The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Review
by Joshua Ho on October 15, 2014 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Android
- Mobile
- Galaxy Note 4
Video Performance
In terms of video, the Galaxy Note 4 mainly benefits from the newer Snapdragon 805/APQ8084 SoC, and the addition of OIS. For the most part, there aren't any new video recording modes on the Note 4, as we see 4K30, 1080p60 and 1080p30 video available to the user.
For 1080p30 recording we see a 17Mbps bit rate with an H.264 high profile encoder. In practice I didn't really see any issues here, although on the exit sign at the end of the video there's noticeable aliasing
In 4K30 recording mode we see a 48Mbps bit rate with the same encoder as the 1080p30 setting. There's a significant increase in visible detail when compared to 1080p, but it seems that this mode is capped at a maximum of five minutes for video length and videos where temporal resolution is more important than spatial resolution will generally see relatively little benefit. EIS/video stabilization is also disabled for 4K recording, so OIS becomes quite critical for even casual video recording in 4K.
In 1080p60 mode we see a 28 Mbps bit rate with the same encode as in 1080p30. I don't really see visible detail degradation in this mode, and temporal resolution is clearly better than any of the other modes. This mode, as with 1080p30 supports EIS/video stabilization although using such a mode will reduce the field of view when compared to video with EIS off. One constant throughout all of these videos is the noticeably jerky nature of the OIS. It's hard for me to tell whether this is the result of an inability to damp certain motions due to the magnitude of the change or the OIS resetting itself during recording, but I suspect that this is a limitation of OIS that would require electronic image stabilization to compensate.
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dakishimesan - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
You can't ignore maximum brightness. OLED screens have a high contrast ratio because their black levels are very deep, which offsets the lower brightness to still give it a high ratio. But maximum brightness still matters for visibility outside.theduckofdeath - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
You can however dismiss its importance. If the dynamic range is below the thousands on one tech and maybe above the millions on the other tech, other numbers suddenly become really, really irrelevant.JoshHo - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
This is technically inaccurate. Outdoor visibility is primarily determined by maximum brightness and diffuse reflectance, not native contrast.jnb - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
I played around with an iPhone 6 Plus and the Note 4 at Best Buy the other day. I thought there was a big difference in the display with the Note 4 being much better. It is interesting to see a review like this say there are basically equal. It goes to show that you should really look at them in person and form your own opinion. These numbers don't mean anything to an average person.melgross - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
That's very misleading. While the blacks are just a small bit better than the best LCD displays, the whites are half as bright. In normal lighting, the much dimmer AMOLED displays will look fine, but outside, in direct sunlight, they will be washed out.The GS5 is definitely not more readable outside. So just go ahead and ignore reality. Brightness is directly responsible for readability outside. It's not magic.
Tams80 - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link
It's not just brightness. I don't know what Samsung have done here, but Nokia CBD (proper CBD) increased sunlight readability without just increasing screen brightness.theduckofdeath - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link
It's not "a small bit better", it's a much bigger difference than what you get between TN and IPS. 100's times bigger in fact.skinygeek - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Wondering how the Battery life of Exynos Variant would be . The 20nm Tech should give it an edge.danstek - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Is the graph comparing camera focus latency missing? Not showing up for me.juicytuna - Sunday, October 19, 2014 - link
It's there now, but unfortunately too late as most of the sites readership will miss out on knowing how awesomely fast the camera is.A stark contrast with the iPhone 6 review where the phase detect autofocus was put on pedestal and showered with confetti.