Gadgetory

with a new yet controversial design language and some enhancements underneath the surface does this new smartphone continue the legacy of the note line this is Joshua freghar from Android authority what's going on everybody and this is a samsung galaxy note 5 perhaps the most important part of the new galaxy note 5 is that it feels like we've been here before and that starts with the design though much of the galaxy design language remains as familiar as ever the note line takes on the material choices of the S line making this the first unibody in the phablet line glass panels are kept together with a metallic frame and I'll include the translucent colors I literally make this phone shine and reflect this also means that this is probably the most fingerprint prone note device we've ever seen which is another trope that derives from the galaxy s6 the note 5 manages to be just a bit more than a larger s6 though as there are subtle curves on the rear sides that actually help with the handling of this big phone that said however much of what we all remember from samsung devices returns here the buttons are all where one would expect them with the fingerprint reader under the home button now being a press type rather than swipe type down on the bottom or all of the ports a speaker grille and of course the S Pen nestled very neatly in the bottom right corner now the S Pen got some real updates in design as is evident when you pop out the top this has to be done in order to actually pull out the entire pin which does feel and looks sleeker than before and I click on the top use yet another toy to mess with and any avid S Pen users will probably take advantage of it in between their thoughts ok yes we will talk about this somewhat controversy about the s-pen in the Galaxy Note 5 now Samsung did unfortunately created so that the s-pen can be inserted backwards into here but really if you're just feeling for the right portion of the pen to insert into this particular slot then you should be fine the clicky top part goes last ok and if it's long as you're just worried about it and you shouldn't have any problems with the s-pen on your note 5 this new design language in the note line means one big controversial change now we have the lack of a removable back cover and all that you get underneath it that means that there are no SD cards or removable batteries available here now those two features have made the note line the go-to phone for the power user and as just not the case anymore we will explore this notion a little bit more in the hardware section where our time with the phone reveals pros and cons for these changes but sacrificing these two features does make for the thinnest most beautifully constructed galaxy note ever handling might suffer from a pretty slippery glass design up until your finger prints and smudges kind of kind of slow it down but the note 5 still man just have one of the most appealing aesthetics even if it feels a little too familiar but familiarity is something that this device can really benefit from especially when the company has already succeeded in a lot of areas up until now that starts with the display which is the same quad HD performer from last year again incrementally enhanced for this year's viewers 2560 by 1440 resolution makes a lot of sense on a larger display and makes for some really high pixel density in this 5.7 inch display but what we think is most important about this panel however is the really small bezel ratio there's so little space on the sides and this really helps for handling but the high saturation Super AMOLED construction still proves as great as ever with really high saturation that can still be tweaked down mind you and more than adequate viewing in broad daylight considering this as a phone that deals in text and writing the screen really shines but fire up a colorful game and you'll have just as much joy with it performance continues to be a high point for the galaxy because the in-house processing packages have been optimized for the toned down TouchWiz the exceed no 7420 returns from the galaxy s6 were really shined and brings with it 4 gigabytes of RAM for some real multitasking especially considering the s-pen now there's no doubt in our minds that the processor is a great performer as a whole week with the phone has yet to slow down this phone that we've installed apps games trackers and even have jotted a lot of notes down on a quick thought on the onboard storage of the galaxy note 5 though as this was the case for the s6 the storage of the note 5 is ufs 2.0 which is a standard that can rival speeds of solid-state drives and if the galaxy s6 was any indication it does its job in keeping the speed as high as possible in this version of Android now for a lot of people this might not be a good enough reason to forego expandable storage but the speed of the Galaxy Note 5 itself kind of makes up for it especially when you consider that everything in here has been optimized for the overall experience again this might not be enough of a reason for a lot of you out there but we thought it was something that should be considered nonetheless the note 5 does succeed where the note has always done so in being the fastest and best iteration of the galaxy experienced in any given year in hardware we start off with some of the familiar additions on the back of the phone right next to the camera or package the heart rate sensor can be found and works about as well as ever because the s-health application has been somewhat streamlined that said we know that it's not something everyone will use too often and every connection is available here including NFC that is the main part of the upcoming Samsung pay ecosystem now phone calls come in loud and clear also with no dropped calls in my usage on the t-mobile network speaking of audio the speaker on the bottom that it fits from a better placement from before but provides the expected quality it does get pretty loud without providing too much body in the sound but we're glad it doesn't overdo the high ends fingerprint reading is a thing of the future and Samsung makes it work quite well in the note 5 setting it up for website incredible is also possible but for the most part the fingerprinting will be for unlocking the phone and that is incredibly easy by just waking up the phone with the home button and then leaving your thumb there in no time TouchWiz is ready for anything we've already explored the lack of expandable storage a bit in the performance section but we will say that the lack of sdcard support is a bit of a bummer while this 32 gigabyte version of the phone has yet to run out of space we do dread the moment that this phone actually does and finally in battery we are dealing with a 3000 milliamp hour unit here that seems a little bit small at first but in our testing we found that the note 5 could still handle the full day of work without any problems though getting more than that is a bit of a stretch screen on time never really got further than four and a half hours though standby time is really good so if the note 5 is simply laying around most of the time it can go for a bit more than a day in keeping the note as thin as possible Samsung can only fit this capacity battery in and then focused on charging as fast as possible instead for example Samsung boasts faster wireless charging on the note 5 though it is not something that we really take advantage of all the time it is nice that this phone supports all wireless charging out of the box but the cordless life that samsung pondered in their launch event still feels a little far off fast-charging is probably going to be every users best friend as samsung claims that this