Note 4 (now $200 rebate with any $10+ trade-in!)

[kahchan]

wish i saw this post earlier. I ended up buying the back cover from samsung (registered the phone for 50% off. still $17.50+ shipping) but i have multiple batteries so i guess that makes swapping the battery easier...

 

[lopri]

Apparently this phone is one of the first to sport Gorilla Glass 4.

http://www.droid-life.com/2014/12/1...alaxy-alpha-feature-cornings-gorilla-glass-4/

Interesting that neither Samsung nor Corning did not engage in marketing.

 

[Skurge]

Looks like Ambient Display is coming to the Note 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7f2N_Dj2mg

 

[Zaap]

So far so great! It being off center in the phone reduces that margin for error for throwing it on the dock, but it charges great and fit in any case. Much better than what I had for the S4.

The pad comes from here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121479153725

But might be cheaper on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Bessky-TM-Wire...2W/ref=sr_1_37

And I am using it with a three coil dock like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Keedox®-Wirele.../dp/B00NBPHHES

When I saw this post of yours, I decided to take the wireless charging plunge with my Note 3. Ordered a similar wireless pad for the N3, and the same dock-stand as yours. (Also ordered the disc-charger in the foreground that I'll use at work when I go back after the New Year. It's this one: http://www.amazon.com/EC-Technology%...dp/B00M9TBTDM/


All I can say is: awesome! I've been curious to take the wireless plunge for some time, and I'm amazed how well it works. The dock stand charges my N3 pretty fast and no issue of how it sits on the dock, it just works. The charging disk works well too, but it's not as cool as the stand. I may just bite the bullet and order another stand for work and keep the disk around the house somewhere.

I'm looking into a wireless charge setup for my wife's iPhone 5 (that'll work with the iPhone 6 when she upgrades) but I'm totally confused by the ones I've seen. They seem so clunky, compared to being absolutely seamless with my Note 3.

Anyone using a no-nonsense wireless charging solution with an iPhone that doesn't uglify/add too much bulk, or have to be taken in and out of the lightning slot in order to use with a normal cable?

 

[trmiv]

So has anyone actually gotten a rebate check yet? Mine was approved on 11/11, still no check. They are really using this 6-8 week thing to the max.

 

[mrochester]

So has anyone actually gotten a rebate check yet? Mine was approved on 11/11, still no check. They are really using this 6-8 week thing to the max.

Rebates from Samsung tends to be a really slimy experience. I waited for ages for a debate on an SSD and had to chase them multiple times

 

[trmiv]

The processor Prizelogic posted this on their Facebook page yesterday.

Prizelogic
8 hrs ·
Great News! If you have previously received notification that your rebate has been approved, your Samsung rebate check is being process and will be received via USPS by Friday January 23rd, 2015. It will be delivered to the address you used while registering for the rebate.
We sincerely apologize for the delay, and thank you for your patience and understanding.

 

[dawheat]

The processor Prizelogic posted this on their Facebook page yesterday.

Prizelogic
8 hrs ·
Great News! If you have previously received notification that your rebate has been approved, your Samsung rebate check is being process and will be received via USPS by Friday January 23rd, 2015. It will be delivered to the address you used while registering for the rebate.
We sincerely apologize for the delay, and thank you for your patience and understanding.

Thanks for the update - I was wondering where this was.

 

[I4AT]

Is there a way to underclock the Note 4? I was actually expecting the battery life to be a little better. I keep the brightness at 10-15% and Power Saving always on, still feel like it's sucking up more juice than needed.

I pretty much just use it to play Marvel Puzzle Quest, and it seems like it runs at 200fps compared to my much older phone. I imagine there's no frame limiter in this game and it's running the CPU at full bore (whatever speed Power Saving limits to, anyone know?).

I used a Palm Pre for years and years, and up until a month ago I was using the original Galaxy S Epic 4g (brick with slider keyboard) which I think was a 1ghz A8. So I'm not picky at all about speed.

I'd rather run it closer to 1.2ghz (or maybe less) for the extra battery life than anywhere near 2.7ghz. Hell, I'd probably even be fine with dual core and the other two power gated if that were possible.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I imagine there's no frame limiter in this game

Android is capped at 60fps.

 

[I4AT]

Oh ok, it's still sucking way too much juice, though. After only 2 hours my battery went from 100% to 58%. That's pretty bad for a 3200mah battery in a match 3 puzzle game with the brightness at 10% and Power Saving turned on. This game would run fine at half the clockspeed.

I've also got haptic feedback/all vibrations and sound notifications disabled, auto screen tone adjustment on, usually running in windowed mode for one handed operation, pretty much all stock options to increase battery life are already enabled. I don't use 4g either, 3g or wifi depending on what's available.

 

[dawheat]

Another update from Prizelogic on January 13 at 3:17pm ·

----------
I'm happy to announce that for all those Samsung customers who have been notified that their rebate was approved, Samsung rebate checks are being placed in the mail tomorrow. If you don't receive them by Friday 1/23, please let us know.
----------

I'm waiting on my $185 rebate.

