Samsung Galaxy Note 4 vs Sony Xperia Z3: in-depth specs comparison

Design

The sony Xperia Z3 employs premium design, but the Galaxy Note 4 closely follows suit

Although it's kept the same size as its predecessor, the Galaxy Note 4 slightly different from the Galaxy Note 3 design-wise. For starters, we're now being treated to less plastic than before - don't get us wrong, it's still predominant, but the frame of the Galaxy Note 4 is made of metal, a fledgling Samsung trend that originates with the Galaxy Alpha. The rear cover still imitates leather, but unlike the Note 3, the Note 4 comes sans the hate-it-or-love-it fake stitching. Although premium, the Note seemingly can't stand up to the Xperia Z3 in this department. The latter relies on a unibody aluminum build, and is rear is covered with glass for an extra-premium feel. The overall grip of the Xperia Z3 suffers from its design, though - although not as slippery as the Xperia Z2, the Z3 still loses when compared to the grippy Note 4.

Size-wise, both devices are almost in the same category. The Galaxy Note 4 has dimensions of 6.04 x 3.09 x 0.33 inches (153.5 x 78.6 x 8.5 mm) and weighs 6.21 oz (176 g), whereas the Xperia Z3 is slightly smaller with dimensions of 5.75 x 2.83 x 0.29 inches (146 x 72 x 7.3 mm) and tips the scales at 5.36 oz (152 g). Then again, we shouldn't forget that Samsung has successfully eked out more display screen estate from the comparable overall sizes of both Android powerhouses - 5.7 inches compared with the 5.2 inches on the latest Xperia Z3.

This is due to the larger bezels of Sony's finest, which have to accommodate the front-facing speakers of the handset. Then again, Sony deserves credit for being able to endow the Xperia Z3 with IP65/68 dust- and water-resistance, while keeping it the low profile of the device intact. At the same time, the Note 4 is adorned with the typical for Samsung removable back cover and battery.

Another difference between the Galaxy Note 4 and the Xperia Z3 is the former's signature S Pen stylus, which adds a whole new level of functionality to Samsung's phablet.

Display

Where AMOLED and LCD clash yet again

Display-size, the Galaxy Note 4 and the Xperia Z3 can't be more different. We already mentioned the differences in the screen size (5.7" vs 5.2"), but the used display technologies are as different as the two sides of a coin. Unsurprisingly, a Super AMOLED display is gracing 74.39% of the Galaxy Note 4's front side. The resolution of the device is yet another "first" for Samsung - say goodbye to 1080p displays and welcome the new, Quad HD kid in town which boasts a resolution of 1440x2560 pixels. This is working out a spectacular pixel density of 515 pixels per inch, meaning that one would hardly find the display of the Note 4 not pixel-rich enough.

In the meantime, Sony once again relies on its time-tested Triluminos LCD 1080p display for the Xperia Z3 flagship. The combination between the 1080x1920-pixel resolution and the 5.2" display size works out a pixel density of 424ppi. That's a good result, but the Xperia champion is trailing behind the Note 4 in the pixel density department. We've already reviewed the Xperia Z3 and found out that despite its impressive maximum and minimum brightness (713 and 4 nits, respectively), the display Xperia Z3 fails to impress in the color temperature department - its 10,324 Kelvins are far away from the 6500-Kelvin reference point and that's why the display looks quite cold and blueish.

At the same time, some of the colors are oversaturated and unnatural, which is not an welcome change over the previous representative of the Xperia flagship line.

Processor and memory

Both are formidable powerhouses, yet the Galaxy Note 4 is a tad more future-proof

Samsung's latest greatest phablet is indeed a step-ahead from the Xperia Z3, as the former comes with the most power-laden Snapdragon chipset available at the moment - the Snapdragon 805. In the Galaxy Note 4 in particular, the quad-core SoC is churning the gears at 2.7GHz, which should effortlessly power the pixel-rich display. The combination between the 3GB of RAM, the on-board Adreno 440 GPU, and the Snapdragon SoC ensure that few things will be able to make the Galaxy Note 4 sweat.

It's important to say that the Galaxy Note 4 will ship with a different chipset in certain regions. Once again, we are dealing with a home-made Samsung SoC -- an octa-core Exynos 5433, comprising four ARM Cortex-A57 cores and another slew of four ARM Cortex-A53 ones, which operate in a seamless, power-efficient concerto in accordance with the big.LITTLE technology. This Exynos variation of the Note 4 also relies on an ARM Mali-T760 GPU to chew through graphics-intensive games.

The Sony Xperia Z3, on the other hand, relies on a tad older SoC generation, as it's equipped with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 8974-AC silicon, humming at 2.5GHz, and an Adreno 330 GPU unit that takes care of graphics. At least on paper, it seems that the Galaxy Note 4 has the upper hand in raw processing power, but let's not forget that both SoCs will have slightly different tasks ahead of themselves. The Snapdragon 805 inside the Note 4 will have to take care of no more or less than 3,686,400 pixels and the usually performance-hungry TouchWiz interface. At the same time, the Snapdragon 801 in the Xperia Z3 has to cope with "merely" 2,073,600 pixels and Sony's lighter Xperia UI. 