is the fastest charging device they've ever put out only about 10 to 15 minutes is needed to get the phone back to proper working condition with just about an hour needed to top off the battery now this means that something like a quick charge 2.0 portable battery could become an indispensable tool even if fast charging feels like a consolation prize to true longevity there are plenty of 15-minute windows in the day that the galaxy note5 could use so that power never feels too far out of reach Samsung continues to bring the quality in the camera department quite literally - as the camera on the note 5 is basically the one from the galaxy s6 16 megapixels @f 1.9 aperture with 4k video recording in the rear is backed by a 5 megapixel wide-angle front-facing camera now by far the best part about the camera app is the ability to bring it up by just hitting the home button twice but even then the app itself is pretty familiar the manual controls have been given a few more options namely being able to change the Kelvin reading in the white balance slider is an addition that wasn't in the SX camera there are all the usual modes as well with everything from slow motion to a new video collage mode that was kind of fun to use now live broadcasting is also available with YouTube as the platform which is basically a periscope built into the camera app we think it isn't something most users will use and even then the established streaming services like periscope might still take priority picture quality remains as great as ever then keeping Samsung at the top of the heap and Android good saturation across the board keeps pictures from ever really being dull and details are captured really well users can benefit from the F 1.9 aperture for depth of field effects and it does help a bit in low-light situations where pictures do get the expected level of noise due to higher ISO compensation but the app does get a little bit slower in low-light when trying to focus much like the galaxy s6 proved earlier this year the great camera experience we already had in the note 4 could be further improved on and thus the note 5 gets all the benefits of this year's evolution in camera quality and performance and finally in software we will focus primarily on the s-pen though there is a lot offered in this version of TouchWiz as well the main story is and how streamlined this version of Android has become as much of a bog down Samsung's operating system has been stripped away what remains is actually pretty useful namely certain gestures and a theme engine that does well to change the look of the interface plen'y can be found with just a bit of digging like easy access to the multi-window from the recent apps screen as well as one-handed operation features easily triggered by hitting the home button three times just like in the s6 there are far less tutorials and annoying reminders of what the phone can do which is probably our highlight of this version of TouchWiz of course the additions are mostly in the S Pen which has been proportionately streamlined with the rest of this operating system some features from before have been taken out - prioritizing the most use abilities of the S Pen creating memos is easier than ever in the note 5 as removing the S Pen when the phone is in standby no longer wakes it instead the display remains black and a screen off memo pad opens up for any times when the user needs to quickly jot down info like phone numbers this makes the note 5 as accessible as a pad of paper in the back pocket taking the S Pen out in any other situation or pressing the button on it opens up the better looking air command menu which now includes a few shortcuts to user-defined apps though it does feel weird to put anything here that doesn't take advantage of the stylus the action memo is still able to read handwriting and then insert it into a number of different applications with varying degrees of success but it is still mainly just a way to add to s note but in S note every note can be pinned to the home screen as well as made into a reminder both practical features that make the screen off memo that much more appealing to use regularly smart select is also as powerful as before as any portion of the screen can be cut out and very easily shared for anyone that likes to talk in messaging apps through pictures and memes like me sometimes smart select is pretty awesome and finally there is screen write which takes screenshots of the current workspace for editing and sharing but now scrollable pages like webpages can be pieced together automatically by it creating a long image or note that encompasses everything on the page you want to save think long recipes from your favorite Pinterest for example what is probably best about the S Pen is that it actually feels a bit more essential than before and that was achieved by not over saturating it with buttons or tutorials or even raw features the list of s-pen abilities is not as long as before and there are some use case scenarios for every single one of them and even if you never use the ten it is an edition that proves it's worth every time you say why not and perform your typical task with it instead prices for the Galaxy Note 5 are expectedly high though the phone was made available just days after the announcement across all major carriers in the West in total at least $700 is what you'll shell out to get Samsung's latest outing whether or not you use payment plans on t-mobile 18t or elsewhere it is hard not to look at the note 5 in comparison to what Samsung has offered in the past because this year the company decided to take quite a departure in design and hardware choices the note 5 might not feel like a power user device anymore and people who feel that way are completely validated in doing so for those who expected more this new iteration feels too much like a galaxy s6 in terms of what it decides to leave out but it also succeeds in offering the best that the s6 started in a bigger and even better package the stellar display is better at 5.7 inches the performance is super smooth and reliable for any and all usage levels and the camera is still one of the best in Android today expandable storage and replaceable batteries might be missed but we were still able to enjoy the note in spite of all of that in the note 5 if we work with what we're given this phone still delivers as always thank you guys very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this review of the samsung galaxy note 5 the note 5 is still a spectacular device no doubt about it it just doesn't really offer the things that we kind of expected it to even if our expectations were a little bit high the impact of the note 5 just isn't where it was last year with the note 4 and even before then with the note 3 but if you spend some time with this a new version of the Galaxy Note we're kind of certain that you'll still pretty much fall in love with it that being said however you can keep it tuned to andro 30.com for even more explorations into the note 5 including comparisons between it and all of the flagships currently outs right now and even in the future as we still have a few more months left and this upcoming week is Aoife in Berlin and we have a team of four heading out to Berlin so we can bring you all of the best coverage that you can find on the internet and on YouTube of the announcements that Aoife in Berlin so keep it tuned to Android thority for even more and subscribe to our channel if you haven't already so you can keep up with all of that and even more once you're done with that talk about Android in our forums at Android authority comm and then stick around for even more because we are your source for all things Android