 

[dawheat]

Oh ok, it's still sucking way too much juice, though. After only 2 hours my battery went from 100% to 58%. That's pretty bad for a 3200mah battery in a match 3 puzzle game with the brightness at 10% and Power Saving turned on. This game would run fine at half the clockspeed.

I've also got haptic feedback/all vibrations and sound notifications disabled, auto screen tone adjustment on, usually running in windowed mode for one handed operation, pretty much all stock options to increase battery life are already enabled. I don't use 4g either, 3g or wifi depending on what's available.

If performance is fine and you have the Tmo version, there are some custom kernels which definitely let you control CPU, and I'd imagine GPU. Probably out of luck if you have a different version.

I don't know the game, but is there a resolution option? Maybe set it to 720p or 1080p if it's running at 1440p?

 

[I4AT]

If performance is fine and you have the Tmo version, there are some custom kernels which definitely let you control CPU, and I'd imagine GPU. Probably out of luck if you have a different version.

I don't know the game, but is there a resolution option? Maybe set it to 720p or 1080p if it's running at 1440p?

Sprint version, do custom kernels require rooting? What's a popular kernel, I'd be interested in looking it up just to see what the interface/options are even if it's not compatible.

I've not seen any resolution options in the game, but I'm pretty sure it's fully 2D, so probably only like 720p and being upscaled.

 

[ibex333]

Ok, so I finally got the Note 4. (My provider is AT&T in case anyone is curious)

Some early thoughts:

1)Screen is definitely NOT night and day difference compared to Note 3. Yes, in many, maybe even most situations when it comes to pictures and videos it is "marginally" sharper and more vibrant. But is it "astonishingly" better? Absolutely not. Bunch of BS hype is what this is.
Text and general browsing is pretty much the same in quality. All that talk about how text looks sharper is nonsense! And don't even start with me. I have a very sharp eye for these things. All that talk about the much higher resolution is all marketing hype. If you have any sense or any care for your money, take this into consideration. The screen is not a reason to upgrade.

2)Overall sound, in calls, speaker, etc. Is NOT any better than Note 3. Phone is still too quiet in calls just like it was. They didn't upgrade it AT ALL! Maybe, just maybe it's "a tiny bit" louder when playing music through the speaker and talking through the speaker phone, and also it seems like the other party can hear me better on the other end. On the note 3 people would complain they cant hear me too great through the speakerphone. On the Note 4, I go no complaints so far.

3)On the Note 3 my GPS would not work for shit. Was told many times it's the AT&T problem, not the phone problem. Besides I exchanged two phones, and it still worked like crap. Wouldn't get my location, sometimes would take 20 min or so just to find my location, couldn't connect, etc. Several calls to AT&T, they couldn't help...

Now on the Note 4 the GPS seems to be ok! I am very happy about that.

So it looks like it was a phone issue, and has nothing to do with the service.

4)The battery saver and super saver modes are amazing. I love it so much. I put the phone on the super saver mode overnight, and when I woke up, not even one percent was used! That's crazy!

5)Fast charging is awesome.

6)Curved glass looks nice.

7)The metal edge design is cool. Although seems like it may be more prone to scratching.

8)The little audio jack on top where you plug in your headphones is very prone to scratching. This is because it is not metal like it was on the Note 3 - it's actually drilled right into the body, and the connector is inside! After several times connecting the headphones and taking them out, the minor damage to paint coating is visible upon close inspection. Annoying, but not a huge issue. Looks like the plastic edges did have their merits after all.

9)Camera is definitely somewhat better. I like the better face focusing and there is difference in clarity and performance in many situations. I was just at a birthday party a few days ago, and my phone absolutely wiped the floor with other people's iPhones when we all took pictures. My pictures were consistently better and clearer in a dark restaurant setting. Even my dad's iPhone 6+ ain't got nothing on my Note 4. It is certainly good, yes, but isn't quite as good as my Sammy.

So in the end, lets consider this... I'll sell my Note 3 for around $350 at best... I bought my Note 4 for $600. That's a $250 difference... Are all the upgrades worth a whopping $250? Definitely not.

I upgraded because I gave in to the hype, and because I wanted to see if the GPS would finally work, and if sound quality would be better. I think it was worth it for me because the GPS works, but if your Note 3 is overall performing ok, I really cant recommend upgrading if you have any sense at all or unless you manage to upgrade for much less than $250.

 

[dawheat]

Ok, so I finally got the Note 4. (My provider is AT&T in case anyone is curious)

Some early thoughts:

1)Screen is definitely NOT night and day difference compared to Note 3. Yes, in many, maybe even most situations when it comes to pictures and videos it is "marginally" sharper and more vibrant. But is it "astonishingly" better? Absolutely not. Bunch of BS hype is what this is.
Text and general browsing is pretty much the same in quality. All that talk about how text looks sharper is nonsense! And don't even start with me. I have a very sharp eye for these things. All that talk about the much higher resolution is all marketing hype. If you have any sense or any care for your money, take this into consideration. The screen is not a reason to upgrade.

