I bought my first one the week it came out. The size was impressive and so was the screen. It was the first phone that I DIDN'T want to replace. I had it for a year and took it to india, where sadly it was stolen. I missed the phone so much.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is the highest-performing Android-based smartphone we have tested to date. Whether we're referring to CPU or GPU performance, the 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 SoC with its Adreno 420 graphics engine at the heart of the Note 4 put up some of the best numbers we have seen.

Great Performance; Good Battery Life; Beautiful Screen; S-Pen; Excellent Camers

A Bit Pricey; Will Be Too Big For Some Users; TouchWiz Virtually Everywhere

The Galaxy Note 4 is quite possibly one of the best smartphones Samsung has ever concocted.

Quad HD display with great viewing angles; Modern; metal-fied chassis; Takes fantastic rear- and front-facing photos

Single speaker on the back sounds tinny

Update: The 2014 Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is a little long in the tooth, having been usurped by the Galaxy Note 5 and more recently the Galaxy Note 7 , but now with an even lower price tag it still packs a punch.

Samsung are often credited with starting the "big phone" trend. I remember reading about the first Galaxy Note when it was announced; it seemed ludicrous. I mean, who would ever want a phone with a 5.3-inch screen?

Best phone Samsung has made; Great camera; Improved S-Pen

Screen isn't great outdoors; Fingerprint reader is hard to use; Will be too big for some

You don't have to go far to find a big smartphone these days. You've got to look a lot harder, though, to find one that uses its size to its advantage. The Galaxy Note 4 is more than The Next Big Thing; it's the next big thing that deserves to exist.

 Super high-end specifications;  Premium fit/finish with outstanding display;  Best camera on a Samsung smartphone;  Best stylus experience on any smartphone; Powerful; adaptable software

The Note 4 has been widely available for several weeks on its home turf in South Korea, even selling out its initial round of pre-orders; Here in the States, its official availability kicks off just as this review goes to press on October 17.

S ometimes Samsung doesn't get the credit it deserves. Fans gush over Apple's ability to create new product categories overnight, yet its South Korean rival created what is arguably one of the most popular today: the "phablet" For the uninitiated, the phablet is the tag given to any phone so large...

Obscenely fast; Stylus and split-screen work well; Sound battery life

Yet more Samsung bloatware; Note Android 5.0 Lollipop yet; Falls short of the iPhone 6 Plus' looks

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is an excellent smartphone that any phablet fan would love to own. Its stylus works perfectly, its screen is gorgeous, its camera is powerful, and its processor blazes.

A spectacular camera; a huge battery; a solid processor and a stylus to boot – the Note 4 has just every feature a smartphone fanatic would want

The phone is big and clunky and can be rather uncomfortable to hold; thanks to its hard edges and a bezel that's distinctly separate from its screen

Actually, a lot of people were wrong about big phones. When Samsung first came out with the Note in 2011, I wasn't the only one who laughed at the idea of a 5.3-inch smartphone. But I was wrong.

Fantastic display; Excellent battery life; Good-looking and well-made

Still just too much Samsung software; Overly complex in places; Seriously; look at all these settings

The Note 4 wears its size better than that of the iPhone 6 Plus . Placing the two alongside one another reveals the Note 4 is shorter, even though it has a larger screen. Samsung's smartphone may be thicker than Apple's at 9mm, but the waistline works in its favour by evening out its proportions.

1440p screen; Fast charge battery; Integrated S-Pen stylus; 16 megapixel camera; Metal chassis

Frustrating finger scanner; Uncomfortable form factor for phone calls