Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 and the S View Note case

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 inside the Samsung S View Note Case

I fought the growth of cell phone dimensions for a long time. I really appreciate a small ergonomically minded phone. The Moto X is practically, in my opinion, perfection in motion. I will always appreciate phones that attempt and actually are fully usable in one hand. However, my needs and wants have changed as the platforms as a whole have developed and matured. Before it made sense to have a small smartphone. A smartphone that could do everything I needed in a pinch, but would not really be that practical in the true sense of productivity for most complex things. It also made sense to have a tablet. This tablet could have been the surface pro or even a Nexus 7 device. It was really just a larger computing platform. The advantages of the surface pro are obvious. A real computer. You didn't need an internet connection to be productive (my use case) as the virtual machines could be run native-ly on the device. The downsides were battery life, size, and number of items that you had to lug around.

S View Note case closed. This demonstrates the view screen functionality this case permits. Here you are able to take a picture, check your heart rate, see how many steps you've taken (Pedometer), check the weather, and so on.

Mobile platforms are traditionally terrible at multitasking, especially if you want to do two things side by side. The Note line from Samsung started improving on this very thing when it initially came out, but it was really clunky and didn't support a whole lot of apps. While it is still clunky it works with almost all of the stock apps and makes doing some multitasking on the fly possible and very useful.

So at the expense of having a larger phone I'm able to integrate my two pieces of hardware into one. The larger screen makes working in the virtual machine much more manageable and makes it possible to leave my laptop at home if carrying it around is not that feasible. The phone's internals allow everything being done it to be responsive and useful. There isn't any app crashing here due to the extensive amount of RAM available to Android. The Note 4 is able to run Diablo 2 using DosBox Turbo emulating Windows 98. This is just an example of the power the phone possess.

Its larger size permits a larger battery and means run times are usually within the 2 day range under moderate usage.

Samsung is known for putting a lot of bloatware software/functionality on their devices. This iteration of the Note seems to have finally made the software added genuinely useful instead of annoying and clunky. (of course this usefulness could have been made manifest on earlier iterations of Samsung's flagships. The last Samsung phone I had was a Galaxy SII which I despised.)You can customize every aspect of the interface (this is the result of Android and not Samsung's efforts) which is something no other mobile OS permits. For a device intended to be used for productivity this is a boon that most users will take full advantage of.

To better illustrate this point I'll explain some of the ways I've customized mine. For starters I've never been a big fan of TouchWiz. TouchWiz is Samsung's skin of Android. While not all aspects of TouchWiz can be done away with easily (removing it completely would require rooting, unlocking, and flashing a custom rom on it this however would remove the useful features baked in the skin.) it's a simple matter to install another launcher from the Google Play store. My preferred launcher is the Nova Launcher. I disable the backlight on the hardware back and multi-tasking button. I add power toggles as well to be able to turn the screen off without using a hardware button or waiting for a time out. I also have the phone set to only be unlocked by a finger print. My desktop uses only 3 screens. I have google keep and a calendar on the one screen. On the next I have arcus weather and a maildroid widget. The remaining is a plume widget and the media player widget. These are just a few of the things you can do.

To speak about the S View Note Case from Samsung, I'll be brief. It fits perfectly, and adds useful functionality in that of the 's view' you see when the case is closed while the screen is on, or if the power button is pushed while the case is closed. From this screen you can check the time and weather, see any pending notifications, turn on the flashlight, activate the camera, check your pulse, and a few other things. It allows you to use a different wallpaper than your standard desktop as well.

The case attaches to the phone is a unique way which helps to cut down on the volume it adds. Becuase the case has a chip that communicates with the phone, you actually attach it by removing the plastic cover, and attaching the case in place of it. Brilliant placement, and it fits the Note 4 so well it just feels like there really is no other way to use a case with the Note 4.

I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a case for the Note 4.

All in all I'm very pleased with the phone and case. I feel that Android has really matured as an eco-system and as an operating system. As a mobile desktop the Note 4 really can't be beat.

-Matt-Fu