Samsung launches the Galaxy Note 4 ‘phablet’

Building on the success of its Note line of ‘phablets’, Samsung today announced the latest addition – the Note 4 – at the Samsung Unpacked event in Berlin.

We were there on the ground and had a chance to get our hands on one to see what’s new.

Appearance-wise, the Note 4 is just slightly thicker than the Note 3, due to the subtle outward curve of the display.

It gains premium-feeling metallic edging, which appear to be chamfered somewhat, similar to the iPhone 5S’s design.

The metallic edging provides an upgraded 'premium' feel.

The home button now doubles as a fingerprint scanner, and the back of the Note 4 has a leather like look and feel.

You can choose from four different colours including frosted white, charcoal black, bronze gold and blossom pink. The bronze and pink choices are quite subtle and note overdone.

The Galaxy Note 4 in 'bronze gold'...
...and here's 'blossom pink'.

Otherwise, Samsung has based the Note 4’s improvements on key purchase drivers including the display, camera and battery.

On the display front, the Note 4 has an improved 5.7 inch screen featuring a ‘QuadHD’ display that provides an HD-killing 2560 x 1440 resolution.

It’s a Super AMOLED screen, meaning that it can provide about 20 percent more colour range than a standard LCD.

We played an Ultra HD video on the Note 4 and the results were simply stunning, with incredibly fine detail and dazzling colours.

The Super AMOLED QuadHD display is a thing to behold.

While it might be a while before Ultra HD movies are available to watch, you can create your own UltraHD videos via the phone’s camera.