Note 4 wins blind camera comparison test - Phone Arena

[Phokus]

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...comparison-iPhone-6-is-distant-second_id61676

Doesn't have the 6+, but i think it beats the 6+ too, based on these comparison photos here:

http://imgur.com/a/uSY0r (Note 4 on top, 6+ on bottom)

 

[purbeast0]

we haven't had an android is better than apple thread by phokus in a while.

oh wait...

 

[Chrono]

I think someone posted it in the other note 4 thread already. Yeah I saw that which is why I preordered my Note 4. IMO, Note 4 is still the phablet to beat. Can't wait until Gear VR comes out as well.

 

[dainthomas]

I'm really stuck between the G3 and the Note 4. If it wasn't for Touchwiz I'd definitely be leaning Note 4.

 

[cronos]

I'm really stuck between the G3 and the Note 4. If it wasn't for Touchwiz I'd definitely be leaning Note 4.

I actually don't get how people can 'hate' Touchwiz (or Sense, or any other manufacturer's skin, for that matter) so much that it stops them from getting the phone they want. Aren't these things easily 'masked' by installing a custom launcher?

Can you elaborate why you think Touchwiz is so terrible and why it's such a huge deal to you?

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I actually don't get how people can 'hate' Touchwiz (or Sense, or any other manufacturer's skin, for that matter) so much that it stops them from getting the phone they want. Aren't these things easily 'masked' by installing a custom launcher?

Can you elaborate why you think Touchwiz is so terrible and why it's such a huge deal to you?

Touchwiz isn't just the launcher. Touchwiz is part of almost every part of the UI. Notification bar, settings screen, lockscreen, which aren't easy to cover up.

Also its slow as hell and contains tons of bloatware. Not just apps, just lots of behind the scenes stuff that massively slow the phone.

 

[lopri]

When I tested at Bestbuy, the Note 4 shoot unbelievably detailed shots. Pretty fast and stable, too. I liked it.

 

[cheezy321]

If apple was a human being I think Phokus would be arrested for stalking.

Please don't call out other members or thread crap. Keep things on point.

Moderator TheStu

 

[dainthomas]

Touchwiz isn't just the launcher. Touchwiz is part of almost every part of the UI. Notification bar, settings screen, lockscreen, which aren't easy to cover up.

Also its slow as hell and contains tons of bloatware. Not just apps, just lots of behind the scenes stuff that massively slow the phone.

This.

I use Go Launcher on my Optimus G and played with my neighbors S4 that also has Go Launcher and it actually felt slower. Plus as mentioned, things like the notification bar and settings screen were different. Didn't much care for it. I suppose I could root it eventually, but I'd rather have a cleaner look out of the gate.

 

[Phokus]

If apple was a human being I think Phokus would be arrested for stalking.

I should probably call the police because you stalk me all the time

 

[poofyhairguy]

Can you elaborate why you think Touchwiz is so terrible and why it's such a huge deal to you?

Sure. I can answer that one as a guy who loves Samsung hardware but hates Touchwiz:

1. Touchwiz has this "Fisher Price" feel to it. With the bright colors and big tap targets it makes every Samsung feel like a combination of "baby's first smartphone" and "The Jitterbug Smartphone." It basically assumes you are an idiot (which I guess is why Samsung dominates Android). "You don't have to break out the glasses gramps, everything is HUGE." One of the first thing people want to do with a hacked Samsung is change the DPI for a reason.

2. Thanks to Touchwiz it takes longer for flagship Android phones to get updates, as they have to get it from Google first and THEN ruin it by adding Touchwiz. Samsung has a great and deserved reputation for supporting old phones with new Android, but the fact is that takes them a while to get those updates to devices and some that are still "supported" don't get a new Android update until that update is almost replaced by Google.

3. When you get new Android updates, thanks to Touchwiz the big features of that update are almost all gone. All the cool features you read the next Android version was going to have are almost all ripped out and replaced by a Touchwiz "solution" that is exactly the same as what your phone had before. They do this because normals hate change, but the practical effect is unless you ROM your phone you can get every Android update and still feel like you have a two year old device. Basically the Android updates just become an app compatibility thing, and not an "oh goody what did Santa Google stick in our Android stocking this year?"

4. Touchwiz slows down the phones and eats more battery life. Period. The Google Play S4 got MUCH better battery life than the regular S4, and EVERY Samsung phone feels more sluggish than it should. Touchwiz is to blame. Also Touchwiz eats a ton of storage space. On my S4 I had like 5 gigs free on day 1 thanks to Touchwiz. They have gotten better with this, but its not near stock Android or even a Moto.

