Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Review

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 is the company’s newest and sleekest addition to its Note line. It’s a truly beautiful improvement to the Note 4 and a lot of similarities with Samsung’s also recently released S6 Edge+.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is available in white, silver, gold and sapphire black.

DESIGN and DISPLAY

The Note 5 maintains the same metal and glass body as the S6, S6 Edge and S6 Edge+. The Note 5 measures in at 153.2 x 76.1 x7.6mm and possesses a 5.7inch display with 2,560 x 1,440 pixels. Weighing about 171g, the Note 5 has an equally similar front screen with previous Samsung smartphones with its home button placed just below the display and in between the recent app and back soft keys on its left and right side respectively. The Note 5 also doesn’t have a removable backplate or battery.

CAMERA

The Note 5 has a 16MP back facing camera and a 5MP selfie camera which doesn’t differ from the S6 Edge and S6 Edge+. The one difference Samsung made here was to increase the Note 5’s aperture lens from the Note 4’s f2.2 to its current f1.9. Due to having a wider aperture lens, the Note 5 lets in more light which in turn produces better photos especially under low light conditions. Just as in the S6 Edge+, Samsung added a live broadcasting feature that allows Note 5 users to upload straight to Youtube. Samsung however allowed a 30-seconds delay between when a person starts recording and when the video appears on Youtube.

Just like the Galaxy S6 and subsequent phones after it, The Note 5 has Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) which doesn’t allow our shaky hands to blurr our pictures. The Note 5 also has a few more shooting and editing modes, tools and guides, all of which make the camera fun to use.

FEATURES

Here again, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 possesses similar features to the S6 Edge+ and has a stylus (referred to by Samsung as the “S Pen”). The S Pen in my opinion is sort of the only thing that makes it truly different from the S6 Edge+.

Points to note about the new S-Pen

Made of polycarbonate plastic which audibly clicks into its holster.
Dimensions 4.4 x 0.2 x 0.1 inches
Has a slightly recessed button
The S Pen should only be inserted into its holster pointy end first. Inserting it the other way round would cause the pen to get stuck in the holster.
You can use the S Pen to navigate through the phone and write memos. You can also use it to drag and drop text as well as to capture the screen. If you hover over the phone with the S Pen, you can pull up a photo or video review or a menu dialogue box.

In addition, the Note 5 also comes with its own, very fluid and easy to use S Note app which now has autosave. The S Note app is simpler to use and has extra features under its ‘More’ menu. The app also allows you to customize everything including combination of pen tips and ink thickness.

The Note 5 has a new shortcut wheel called Air Command. This Air Command is a floating icon which hangs out on all screens and opens up to show you your frequently used apps. It is always on by default but doesn’t distract the user because it only comes up if you click or tap the S Pen.

Another new feature in the Note 5 is the “screen off memo” in the settings. This is more or less an instant memo that allows you to create an “action memo” when the screen is turned off. It’s important to note here that this feature only works when you just pulled out your S Pen and not if your S Pen has been out of its holster for some time.

When attempting to take screenshots of a long piece of text, the Note 5 will prompt you to capture more of the entire screen using its ‘scrolling capture.’ This saves you from having to take several screen shots of the piece and it also allows you to annotate right on the screen shots.

PDF writing is another new feature in the Samsung Note 5. This feature allows you to annotate on your PDF files by handwriting on them.

You can also get the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Duos which is a dual sim version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5

SOFTWARE

The Galaxy Note 5 runs Android 5.1 Lollipop supported by Samsung’s TouchWiz. This of course gives the phone access to both Google’s services as well as Samsung’s own software which mainly customizes the phone’s look and feel. The Note 5 also has the S Health and S Note apps as well as some optional add-ons hidden in various places throughout the phone, like Galaxy Essentials and Galaxy Gifts.

Several extra modes and options were provided in the settings menu, like the Easy Mode which helps to simplify your home screen. There’s also a ’Private mode’ setting which provides a place to keep files and photos you don’t want anyone else to see.

MEMORY AND BATTERY

Users get only two choices- 32GB and 64GB both of which cannot be expanded since the Note 5 has no MicroSD slot. With regards to sensors, the Note 5 has got a proximity sensor, barometer, a gyro, compass, an accelerometer, a SpO2 and a heart rate monitor. It has also got a finger print reader around its home screen.

Also housing a 4GB RAM as the S6 Edge+, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is a powerful machine that can run two apps side by side and interact with both without any sign of lag. It also has Samsung’s Exynos7420 octa-core processor, which consists of a quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 and a quad core 2.1GHz Cortex-A57.

The Samsung Galaxy has a 3000mAh battery which is non-removable. It also boasts fast charging capability and wireless charging capabilities. However, the wireless charger must be purchased separately.