the slow-motion videos: an upgrade for 720p120fps to 720p240fps. That allows for much smoother playback. Check out the quality of the slo-mo video : http://youtu.be/EdvNXEIFihU . Remember to watch the video in 720P for full quality. It is easy to take slow motion videos – there are default positions where the slow motion starts and ends in a video – and you can set those yourself. It is a whole lot of fun! Video stabilisation has also been added as a feature to reduce that bothersome camera shake.

Loudspeaker audio quality is among the best we’ve ever heard on a smart device. It is clear and loud.

Unique features to the iPhone 6 Plus:

The fingerprint scanner works brilliantly. It is very quick, and works almost all of the time. This makes it so easy to download new apps without having to enter your password everytime. On the phablet sized screen, it is especially useful, as consistently needing to otherwise enter a four-digit PIN can be a bit of a bothersome stretch.

The iPhone 6 Plus sports a feature called “Reachability.” : two quick taps on the home button (not two quick presses) slide any content at the top of the display – app icons, Safari’s URL bar, whatever else is up there – down to the bottom, so that it is more reachable, especially with one-handed use. In practice, I have personally found this not too useful over the long-term, but others might appreciate the feature.

Who would we recommend this for?

The sheer size of this phone is both its boon as well as its bane – many will think it is way too big; others will appreciate it for its size. If I had to choose between the iPhone 6 or the iPhone 6 Plus, I would go for the larger phone, as that extra, beautiful screen real estate makes all the difference.

I would recommend it for people who particularly enjoy consuming media – whether books, games, web articles, videos and other streaming – on their phones

The case is well made and looks professional without being too bulky.

What’s in the Box?

Along with the phone, you also get white earphones, travel adapter, microUSB cable and Quick Start Guides. The box is pretty compact, made of 100% post-consumer recycled paper, printed with soy-based inks and is 100% recyclable with a light-brown wooden design and a minimalistic configuration.

Phone, Phone Book, Messaging

When it comes to a phone’s most basic use, the Samsung Galaxy S5 mini holds a good signal and the call quality is very good despite the fact that this device lacks in-call noise-cancellation. Even though the phone calls were done through one network provider, all calls went through smoothly without any complaints from people on the other side of the line. The keypad on this phone is minimalistic, with large buttons and even an option for video calling.

The phonebook is easy to navigate with the search tool and alphabet scroll tool. When saving contacts, you have the option of storing them on the device itself or on cloud services such as Google or Yahoo.

My favourite phone call features on this device is Samsung’s Direct Call, which allows you to call the contact whose call log, message or contact details are currently on the screen by simply bringing the device close to your ear.

Calls made on speakerphone were very impressive as the device was loud and clear. This was surprising since most water resistant smartphones tend to under-perform when it comes to phone calls on loud speaker.

The messages app allows you to add priority senders for quick access to their messages. Through the now popular Air View features, you can preview messages and other information by hovering your finger over the screen. Messages can be scheduled on the Samsung Galaxy S5 mini for future delivery. Should you be the kind that tends to send messages without thinking first, under settings there is an option to delay the sending of messages by up to 30 seconds, allowing you to cancel the messages within that time period. A useful message feature is the spam filter, which gives you the option to block spam numbers, phrases and unknown senders, if you wish.

I was a bit surprised to find that Samsung’s ChatOn messaging app is not a stock app in this phone. Which is good in my books; the less bloat-ware, the better.

Camera

The 8 megapixel camera has the best 8MP shooter I’ve ever used. When compared to my Nokia Lumia 920, which has an excellent camera in my view, the S5 mini has sharper pictures and white colours appear as they are instead of being yellowish, as is the case with the Lumia 920. The cameras on both these phones have 3264 x 2448 pixels, but the brightness of the Super AMOLED display on the S5 mini helps in producing better quality pictures, even under low light conditions. The front facing camera is a 2.1 megapixel and offers nothing outside of what’s normal. The camera app or UI is filled with plenty of options, modes and settings for those who like to manually tweak the camera for desired results.

Battery

The battery is small in physical size, removable and has 2800 mAh electric charge. I am fairly happy with the battery life on this device; with the screen brightness set to low and all unused features turned off, I got about 14 hours of battery life with standard usage consisting of playing music, random web browsing, checking emails, regular IM and a few short phone calls.

The phone also comes with Power Saving Mode which helps save battery by restricting background data, performance and providing the option to switch to grayscale mode. Should Power Saving Mode not be enough for you, there is also the stricter and more aggressive Ultra Power Saving Mode. Ultra Power Saving Mode applies a simplified grayscale theme to your home screen and limits the number of usable apps. Essentially making your phone less smart, but saving you plenty of battery life. The phone charges up pretty quickly; 30 minutes charging time can go a long way.

Hardware

Very physically identical to the Samsung Galaxy S5, only smaller. The only physical difference I’ve noticed so far between the S5 and the S5 mini, is the microUSB port on the chin of the phone. The flagship Galaxy S5 has a water-repellent flap covering the charging port, which is to be expected on a water resistant phone. However, the S5 mini remains a water resistant smartphone without the need to cover the microUSB port, speaker or headphone jack.

The rear cover has a dimpled polycarbonate design that feels rubbery and comfy in the hand; easily removable and flexible once removed from the device. The rear cover is made of plastic but feels more like rubber.

This phone’s visible hardware is mostly plastic. Even the metal-looking, silver lining on the sides is plastic – which I prefer, because metal is heavy, making a phone feel bulky in the hand and less likely to survive a fall because of the weight. Secondly, under heavy use, a metal casing risks the phone overheating, which can shorten the lifespan of a phone. The dimpled rear on the Samsung Galaxy S5 mini doesn’t offer the best grip on a smartphone, however, the grip is better than average and better than the grip on any phone with a metal back.

You will need a micro SIM card for this phone. It also has a microSD slot for storage extension.

Other Features

There are many things that stood out for me on this phone. My most used feature will have to be the Toolbox; it enables you to access your favourite applications and features quickly via a floating shortcut menu that appears on every screen. This applications takes minimal screen real estate but can help you achieve a lot at once.

Google Maps are a terrific app that I had the pleasure to test drive a couple of times. The only negative with it is that it is not truly, 100% offline. It doesn’t pronounce street names in some areas when you are navigating. But a great app overall that will hopefully be able to compete with the likes of Nokia’s Here Drive.

I also own a wireless Samsung Printer and a Samsung TV with an internet connection. After pairing my Samsung Galaxy S5 mini with these devices, I was able to easily control my television and scan and print with my printer wirelessly. This is possible via the IR Blaster that this phone comes with.

If you get this phone, make sure to get yourself an LTE enabled SIM card and you will be amazed by the increase in download/upload speed and general call quality. The phone can also be used to share fast data with other devices via the Mobile Hotspot feature.

One of the primary features of this phone is the fingerprint scanner. My default security mode for unlocking the phone has been the fingerprint scanner ever since I started using this phone. It’s a smart feature, however, it’s not perfect yet. You have to scan your finger in a very specific way, which can be annoying at first. Your hands have to be dry for the scanner to work, even though the phone is water resistant.

There is also a heart rate monitor at the back, below the camera. I hardly used this feature, but I feel that it could be useful for some people.

In Closing

This phone is for those who don’t want to struggle with fitting their phones in their pockets. It’s compact, lightweight and gets the job done. Feels good in hand with a comfortable fit. It mimics the bigger Samsung Galaxy S5 in many ways.