[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note 4] BarryH_GEG:
I just spent eight hours setting up my Note 4 the way my Note 3 was set up. I have 150 apps so it's a pain in the ass including signing in to them all and initializing them. Add to that every time you connect a Gear to a new device it blows away its configuration so it needs to be completely rebuilt too.

Some observations:

So the former menu button was supposed to be Android blasphemy. So now instead of having one hard key to universally access menus across the device you get to play "find the settings" across apps and the UI. After just going through setting up 100+ apps it's amazing how many different places menus can be placed, how many different settings indicator icons devs can unleash, how different the contents are, and how little app developers really care about UX. Google's UI flexibility sucks if what I described can exist and making it all "flatter" in 5.0 ain't going to help. Samsung had it right in the first place.

This is a nifty new tool that offers a soft key replacement for the old hard key menu button. Now that phablets are gaining in popularity you'd think app devs would realize it's a 6" stretch to reach the upper left of the display. It's impossible one handed. Samsung's still got some cleverness left in them.

There's a huge performance difference between the 3<>4. Everything's more fluid, installing apps is about three times as fast, scrolling is lag free, apps open faster, and in-app performance is faster (EG: all aspects of stock browser performance). And whether it's s/w optimization or brute force power via S-805 it's all very noticeable.

The Note 4 is fantastic battery wise. It charges unbelievably fast; even using a standard charger. It's blazingly fast with the high output charger. It also sips battery compared to the N3. As an example I was configuring my Note 4 using SideSync via my N10.1-14. The Note 4 actually went from 65% to 100% while on my battery booster while it was active for three hours. You could watch the Note 3's battery drop under the same circumstances. I have a ton of apps and syncs running in the background so I'm an extreme use case. I'd guess for my usage the Note 4's at least 25% better on battery use than my Note 3 configured exactly the same way.

I abhor change for change sake. That's what Samsung did with a lot of their stock apps and UI elements. All the photo-related apps for example. They do exactly the same things their predecessors did but everything's been rearranged for no particular reason. Stuffs been stripped out too. Driving mode which read messages aloud when the phone was in the car is gone. So is cloud and FTP integration in My Files. There's a lot of head scratching feature changes (adds and deletes) along with some questionable usability choices.

For those with a Gear all the wonkiness with Gear Manager is finally gone. The Note 4 and Gear play very well together. But the Note 4's device ID is screwed up in the Gear App Store so some app that I had no longer show available. That can be fixed. The wretched way the Gear and Note 3 worked together was beyond repair.

Wireless performance is exceptional and noticeably faster than the Note 3 both on Wi-Fi and LTE. I have a high-end AC router and downloads are jaw dropping fast. My Note 3 had no GPS issues and I know some folks did. In my case, GPS is about a tie or maybe even a bit better on the Note 3. The Note 4's fine but it takes it a while to lock and if it's moved to the background and back it gets lost until it locks again. It's not bad, it's just not as good as Wi-Fi and LTE.

Design, materials, and build quality. I feel sorry for Samsung. Everyone *****es them out about their "plasticky" phones, they do something about it, and it's not enough. The Note 4 is exceptionally well built to some of the most exacting tolerances I've seen on a mobile device. Look at how the plastic bezel insert flawlessly abuts the aluminium trim it's part of. Look how tight the back cover snaps on to be completely flush with the metal. There's even little body-colored inserts in the rocker switches that look perfectly aligned. So folks may not like Samsung's choices but the phone's solid, feels good in the hand, and has a "special" feel to it. Its biggest problem is that from six feet away it's hard to tell apart from the Note 3. But I was OK with Note 3's design any way and my phone's a tool not jewelry. As for the "gap." I'm not sure whether mine has one or not. There's three things happening at once on the edges of the phone - the 2D lip creates a reflection, the metal band creates a reflection, and at least on the white version I can't tell if there's a gap or not. There's so much going on visually at the edges of the display even if there was a gap no one but the anal retentive could possibly find it. Again, poor Samsung.

I found some cool new features, tips, and short cuts I'll share later. I'm all mobile device'd out right now. ;)