Samsung's Galaxy Note 5 is excellent overall, and the only phone to buy if you want to write by hand. However, you'll pay a huge premium for a modest upgrade from last year's model, and less pricey competitors will satisfy many.Samsung's Galaxy Note 5 is the smoothest, sleekest stylus-equipped jumbo-screen smartphone that the company has ever made. And it could have been even better.
On the positive side, it's ablaze with slim, shiny, large-screened luster, a strong camera, a retooled stylus and killer battery life. But the Note 5 only incrementally improves upon last year's Note 4, while also sealing in the battery and doing away with the expandable storage slot (there is, however, free cloud storage).
These last two omissions could hurt Samsung by opening the door to less expensive rivals, from the likes of LG, HTC and Motorola, which continue to equip devices with removable batteries and/or a storage slot for saving movies, games and apps. The Note 5, while eye-catching, is also the least distinctive of the Note line. It's still Samsung's only phone for 2015 with a stylus (and a good one at that), but at a glance it looks pretty much the same as the Galaxy S6 Edge+ -- which features a dual curved-edge screen, but otherwise near identical specs.
Meanwhile, both the Note 5 and S6 Edge+ are basically supersized versions of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge models that Samsung debuted back in March.In essence, the stylus (Samsung calls it the "S Pen") is just about the only thing that makes this device truly different. In contrast, 2014's Note 4 leap-frogged the Galaxy S5's hardware capabilities, even when you took away its S Pen.
This slowdown in the smartphone industry's release of evermore powerful hardware specs doesn't affect Samsung alone, but it does apply extra pressure on a company that's steadily losing ground to its biggest challengers: on the high-end, Apple with the "Plus" model, and on the low-end, much cheaper, slightly stepped-down "flagship" phone-makers like Motorola (Moto X Pure), Xiaomi (Mi Note Pro) and OnePlus (OnePlus 2).
Premium phone, premium price. Along with the Galaxy S6 Edge+, the Galaxy Note 5 goes on sale in several countries on August 21 in gold, silver, white and sapphire black (which looks blue in the light), though not every region will carry every color. Prices vary by retailer and country; be sure to check current promotions before you buy. There's no denying that the Note 5 costs a lot.
Depending on where you live and where you buy it, this year's retail price could be roughly the same as last year's Note 4. The 64GB version does put it at a little less than the iPhone 6 Plus' 64GB debut retail price, and the Note 5 is also cheaper than the S6 Edge+ -- you pay even more for that curved display. But compared to other large-screen models, like the 5.5-inch LG G4 or 5.7-inch Moto X Pure, which comes out in a few weeks, the Note 5 costs hundreds more.
Design
5.7-inch display; 2,560x1,440 pixels (518 pixels per inch) Metal and glass construction 6 by 3 by 0.3 inches (153 by 76 by 7.6mm) 6 ounces (171 grams) Like the Galaxy S6, the Note 5 has straight sides and a flat face, but then it does something interesting. It adds the Edge+'s frontal curves to the back of this phone. From what I can tell holding them side-by-side, the curves look the same. Checking out its profile, these comfortable rear arcs cause the Note 5's top and bottom edges to flare out thicker than its middle. It'll still fill your hand -- this is a large device -- but the overall sensation is still of slimness, especially compared to the relatively bulky Note 4.Although that AMOLED display still measures 5.7 inches, Samsung has shaved down the Note 5's dimensions, making the handset feel overall sleeker and slimmer than last year's Note 4. That's good news for one-handed phone jockeys, who get the same screen real estate in a more streamlined package. The 2,560x1,440-pixel resolution (515 pixels per inch) holds steady from last year, lending a lot of crisp detail to the screen, possibly even more than we strictly need.
Below the display, the usual two soft keys (recent apps and back) sandwich the physical home button, which also serves as the phone's fingerprint reader and Google Now call-up (press and hold for Google Now, the search giant's voice-command answer to Apple's Siri). You'll find the power/lock button on the right and volume rocker on the left. Along the bottom are the standard micro-USB charger (alas, not USB-C as we had hoped), headset jacks and S Pen holster, with the SIM card tray up top. On the flipside, you'll see the 16-megapixel camera lens, flash and heart-rate reader.
