[rwp-review id=”0″]
It’s the time of the year when we determine if the Samsung Galaxy Note still holds the throne of the bet phablet out there. It reigned supreme for the past 4 years, will this year be any different? Let’s find out.
Design
Like its smaller sibling, the Galaxy S6, much has changed since the last iteration. This is the biggest overhaul in the Note’s design since they launched the actual product!
Like the S6, the Note 5 now has a full metal/glass body giving it a very high end premium feel and look. If you ever thought the Note series was pretty, this is a whole other level of beauty.
The Note 5 now has a full front and back glass panel with a metal frame piecing it all together across the edges of the phone. The sides of the back are slightly curved (think S6 Edge’s front side) making the phone extremely nice to hold. Thanks to these curved edges, you won’t feel the sharp edge of the metal frame like you would on the S6 Edge.
The back isn’t textured, it’s a full glass panel with a single color that is most showcased when you swivel the phone right and left across a light source. Aside from the premium look and feel, the glass panel helps you grip the phone better as well as your finger tips stick on it. The down sides of this is it may get slippery when it’s humid, while quite durable and touch, it is prone to shattering, and highly fingerprint prone. You’ll find yourself continuously wiping it clean to maintain that sexy shine of the glass and the phone’s native color.
Besides that, the Note 5 weighs 171g (iPhone 6s Plus weighs 192g) and is 7.6mm thick (iPhone 6s Plus is 7.3mm tick). The phone comes in 32GB and 64GB variations with no SD-card slot.
Display
Samsung continues to impress with its high quality displays. The Note 5 has a 5.7″, 1440×2560 display (518 pixel density). The iPhone 6s Plus has a 5.5″, 1080 x 1920 pixels (~401 ppi pixel density) for comparison, or lack thereof. The Note 5 shines here as do all of Samsung’s flagship products.
Best display mode is keeping it at Dynamic, which adjusts the screen’s white balance and color saturation depending on the type of content being viewed and its quality.
Software
The Samsung Note 5 comes with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz layered over it. TouchWiz has come a long way in the past year since the release of the Galaxy S6 and this is evident throughout the UI at home, app grid, settings, etc.
What’s more notable here is the S-Pen functionality, which is what sets this beast of a smartphone apart from the rest. Samsung’s S-Pen continues to be refined with every iteration of the Note series. This time, it’s out with the plastic, in with the metal. Keeping up with the rest of the phone’s look and feel. The stylus also pops out with a click this time, no more struggling to pull it out using your fingernails.
Pop the S-Pen out while the screen is off and you’ll get an option to write on the black screen, with minimal options around set to erase, save and delete. This is a new feature and is particularly handy when you need to take quick notes on the go.
Pop the S-Pen out while the screen is on and a list of the usual S-Pen Air Command options pop up in the usual ecliptic fashion. Action memo, Smart select, Screen write and S note are there. What’s new now is that you can add shortcuts to two more apps/functions of your choice. This is particularly handy if there are certain apps you specifically use with the stylus.
The S-Pen and it’s functionality requires a whole review dedicated to it. Instead of boring you with all that, I’ll just leave the following video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T52C6NXbuwE
Performance & Battery
With 4GB of RAM and a Quad-core 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57 there’s little that can’t be done as far as super smartphones go. Performance is on par with the S6 and I haven’t experienced any lag or issues with the performance throughout my 2 weeks of usage.
The Note 5 has a 3000 mAh non-removable battery which lasts for more than one day easily. One of the best things about phablets is their batteries. No issues there.
Camera
The camera on the Note 5 is exactly the same as the one on the S6 and S6 Edge. Check our review here for details. I’ll leave you with a few pictures I took while reviewing the phone, below.
Conclusion
This is the moment of truth. Every year, we review the Note and every year it comes out on top of the rest of the phablets.
The Note 5 is a massive change from the previous iterations. All glass and metal, non-removable battery, no SD-card, premium look and feel and an improved stylus. The Note 5 is definitely not an incremental upgrade from its predecessor.
In its early years, the Note combined a number of power features, size and battery that were unparalleled in the wild. Now, Huawei, Sony, Apple, Lenovo, among others, all have high-end phablets that compete with the Note on many levels. Breaking it down in specific key phablet advantages: battery, size, display, power and performance, camera, all are available in variant degrees across all OEM’s. All except for the S-Pen. It’s unclear how many of the Note series users actually actively use the S-Pen, but whatever the case is, Samsung struck gold with the S-Pen. Not only that, they were able to upgrade and enhance it and its functionality year on year, keeping themselves way ahead of their competitors in this field.
The Samsung Galaxy Note series continues to posses the best in class hardware and specifications with a superior camera and a highly improved UI. All that, now coupled with the premium build, look and feel and the S-Pen, makes the Note 5, yet again, the undisputed King of Phablets.
