债券是个什么玩意儿？一家住武汉的王大妈，是一个保守的投资者。在她的投资字典里，除了银行存款，就是国债。王大妈有个儿子叫王小明，在当地一家知名上市地产公司“名流置业集团股份有限公司”财务部门工作。2009年10月下旬的一天，小明告诉王大妈：“我们公司要发行一个债券，年收益率7.05%。你那10万就不要买3年期3.73%的国债了，我们公司发的债券收益率高多了。”王大妈：“债券是什么？靠谱吗？”王小明：“其实就是我们公司要借钱用于以满足公司项目开发和业务拓展的需要，发一个类似欠条的东西。国家问老百姓借钱写的欠条叫国债，公司向老百姓借钱写的欠条叫公司债。其实本质都是一样的，就是借钱。”王大妈：“借钱？你们公司缺钱缺到问员工家属借了啊？这是不是集资啊？”王小明：“妈你想多了。公司不借钱按照目前的节奏继续发展业务也没问题。但是现在国家出台4万亿的刺激政策，我们董事长觉得房地产市场未来几年大有机会，所以就想发行债券募集18个亿用于建设好新的地产项目，抓住这轮发展机遇。发行债券是要经过政府审批的，条件很苛刻，流程也复杂，整个过程公开透明，和非法集资完全两回事。”王大妈：“哦。那你们公司到哪找这么多人借到18个亿？”王小明：“这个好办。发行债券会由专业的证券公司专门来负责。这次计划向证券、保险和基金公司等机构投资者募集17个亿，向个人投资者募集1个亿。其实机构投资者完全能消化所有额度，这1个亿拿出来向个人发行是为了多点广告效应而已。”王大妈：“照你这么说债券还是稀缺资源咯？如果有许多人去买，还会出现买不到的情况？”王小明：“有可能。我们公司就有许多同事要买。证券公司的小刘告诉我，一般情况下想买新发的债券金额都会远高于发行金额，发行结束后上市时的价格往往能涨2%甚至更多。”王大妈：“你说的我都心动了。以前都是和那些老头老太去银行排队买4%不到的国债，现在看来买公司债更值得我全情投入。那你们这个债券期限多长呢？ 中间我们要是用钱，可以提前拿回来吗？”王小明：“期限是“3+2”年共5年。第3年末提供一次赎回机会，其他时间都不能赎回，但是你可以卖给别人。”王大妈：“卖给别人？我怎么卖？谁买？”王小明：“这个债券募集结束后可以在交易所买卖。菜市场你肯定很熟悉了，想卖菜、想买菜的人都到菜市场去，双方通过菜市场就轻松找到对方。而想买卖债券的人，都到债券市场去寻找交易方。到时我们想用钱了，就可以在债券市场上将债券卖给别人。”王大妈：“照你这么说，这个公司债太好了：收益率高，安全性好，灵活性也不错！那我砸10万大洋进去！什么时候可以买呢？”王小明：“11月3号发行，具体操作你去问证券公司的小刘好了。”王大妈：“好的！”二王大妈：“小刘你好，过几天我儿子公司的债券就要发行了。我想买，但是听说很抢手，该怎么准备才能更容易抢到呢？”小刘：“大妈，我跟你说几个要点。第一，你需要带身份证来我们公司开立沪深交易所的证券账户，也就是我们平时说的股票账户。第二，要尽快下单。根据深交所的规定：深交所交易系统从上午9：15开始接受申购委托，按报盘申购“时间优先”的原则确认成交。但深交所的债券实际上9：00以前就可以委托，甚至在前一天晚上交易系统清算后就可以委托买入，当然具体与各个券商的设置有关。我们公司的你在晚上10点以后就可以提交申购了。第三，新发债券价格都是100元，最低认购数量10张（1000元），超过10张的必须是10张的整数倍。这次你儿子公司发行的债券简称“09名流债”，你最好在申购前提前一天将资金从银行转入证券公司账户。第四，债券交易有一定的费用，买卖分别收万分之二。第五，债券是T+0交易，也就是买了下一秒就可以卖，当然卖了下一秒也可以再买回来。”王大妈：“哦。我还听说国内有两个交易所，一个是上海证券交易所，一个深圳证券交易所。你刚才说了深交所的债券如何买，买上交所的也一样吗？”小刘：“不一样的。根据上交所的有关规定：网上发行期间，上交所竞价交易系统于交易日的9：30-11:30，13：00-15：00接受投资者认购申报，以1,000元面值为一个认购单位。上交所按”时间优先”的原则确认成交。由于9：25-9：30之间没有证券交易，所以交易所接受委托的最早时间是9：25：00。”三2009年11月2日晚上10点，心潮澎湃的王大妈按照小刘交的方法，尝试申购名流置业集团发行的“09名流债”。2009年11月6日，王大妈一查账户，自己申购成功了！2009年11月20日，“09名流债”上市交易了。王大妈下班后的第一件事，就是查看她买的债券的上市第一天的交易情况：开盘价103.49元，最低价102.8元，收盘价格103.08元。