A unibody device, there's no removable backplate or battery and you won't find an expandable storage slot anywhere. Prepare for your smudgy fingerprints to bloom all over that mirrored surface, and keep a micro-fiber cloth nearby. One last, infuriating thing I've noticed in all these years of testing: that power/lock button on the right likes to turn itself on in my purse's interior phone pocket, leaking battery willy-nilly. I keep hoping Samsung will work this out, but so far no dice.
Dimensions:
4.4 by 0.2 by 0.1 inches (111 by 5.3 by 3.6mm)
The Note S Pen stylus, which is made of polycarbonate plastic, changes a bit every year. This time around, the stylus audibly clicks into place inside the Note 5's chute like the crown of a retractable pen. It's kind of fun, but the fit is so snug, you have to really teas it out. The plastic pen has long, flat planes to keep it from rolling away on a tabletop. Its single button slightly recesses from the surface to tone down the mispresses, which we've found common in previous S Pen designs.
The S Pen continues to act as a writing implement, pointer and navigational accomplice. You can use it to pull up a menu dialog box, or photo or video preview when you hover over it with the pen. It also works with those touch-sensitive menu buttons and the physical home button. Dragging and dropping text, and capturing the screen are two other tricks. Samsung claims that its pen writes a lot better this time around, more fluidly, and with decreased latency times.
I didn't notice that, even writing with the same pen and ink "weight" on the Note 5 and Note 4 side by side. I did notice that the 5's S Pen feels a touch lighter, which made for slightly cleaner, easier writing, compared to the Note 4's slightly heavier pen. My handwriting is still barely legible on both.The S Note app itself is greatly simplified, with extra features tucked into the More menu.
You can also download a ton more tools, like a chart helper and an extension pack that includes advanced tricks like a heartier toolbar and shape recognition, handwriting "transformation" and the ability to record sketches. In the app itself, you can customize everything from the way you select color to the way you save favorite combinations of pen tips and ink thickness. As with previous versions, the pen stays sensitive along the corners of the page, and on-screen controls will momentarily disappear so you can continue to write and draw "below" them.
New features
Compared to 2014's Galaxy Note 4, the new Note 5 has some additional tricks up its sleeve: Redesigned shortcuts wheel: Called Air Command, this floating icon hangs out on any screen and opens up to reveal a circular menu of most frequently used apps -- say, the S Note app, the browser or your photo gallery. It's always on by default, but you can turn that off in Settings. You can also customize this by adding up to three apps of your choice.Air Command responds faster these days, which means that if you accidentally click the S Pen button, you can quickly click again to dismiss it without too much interruption. The floating icon doesn't get much in the way, because it only interacts if you tap or click with the S Pen, not your finger. Instant memo: Called "screen off memo" in the settings, this feature lets you create an "action memo" (more like a sticky note) even when the screen is turned off.
One caveat: it works only just after pulling out the S Pen, not if the pen has been out for a while. I like this feature -- it adds to the S Pen's ability to really quickly jot a note. You'll need to dip into the settings to toggle it on.PDF writing: Yep, you can now annotate PDFs by handwriting all over them, just as you can do with a screenshot.
Scrolling capture: Instead of taking several screenshots of a long piece of text, the Note 5 will prompt you to capture more of the whole screen. You'll be able to annotate right on the screenshot too, of course. Android and apps Android 5.1 Lollipop Easy mode, Private mode Two power-saving modes Latest S Health app The Galaxy Note 5 runs Android 5.1 Lollipop, bolstered by Samsung's own TouchWiz layer. That means the phone will be able to tie into Google's wide array of services, such as Google Now, turn-by-turn navigation and access to Google Drive files.
