Samsung Galaxy Note 4 was finally released yesterday at the IFA 2014 in Berlin, Germany. So much had been said of the phone prior to the release and this time round  important features the tech world thought would be included came to be true as opposed to the disappointments witnessed with the release of Samsung Galaxy S5.

Read: Should you buy Samsung Galaxy S5?

After Samsung launched the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, everyone thought Samsung Galaxy Note 4 would come in a premium metal casing - which came to pass. The Samsung Galaxy Note 4, although having the polycarbonate leather like back cover, as a premium aluminium side that makes the phone look both elegant and a true premium phone. The stitching around the polycarbonate cover that we disliked in Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has been ditched.

Although some rumors pointed out that the phone will come with a 13MP Camera, Samsung has not only ensured that the 16MP camera that came with Samsung Galaxy S5 has been retained but even the front Camera has been improved on remarkably. The front facing camera has had improvement from the standard 2MP in almost all Samsung flagship phones since Samsung Galaxy S2 to a 3.7MP camera. Actually most of the camera improvements have been done on the front facing camera mainly because of the selfies craze that has taken photography by storm. Added to the front facing camera is the 90 degrees shooting angle that can be expanded to 120 degrees shooting by selecting the "wide selfie" mode - which means one can take a selfie as though the photo is taken in panorama. The front camera also has an f/1.9 aperture meaning it now allows more light to come in even at dark - so your crave for selfies at night can be taken knowing that your face won't look as bad as they normally do. The rear camera hasn't been left without remarkable improvement either. Samsung has added the "Smart Optical Image Stabilization" feature that allows for stable images to be taken even when your hands are shaky so you won't need to stop taking pictures of the celeb or your crush just because your hands won't behave.

Another rumor that didn't see the light of day was the thought that Samsung Galaxy Note 4 would come in the latest Android - Android L. The phone has however retained Android KitKat but maybe in a few months after the release, probably in the first quarter of next year, the OS shall be upgraded to the new Android version. Then there is a downgrade. The previous Note came with a 3.0 USB port but since most devices still have the USB 2.0 technology, Samsung decided to downgrade the USB port in Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to USB 2.0. As much as Samsung could argue that there is no need for putting too many chips inside a gadget yet users are still stuck with old technology, it is always nice to move forward once a certain technology level has been achieved, especially if the new technology is compatible with the previous versions. There is no way many users will adopt to the new technology if new gadgets still ship in old technology.

Then it was said that the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 would come with ultrasonic technology on the back cover which would notify the blind on how far an object is. This however seems to have been dropped but the ultra violet sensor that both alerts users of how dangerously they are exposed to UV radiation and also allows for more efficient auto control of screen brightness has been included.

There are no major improvements on hard core specs as the phone still comes with 3G RAM, a slight improvement on battery from 3200mAh to 3220 mAh which is expected to last much longer given the battery saving capabilities that were introduced in Samsung Galaxy S5, improvement on S-pen sensitivity by a factor of two allowing users to write perfectly well even from an angle hence making writing on Samsung Galaxy Note 4 be as good as writing on paper, and slight increase in physical dimensions of the phone. Samsung Galaxy Note 3 came at 151.2 mm long, 79.2 mm wide, and 8.3 mm thick which have been stretched to 153.5 mm long, 78.6 mm wide and 8.5 mm thick. Stretching the physical dimensions haven't however increased the screen size which has been retained at 5.7 inches. But note: Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is less wider which is a good thing when it comes to holding the phone with one hand to make a call.

But the screen hasn't been left untouched. Although the screen on Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is the same as that in Samsung Galaxy Note 3 size wise, the pixels packed on Note 4 are over 3.6 million (1440 by 2560) making the phone be a QHD in screen real estate compared to 1080p or slightly above 2 million pixels at 1080 by 1920 pixels on Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The pixels and screen size on Samsung Galaxy Note 4 makes the phone have a killer screen at 515ppi well above the ppi on Note 3 which stood at 386ppi. The screen technology is still the Samsung's super AMOLED protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 will go on sale in early October and hopefully the launch will be simultaneous globally as was the case with Samsung Galaxy S5. Those in Korea will get the Exynos 5433 variant split into 1.9GHz quad core for heavy duties and 1.3GHz quad core for ordinary use but the international variant will feature  a Snapdragon 805 chipset built on Krait clocking 2.7Ghz up from 2.3GHz on Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

Should you ditch your Samsung Galaxy Note 3 for Samsung Galaxy Note 4?  Yes. Samsung Galaxy Note 4 has a better camera, better processing power despite same RAM size, better premium quality thanks to the aluminium metal sides though that makes it slightly heavier, slightly better battery, twice as good S-pen, and most importantly has leaped from 1080p HD screen to a Quad HD screen at 1440 by 2560 515ppi.