I agree and disagree with you. The Note 3 had a very good display, the Note 4 has a great display. However the difference between those two groups in this day is relatively small - vs. a couple years ago.

I've run all my notes at a lower dpi, making text smaller than a stock phone. This was especially noticeable on non-mobi sites like phonearena.com or the anandtech forums. In those cases, I can tell the difference between small fonts. The better accuracy and brightness are also pluses, though again the Note 3 was a very good starting point.

7)The metal edge design is cool. Although seems like it may be more prone to scratching.

I don't have a huge need for "build quality" but I'm glad the Note 4 feels much more premium than the Note 3.

9)Camera is definitely somewhat better. I like the better face focusing and there is difference in clarity and performance in many situations. I was just at a birthday party a few days ago, and my phone absolutely wiped the floor with other people's iPhones when we all took pictures. My pictures were consistently better and clearer in a dark restaurant setting. Even my dad's iPhone 6+ ain't got nothing on my Note 4. It is certainly good, yes, but isn't quite as good as my Sammy.

Biggest thing for me - low light photography is actually pretty good vs. pretty bad in the Note 3.

IMO $250 to spend in a year is quite a little bit considering how much we use our phones, but I certainly understand people being satisfied with the Note 3.

 

[Oyeve]

I find the Note 4 screen much better than my note 3. Use the YouTube app and run the higher res demo videos on both phones and you will see a huge difference.

 

[Karl Agathon]

I find the Note 4 screen much better than my note 3. Use the YouTube app and run the higher res demo videos on both phones and you will see a huge difference.

Speaking of the Youtube app, I find that there are no longer 1080 or 1440 video options any longer. Most I can select is 720. Can you confirm on yours?

 

[rcpratt]

Speaking of the Youtube app, I find that there are no longer 1080 or 1440 video options any longer. Most I can select is 720. Can you confirm on yours?

That is certainly not the case on my Edge. 1080p and 1440p are there.

 

[you2]

Actually from what I read on the web; the note 4 was only an incremental update to the note 3 and I don't think anyone thought it was a huge update. However, I came from the note 2 and the jump was quite a bit larger esp in key areas: a) I can now easily read my phone outside; b) audio is a bit louder c) when I talk to people they think I am on a land line (either my note 2 sucked or my note 4 is just much better - unfortunately I can't hear what i sound like on the other end ) d) note 2 batter life was good but now it is much better; never had a gps issue on my note 2 and haven't had one on the note 4.
-
Quite frankly I can't see doing an upgrade each cycle; my estimate is once every 2 or 3 cycle (i.e, note 6 or 7 from note 4) unless there is some specific issue (change provider, break the phone, ....).
-

Ok, so I finally got the Note 4. (My provider is AT&T in case anyone is curious)

 

[Oyeve]

Speaking of the Youtube app, I find that there are no longer 1080 or 1440 video options any longer. Most I can select is 720. Can you confirm on yours?

It's there. You need to find a higher res video.

 

[Muadib]

It's there. You need to find a higher res video.

This appears to be a carrier thing. It is not there on my at&t version.

 

[rcpratt]

1)Screen is definitely NOT night and day difference compared to Note 3. Yes, in many, maybe even most situations when it comes to pictures and videos it is "marginally" sharper and more vibrant. But is it "astonishingly" better? Absolutely not. Bunch of BS hype is what this is.
Text and general browsing is pretty much the same in quality. All that talk about how text looks sharper is nonsense! And don't even start with me. I have a very sharp eye for these things. All that talk about the much higher resolution is all marketing hype. If you have any sense or any care for your money, take this into consideration. The screen is not a reason to upgrade.

I'm sorry, but I completely disagree. You can't expect to notice the difference in all situations, but in many important ones (e.g., viewing video, viewing photos, browsing with small text) it's noticeable. And it's amazing. But I don't think anyone had recommended that upgrade solely for the display.

 

[gorcorps]

It's there. You need to find a higher res video.

This appears to be a carrier thing. It is not there on my at&t version.

It's not a carrier thing... I don't even know how the YouTube app can be affected by carriers. It's a problem with the YouTube app, and isn't limited to the note 4. According to reviews in the YouTube app (and threads in xda) it's affected some z3 and tablet users as well. Some people have had success by clearing the cache and deleting data in the YouTube app, but it doesn't stick.


It's a known issue with the app and hopefully will be fixed.

 

[you2]

I'm on verizon; first video I checked (using youtube app) had 1080p.

It's not a carrier thing... I don't even know how the YouTube app can be affected by carriers. It's a problem with the YouTube app, and isn't limited to the note 4. According to reviews in the YouTube app (and threads in xda) it's affected some z3 and tablet users as well. Some people have had success by clearing the cache and deleting data in the YouTube app, but it doesn't stick.


It's a known issue with the app and hopefully will be fixed.