5. Touchwiz pushes you to Samsung's garbage solution. So instead of Google Now you get S-Voice. Instead of the Google Calendar it pushes you to Samsung's calendar. It has been obvious for years that Samsung is trying to make their devices unique, but they have gone too far. Maybe the idea was to make it so they could switch out Android for something they controlled more one day (like Badu) and no one would notice because the apps are the same, but the practical results are that Samsung devices don't leverage the power of Google like a Moto or a Nexus does.

Is 5 reasons enough?

 

[openwheel]

I don't see any of the problems described above. I am running Note 3 stock TouchWiz, Google Launcher and Wanam. The setup process took only minutes.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Well sure if you are going to use Wanam then you can "fix" most of the problems people have with Touchwiz because you can do things like make the Quick Settings smaller. Heck if you have Xposed on the phone you can also get use the App Settings module to shrink the DPI for Touchwiz apps so they are no longer in Jitterbug mode either. But the problem with all that is that you need the phone to be rooted to install Xposed, which isn't a guarantee for every device especially early in its life. I mean, heck at that point you can also safestrap on a ROM that skins everything so it doesn't even look like Touchwiz. But then you are going FAR FAR beyond what either a normal person or the Samsung warranty people feel is reasonable for a smartphone setup.

No matter what you can do with Xposed, that doesn't make Android updates come in faster and it doesn't always give you back the features that Samsung ripped out of stock Android. And there is nothing that can really be done to make Touchwiz faster, so at least two of my five complaints even applied to an Xposed Samsung device. A phone is much more than a launcher.

If I have to chose an Android device and the condition is that I can't root it (aka I have to use it like normal people do) then I would rather a Moto or a Nexus half a powerful just to avoid Touchwiz. Without Xposed it is just terrible.

 

[vi edit]

Oddly enough I heavily preferred the Samsung'ed contacts, dialer, messaging, pull down shade and calendar over the stock Android experience on my MotoX.

 

[cronos]

Thanks for the explanation guys. I guess I just never really had a huge problem with Touchwiz, but come to think of it I never had it on a phone. Three Samsung devices here but two are tablets and my wife S4 has GPE ROM.

I got the 'Fisher Price' feel as well the first time I saw it, and I remember spending significant amount of time trying to figure out how to make everything not so HUGE, to no avail

Touchwiz isn't just the launcher. Touchwiz is part of almost every part of the UI. Notification bar, settings screen, lockscreen, which aren't easy to cover up.

Also its slow as hell and contains tons of bloatware. Not just apps, just lots of behind the scenes stuff that massively slow the phone.

Sure. I can answer that one as a guy who loves Samsung hardware but hates Touchwiz:

1. Touchwiz has this "Fisher Price" feel to it. With the bright colors and big tap targets it makes every Samsung feel like a combination of "baby's first smartphone" and "The Jitterbug Smartphone." It basically assumes you are an idiot (which I guess is why Samsung dominates Android). "You don't have to break out the glasses gramps, everything is HUGE." One of the first thing people want to do with a hacked Samsung is change the DPI for a reason.

2. Thanks to Touchwiz it takes longer for flagship Android phones to get updates, as they have to get it from Google first and THEN ruin it by adding Touchwiz. Samsung has a great and deserved reputation for supporting old phones with new Android, but the fact is that takes them a while to get those updates to devices and some that are still "supported" don't get a new Android update until that update is almost replaced by Google.

3. When you get new Android updates, thanks to Touchwiz the big features of that update are almost all gone. All the cool features you read the next Android version was going to have are almost all ripped out and replaced by a Touchwiz "solution" that is exactly the same as what your phone had before. They do this because normals hate change, but the practical effect is unless you ROM your phone you can get every Android update and still feel like you have a two year old device. Basically the Android updates just become an app compatibility thing, and not an "oh goody what did Santa Google stick in our Android stocking this year?"

4. Touchwiz slows down the phones and eats more battery life. Period. The Google Play S4 got MUCH better battery life than the regular S4, and EVERY Samsung phone feels more sluggish than it should. Touchwiz is to blame. Also Touchwiz eats a ton of storage space. On my S4 I had like 5 gigs free on day 1 thanks to Touchwiz. They have gotten better with this, but its not near stock Android or even a Moto.