But it can also tap into Samsung's own software, all of which customizes the display's look and feel -- like those quick-access toggles in the notifications shade and anything that has to do with the S Pen. Microsoft's One Drive cloud storage app is also onboard (more on this below). Alas, while Android 6.0 Marshmallow is just around the corner, its due date to these new Samsung phones is anyone's guess. With the exception of promised monthly security updates, more substantive software updates are on a notoriously slow boat.
In addition, Samsung's apps include Note mainstays like S Note and S Health, though the company has really pulled back on its preloaded apps. You'll find a cornucopia of optional add-ons tucked away in various spots throughout the phone, like Galaxy Gifts and Galaxy Essentials. A quick skip through the settings menu turns up a whole bushel of extra modes and options, like a simplified home screen (Easy mode) and a vault for photos and files you don't want anyone else to see (Private mode).
There are also two levels of battery-saver, several gestures and themes to freshen up the look and feel. You'll even find a user manual. Likewise, pull down the notifications shade for quick access settings, including a flashlight. You can edit to reorder these. From the home page, swipe right to reveal Flipboard, which you can use to read headline news about your pet topics.
Camera
The image processing capabilities make a huge difference too, of course, but the bottom line is that the overall photo quality should incrementally improve from the Note 4, and is on par with the S6 and S6 Edge.
The phone also gets a few more editing and shooting modes and guides -- little things, mostly, but these are always fun to discover.
As with the Galaxy S6 and many other phones, the Note 5 here has optical image stabilization (OIS), which will help keep shaking hands from blurring shots, and an array of modes and tools.
There's auto-HDR right on the screen (this helps keep photos looking true to life) and panorama and selective focus as separate modes within.Brand new is a live broadcasting feature that lets you record to YouTube. There's intentionally a 30-second delay between when you start recording and when the footage hits YouTube. This is essentially Samsung and YouTube's take on Twitter's Periscope tool. (The live broadcast feature is appearing first on the Note 5 and S6 Edge+, and is currently exclusive to those phones -- though how long that will last is anyone's guess.)
Tap to focus and an exposure control appears that lets you slide to brighten or darken the scene. Take a photo in Pro mode, and you'll have the option to save it as a raw file, one that the phone hasn't automatically processed, say into a JPEG format, first. This option gives photographers much more post-processing control. You can record a collage of four 6-second videos, to which you can add background music and share, share away (the file saves as a 720p MP4).
If you're hungry for more modes (like the rear-cam selfie shot), it's easy to download more from the camera app. New in the features-packed editor is a way to create an animated GIF, which can be a fun way to make use of a series of shots, like a developing look of surprise or an action sequence. The Note 5 also lets you annotate photos by writing on them (not an option on the Edge+).
Image quality
So, how does the camera do? What I wanted were clearer, brighter, low-light photos and night shots in addition to all those juicy, saturated daytime images. That's mostly what I got, though the Note 5 still struggled with an automated night mode that robbed the downtown New York skyline of its high-contrast drama and turned it into low-contrast mush compared with real life. A few other indoor scenes also came out a little soft, while well-lit scenes stayed crisp.And now for photos!Most were taken in automatic mode (which sometimes kicked on HDR or night mode), with the noted exception of a manually focused macro shot using Pro Mode. Good news for selfie-lovers is the Note 5's front-facing camera levels up from a 3.9-megapixel jobbie to a 5-megapixel sensor (same as in the S6 and S6 Edge). The default beauty mode you see with the front-facing camera gets a little more aggressive about airbrushing your face by surfacing a heap of tools on the screen. Go into the skin tone sub-setting to turn it up or turn it off. There's also a wide-angle selfie mode that you and your friends can all squeeze into, and something called interval shot.
Video capture goes as high as 4K Ultra HD, which is 3,840x2,160-pixel resolution, though that's complete overkill for anyone but a resolution fanatic with a 4K monitor (and a tolerance for ginormous file sizes). That's why Samsung set the default to full HD, a resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels -- the same resolution as your 1080p HDTV. You can change this in the settings. Video recording was excellent, with good audio pickup of multiple subjects several feet away. Your own voice will be loudest in any exchange, but your subjects voices' shouldn't disappear.
