Samsung Galaxy Note 4 vs Google Nexus 6 – which is best?

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and the Google Nexus 6 are arguably the premiere phablets currently available – but which is better? Read on, to find out!

Screen

The Note 4 has a 5.7″ super AMOLED screen running at 1440×2560 resolution (4x720p). The Nexus 6 is very similar – with a 5.96″ AMOLED screen running at the same resolution.

Specs

The Note 4 is powered by a Snapdragon 805 processor, which runs two quadcore processors totalling 2.7ghz. There’s 32GB of on-board storage, and 3GB of RAM. There’s also near parity on the Nexus 6 – which is also powered by a Snapdragon 805. Similarly, it also comes with 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM.

Camera

The cameras are where the differences between the phones starts to emerge.

The Note 4 has a 16 MP camera – taking photos at 5312 x 2988 pixels, and videos at 2K (at 30fps).

The Nexus 6 meanwhile only has a 13MP camera, photographing at 4128 x 3096 – though it can also shoot 2K video at 30fps. Both phones offer optical image stabilisation.

The front camera is also better on the Note 4 – at 3.7MP compared to the Nexus 6’s 2 MP.

Software and Extras

Perhaps the big difference at present is on software – with the Note 4 only running Android KitKat, compared to the Nexus 6’s Lollipop. But Samsung is expected to release a software upgrade at some point in the future.

The difference here is perhaps arguably philosophical: Do you prefer plain Android, as Google intended, or do you like the Samsung bolt-ons like S-Health? The Note 4 also comes with a stylus, which some users have found useful for note taking and drawing.