**** The Official Note 4 thread ****

DAnDan said:
A few days in to my 6S+ use now, moving from my Note 4, and while it's not a huge change overall, it's certainly a far nicer experience.

Will probably swap back to the Note 4 for a day next week and see if it can win me back.
Click to expand...

Would be interesting to hear your thoughts on overall experience, camera, restrictions and pros/cons... I'm in a similar boat, wondering if I should switch to the 6s+ (i have Apple vouchers to cover the cost)
 
Ravster said:
Would be interesting to hear your thoughts on overall experience, camera, restrictions and pros/cons... I'm in a similar boat, wondering if I should switch to the 6s+ (i have Apple vouchers to cover the cost)
Click to expand...

I'm going to write up a proper bit on it after a week or so, but for now my initial impressions after a few day's usage:

Camera - Picture quality is great. The Note was great as well though, but the iPhone is quicker all round. Quicker to open, take pictures, and change modes. It just works a bit smoother in all aspects.

Restrictions - I thought this was going to be a big one, but so far it's not been an issue. I'd rooted my Note and have played around with ROMS/CM/XPosed at different times. The main thing I'd want is adaway, and to change the DPI. Both of which the iPhone is fine with by default. Text is a reasonable size on the 6s+, rather than the absurdly large default size on the Note. Then there's the new adblockers for Safari, they work great out of the box. There's definitely less customisation, but honestly I've not yet noticed anything I want/need to change that I'm not able to. Having greater control over permissions is also lovely. I've nuked most apps so they can't run in the background, and can't access my location. I'd have to root on android and install Xposed to get this properly!

Pros - Battery life seems far, far better so far, but I'll wait for another few days before talking about this properly. The smoothness of the OS is incredible, there's no lag (anywhere!), it makes the Note 4 look like a stuttery mess (even after the 5.1.1 update).

Cons - The lack of quick charging is noticeable, charge times are definitely a bit longer, but it's looking like I won't have to recharge before the end of each day, so I'll happily take that trade off and just charge overnight. The lack of a back button is bloody annoying though. In most apps you can swipe left to go back, which is great. However in some apps/setups you have to click the back button in the top left (which is the single WORST place possible to put it!). It's just crying out for a back button like Android has - by far my biggest gripe so far!

There's lots more, so feel free to ask any specific questions, but I'll make a longer post in a week or so.
 
is the 3uk 5.1.1 firmware out yet?

Got a text today telling me VoLTE (Voice over LTE i'm guessing, 3 refer to it as 4G super-voice) is comin to my area soon and it might need an update. i'm guessing if it isnt already available in firmware then 5.1.1 will probably include it.
 
DAnDan said:
I'm going to write up a proper bit on it after a week or so, but for now my initial impressions after a few day's usage:

Camera - Picture quality is great. The Note was great as well though, but the iPhone is quicker all round. Quicker to open, take pictures, and change modes. It just works a bit smoother in all aspects.

Restrictions - I thought this was going to be a big one, but so far it's not been an issue. I'd rooted my Note and have played around with ROMS/CM/XPosed at different times. The main thing I'd want is adaway, and to change the DPI. Both of which the iPhone is fine with by default. Text is a reasonable size on the 6s+, rather than the absurdly large default size on the Note. Then there's the new adblockers for Safari, they work great out of the box. There's definitely less customisation, but honestly I've not yet noticed anything I want/need to change that I'm not able to. Having greater control over permissions is also lovely. I've nuked most apps so they can't run in the background, and can't access my location. I'd have to root on android and install Xposed to get this properly!

Pros - Battery life seems far, far better so far, but I'll wait for another few days before talking about this properly. The smoothness of the OS is incredible, there's no lag (anywhere!), it makes the Note 4 look like a stuttery mess (even after the 5.1.1 update).

Cons - The lack of quick charging is noticeable, charge times are definitely a bit longer, but it's looking like I won't have to recharge before the end of each day, so I'll happily take that trade off and just charge overnight. The lack of a back button is bloody annoying though. In most apps you can swipe left to go back, which is great. However in some apps/setups you have to click the back button in the top left (which is the single WORST place possible to put it!). It's just crying out for a back button like Android has - by far my biggest gripe so far!

There's lots more, so feel free to ask any specific questions, but I'll make a longer post in a week or so.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much, I am interested to hear how you feel about the difference in screen res...and are you case or caseless? How does it feel in hand as a comparison... the camera piece is very interesting. My niece turned two yesterday and across the whole day the family with iPhones captured so many cool moments just because of speed... my phone just wouldn't launch and take a snap in time to capture her mania :) ....Live photos would have been nice too.

Maybe I'm getting old, I love android, but I do appreciate the simplicity of iOS... the only this holding me back is the lack of a file system (to use it as a USB storage device) and the sharing aspects....

Looking forward to your write up!
 
