The Samsung Galaxy Note range started the phablet craze which has subsequently led to flagships also becoming larger and larger. Phablets has now become very large phones, with screen sizes around the 6-inch range.
Up until recently, no-one was able to challenge Samsung for phablet supremacy. In the last 12 months or so that has changed drastically, though. Huawei is the latest to try and take the Galaxy Note 4‘s crown as the phablet king, and on the surface it seems it has a very good chance. Can it surpass the achievements of the Note 4, though? Let‘s find out with a head to head comparison.
Before you look at our comparison review, check out our reviews of the Huawei Mate 7 and Galaxy Note 4.
Design and Build
The Galaxy Note 4 broke a lot of Samsung conventions, and its design was the first in years we actually liked from Samsung. The metal sides made for a massive departure from previous devices, and we were extremely happy to see it. That being said, it still has a plastic back cover, styled with a fake leather with an almost genuine look and feel.
The Mate 7 surprised us with it all-metal design. Huawei stepped up its game to bring us a device that feels great in the hand (while being very large) and is a massive improvement over phones it brought us in the past.
It has to be said that both these devices are very large and single handed use will be a struggle on both devices. The Note 4 features the traditional Samsung button layout with the physical home key with a fingerprint reader right below the screen, surrounded by two capacitive keys, one for multitasking and the back key. The Huawei Mate 7 has on screen buttons, with the fingerprint scanner at the back of the device (more on their performance later). The fingerprint scanner on the Mate 7 feels like the more intuitive place to put it as this is where your index finger sits in everyday use anyway.
Overall, the Huawei‘s build quality certainly surpasses that of the Samsung. The full metal design is fantastic and easy to hold and feels much more premium than the Galaxy Note 4.
Screen
The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 comes with a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1440 x 2560-pixels (Quad HD), while the Huawei Mate 7 features an even larger, 6-inch 1080p IPS LCD screen. With a pixel density of 515ppi, the Note 4 has the upper hand in terms of sharpness as the quality of the image looks as if straight out of a magazine. The Mate 7, on the other hand, also has a fairly sharp screen with a pixel density of 367ppi.
The Note 4‘s AMOLED display has very accurate colours and extremely deep blacks (as always on OLED displays). It has great colour palates, beautiful rendering and good viewing angles. In sharp light it can fade a bit, but it is still better than most in this regard. The Mate 7 also features a very nice display, but it is not as good. It is definitely one of the better 1080p displays you can find, but it simply can‘t reproduce the images the Note 4 can.
User Experience
Both of these devices come with Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box, but other than that they couldn‘t be further apart in design aesthetics and look.
TouchWiz on the Note 4 looks pretty much the same as it has done for the last three years, with some slight changes in look and feel. The Emotion UI skin on the Mate 7 is an extreme departure from the usual Android formula, and they have tried something completely different.
Samsung has tried to clean out some of the clutter and unused nonsense that has plagued their phones for some time, and introduce some more intuitive settings. It might not seem like much of a difference, but it makes the device much easier to use.
The Emotion UI tries to differentiate itself by being very different from anything else you will see on Android. With rounded-edge icons it has a bit of a retro style. Also, the tones are much more mature, markedly darker, but can also be tweaked in the theme engine.
Over all, the OS on the Note 4 looks too cartoonish (still), and suffers in aesthetics and performance because of the masses of options and settings in the menus. At the end of the day, preference comes down to the user. We fealt Emotion UI was more intuitive, and would prefer to use that on daily basis.
Performance and Fingerprint Scanner
The hardware in these two devices do differ quite a bit. The Samsung came out with the latest and greatest you will find in an Android device, while the Mate 7 stuffed a bit more modest hardware package into the device ““ which helps lead to the lower price.
In everyday use, the Samsung takes the prize here, though. The pricier hardware does shine through, even though Samsung does everything in its ability to kill the Note 4 with the TouchWiz interface. This race was close, but the Note 4 still won out.
The performance of the fingerprint scanners wasn‘t as close, though. The Mate 7‘s fingerprint scanner in far superior to that of the Note 4‘s. We can‘t really say more than that ““ the Mate 7‘s is just as quick and reliable as on the iPhone 6.
Camera
The Mate 7 takes some of the best images you will see on any Android device. It is sharp, detailed and extremely easy to use. The HDR mode is also some of the best you will find on any Android phone, so we have to give some props to Huawei for improving their camera experience in such a great manner.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 comes with a 16-megapixel rear camera that supports optical image stabilization (OIS), while Huawei‘s Mate7 ships with a 13-megapixel main shooter with no optical stabilization. Samsung is using a large, 1/2.6“ camera sensor on the Note 4, while the Mate7 comes with nearly 17% smaller, 1/3.06“ Sony IMX214 sensor. In terms of optics, the Samsung phablet has a 31mm f/2.2 lens, while the Huawei phone features a slightly wider and faster, 28mm f/2.0 lens.
At the end of the day the Note 4‘s camera is superior in every way. Indoors, the Note 4 has a more evident advantage with its consistently sharp detail and realistic colour tones, while the Mate 7 – even though overall good – was comparatively noisier. The Galaxy Note 4 is in a league of its own with outstanding amount of captured detail, pleasing colours, and a very dynamic look to shots. The Mate 7 has very good camera performance, but can‘t compete with the Note 4.
Battery Life
As we said in the respective reviews, the battery performance of both these devices is above average. The Galaxy Note 4 surpassed our expectations even, and it was great to see Samsung make a device where the battery could last almost two days.
That being said, the Mate 7 had it all its own way in this comparison. The massive 4,100 mAh battery just would give up as we tried eveything in our power to kill it. We weren’t able to siphon all of the juice from this battery pack in less than two days, no matter how hard we tried. It outperforms the Note 4’s battery, and is easily the longest lasting phone we have ever reviewed.
Conclusion
This is a really difficult fight to call ““ overall it will come down to your personal preference. They are both very solid devices and it comes down to what is most important to you when buying a phablet device.
If we had to put our own money down, it would definitely be for the Huawei Mate 7. It is better built and has better software, the camera is great (although outperformed by the Note 4) and gives good everyday performance. More than that, it comes in at almost half the price of the Note 4. In our eyes that is nothing to scoff at.
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