It’s the first time that Apple created a phablet, a category that Samsung popularized since 4 years ago with the Galaxy Note. For the last 4 years, Samsung continues to dominate the category, selling millions of Galaxy Note devices each year. So the obvious question is — will the iPhone 6 Plus steal the Note 4’s thunder?
We break the scoring into several sections with each section getting one point. We then total the points and the device that gets the highest score wins the battle.
Design
Samsung changed their design signature with the Galaxy Note 4, incorporating more premium materials and better design signatures. The glass on metal with faux leather combo looks really nice on the Note 4 and is perhaps their best-looking smartphone to date.
However, Apple continues to refine the elegance and solid build of the iPhone. The all-metal on glass combination is almost perfect, save for a few minor touches that could have been given more attention.
While the Galaxy Note 4 certainly made us take a second look, the iPhone 6 Plus still wins this round.
Score: Note 4 (0), iPhone 6 Plus (+1)
Form Factor
Both devices are your typical over-sized smartphone. While the iPhone 6 Plus is the bigger one in terms of absolute size, the Galaxy Note 4 offer more screen real estate. Here’s a quick comparison of each one’s dimensions.
| | Galaxy Note 4 | iPhone 6 Plus |
| Display | 5.7 inches | 5.5 inches |
| Height | 153.5 mm | 158.1 mm |
| Width | 78.6 mm | 77.8 mm |
| Thickness | 8.5 mm | 7.1 mm |
| Screen-to-Size Ratio | 74.4% | 67.9% |
While the Note 4 is slightly wider and thicker, the iPhone 6 Plus is much taller but with smaller screen size. This puts the screen-to-size ratio of 67.9% for the iPhone 6 Plus and 74.4% for the Note 4.
The Note 4 feels better on the hands and with the additional S Pen stylus, provides better usability of the large screen estate.
Score: Note 4 (+1), iPhone 6 Plus (0)
Display
The iPhone 6 Plus is the first smartphone from Apple to really push more pixels into their display. With a full HD 1080p resolution, the 5.5-inch screen gets an impressive 401ppi pixel density. That’s significantly higher than the 326ppi pixel density on previous iPhones that Apple has been marketing as Retina Display.
However, Samsung went beyond full HD and introduced a quad HD resolution on the Galaxy Note 4. The 5.7-inch screen has a resolution of 2560×1440 pixels, giving the Super AMOLED display a pixel density of 515ppi. That’s 20% more pixels per inch of screen compared to the iPhone 6 Plus.
Both devices have really nice display quality, good contrast and color gamut but the Galaxy Note 4 has better visibility outdoors while the display is brighter on the 6 Plus when maxed out.
Score: Note 4 (+1), iPhone 6 Plus (0)
Performance
The Galaxy Note 4 uses an Exynos 5 Octa 5433 or a Snapdragon 805 with a 2.7GHz quad core processor. Both chipsets are pretty capable and are considered among the most powerful processors for mobile phones.
Benchmarks for both devices are really high but they only tell part of the whole story. This is due to the differences in operating system of the two. In theory, the raw power of Snapdragon 805 should equal or beat the Apple A8 chip in most cases. Passmark benchmark scores places the Note 4 a bit higher than the iPhone 6 Plus.
Score: Note 4 (+1), iPhone 6 Plus (0)
Storage
Now, this section is the tricky part. While the Apple iPhone 6 Plus comes with option for 128GB of internal storage, the Galaxy Note 4 only has 32GB but with expansion for additional 128GB via microSD card. As such, the absolute possible storage for the Note 4 would be 160GB vs. the maximum 128GB of the iPhone 6 Plus.
However, we still want to look beyond just the total storage capacity (since a miroSD card slot allows for near-infinitesimal volume) and take into consideration the performance of the storage device (in terms of read/write speed) and the added cost.
For this round, we think the 128GB internal storage of the iPhone 6 Plus gets the slight advantage.
Score: Note 4 (0), iPhone 6 Plus (+1)
Camera
The iPhone 6 Plus has introduced some of the really nice features in the camera department. Our top favorite is the ability to shoot 240fps at 720p. That’s a feat no other smartphone can match. The 6 Plus also comes with optical image stabilization which allows it to take less shaky videos.
The Galaxy Note 4 boasts of a bigger 16MP sensor at the back with 3.7MP f/1.9 at the front. It has optical image stabilization as well and is able to take live HDR.
We liked the practical features of the iPhone 6 Plus, especially the slo-mo but the Note 4 comes with better front-camera, more detailed photos. In reality though, both image output are almost indistinguishable from each other. We call it a tie.
Score: Note 4 (+1), iPhone 6 Plus (+1)
OS & Apps
The optimizations of the iOS platform specific to the iPhone 6 hardware made it more efficient. The Galaxy Note 4, while really smooth and efficient, still relies on 3rd party OS supplied by Google. Thus the inherent limitations of Android.
Feature-wise, flexibility and adaptability, Android Kitkat on the Note 4 got the better hand. However, one can’t deny that Apple’s advantage in the smartphone market is due to the fact that they create the hardware and the software.
While we tend to lean towards Android on the Note 4, iOS 8 on the iPhone 6 Plus takes the cake in this round.
Score: Note 4 (0), iPhone 6 Plus (+1)
Battery Life
On paper, the iPhone 6 Plus has 2915mAh of battery while the Galaxy Note 4 is higher at 3,220mAh. The numbers should translate with direct proportionality with battery life. OS optimization and chip technology will also help in power efficiency.
In our standard battery bench, both devices got high scores. However, the iPhone 6 Plus got 11 hours tops while the Galaxy Note 4 lasted up to 14 hours which is pretty impressive.
The Note 4 clearly got this section by a significant margin.
Score: Note 4 (+1), iPhone 6 Plus (0)
Results.
Our final tally puts the Galaxy Note 4 with 5 points while the iPhone 6 Plus got 4 points. It’s a very close call and while we know Samsung has been the undisputed king in the phablet category, Apple’s first try is a really close one.
You can read our Samsung Galaxy Note 4 review here and the iPhone 6 Plus review here.
The post Phablet Battle: Samsung Galaxy Note 4 vs. iPhone 6 Plus appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.
