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Samsung: Note 4 is better than iPhone because of screen and pen

Samsung releases two new ads that present a rather fact-based, use-based picture of why its Note 4 phone should be the customer's choice.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

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Can a winking blonde turn people away from the iPhone 6? I have my doubts. Samsung/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

Let's assume for a moment that you believed that Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 was better than the iPhone 6 Plus.

How would you present this? Would you try to mock the so-called iSheep, as Samsung has done many times before (and very well)?

Or would you attempt a rather subdued, almost passionless presentation of what is supposed to be the next big thing?

Samsung appears to have chosen the latter. Two new spots released today evince all the dynamism of a Tuesday night book club meeting.

In one spot, Samsung explains that the Note 4 isn't a screen. It's a window to your productive world. It's almost as if the company is trying to tread on Microsoft's claim to be all about productivity.

The presentation is prosaic. There isn't even room for a Bendgate joke.

The second spot insists that the Note 4's stylus is not a pen. It's a light saber. No, wait. It's a pair of scissors, apparently. And a glue stick. And an itchy-head scratcher.

If the Note 4 is to inspire, compete and prosper at a time when Samsung says it has difficulty making profits, is this the way to excite an audience whose heads are twisted by iPhone hype?

Samsung's brand image in the US suffers from a split between some ads that have at their heart an excellent wit and some that have all the blandness of creation by worldwide committee.

These new spots, sadly, fall into the latter category (I have it confirmed now that they weren't created in the US).

Perhaps the company will release other, more competitive ads to present a phone that has a lot on its side.

A pretty blonde woman winking at the camera isn't, I suspect, quite the thing that will make heads turn away from the iPhone.