Google and Motorola’s new Nexus product has officially been unveiled as the Nexus 6, which finally gives us the go-ahead to figure out exactly how the new Nexus phone holds up against the competition. In my article yesterday I talked about how while the Nexus 6 is a great phone, this year the pricing is more aggressive than we’ve seen in the past couple of years when it comes to the Nexus lineage of devices. While the price of the device might be a surprise, it’s not without reason. The Nexus 6 is a phone that is comparable to other flagship devices in the market, so the higher price tag isn’t undeserving.
While the Nexus 6 has many competitors, probably the closest competitor in both size and specs come from the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, a device that was announced earlier last month. Both the Galaxy Note 4 and the Nexus 6 should be available by the end of the month, with the Note 4’s release date happening tomorrow for several countries. But before you go out and purchase the Galaxy Note 4, why not take a quick look at the key differences between the Galaxy Note 4 and the new Nexus 6? With both phones being so close to each other in size and specs, it might be worth your time to check them out.
In a lot of ways, the Nexus 6 and the Note 4 are equal. They both use the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, they both feature 3GB of RAM, they both have 2560x1440 displays, and they both run on a 3220 mAH battery. The speed, efficiency, display and the battery life of both devices should be about on par with each other.
That was the easy part. Now we need to delve into what makes the devices different. First and foremost, we’ll start with the screen size; however, there’s not much difference between the screen sizes, either. Although the Galaxy Note series has always been rather notorious for its large screen size, the Nexus 6’s screen measures in at nearly .3-inches larger with a 5.96-inch display. The Galaxy Note 4 features a 5.7-inch display. While this might not make much of a difference, if pixel density is something you find yourself paying close attention to, the Note 4 will have a slightly higher pixel density than the Nexus 6 will. With that in mind, both phones will still have stunning displays regardless.
The next difference will be in camera quality. The Galaxy Note 4 beats out the Nexus 6 in terms of megapixels. The Note 4 features a 16-megapixel rear-facing shooter with a 3.7-megapixel wide-angle front-facing camera, while the Nexus 6 features a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Both rear-facing cameras have optical image stabilization.
The next difference can make or break a deal for a lot of people: amounts of available storage. There are a few key factors to consider here. The Galaxy Note 4 has a lot more room to spare because it offers a microSD card slot that allows up to 128GB of additional storage on the 32GB phablet. With that being said, Samsung’s TouchWiz software has been notorious for taking up quite a few gigs on internal storage - but Samsung still has the ability to undoubtedly support more than double what the Nexus 6 can offer. The Nexus 6 only comes in 32GB or 64GB variants, which isn’t too bad, but not good if you have a lot of media you need to store.
Speaking of TouchWiz, there’s another difference that you might want to keep in mind. While it will likely be possible to root and flash a stock Android ROM onto a Note 4 sometime in the future, it won’t be available right off the bat. TouchWiz is a hit or miss factor for a lot of people, and can sometimes cause lag. The Nexus 6 features a completely stock Android experience, which means no unnecessary pre-loaded apps (which Samsung is fond of). Also, as a part of the Nexus line, the Nexus 6 is first in line to get the latest Android software updates.
Here’s another difference that may make it or break it for some people, and that’s the situation regarding the battery. While the battery sizes are the same, the option to remove the battery (simply and effectively, anyway) is only offered in the Galaxy Note 4. The Nexus 6 has a non-removable battery.
A quick difference between the two is that the Note 4 offers a built-in stylus while the Note 6 doesn’t.
Finally, you have price tags. At full price, the Nexus 6 will cost you $649 for the 32GB variant or $699 for the 64GB. The Note 4 will cost you $826 full-price. The Nexus 6 might not be as cheap as the Nexus 4 or Nexus 5 was to comparable flagships, but as you can see the price is still noticeably cheaper, especially in this case. On-contract pricing will vary from carrier to carrier.
So there you have it - the key differences between the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and the Nexus 6, two of the biggest flagships of the year. If given the chance, which one would you buy?
Images via The Verge