Hardware specs
- Samsung Exynos 7 octa-core processor
- 32GB/64GB storage options; 4GB RAM
- 3,000mAh battery (non-removable)
- No microSD expansion slot
- Microsoft OneDrive with 100GB cloud storage
- Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
A longstanding partnership with Qualcomm put a Snapdragon processor inside the Note 4,but no longer. The 4GB of RAM (versus the Note 4's 3GB) helps keep things running smoothly. Unfortunately, the storage situation is a bummer, especially since the Note 5 is positioned as a productivity device. With no physical expandable option, you'll have to get either the 32GB or 64GB versions and hope you have enough cloud storage if you push against your ceiling. Weirdly, Samsung teased a 128GB version of the Note 5, and then said it was a mistake.
What Samsung isn't advertising is that a previous partnership with Microsoft puts 100GB of OneDrive cloud storage within your reach; it's free for two years. After that, you'll have to pay to keep your content online. Cloud storage through Microsoft or any other service certainly helps, but it still doesn't give Note 5 owners much flexibility over how they keep their data.
Also remember that the Note 4 started at 32GB and offered up to 128GB in extra storage through the microSD card slot, so you're really cutting yourself short if you pick the 32GB model over the 64GB version. To be sure, expandable storage has never been an option on iPhones. But its dearth in this more expensive "pro" model in Samsung's lineup stings more than its absence in the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge models that debuted earlier this year. The same goes for the lack of a swappable battery (see below), which was also available in all previous Note models.
Performance
Anecdotal, performance was strong, with zippy navigation and detail-rich graphics. Using the phone felt snappy, not laggy. Hopefully that pep will hold up over time. Another piece of good news: the phone launches in about 25 seconds from the off position, which is pretty quick. Likewise, the camera launches quickly, in under a second, whether you double-tap the home button or tap the app.Battery power
This is one of those times when numbers don't mean as much as you think. You lose a bit of battery capacity -- the Note 4's 3,200mAh removable ticker drops down to a 3,000mAh embedded battery -- but battery life blew us away in three looping video tests: 15 hours. A lot of things may have happened to explain the improvement.Samsung may have tightened up its software to make the phone more efficient when drawing power. The processor and greater RAM (4GB over the Note's 3GB) may have some effect as well. Just remember that battery life varies depending on how you use a device (streaming music and turn-by-turn navigation suck down your battery faster), and that it tends to degrade over time. Still, this is a very promising result.
In addition to long life, the Note 5 incorporates two wireless charging standards (PMA and WPC, which the Qi standard falls into), and has two stages of power-saving modes that you can find in the settings, including the austere ultra-powersaving mode, which essentially turns your phone into a dumb phone in order to keep it live for emergencies.
Call quality and data speeds
- Globally-compatible
- LTE Cat.6, 9 (varies by country)
On the data side, speeds were pretty consistent with what I've seen on other phones, so that makes me feel like the Note 5 is going to perform well for your carrier in your area. As for data speeds, the diagnostic app Speedtest.net recorded results that are consistent for T-Mobile in my area. In real-world tests, apps and websites opened fairly quickly, though slow pockets did exist.
Samsung Pay
Like the S6, S6 Edge and S6 Edge+, the Note 5 supports Samsung Pay, the company's new mobile payment system. It will only be available in the US and South Korea for now, and we've demoed the beta service in both countries. Check out our experience in South Korea here, and see it on the Note 5 in this video below.Syncing
On the syncing and management side, Samsung promises it has spruce up SideSync (version 4.0) to make sharing content with your PC, tablet or TV a little smoother. It wasn't live at the time of this review, but Samsung says it's coming soon.One benefit is auto-connection (after the initial setup); another, the ability to respond to text and calls from the computer screen, similar to Apple's Handoff feature. You can also drag and drop software between your desktop and phone. The software you'll need works with Windows PCs, tablets and Macs -- that latter is a welcome first.
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