这可乐坏了王大妈：即使今天以102.8的最低价格卖出，从11月3日买了到现在20天不到就赚了2.8%，这收益也太高了！那如果以后每个月做一把，岂不是收益率最少也有30%？第二天，王大妈就打电话询问小刘自己的天才构想是不是可行。小刘笑了笑：“王大妈，这个不一定能实现。因为你这次是运气好买上了，实际上你可能下次就扑个空啊。热门新债往往难抢，像今年3月份抢中09怀化债月收益约10%，但是抢上的人也不多啊。而且，新债也不是完全无风险，偶尔也有破发的，虽然不可否认买新债总体风险很低。”王大妈：“我按照现在的价格卖马上就可以赚3%，你说我今天是卖好还是不卖好？”小刘：“各有利弊。卖的话，可以锁定3%的收益，而且拿到资金后你可以去买新发的债券，有可能再打中一个好的债券。但也可能是另一种情形：你新债没打中，而被你卖掉的这个债券第二天还涨了1%。我算了一下，按照目前104的价格买入这个名流债持有5年到期，期间平均年化收益率约为6.7%，这样高的收益率市场上目前还是比较少的，你卖了有可能再也不能以这个价格买回来了。所以，卖与不卖都有风险，关键看你是喜欢经常折腾、承担折腾的风险，还是喜欢以当初100元的发行价买入并持有到期每年获得7.05%的利息收入。”王大妈：“你这么说我更纠结了。搞不清怎么就维持现状，我还是继续拿着吧。”四转眼过了一年，时间到了2010年10月25日。王大妈收到了小刘打来的电话：“王大妈，提醒你一下哈，目前09名流债的价格是102.78元左右，很快公司就要支付利息了，你先卖了吧，然后等付完利息再买回来。”王大妈疯了：“什么？！都过了一年了，竟然比上市第一天最低价格102.8元还低？！而且马上要付利息了，我现在卖不是连每份7.05元的利息也错失了吗？都怪你！当初没让我卖！”小刘：“王大妈，我给你解释一下。是这样的，你本金部分和去年11月20日最低价102.8相比，确实是损失了一点点，但是和你11月3日初始买入价格100元相比也是赚的。其次，你现在卖了，债券的利息是照样要付给你的。从2009年11月3日到今天10月25日，总共357天，所以你每份债券可以拿到手的利息=100*7.05%*357/365=6.8955元。所以，从你11月3日买了到现在你每份债券可以获得的收益包括：本金部分2.78元和利息部分6.8955元，合计为9.6755元。相应的，这一年时间你的总收益率为9.6755%，你10万本金的总收益金额为9675.5元。这个收益再扣除约40来块钱的买卖手续费，就是你拿到手的收益了。但是，假如你现在不卖，而是持有到11月2日债券付息登记日，好处是可以拿到每份7.05元的利息，但是同时得交20%的利息税，也就是实际拿到手的利息=100*7.05%*（1-20%）=5.64元，远不如现在6.89的利息收入合适啊。”王大妈：“哦，原来是这样啊，太感谢你了小刘！不过我这里还有个疑惑：假如我在2010年5月3日有一笔钱想买09名流债，当时市场价格是105元，那我是不是除了要掏105元，还要掏出从去年11月3日债券起息日开始的这6个月3.5元钱的利息呢？”小刘：“大妈你真聪明，确实是这样的！你买债券需要支付的价格是市场报价加上应计利息，所以应该是108.5元。 其实你这里说到了债券交易的一个非常有特点的规则：净价交易，全价结算。也就是说我们买卖债券报价的时候，都是只考虑你的本金卖多少钱，不考虑利息。但是结算过户的时候，是要加上应计利息的。应计利息等于最近一次利息支付日到买卖结算日期间产生的利息收入。”王大妈：“彻底明白了。那我就今天先卖了，等过了11月2日付息后，也就是11月3日开始我再买回来了。”小刘：“好的。当然这种避税操作也是有不确定性。比如有可能你11月3日再去买回来的时候，本金部分价格比现在要高些了，本金部分价格波动我们无法掌控。避税的操作不是十全十美，但是大概率上操作比不操作还是要好很多。反正，我只是和你说一些常见的知识和方法，也提供每个投资决策的利弊分析作为参考。但是具体怎么选，以及选择结果如何，都需要你自己选择和承担。”王大妈连连点头，脸唰的红了。五2011年8月9日，王大妈接到小刘电话：“王大妈你好，最近09名流债已经跌到97.8元了。按当时的发行条款规定，2012年11月3日债券发行满3年的时候，你可以按照100元面值卖还给公司。如果以现在价格买入持有449天，可以获得本金部分2.2元的升值，利息部分约8.6725元，每份共收益10.8725元。