5. Touchwiz pushes you to Samsung's garbage solution. So instead of Google Now you get S-Voice. Instead of the Google Calendar it pushes you to Samsung's calendar. It has been obvious for years that Samsung is trying to make their devices unique, but they have gone too far. Maybe the idea was to make it so they could switch out Android for something they controlled more one day (like Badu) and no one would notice because the apps are the same, but the practical results are that Samsung devices don't leverage the power of Google like a Moto or a Nexus does.

Is 5 reasons enough?

 

[Shlong]

People complaining about TouchWiz on a tech site, come on... you don't have to use it. I'm no TouchWiz fan but its much faster and improved compared to the past. I don't use it though and mainly use Nova Prime.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

People complaining about TouchWiz on a tech site, come on... you don't have to use it. I'm no TouchWiz fan but its much faster and improved compared to the past. I don't use it though and mainly use Nova Prime.

Improved from the past doesn't mean it's actually good.

 

[poofyhairguy]

People complaining about TouchWiz on a tech site, come on... you don't have to use it. I'm no TouchWiz fan but its much faster and improved compared to the past. I don't use it though and mainly use Nova Prime.

That is the thing though- just using Nova doesn't remove Touchwiz. Nova is just a launcher. Touchwiz changes the way the setting screen looks, your entire dialer, your entire messaging app, what your notification shade looks like, your camera app, etc.

Saying you can "fix" Touchwiz by replacing it with Nova is like saying you can always fix a car by replacing the engine. Replacing the engine doesn't help if the problem is the brakes or transmission.

Honestly I actually like the Touchwiz launcher somewhat, its just a little too old people but otherwise its cool. It is those Quick Settings, the lockscreen or just the settings window that drives me nuts.

 

[Zaap]

But I replace the dailer, lockscreen, messaging app, camera app etc. as well.

I guess I can see how people hate TouchWiz so much, but having used the same devices side-by-side stock vs. every kind of debloated ROM, I find I just don't see that much difference to care all that much.

I personally feel its just tech geek-fashionable to hate TouchWiz more than it really being so bad its worth skipping great hardware over. I guess I'm only tech-geeky myself up to a certain point... missing out on an awesome device like the Galaxy Note series due to UI element prefs I really have never felt affect me much is definitely out of my tech-geek range.

 

[foghorn67]

I actually don't get how people can 'hate' Touchwiz (or Sense, or any other manufacturer's skin, for that matter) so much that it stops them from getting the phone they want. Aren't these things easily 'masked' by installing a custom launcher?

Can you elaborate why you think Touchwiz is so terrible and why it's such a huge deal to you?

Tons of scrolling. Too many options all at once. And that weird and creepy smiley face for contacts w/o pictures assigned.
In fact, I won't buy a Samsung until that creepy guy gets the boot.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I've always maintained that Samsung makes some quality camera phones. If I wanted an all around shooter, the Galaxy S/Note phones probably offer the best bet for Android users. Of course Phokus has to bring up it beats the 6/6+. But wait, isn't Samsung up against other Android OEMs too?

Edit: Phokus, if you're going to say it beats the 6+, you'd have to offer some objective analysis. We all know Imgur compresses the images. So maybe some 100% crop comparisons? Low light apples to apples ISO comparisons?

 

[Oyeve]

Tons of scrolling. Too many options all at once. And that weird and creepy smiley face for contacts w/o pictures assigned.
In fact, I won't buy a Samsung until that creepy guy gets the boot.

I know you're being funny, but, you can change it to any pic you want. I too hate the damn thing, like that stupid default facebook silhouette.

 

[KeithP]

The Note 4 seems to have a very nice camera although one thing I am noticing is that, at least compared to the iPhone 6, it has a tendency to blow out highlights.

-KeithP

 

[gorcorps]

Oddly enough I heavily preferred the Samsung'ed contacts, dialer, messaging, pull down shade and calendar over the stock Android experience on my MotoX.

Agreed. There's a lot of Samsung stuff I don't like (s voice) but a lot of the stuff I do. The contacts and dialer are the best I've used from any rom on any phone, and while not perfect I still use the sock messenger because I didn't like the popular messaging apps as much.

I can't customize as much as I would like, but the S4 IMO finally got me enough to where I don't want to try another rom. It's not perfect, but it's good enough that I don't find it worth it to try anything else anymore. Really I just love the IR blaster so much that I refuse to give it up.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I personally feel its just tech geek-fashionable to hate TouchWiz more than it really being so bad its worth skipping great hardware over.

I agree with that. I also think Touchwiz is perfect for "normal" people.

Hence why when Best Buy gets them my wife will have one.