Gadgetory

with the latest in its large-format lineup Samsung has substituted focus for features fit and finish for frills and the result is a formidable phone but has the company sacrificed too much in its quest to commoditize the king of phablet let's find out i'm michael fisher with pocket now and this is our video review of the samsung galaxy note 5 not since 2012 has a note so closely resembled its mainstream cousin the galaxy note 5 takes its design cues directly from the galaxy s6 family with a gorilla glass back cover curling into a mid plate molded from 7000 series aluminum and featuring charging audio and speaker ports on the bottom edge the display is quad HD and Super AMOLED featuring very high pixel density and a Wacom digitizer to interpret pen inputs that's nothing new but it's an absolutely stunning screen if you're coming from almost any other smartphone and it's super narrow bezels make the note 5 much easier to hold than any other 5.7 inch device it all adds up to the best feeling best-looking Galaxy Note in memory the clicky buttons and the new spring-loaded s pen or a tactility treat while the mass and materials combine to give it the sense of a very expensive product which of course it is realistically speaking though you'll probably need to invest in a case or at least a skin to keep it looking that way the glass is absolutely impossible to keep free of fingerprints and though this particular phone has survived a waist height drop onto a hardwood floor I'm not sure it would be as lucky in a fall onto asphalt pop off the back cover and oh right for the first time in note history you can't pop open the back cover to replace the onboard battery nor will you find any microSD expansion slot alongside the SIM tray instead you're stuck with the 32 or 64 gigs of storage included out of the box there's not even an IR port here if you're never used carry them out or even knew about these features from previous notes none of this is likely to bother you if you prone to rely on them you may want to stick with last year's model as we said in last week's Note 4 versus note 5 comparison if you do though you'll be missing out on some slick software accessed via the new and improved fingerprint scanner on the home button if you've seen our galaxy s6 review you already know the software story here is Samsung's custom interface is speedier than ever atop android 5.1.1 driven by the company's own Exynos processor and four gigs of high-speed ram that combination makes for a much smoother multitasking experience than we initially saw on the s6 and the big screen on the note 5 makes running to apps side-by-side easier as well if you're like me and you really don't like the out of box interface design there's more good news Samsung's theme store is full of skins both paid and free that let you customize to your heart's content and by default the screen is set to a higher dpi level than usual making it possible to achieve more information density and making it an even better tablet replacement than previous notes those usability improvements aren't accompanied by many new features the list of apps that support Samsung's multi window feature is effectively identical to last years which itself wasn't much improved over the year before that given how awkward the multi-screen experience can sometimes be the sluggish development pace here is frustrating there's a little more excitement when it comes to the s-pen pop it out with a quick click and the note is instantly ready to take down a memo with no button pressing required just slip the s-pen back into its silo when you're done to automatically save the note and return the phone to standby this is the best kind of new feature it's super useful and it's simple as anything and the same goes for the new built-in PDF reader but lets you assign contracts and other legal forms without having to download additional software you can still use the s-pen for all kinds of doodles sketches and notes to self but to me that's never been the primary appeal of the stylus I think the s-pen is at its best when it's used violate existing content as a highlighter for scripts or study guides as a kind of surrogate finger when the device is in an awkward or uncomfortable position as a markup tool for screenshots and so on the new scroll capture mode lets you preserve very long web pages as screenshots for later reference convenient for sharing long discussion threads chat logs or long lists of driving directions by all indications the Galaxy Note 5 camera is the same one found in the s6 that means a 16 megapixel sensor with an F 1.9 aperture made it to an optical image stabilization system and triggered by a double click on the home key it also means the best photo quality you can find on Android almost without exception it's not without its flaws as we saw in our comparison with the LG g4 the note 5 suffers from focus instability in very low light but there's a full suite of manual controls including manual focus to compensate for that HDR mode tends to wash out colors just like on any smartphone but it can be a lifesaver in backlit scenarios where you're trying to capture detail in the shadows for completeness sake we've got to mention Samsung's new software features live broadcast is an analogue to periscope or meerkat that lets you stream video on the fly via your own YouTube channel video collage is a clever way of squeezing for brief clips into a single frame and raw mode lets you save uncompressed images for more precise editing later on thankfully you don't need to use any of those parlor tricks to get the most out of this camera you just double click and shoot and odds are you're going to get a great result whether it's a video or is still and whether you're using the primary sensor or the selfie shooter it's fantastic and as usual we have many more samples in the full review at pocket now we tested the Galaxy Note 5 on both t-mobile and AT&T for seven days in the Boston and Indianapolis markets the phone delivered solid reception and call quality and thanks to its slimmer more rounded build it's definitely the most comfortable and least awkward note ever when it comes to voice calls also the one-two punch of the powerful processor and heavy Ram loadout serve it well as with every note before it this one can handle the most demanding of titles with a plum just don't be surprised if apps crash from time to time that's life on any smartphone Fitness fans will be happy to know that Samsung's s health app just keeps getting better you scroll through the simple interface take a pulse reading with the heart rate sensor you tell it how much coffee and water you've had you can see that info alongside how many steps you've taken to get a snapshot of how active you've been we used to give Samsung guff for including this kind of stuff sort of seemed outta left field but if I bought a note five today I could see myself using this app every day to try to evaluate my fitness trends and maybe save myself from an early death by a sedentary bloggers lifestyle speaking of early death while I didn't miss the micro SD card slot during my week with the note 5 I sure wish Samsung had found a way to either keep the battery replaceable or make it bigger 3000 milliamp hours isn't all that much when you've got a phone as full of power drains as this and the note 5 gave us an average of four to four and a half hours of screen on time per charge on t-mobile slightly more than that on AT&T that's not bad it'll get you through a day of light to moderate mixed usage and what's more if you carry the included fast charger you can top it up very quickly from dead to 25% in just 15 minutes or keep it on a wireless charging pad all day if you're an office dweller but there's no getting around it the note used to be known for outstanding endurance and this one is just average fortunately for the note 5 nothing else about it can be called average it's a premium built smartphone with a jaw-dropping display a best-in-class camera and a feature set you can't get on any other device now a lot of folks are disappointed that it lacks the power user features that have always defined the line and that's understandable those who say the note 5 is just a big galaxy s6 with an S well to a degree they have a point the thing is it turns out that a big galaxy s6 with an S Pen is actually a pretty fantastic smartphone there's so much more to learn about the galaxy note5 folks and you can learn it in our full review at pocket now available August 26th and linked in the description below also check out our related videos here on YouTube and give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it until next time this has been michael fisher with pocket now captain to phones on twitter thanks for watching we'll see you next time you