由于你买入价格=97.8+100*7.05%*276/365=103.131元，所以收益率=10.=10.54%。这个收益率是15个月的总收益，再年化一下为8.57%。当然这个算法中，我是假设了中间的付息操作前后价格没有上涨的。这或许是个投资机会，你最近可以关注一下。”王大妈：“啊，怎么跌了呢？也就是我本金部分亏了呗。当时涨到103没卖可惜了！”小刘：“买或不卖，短期都是有风险的，因为债券价格总是在波动中。但是只要公司不破产，而你又是准备持有债券到期的话，中间任何的价格涨跌，最终都会在到期那一刻回归到面值100元。也就是说，对于坚定持有到期的人，其实中间的涨了还是跌了，都是浮云，你只能获得利息收入，并且最终拿回100元的本金。”王大妈：“那倒也是。8.5%的收益真不错，我再买点，明天刚好有笔国债到期。”小刘：“这里我还是要提醒一下两个风险：首先是债券投资的违约风险，也是债券投资的最大风险。虽然我个人认为名流置业违约的可能性不大，但毕竟存在这个可能。至于概率多大，每个人有不同看法，你儿子就在这个公司，可能比我更了解。其次，是价格波动风险。今天是97.8元，过一个星期也可能跌到90元。价格波动取决市场供给，取决于市场基本面的变化。最近债券市场有很多利空的消息，尤其是现在媒体都在报道地方债务风险，担心地方发行的债券会违约。这种悲观的市场情绪已经导致有些债券价格跌到93元以下了，09名流债也不排除这种情况。即使像广州富力地产这样的大公司发行的债券，最近也跌了很多，因为任何债券价格短期内都会受到市场系统性风险的影响。所以，买之前你要想好，是否自己愿意承担这两种风险。当然如果不买，是否会愿意承担后来因价格反弹错过年化8.5%机会的风险。总之，买与不买，还是取决于你自己的判断和风险选择。市场永远没有十全十美的方案。”小刘的话说到了王大妈的心里：买吧，怕继续下跌，而且怕公司破产；不买吧，怕错过8.5%这样难得的高收益机会。于是王大妈决定和儿子商量一下：“你们公司有破产风险吗？你说这个8.5%的机会是要还是不要啊？”王小明叹了一口气：“没有知识真可怕。我跟你说，我们公司现在账户上就有19亿的现金和银行存款，比我们发行的债券规模18亿还大。另外，这个债券是有土地抵押的，土地评估价值35亿。这么安全还有8.5%很不错了，当初4%不到的国债你不是都愿意排队吗？”王大妈一听心里有底了，于是第二天就以97元买入了5万元的09名流债，同时还热情洋溢的推荐他的几个同事买入：“持有15个月年化8.5%，绝对安全！”六然而，一个多月后的9月29日，王大妈闲来无事打开账户一看，差点吓尿了：账户上亏了5.5%了，当初97元买入的债券现在一个月多点时间已经跌到92元！正在她惊魂未定不知所措之时，一个同事电话打了过来：“王姐，你这推荐的都是什么啊？！亏了快6%了，才一个月！”王大妈瞬间感觉世界观崩塌了：难道我儿子也忽悠我？我儿子公司快要破产他不敢告诉我？我问问小刘去！小刘见到气势冲冲的王大妈：“王大妈，是不是后来你买了那个债券现在亏了？”王大妈：“是啊！我快疯了，我的同事和我一起买的，现在都恨不得吃了我，都觉得我是骗子。这怎么跌了这么多啊，不是都是债券很安全吗？不是都说债券低风险吗？我该怎么办！”小刘：“呵呵，这个属于债券价格的波动，就是我上回和你说的价格波动风险啊。其实别说跌到92，就是跌到82也没什么好奇怪的。但是，对于你这样的可以持有到明年11月卖还给公司的人，这几个月的波动其实也不会让你掉快肉啊。反过来，涨了要是你不卖的话，也不算你的啊。最关键的还是我和说的债券投资的最大风险你怎么看——你是否认为这个公司明年11月有能力还钱？”王大妈：“我当时买的时候也觉得我儿子公司有这个实力，但是我现在看到价格跌了这么多，心理就害怕。我儿子当时告诉我他们公司现金就有20来个亿，还有价值35亿的土地提供抵押担保。当时听起来很安全，但价格是硬道理，看到价格跌了这么多，是不是现在他们公司发生了什么重大变化？我儿子骗我了？”小刘：“这个债券我研究过，我自己今天还买入了，上次和你说的时候也买了。你儿子说的都是实际情况，我也觉得挺安全的。而且，我还可以再提供一些分析角度。首先，在上市的房地产公司中，名流置业的资产负债率只有48%，其他像万科地产78%、招商地产65%都远远高于名流置业。名流置业从1996年上市到现在，财务风格总体是比较稳健的，资产负债率一直比较稳定，账户上的货币类资金一般有20亿左右。其次，对于许多上市公司来说，他们的融资渠道是有很多选择的，比如向银行借款，通过信托公司融资，还可以发行债券融资。