Participant said:
Wow. Mine's an F version, I assumed that network release were *always* slower than unbranded releases, yet I've got nothing for my sim free Note 4.
Click to expand...

Not sure quite how it works tbh. I waited what seemed like an age for 5.0.1 but 5.1.1 came through much quicker than anticipated.

kitkat2015 said:
Don't you think it's made the Note 4 the device it should have been at launch?

I'm no fan of lollipop but 5.1.1 is a cracking version of a poor OS.

Hope your enjoying your note 4?

Ta
Click to expand...

Definitely am! I was happy enough with the phone before the update, upgrading from a nearly 5 year old dog of an htc but noticeable improvements since 5.1.1 :) I'm very happy with the phone.
 
Ravster said:
Thanks so much, I am interested to hear how you feel about the difference in screen res...and are you case or caseless? How does it feel in hand as a comparison... the camera piece is very interesting. My niece turned two yesterday and across the whole day the family with iPhones captured so many cool moments just because of speed... my phone just wouldn't launch and take a snap in time to capture her mania :) ....Live photos would have been nice too.

Maybe I'm getting old, I love android, but I do appreciate the simplicity of iOS... the only this holding me back is the lack of a file system (to use it as a USB storage device) and the sharing aspects....

Looking forward to your write up!
Click to expand...

I've not noticed the difference in screen resolution to be honest. I've got great vision at this range, but in general use I can honestly say I've not noticed a downgrade. But I've not held both up next to each other and gone pixel-peeping, I'm more interested in how they are during general usage. I do notice that the blacks on the iPhone's screen aren't as good as those from the AMOLED, but that's always going to be a given just due to the technology. But that's not to say that the blacks are bad on the iPhone, they're just not quite perfect, as they are on the Note's screen. Still, it's a beautiful panel.

I've got no case on there at the moment, and it feels lovely. It IS slippery, especially due to the rounded sides, but I've not had any issues holding on to it. Although my girlfriend managed to drop it twice within 10 minutes the day after I got it. She's not holding it for a while now :p. In terms of feel, I'm not sure I prefer either really. The Note 4 is a lot squarer in the hand, and easier to hold, but the iPhone feels a lot smoother, and more solid for some reason. It'll vary person to person as to which form they prefer the feel of. I've ordered a case for it now though, not because it's slippery, just because I don't want to worry about scratching it if I slide it across my desk or something like that. Just one less thing to worry about.

I've not had an issue with the lack of file system yet, but I'm sure I will do at some point. I've moved my music (a little under 3,000) songs onto the phone using iTunes (I must be one of the few people who actually gets on well with Itunes!?), and then the rest of my files are stored on dropbox as I need them mirrored over several PCs for my work. So if I need to access a file from those I just do it through the dropbox app. I did the same on my Note 4 though most of the time. Other than that I've not really needed access to the file system... Yet. But we shall see.

Sharing hasn't been an issue either. The only sharing I do really is to share pictures/links/text that I've taken/found to friends/family. I can do that just the same on the iPhone as I could on my Note 4. Find the thing I want to share, click the share button, choose the app that I want to share it through (facebook/whatsapp/SMS typically), and then choose the user. Nice and simple. Your needs may well be more complex than mine, but the basic functionality definitely works well in both systems.

Hope that helps!
 
Wolfson DAC's are superb for the the debate that was going on.

Personally I use bluetooth on my phone for music so I only care about apt-x to connect to the car system.

If you use IEM's then you want a really good DAC. If you use headphones you want a really good DAC and AMP.

ipods aren't the answer either in fact ipods are pretty crap with fiio and cowon players being far superior for similar money if not cheaper.
 
After 4 hours I've finally managed to get a stock 5.1.1 rom installed.

First flash with Odin failed due to some ext4 partitioning problem, I tried 3 different PIT files and 3 more flashes and it eventually completed with no errors but hung at the Samsung logo.

After a couple more hours of trawling through XDA somebody mentioned some stock recovery that would help, flashed that and it booted up to a screen telling me my data partition was corrupted and I should do a factory reset, unfortunately I couldn't get in to recovery as it kept going to download mode.

Flashed CWM over the top and did a factory reset and it still said the data partition was corrupted, went back in to recovery and formatted /data and finally it's working again.

That's the last time I update this thing!
 
I'm really quite impressed with the Note 4 after the 5.1.1 update - with the usual usage, I was at 51% battery life at 11pm last night (taken off charge at approx 8.30am), whereas on older versions I'd normally average around 15-20%.

That includes Whatsapp web being open from 9am to 6pm, a few calls, and maybe an hour or two SOT.

Lovely. My only gripe at the moment is that when the phone is rebooted, the Multi-Window nonsense turns itself on which can be annoying.
 
Last 3 days now I have had very nearly 5 hours screen on time with about 20-25% battery left. The best thing to happen to my note 4 was 5.1.1
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom