Galaxy Note 4 review part 2 : Camera

One of the reason why I had chosen the Note 4 compared to Xperia Z3 was based on the camera review by the masses. Many said that the camera works so well the it even surpasses the iPhone... So I went and spent a couple of days poking on the camera features and here are my findings...

For a start, the device is equipped with a 16 megapixels main (rear) camera and a 3.7 megapixels front camera. According to Samsung here are the camera specification.

Front Camera 3.7MP + F1.9/ Selfie (90º), Wide selfie mode (120º)

Rear Camera 16M+ Smart OIS/ Fast AF, Live HDR(Rich Tone)

So let's talk about the front camera. When activated, the camera itself is already providing you with quite a wide angle view where you can snap a wider view compared to many smartphone cameras. With a large aperture (f1.9), the front viewfinder already gives you an edge when taking photography in the shade.



But on top of that you can also perform a panorama shot which allows you to drag the camera from corner to corner to get a wider "wide angle" effect - which gives you a choice of taking "we-fie" instead of selfie.



With a fairly large aperture (f2.3 I think) the main camera also comes with "HDR mode" which excels further when shooting shady or shadowy environment. HDR photography basically means that the camera will take 3 photos in different exposure and then combined it into a single photo. This helps exposes the details of the objects that is hidden within the darkness of shades and such (Not total darkness though)

Taken using the front or rear camera, I also noticed that these pictures have facial or skin color smoothing or soft focus effects - making everyone in the picture look young and vibrant. I think this is the part where people were complaining about color incorrectness. With due honestly, I am not complaining - I rather see everyone look bright, vibrant and young compared to looking like a zombie in the picture







Night shots aren't that bad either. With OIS, the night shots with zoom can be taken flawlessly. Perhaps not the best but at least you still can work out what are you snapping.





The Selective Focus shot (bokeh) allows you to focus on the object of your choice AFTER the photo was taken.







In some modes, you can press and hold the shutter to take a maximum of 30 photos at one go. Of which you later can use their new PHOTO STUDIO to pick the one you're interested in and edit.

One other mode which is of interest is called the Animated Photo mode. Basically you can capture an animation of the surrounding with a single object in stagnant. I just have a few ideas on what am I going to do with this...



Finally there are other modes which I explore very little. Virtual tour for example; allows you to tour a place while taking photographs. The inbuilt guide will guide you to take pictures of the whole path while you're walking through. Imagine you want to give others a tour of your new house? This is a good one to start!



Then there's this new mode is called "Food Mode" which is specifically use to take pictures of food. However, it comes with a trick - it allows you to adjust the color hue of the food to make it look more vibrant (and tasty?)





Other features which I have yet to try is the "shot and more" feature. It is a combination of

- Best photo: Select the best from a series of pictures.
- Best face: Select the best picture of each person from a series of pictures.
- Drama: Take a series of pictures of a moving object, then merge them.
them.
- Eraser: Erase unwanted moving objects from your picture.
them.
- Eraser: Erase unwanted moving objects from your picture.

I'd reckoned that these features may be the most used features for those who are into taking group photos, kids and fast action objects. While you can use the burst mode to capture and select which picture you wanted, but this mode does not save up all the different pictures in burst mode.

The camera also allows you to capture videos ranging from VGA to UHD resolution. Below are the list of resolutions available:-

-3840×2160 ULTRA HD (4K)
-2560×1440 Wide Quad HD
-1920×1080 Full HD
-1280×720 High Definition (HD)
-640×480 VGA

You can also capture videos in fast motion, slow motion or smooth motion (?) and perform screen capture during video recording. Video capture is also easy because there is a dedicated button for you to activate the video capture immediately from within the camera application.

As with 4K mode, some of the above mentioned features will be lacking thereof. For example, you may not be able to perform screen capture during video capturing.

So here goes my part 2 review of the Galaxy Note 4. I'll be back in part 3 and cover other parts of the device - like stylus functions and features

How to read Chinese text anywhere within your device using Note4 (picture or text)

The new "Smart Select" of Note4 feature allows you to capture any part of the screen and perform a OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to gather the text content. With this capability and coped with Google Translate, I am able to capture most Chinese or other kanji characters for translation. Here's how it works...

With the stylus, hover near the screen and click on the stylus button



With the wheel menu pops up, select SMART SELECT option.



Choose the text or graphic which you need the OCR to function upon (could be a text or picture)



Once captured, you'll see the text appears on screen only. Click on the T icon to perform OCR.



Once the text can be recognised, it will appear as the screen above. Click on the share link



Share the contents to Google Translate and viola!



You may not get a full meaningful translation all the time but it basically gives you an idea what the text is all about...

Reading and Writting Chinese text...

I admit that I'm one of those chaps who were brought up as a Chinese but never to learn how to read the Chinese characters properly. Perhaps some simple words like 你,我,屋,貓,狗,男,女... And so forth...

But if you're asking me to write them... I think I'm so far behind that timbuktoo seems like a stone throw away.

So the question is, how do I write Chinese as Facebook post or as whatsapp messages?

First you need to make use of Google Voice input... go into settings and locate your language and input settings



Make sure the Google Voice Input is selected and click on the additional settings icon



Locate the language setting and click on it



Make sure the desired language you wish to use for speech is selected. (I'm good in Cantonese so I'll choose that)



Now the setup is done. Go and try it out. Access a text box and bring up your keyboard. If your keyboard supports text input, you'll see the mic button on it.





Start annotate when you see the words "Speak Now"



Good luck! And as usual, if you have any questions, ask them in Android Fanatics of Facebook group

Note to Note: My Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (Part 1)

So I'm one of those lucky few who had managed to obtain a device as early as the month of launch. Admittedly I was quite excited to get the device but also sad to let go my prior Note 2. It had been a workhorse for me till today but we need to move on right ?

As I got hold of the device for the first time and performed my own reset (yeah, the maxis folks just run through the setup for me earlier to check for dead pixels), the first thing I notice is the vibrancy of the screen. With QHD display 2,560 x 1,440 resolution, the screen is like popping up onto your face with all the vibrant colors and clarity you ever known exist! While many may argue that the color profile is wrong when viewing photos and such but come on, how many of us would really bothered to check on these details? And of course if I have to park my Note2 against it, it would be quite a bit of difference in terms of visibility and clarity...

You can tell the difference instantly if you can bring both devices together and compare them side by side

The size dimension and shape also differs from Note2. Perhaps it's more like a Note3 in terms of shape and bezel size but then again if you're about to buy a device called "Note" from Samsung, do expect something that is of this kind of dimension and size (Note4 screen size is 5.7 inch compared to Note2 of 5.5 inch)

Back (White color is Note 2)

And front comparison (White color is Note 2)

After booting up, I'm being greeted with the standard TouchWiz interface (which I never like). The launcher is the least of my favourite and so I took the liberty to customize it to my heart's desire...

 No TouchWiz for me !

 Now I can breathe a bit...

Setup Observation: It may be quite a challenge for the newbies to move from other non Note devices as this guy had so much features packed into it that one would wonder who the heck is going to explore and use every single feature available. (I'm quite sure I'm not the one - for a very good start)

Performance Observation: Once all the apps had been installed and working correctly, the next thing I realised is the speed and fluency of the device. While I am not going to compare the smoothness against the iDevices but I'd reckoned that the 1.9GHz Octa Core Exynos processor had served it's purpose. Running at 1.3GHz in 4 cores in most situations and powering up to 1.9GHz in more demanding scenarios. In most cases, folks may not care or bothered with what's running under the hood but at least I can start boasting that I'm running a 8 cores smartphone in my pocket which is double the cores in my home PC ! Moreover the 3GB RAM is a must when there are so many stuff running all at once - some which you can disable or uninstall while others not...

Battery Charging: Like a little boy, when I got back home, I straight unwrap the Fast Charger and plug in to charge the device. I was told that the device can charge to 50% within 30 minutes. While the claim is not far from the truth but yes, you may actually achieve that if you're charging with the screen turned off. But if you're as excited as me - poking the device as and when there are still juice left, call it about 40% increment for half hour charge (which I happily accept it as well !). On top of that, the battery size and capacity is also different now... Its more rectangular in size but with higher capacity compared to stock battery

3220 mAh with rapid charging VS 3650mAh 3rd party battery without rapid charging... Hmmm...

Camera: One of the main reason of choosing this device over Xperia Z3 was the camera. I was watching a fair bit of YouTube and sites on comparison between Note4, Xperia Z3 and iPhone 6 camera quality. Here's what I noticed... As and when I power up the camera (it starts within 2 seconds), there are a few pre-set modes which I can make use for the regular camera shooting of standard single point and click photos. Exploring a bit, I figured that I also can hit the Samsung App Store to download more camera function mode ! This is quite a great addition to the features of the device as you can continue to "upgrade" your camera functionality without having to change the hardware altogether (at least for me). Of course, if you're one person who wants a higher pixel camera, I would suggest you to look at the Xperia Z3 or Nokia 1020 for their 20 and 40 megapixels shooter :-)

Download more camera features please

And if you ask me which mode I would like the best ? It's definitely the BOKEH mode (Or known as "Selective Focus"). Basically you can blur the background and focus the camera onto the object which is of interest. It sorta like brings out the vibrancy of the object and somewhat like a 3D feel on the photo itself

After taking a photo, you still can choose the object of focus

Not bad eh ? (Nope this is not taken using my Panasonic Lumix MFT camera)

S-Pen: Ever since the beginning of evaluating Samsung Note devices, I had always been sold on the S-Pen features and functions. This is the other reason why I had chosen to stick with a Galaxy Note device after reviewing on so much good stuff about the Xperia Z3. With Note4, the pen sensitivity had increased and the S-Note application had been enhanced with camera capturing feature. Basically it means you can capture all the drawings in a whiteboard into S-Note and then convert it into editable forms where you can erase or continue to annotate on the contents. I see that it would be very useful for folks like me who is faced with a whiteboard every now and then - to share and convey information between myself and customers and/or peers...

This is a photo...

Using S-Note, you can capture the contents of a photo and make it editable

And voila ! I got a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 (Really huh ?)

Multitasking: The multitasking now can easily be setup without having to go through the stupid multi-window bar at the corner. Basically you need to bring up the recent apps list and click on the button on the top right side of the app which you want to put in as multitask. Moreover, the multitasking goes by Windowed mode instead of Tiled mode earlier. This gives you more room to play with multiple apps within the screen itself. One point to highlight is that NOT ALL APPS support this kind of windowed mode. It's more of a hit and miss for most applications 

Task manager is enhanced for you to pick which app you wish to use as multitasking

Multitasking at work. This looks like Windows 3.11 ? Now where's the WINDOWS->TILE VERTICAL ?

I'll stop for now... over the next few days I am going to go through various different tests like SmartWatch and BT Headset connectivity, Chromecast compatibility, Health Features, Fingerprint scanner, Gaming and such. Check back a few days later for more updates ! :)

Choosing a new device: Different Stroke For Different Blokes

So my faithful Samsung Galaxy Note 2 had come to 2 years of age. I had since did many things with the device which is obscene if I have to list it all here. My overall experience on it; very good, durable and robust. If only the device can upgrade itself to be faster, with better camera and features, I would had kept it - but lo and behold, as chinese sayings goes..

"The old one never goes, the new one will never come"

So choosing a new device may seems to be trivial for many folks out there. See which one you like, check price, check if anyone using it (it wont be wrong) and just pay for it. But chances is that we are all currently using a generation of smartphone - which one way or another buying a new device is an upgrade. So would the usual way of choosing a device of choice is applicable ?

First and foremost, let's not talk about what the manufacturers are producing but instead, we look into what we want as priorities... (Overall, we aren't going to just limit ourselves by some products of a fruit company right ?)

Some basic layman questions:-

1. What device size are you looking at ? Are your vision limited by the size of the screen ?
2. Would the camera be your higher priority ?
1. At least how many megapixels ?
2. Would you take a lot of selfies ?
3. Can it perform well in low lighting conditions ?
4. Do you need a great photography flash light ?
3. Do you want water proofing or water resistence features ? Would you consider your device to go to places where electronic devices aren't recommended ? (like Sea, Swimming Pool and such)
4. Do you want fast charging feature, a high capacity battery or super power saving mode in the device as to address the power consumption / management issues ?
5. Do you want a device which is nice to look at (curvy wavey) or don't bothered because you're gonna get a case anyway ?
6. Would you have a preference of brand of device ? (i.e. My TV at home is Sony and my gaming console is also Sony PS4, so getting a Sony device wont go wrong)
7. Are you an advanced user who would customize the device to your heart's intend or just buy and use whatever that comes out of the box ?
8. Would your secondary priorities on the device to be gaming, productivity use (like office) or health tracking ?
9. Would you foresee that you'll keep the device for 2 years until the battery juice is all gone and of which you wont change the whole device just because of a dead battery ?
10. Would you be storing movies, music and other large files in your device ?
11. Would you be running multiple applications at a single go and wont care if you close the previous one or not ?
12. Would additional features like a stylus, finger print scanner, heart rate monitor makes sense to you in your everyday life ?
13. Would update of new feature in Android excites you a lot ?
14. Would you be bragging about processor speed or screen pixel density of your device to your other friends ?

These are just some basic questions but remember; there are continuation from here as we are not buying the first smartphone. The usual question is "Is it BETTER than whatever I have today ?" or "Does it STILL HAVE whatever I have today ?". At the end, it all adds and minus from your base experience and thoughts of what you have today. While folks like me can tell you what is great for myself because of some super duper hyper feature of the device which we like but ultimately you need to make the decision if it makes sense to you. In a nutshell...

"Different Strokes for Different Blokes"