在所有这些融资方式中，公开发行的债券是最被重视的，肯定会优先偿还。因为其他债务都属于非公开方式，都可以和债券谈，但是公开发的债券是必须要如期兑付的，否则社会影响面很坏。迄今为止，国内债券市场还没有违约事件发生。我不知道名流置业公司3年后5年后会怎么样，但以目前掌握的情况来看起码未来的15个月内不至于倒掉。但是，这些都只是我的分析罢了，可能和客观情况有很大出入。最终，你还是得自己拿主意，自己承担选择的风险。”王大妈听了觉得挺有道理，心想那就先放着吧，反正现在也不能卖，看看持有到期会怎么样吧。在送王大妈出营业部的时候，小刘说道：“王大妈，还是再啰嗦几句。债券投资不像国债，国债因为不在市场上交易，因此你看到账面上每天都是平静如水。而你在交易所买债券，每天价格都会波动。当然，许多的债券有时候可能一天都不交易，流动性很差，价格也很少波动，但是毕竟存在各种波动的可能性。其实，投资是需要信念的，基于理性和客观的分析基础上的信念。比如我买这个债券，我是坚信他不会违约的，所以在上回97买了被套了后，我今天又加仓了。对我来说，如果这个债券真的违约了，那我也不后悔，因为这属于极小概率事件发生了，我会坦然接受。这就好比过马路会有被车撞的风险，但是我还是愿意承担这种被车撞的风险。不过幸运的是，过马路我们不能分解我们的身体来分散风险，但是投资却可以分散。我投资这个债券占我资金比重不到10%，即使这部分亏完了，也不至于伤筋动骨。所以，对我来说，债券投资的价格波动不会影响我的生活。但是，我说的是我自己，不代表别人。说实话，从目前情况来看，你可能不太适合做债券投资。因为你总是因为债券价格的波动心态随之发生波动。债券投资的价格波动，一定程度对你是一种煎熬，或者说你不具备承受债券投资风险的承受能力。我建议你这一回如果能够顺利的坚持到明年完成投资的话，以后就不要再做这种波动资产的投资了，还是买国债合适些。”王大妈听了甚是心理不是滋味儿，不知道是出于惭愧，还是其他。七此后的每一天，王大妈一有时间，就会端坐在电脑面前，口中念念有词：不以涨喜，不以跌悲。尾声2012年10月30日，王大妈在小刘的提示下，以101元的价格卖出了手中所有“09名流债”，实现了债券投资的大丰收：2009年买的10万元，实现了平均每年7.05%的利息收益，同时本金部分实现了1%的升值，共盈利金额约22000元；2011年8月份买的5万元，本金部分每张涨了4元，利息方面享受了近15个月年化7.05%的收益，实现总收益约6200元，年化收益率达10%以上。实践出真知，光说不练是耍流氓，我们希望可以和大家一起实践。当然，投资有风险，但是我们认为值得博弈眼前这五年难得一遇的债市投资机会。目前市场上两个低风险的债券投资机会：一个是期限不到1年、预期年化8%的债券，另一个是1年略长预期年化收益率达到10%以上的债券。这两个债券具体是哪两个<sp　
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Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Review: Phablet Refocused
Samsung can’t afford to stumble with theGalaxy Note 4. The fourth-gen phablet arrives as Samsung wakes up to a new, and not especially rewarding, phase in its mobile life: the discovery that throwing a hundred designs at the market and hoping at least some of them stick no longer has the same sales success as it once did. At a time so fiercely competitive,Samsungcan’t count on simply having originally created the Note 4’s segment to commend this latest model. It needs to deliver as much in the hand as its specifications promise to on the page.
Samsung’s affinity for plastic has prompted more than a few arguments over the years, generally centered on the perceived quality of the material when it comes to phones with flagship aspirations. Plastic in and of itself is not a bad thing - it has some obvious advantages, in fact, like being more accommodating to bending and twisting than metal might, not to mention its lighter weight - but Samsung’s preference for glossy finishes had begun to look cheap next to its matte or metal competition.
Happily, the Galaxy Note 4 addresses things, though in a very Samsung way. The new phablet combines metal and plastic in a similar way to theGalaxy Alpha, with a sleek metal frame containing slices of inset matte plastic and then a leather-textured plastic back cover.
There’s method to it, too. At 153.5 x 78.6 x 8.5 mm the Note 4 is not a small device, but at 176g it’s only 4g heavier than an iPhone 6 Plus, despite having a larger screen and a pull-out stylus. Samsung has focused on its touch-points in a far more compelling way than on previous devices, too: the edges are pleasingly chamfered and the buttons crisp.
It’s not a ruggedized phone, or even a water-resistant one - Samsung tells me that would’ve required adding more bulk than the company felt users would accept - but it has been designed with the odd drop or bump in mind. The corners are reinforced, while there’s Gorilla Glass 3 on the front, for instance.
Meanwhile, the removable rear panel has a springiness to your fingertips that’s similar to leather (happily Samsung has ditched the faux-stitching around the edge, which made the Note 3 look and feel a little twee), and should hold up to the occasional jab with a set of keys in the same pocket. You’ll probably end up scratching the polished metal detailing in the process, though.
In all, while full metal might be the go-to request for many Samsung critics, I think the company made the right decisions for the Note 4. The important thing is that it no longer feels cheap in your hand: side by side with a Note 3, and the step up in perceived quality is instantly noticeable.
The Note series has always been a powerhouse when it comes to specifications and performance, and the Note 4 doesn’t depart from that. Most obvious is the display: at 5.7-inches it’s the same size as the panel on the previous Note, but the Super AMOLED now runs at Quad HD 2560 x 1440 resolution, rather than just Full HD.
It’s a stunning screen. At 515 ppi it’s increasingly pixel-dense, meaning smooth on-screen text and graphics, while the colors pop and the contrast ratio is huge. Viewing angles are so broad you could effectively watch a video from near side-on without any color inversion - not that, admittedly, you’d probably want to do that - and there’s the choice of Adaptive Display to automatically adjust color, contrast, and other settings according to what’s on-screen at the time, or a more neutral profile if AMOLED’s richness is too much for you.
The Note 4 may not be the first phone to offer Quad HD, but it could be the first to take real advantage of it: one of the software features allows you to pin handwritten Post-It style notes to the homescreen, and even though they’re roughly the size of a chunky icon, because of the resolution you can still read your own writing.
Inside, meanwhile, there’s either a 2.7GHZ quad core processor - Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 805 - or a 1.9GHz octa core processor - Samsung’s own Exynos, pairing a 1.9GHz quad core with a 1.3GHz quad core and switching between them based on load - depending on where you buy your Note 4. Either way, you get 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, plus a microSD slot content with up to 128GB cards.
Connectivity includes HSPA+ and either 4G Cat.4 (150/50 Mbps) or Cat.6 (300/50 Mbps); obviously those maximum speed figures are in theory, and your actual experience on compatible networks will be less. WiFi a/b/g/n/ac (2X2 MIMO), Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, ANT+, and USB with MHL 3.0 HDMI support are also included, and there’s an IR blaster built into the top edge.
Interestingly, Samsung has opted to backtrack on USB 3.0 - which was present on the Note 3 - and outfit the Note 4 with a regular microUSB 2.0 port. It’s no great loss, frankly (Samsung says consumer feedback suggested they didn’t require it and might, in fact, have just been confused by it on the old phone), and more useful is the Download Booster system which allows a WiFi connection and an LTE connection to be coupled for speedier downloads. Just beware of the potential hit on your 4G data package if you make frequent use of it.
The usual accelerometer, digital compass, gyroscope, ambient light, proximity, and barometer sensors are onboard, though they’re joined with some less-common options. The “hall sensor” works with smart covers to automatically turn the Note 4 on and off when you open and close them, while a pulse scanner integrated under the rear camera can now read not only heart rate but blood oxygen levels.
An ultraviolet sensor tracks UV levels in sunlight, and can help Samsung’s S Health app to make sunblock recommendations. Finally, there’s an improved fingerprint scanner built into the physical home button: it seems more consistent than that of theGalaxy S5, as well as more resilient to swipes made at a slight angle, though it’s still not quite as flexible as Touch ID on the iPhone which allows you to come at the home button from any direction.
Samsung deserves no small proportion of the credit for resurrecting the stylus, and the S Pen continues to improve with each Note iteration. The square-barreled pen slots neatly into its silo on the bottom edge of the phone, as before, but now supports double the pressure sensitivity - 2,048 levels, versus 1,024 - of its predecessor, while the nib can be detected hovering from as much as 15mm away from the screen.
What, exactly, you can do with the S Pen has been improved and refined over each generation of Note, too. Yank out the stylus and, as before, the’s a pop-up radial menu for Air Command, Smart Select, Image Clip, and Screen Write (you can get the same menu by tapping the barrel button with the S Pen hovering over the display) but some of the ways the S Pen interacts with text and images have been tweaked for the Note 4.
Text selection, for instance, has been made more like a mouse would operate: Samsung calls it Smart Select, and it means you can hold down the barrel button and swipe the S Pen across text and content to highlight it. Usefully, you can select multiple, non-contiguous sections of the page - by swiping across different parts - and then copy them in one swoop.
It’s a small change, but it certainly cuts down on jumping between apps or paring back a fully copied page. The same multiple-select feature applies to picking out photos in the gallery, too.
Photo Note, meanwhile, turns the Note 4’s camera into a scanner of sorts. Snap a photo - say, of a whiteboard full of plans, or a recipe in a magazine - and Photo Note will attempt to convert that content into a digital version you can manipulate in the S Note app.
How successful it is depends on the original content, and what your overall ambitions are. In Auto capture mode, the phone tries to spot what content you might be interested in snapping itself, though I found it preferred imag to accurately select the latter, I got more consistent results tapping into Manual mode and then adjusting the capture frame myself. Alternatively, you can import a photo already taken from the gallery.
Dragging the edges of the selection box around means you can take into account capture skew - useful if you’re not dead-center to the whiteboard - and then Photo Note processes it accordingly. If it’s text, you can have the app try to remove the background color: the Note 4 does a surprisingly good job of replacing paper hue with plain white, for instance.
What you don’t get is a fully editable block of text, however. There’s no OCR to recognize the actual words, only line-recognition that means you can delete words one letter at a time. The effect is similar with images, too: if you’ve snapped a shot of a flowchart, for instance, you could pick apart each line of it, but it’s luck of the draw whether more complex images will be editable in the way that you want them to be.
The feel of the S Pen on the screen is a different this time around, too. Samsung says its made the writing feel more akin to a traditional pen on paper, using a different nib treatment, and there’s certainly more friction there.
It’s a little like dragging the stylus across a very firm rubberized surface, and it forces you to slow down slightly and be more precise with your strokes. I felt like that suited handwriting - there was less of the slick-screened sloppiness that can result when your cursive is less contained - but missed the old feel somewhat during regular navigation, when the extra drag became more noticeable.
Software and Performance
The Note 4 runs Android 4.4 KitKat, with the latest version of its own TouchWiz interface on top, and just as with the S Pen functionality there’s no shortage of modifications and improvements for this generation. As we praised on the Note 3, however, there’s a welcome sense of consideration for how phablet owners are actually using their devices, rather than a more scattershot explosion of features that might look good on paper but have little practical use in the real world.
Many of the changes are focused on making the most of the 2560 x 1440 display and how much information you could feasible show on it at any one time.
Multi Window, for instance, has streamlined how easy it is to switch an app from full-screen to windowed. It doesn’t work with every app, but you can see a list of those compatible by pressing and holding the back button, pulling in the launcher bar on the right. Swiping diagonally down from the top left corner shrinks an app int tapping the bubble at the top allows you to shrink it further, to a repositionable circle shortcut a little like Facebook’s Chatheads UI, or to maximize it again.
What’s notable about Multi Window is that each app continues to operate as normal, even if it’s windowed. The calculator buttons still respond to taps, the dialer can still be used to place calls, and you even get the full camera preview and can take a photo or shoot a video. Samsung suggests that could be handy if you’re on vacation and want to keep swift access to the camera while simultaneously browsing a map or webpage.
The split-screen Multi Window layout is still supported, putting one app atop the other and allowing you to resize how much space each gets.
However, there’s now the ability to let compatible apps open new windows in that layout: for instance, if turned on, that means clicking a web link in the Facebook app will open a second window for the browser and keep both on-screen, rather than leaving Facebook altogether.
Content viewed in these two windows can be dragged from one to the other.
Samsung has had tools to make one-handed use of its bigger phones more straightforward for some time now, but they get a refresh on the Note 4. Swiping your thumb from the side of the screen to the middle and back again shrinks down the display, aligning it to whichever side you swiped from. You can then resize the window further, or maximize it again.
The Reduce Screen Size feature also puts buttons for the app switcher, home, back, and volume up/down at the bottom of that pane, but there’s a separate Side Key Panel option which puts a pull-out shortcut menu for things like home, back, and the app menu on the left edge of the display. One-Handed Input, meanwhile, shrinks down input areas like the calculator, phone keypad, and on-screen keyboard, moving them to either the left or the right of the screen so that they’re more easily stabbed at with a thumb.
Actually accessing Samsung’s screen convenience features is a little less ergonomic than, say, the Reachability feature on theiPhone 6: sometimes, when trying to swipe in and out from the edge to shrink down an app on the Note 4, I just ended up pressing on-screen buttons instead. Once you’ve managed it, though, it’s more flexible than Apple’s approach of simply bringing the top half of the interface down to the bottom half of the display.
Samsung’s voice control system, S Voice, can now be set to constantly listen out for commands rather than require a long-press on the home button to trigger, though there’s unsurprisingly a hit in battery life if you turn it on. Like Motorola’s
, you can set a custom wake command to wake up S Voice, though there’s not the same seamless&Google Now integration, which is a pity.
S Health, Samsung’s fitness tracking app, has improved to take advantage of the new metrics the Note 4 is capable of collecting. If you’re an existing user, you can log in with your Samsung account and have all your historic performance
there’s support for fitness and food tracking.
It also logs heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and oxygen saturation (SpO2), in addition to figuring out stress levels and even measuring sun strength using the sensor integrated under the camera on the rear.
S Health is quick to point out when you first use it that these aren’t intended as medical-grade measurements, but I struggled at times to get any measurement at all.
The sensor is incredibly finicky about how you press your fingertip against it: half the time, I’d wait 30-40 seconds only to be told I’d not had my finger in quite the right spot, or that I must’ve moved during the reading.
In short, while it’s a clever idea on paper, in practice I found it to be of mixed usefulness when out in the real world, beyond the basics like pedometer.
Considering I had such a moderate success rate when I was doing nothing more energizing than simply sitting at my desk, the thought of taking a pause while out jogging, maybe, and then trying to stand still enough while jabbing my finger against the recalcitrant sensor to avoid the sad bloop-bloop of the failed-reading message is enough to dissuade me from using it regularly.
Both the main and front cameras on the Note 4 have had an overhaul, and they’re all the better for it. The main camera pairs a 16-megapixel sensor with an f/2.2 lens and optical image stabilization (OIS), while the front camera has a 3.7-megapixel sensor and an f/1.9 lens for improved low-light performance.
Samsung’s camera app itself has been updated, too, with a number of new features. For the front camera, there’s a new Wide Selfie mode which is effectively a vanity sweep-panorama: it automatically stitches together a 120-degree frame so that you can fit more people in at once. Selfies taken with the rear camera, meanwhile, allow you to first choose where you want your face to be positioned in the final frame - next to the Mona Lisa, for instance, rather than in front of her - and then uses audio tones to tell you when you’re lined-up properly.
