Samsung Galaxy Note 5 And Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Comparison

The latest innovation by Samsung is Galaxy Note 5, it is supposed to be the best Samsung phablet up-to date but some people might hesitate to join the Note 5 train as some of the features of Note 4 are still unforgettable. Is Note 5 really the worthy successor? Should you upgrade from Note 4 or not? Read the full review to find out.

Build

Note 5 has been designed in a modern way by Samsung, it is definitely the best designed handset in the galaxy series, this is not a small thing to say.
Note 4 was the first handset by Samsung to leave the plastic body, it had its charisma but Note 5 has already tipped the scale toward itself in the design category.
The physical material of the Note 5 is purely glass and metal. When light bounces off the shiny surface it gives shimmery effect.
On the front and rear of Note 5 there is a Gorilla Glass covering, the backplate is shiny. It is a perfect example of modern aesthetics.
Note 4 has aluminium body but the backplate is of plastic.
Note 4 does not have a shiny surface but unlike Note 5 it is not a fingerprint magnet.
Note 4 has a 5.7 inch screen while Note 5 has a 5.67 inch screen.
The screen to body ratio of Note 4 is 74.2% while the Note 5 boasts 75.9%. A win is a win even by a small measure.
Note 5 weighs 171g.
Note 4 weighs 176g.
Note 5 measures 7.5mm in thickness while Note 4 measures 8.5mm.
The button position on the edges is the same on both phablets.
Power button is on the right edge.
Volume rocker button is on the left edge for both device. Note 5 has separate volume buttons while Note 4 has a single rocker button.
The headphone jack is on the top edge of Note 4.
Micro USB port, headphone jack and speaker placement is on the bottom edge of Note 5.
On the left edge of both devices there is a slot for stylus pen but the Note 5 has the cool new push to eject feature.
There is a rounded rectangular button beneath the screen for Home function. This button has a fingerprint scanner incorporated into it on both devices.
On either side of the home button there are touch buttons for back and menu functions.
One of the biggest advantages of Note 4 is that it has a removable back cover, removable battery and a slot for microSD card.
Note 5 comes in Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Silver Titan and White Pearl colours.
Note 4 comes in charcoal black, frosted white, bronze gold and blossom pink.

Display

The display of both devices is almost same.
Note 5 has Super AMOLED display of 5.67 inches. The screen has Quad HD display resolution.
Note 4 also has Super AMOLED display of 5.7 inches with the same display resolution.
The pixel density Note 5 is 518ppi and that of Note 4 is 515ppi.
Maximum brightness of Note 5 & Note 4 is 470nits and minimum brightness is at 2 nits.
Both devices show the color temperature of 6722 Kelvin.
Both of them have excellent viewing angles.
So the display of both devices is on par with each other.

Camera

Note 5 has a 16 megapixels camera on the back while the front holds a 5 megapixel camera.
On Note 4 there is 16 megapixels camera at the back while there is 3.7 megapixel one at the front.
Note 5 cameras have f/1.9 aperture while the Note 4 one has f/2.2 aperture.
Both cameras have 2 main modes; Auto mode and Pro mode.
Note 5 has features like slow motion, fast motion, HDR, Panorama, virtual shot and selective focus.
Note 4 camera app has its own tweaks, dual camera, beauty face, rear cam selfie, HDR, Selective focus, Virtual tour and Panorama.
The image quality of both handsets is on equal grounds.
The colours calibration is almost same, in some areas Note 4 performed even better than Note 5.
In perfect conditions both handsets give excellent shots.
In lowlight conditions Note 4 gives better colours.
In night shots Note 5 takes the lead by giving more accurate colors and sharp display.
HDR shots by Note 5 are better than Note 4.
The selfies of Note are more detailed as compared to Note 4. Their colours are more natural.
Both devices can record HD and 4K videos.
The videos produced by Note 5 are smoother due to advanced optical image stabilization while the videos of Note 4 are more accurate in terms of colours.

Performance

The chipset system on Note 5 is Exynos 7420.
Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57 is the processor.
The processor is accompanied by 4 GB RAM.
The graphic unit is Mali-T760 MP8.
The chipset system on Note 4 is Exynos 5433.
The accompanying processor is Quad-core 2.7 GHz Krait 450,
Quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 1.9 GHz Cortex-A57.
The Note 4 has 3 GB RAM and Mali-T760.
Note 4 was a very powerful device when it was introduced but right now all the scores go in favor of Note 5.
The performance of Note 5 is remarkable super fast and super smooth.
Note 4 is also good but Note 5 has a more powerful processor.
The graphic unit of Note 5 is a little more advanced as compared to Note 4.

Memory & Battery

Note 5 comes in two version of built in memory 32 GB and 64 GB.
The memory of Note 5 cannot be increased as there is no slot for microSD card.
Note 4 comes in only the 32GB version but it has a micro SD card slot that can support a card of up to 128 GB.
There will be no problem of memory shortage on Note 4.
Note 5 has a 3000mAh non-removable battery.
Note 4 has a 3220mAh removable battery.
The total screen on time for Note 5 is 9 hours and 11 minutes, which is much more than its predecessor Note 4.
Note 4 has 8 hours and 43 minutes of screen on time.
The charging time from 0 to 100% for Note 5 is 81minutes while that of Note 4 is 95 minutes.
Note 5 has the feature of wireless charging out of the box.

Features

Note 4 has Android 4.4.4 KitKat operating system while Note 5 runs Android OS, v5.1.1 (Lollipop).
The operating system of Note 4 can be upgraded.
Both handsets have Samsung’s trademark TouchWiz interface.
Both handsets give good call quality.
Note 5 has various features of GPS, Glonass, Bluetooth 4.2, dual band Wi-Fi, 4G LTE and NFC are present.
Note 4 also has all the features except 4G LTE and the Bluetooth version is 4.1.
Browsing experience is great on both devices.
Both come with a stylus pen, there are so many features you can explore with this pen.
Note 5 has a few new feature related to stylus for example you can write notes even when the screen is off, you can’t do this with Note 4.

Verdict

Both Note 5 and Note 4 are feature rich phones. Note 4 has the advantage of removable battery and microSD while the design of Note 5 is certainly more premium. The performance of Note 5 is better, camera of both devices is equal, display is also on equal grounds but the battery life of Note 5 is more dependable. In the end we conclude that Note 5 is a worthy successor of Note 4, the upgrading option is totally up to you if you are ready to give up your microSD then you should definitely consider it.