SoC and model number	Chip fabr.	CPU				GPU
		Architecture	Microarchitecture	Cores	Freq. (GHz)	Microarchitecture	Freq.(MHz)
Snapdragon 801 8974-AC	28nm HPM	ARMv7	Krait 400	4	up to 2.45	Adreno 330	578
Snapdragon 805 APQ8084	28nm HPM	ARMv7-A	Krait 450	4	2.7	Adreno 420	600
Exynos 5 Octa 5433	20nm HKMG	ARMv8-A	Cortex-A57/A53	4+4	1.9/1.3	Mali-T760	700

Both the Galaxy Note 4 and the Xperia Z3 come with 3GB of RAM, which is (at the moment) as goods as it gets in the RAM department. This paves the way for terrific multi-tasking experience on both devices - surely, the Note 4 has not grown up in this segment in comparison with the Note 3, which also shipped with 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM, but this amount of operative memory is perfectly sufficient even for the heavier multi-taskers out there. Meanwhile, the Sony Xperia Z3 flaunts 3GB of RAM, because why not? Not only does this ensure an impeccable heavy-tasking experience, it's also another highlight of the spec sheet that shines brightly over some of the Xperia Z3's rivals.

SoC and model number	Memory technology
	Type	Bus width (bit)	Bandwidth (GB/s)
Snapdragon 801 8974-AC	LPDDR3	32-bit dual-channel	933 MHz (14.9 GB/s)
Snapdragon 805 APQ8084	LPDDR3	32-bit quad-channel	800 MHz (25.6 GB/s)
Exynos 5 Octa 5433	LPDDR3	32-bit dual-channel	825 MHZ (13.2 GB/s)

Samsung's new phablet ships with 32GB of on-board memory out of the box, whereas the Xperia Z3 comes with 16GB of storage. Thankfully, both devices come with microSD card slots on board, so you can easily expand the user-available memory - both devices support up to 128GB microSD cards.

Interface and functionality

Z3's utilitarian simplicity meets Note 4's heavy bag of features

Both the Note 4 and the Xperia Z3 come with the latest rendition of Android, the Android 4.4.4 KitKat chocolatey goodness. Of course, Google's OS has gone through some modifications in both devices. Sony's interface solution, the so-called Xperia UI, keeps things simple and light, which is generally not a bad thing, but Xperia Z3's interface is not as feature-rich as the Galaxy Note 4. Sony has once again put a solid amount of emphasis on the multimedia capabilities of the device.

The latter unsurprisingly comes with Samsung's TouchWiz interface aboard, which is among the most feature-rich Android UI skins as a whole, but this over-the-top software faculty often results in slight hiccups here or there. It is yet to be seen if the Galaxy Note 4 suffers from the hereditary TouchWiz syndrome or the latter has finally met its archenemy in the form of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset. 

While the cosmetic differences between the interfaces of the Xperia Z3 and the Galaxy Note 4 might not be as stark as the ones between iOS and Android themselves, there are a lot of design contrasts between TouchWiz and the Xperia UI. The latter is just a slightly reskinned variation of stock Android, whereas Samsung has once again unleashed its whole revamping capabilities on Google's smartphone OS. Similar to the TouchWiz variation on the Galaxy S5 flagman, the Galaxy Note 4 is home to a number of additional spic and span features that further complement the S Pen functionality of the phablet. 
 
It's important to mention that the Galaxy Note 4 outscores the Xperia Z3 in terms of on-board sensors. The phablet has snatched most of the biometric sensors of the Galaxy S5 - we are talking about an "improved" heartrate monitor and a fingerprint sensor, as well as an UV sensor. What's more, the Note 4 comes with an SpO2 sensor that measures your bloodstream's oxygen saturation.

Surely, these features will stand high in the book of those users who need to monitor their health data at all times or add a whole new level of security to their phone. The Xperia Z3, on the other hand is "only" endowed with an on-board step counter. Then again, Sony's focusing on what actually matters with the Xperia Z3, so we are not surprised of the lackluster of more biometric sensros aboard. And this is not a disadvantage at all. 

Camera

You can't go wrong with either of these well-endowed cameraphones

Sporting a 16MP ISOCELL rear snapper (similar to the one of the Galaxy S5), the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is adorned with both digital a optical stabilizations an board - meet Samsung's Smart OIS, which will make sure that the videos you shoot will be devoid of blur or unintentional shakiness. As usual with Samsung, the camera interface of the Note 4 totes a surplus of shooting modes and different options. In the video-recording department, the Galaxy Note 4 is capable of shooting 4K videos at 30fps.

At the same time, Sony's new flagship flaunts a 20.7MP rear snapper sans OIS. Smart stabilization is, luckily, at the user's disposal. The size of the Exmor RS camera sensor is among the larger ones - 1/2.3", and it also comes with a refreshed 25mm G Lens optical system, which has an f/2.0 aperture. The Sony Xperia Z3 is also the first smartphone to boost the light sensitivity capabilities of the camera to ISO 12800, paving the way for usable photographs under otherwise-inappropriate light conditions. Similar to the Note 4, the Xperia Z3 is also perfectly capable of shooting 4K video clips. 

If you are selfie-obsessed, both devices probably won't disappoint. Specs-wise, the Galaxy Note 4 is better-equipped in the department, as it's flaunting a 3.7MP front-facing shooter with a pretty-wide, f/1.9 aperture. In the meantime, the Xperia Z3 sports a more standard 2.2MP front-facing camera, which is, unfortunately, not as wide-angled as we'd like it to be. Still, it produces photos with natural colors and enough detail, as well as correct exposure under the correct light conditions. 

Conclusion and expectations

Both the Sony Xperia Z3 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 are the most power- and feature-laden products of their respective manufacturers. As usual, each an every user should decide for themselves which device is arguably the better one. The Xperia Z3 shines with its utterly-impressive battery life and waterproof capabilities in a pretty thin body, whereas the Galaxy Note 4 is undoubtedly a high-specced powerhouse that will most probably be among the most relevant players on the Android market for the foreseeable future. When it comes down to the popular bang-for-the-buck ratio, it's highly unlikely that either of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 or the Sony Xperia Z3 will fail to deliver.