Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge vs Galaxy Note 4: Camera, Battery Life, Display & More

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 are two of the best offerings from Samsung so far. Both of these devices come with exceptionally good hardware as well as software. Today, we’re going to do a quick spec comparison between both of these beasts to see which one is the best for you.

Design & Display

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge features a more premium design than the Galaxy Note 4 as it comes with a metal and glass body, compared to the polycarbonate and metal build of the Galaxy Note 4. While the Galaxy Note 4 is definitely a step up over the Galaxy S5 in terms of both design and build quality, it still comes with a similar faux-leather polycarbonate back. The metal used on the Galaxy S6 Edge is better in quality too, being aircraft-grade, giving it greater durability than the Note 4. So while the Galaxy Note 4 may be one of the better looking Galaxy flagships, it definitely doesn’t beat the Galaxy S6 Edge in the looks department. The dual-curved edge display gives the new flagship a unique appearance, making it look quite unlike any other Galaxy that has come before it.

Coming to the displays, the Galaxy S6 Edge will definitely catch your attention with its dual-curved edge display. The display isn’t just for show though, it is pretty functional too. You can customize it to glow in a color of your choice for up to five contacts whenever you receive a call, text message, or any other notification from them. The ‘Info Stream’ feature lets you access various bits of information such as the time, weather, and notifications on the curved edges. A ‘Night Clock’ function is present too.

As far as the size goes, the Galaxy Note 4 display comes in at 5.7-inches, while the Galaxy S6 Edge features a 5.1-inch display. Both feature Quad HD Super AMOLED panels with comparable quality, as shown by the recent DisplayMate analysis of the Galaxy S6/S6 Edge displays. However, the Note 4 display features stylus support, allowing you to use the Samsung S-Pen on the screen.

Hardware

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, being the newer device, comes with more powerful internals than the Galaxy Note 4. It comes with Samsung’s in-house developed Exynos 7420 64-bit chipset with a total of eight processing cores. Four of these are based on ARM Cortex-A57 architecture, clocked at 2.1GHz. The other four cores are based on the ARM Cortex-A53 architecture and are clocked at 1.5GHz. The Galaxy Note 4, on the other hand, comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 805 quad-core chipset clocked at 2.5GHz. As far as benchmarks go, the Exynos 7420 has proved to be significantly faster than the Snapdragon 805 so far.

The S6 Edge also gets the faster and more efficient LPDDR4 3GB RAM and the latest UFS 2.0 internal memory that boasts of a huge improvement in read and write speeds, enhancing the performance of the device even further. Connectivity options are largely the same though. You get LTE Cat.6 support, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, built-in IR, microUSB 2.0, and Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac on both devices.

Camera

The Galaxy Note 4 and the Galaxy S6 Edge both come with a 16MP resolution Sony Exmor RS IMX240 sensor with optical image stabilization. However, the Galaxy S6 Edge includes a brighter f1.9 aperture lens that lets in more light to the sensor. This gives the Galaxy S6 Edge a slight lead over the Galaxy Note 4 when it comes to low-light imaging performance. As far as video goes, both come with 4K video recording at 30fps. The S6 Edge scores when it comes to the front-facing camera as well, as it has a higher resolution 5MP selfie shooter.

Battery Life

Battery Life often plays a key role in deciding between two different smartphones for a lot of buyers. And this is where the Galaxy Note 4 has a definite edge over the Galaxy S6 Edge. It is equipped with a significantly sized 3,220mAh capacity battery, which means it has a serious advantage over its younger brother when it comes to battery life.

However, the Galaxy S6 Edge should also have above average battery life despite its smaller 2,600mAh capacity battery. It also comes with a quick-charge feature that gives you 4 hours of usage with just 10 minutes of charging. Wireless charging support is included as well.

Fingerprint Sensor

The Galaxy S6 Edge and the Galaxy Note 4 both come with fingerprint sensors embedded on their home buttons. However, they both use very different technologies. The Galaxy S6 Edge includes a touch based fingerprint sensor as opposed to the swipe-based fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy Note 4 that isn’t as easy to use or as reliable as the new touch based sensor on the S6 Edge.

Price

Although we do not have the exact pricing details for the Galaxy S6 Edge yet, it is expected to cost significantly more than the Galaxy Note 4, especially the higher storage 64GB and 128GB models. So when it comes to value for money, the Galaxy Note 4 definitely has quite a significant advantage. While the Galaxy S6 Edge may be better in many areas, the Galaxy Note 4 isn’t that far behind overall.

Which one would you pick?