If you’re less interested in taking photos of yourself and more in general photography, there are new modes there too. Live HDR (High Dynamic Range) not only delivers more balanced photos where usually areas of particular darkness or lightness might lead to murkiness or blow-outs, but gives a real-time preview of the end result while you’re framing.
A new Advanced Digital Zoom, meanwhile, tries to make up for the absence of a proper optical zoom: when you’re between 4x and 8x, it takes multiple images simultaneously and then interpolates their details, coming up with a more precise end result. In practice, it works surprisingly well on stable subjects, though I found a little blur could enter when trying to do the same for fast-moving subjects.
In general, though, the Note 4 produces some excellent stills. There’s plenty of detail and the contrast balance generally proved accurate when the phone was lef alternatively, it was easy to manually pick an exposure point. Colors proved a little more muted than on some other phone cameras, but not unpleasantly so, and indeed some I showed the images to preferred them to the overly-rich shots from rival devices.
Focus lock is particularly swift, only struggling to keep its position when dealing with close-up subjects. Nonetheless, macro shots came out well, and the OIS does a solid job of smoothing out hand-shake.
Unlike an iPhone 6 Plus, that optical image stabilization is also available during video recording. The Note 4 can shoot at 4K Ultra HD resolution to match its display, though in that case you get 30 in 1080p Full HD mode you can choose between 30fps and 60fps. There’s also support for 1/4x (120fps) and 1/8x (240fps) recording for slow-motion playback.
Galaxy Note 4 Ultra HD video sample:
The results are equally impressive as for stills. Colors are lifelike without being unduly punchy, and motion is smooth. The Note 4’s speedy focus lock is evident, too, and there’s little of the focus-hunting that other phones can suffer.
Galaxy Note 4 Full HD video sample:
Phone and Battery
The&irony I considered every time I held the Note 4 to the side of my head for a call is that the audience for the phablet probably uses their handset for voice more often than most other smartphone owners do. Scale aside, it's a great&option if you're a frequent caller. The earpiece is bright and clean, callers had no issues hearing me, and&even more impressive is the strength and clarity of the speakerphone. Samsung may not have found&space for stereo speakers, but the Note 4's single speaker on the back is loud and proud.
If there’s one thing power users would scream about, it’s if Samsung didn’t do its level best to fit a huge battery into the Note. Happily the Note 4 doesn’t stint there, with a 3,220 mAh pack that’s not only capacious but user-removable, too.
You may not need to switch it out with a second battery as much, however, since the Note 4 also supports fast charging. In fact, it supports two such standards: Samsung’s own Fast Charge, and Qualcomm’s Quick Charge. Either way, the promise is a 50-percent charge in around 30 minutes, something I found to be accurate.
It’s worth pointing out that you’ll need a special charger to actually support the rapid charging system, but Samsung does include it in the box.
If you can’t even spare thirty minutes, there’s also a range of power saving modes to choose between.
They can vary from a light touch - restricting background data, perhaps, or throttling back the processor - through to switching into greyscale mode, and finally Ultra Power Saving mode which curtails apps to calls, messages, calculator, clock, S Planner calendar, and browsing, locks the screen into low-brightness black & white, and could give anything up to three weeks of use from a full charge.
Of course, such use would be severely limited - in fact, you’d probably be better off with a feature phone, though even then you probably wouldn’t match the Note 4’s longevity - but even with less draconian measures the phablet has legs. I was able to get two days of use from a charge without nannying it.
Samsung created the phablet segment with the original Galaxy Note, and the Note 4 comfortably keeps the crown. Incredibly well specified, with a noticeable step up in build quality, a fantastic display, and a highly capable and flexible camera, the Note 4 makes no compromise on battery life either.
Just as important, though, the Note 4 hasn’t lost its focus on the power users that are most drawn to it. While I’ve criticized TouchWiz in the past for its cutesy graphics and somewhat disjointed feel, this latest iteration looks far more cohesive and actually offers features that improve everyday use.
There’s a premium to be paid for all that, with the Note 4 coming in $100 more than the typical $200 subsidized price for a new high-end handset in the US. It’s hard to begrudge that, though, given the combination of hardware and software. Whether you’re a digital notetaker or a mobile artist, the accurate S Pen, detail-friendly resolution, and clever multitasking add up to a phone that’s a step above most others for simply &getting things done.&
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