Samsung may have fired the first shot with the category-defining Galaxy Note, but Apple appears poised with a game of its own. Now big-screen fans will have an even tougher choice ahead of them. The Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus go on sale this week, though Samsung’s only opening up pre-orders at the moment. Is bigger better? Can Apple beat Samsung at its own game?
Let’s start with the most obvious comparison: size. Though it sports a larger 5.7-inch display, the Galaxy Note 4 is not proportionately bigger than the iPhone 6 Plus. The Note 4 is shorter at 5.95 inches to the iPhone’s 6.22 inches, which could factor into pocket friendliness. The iPhone 6 Plus is slightly narrower at 3.06 inches to the Note 4’s 3.09 inches, and generally speaking, the narrower the phone, the more comfortable it is in the hand, but this difference is pretty marginal.
Samsung steps up its build quality game with this generation, framing the Note 4 in a sturdy metal band that should help quiet the plastic haters out there. Still, Apple’s unibody design looks as impressive as ever and continues Apple’s dominance on this front. To Samsung’s credit, the Note 4 retains the removable battery and microSD card expansion that fans have come to expect from the Galaxy line.
Apple finally steps into the world of full-HD displays, though it still calls it Retina HD while Samsung appears one step ahead with its quad-HD panel. That makes for 401ppi for the iPhone 6 Plus and 515ppi for the Note 4. Will you actually notice a difference? Maybe if you have above-average vision, but even that’s a stretch in most situations. The big differentiator here is the screen tech—Samsung’s Super amolded panels have been drawing rave reviews since the Galaxy S5, and DisplayMate has already crowned the Note 4’s display as the best yet.
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