Samsung Galaxy Note 5 review: still a big deal
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 release date and price
The Galaxy Note 5 is currently only available in the US and Canada. It launched on August 21 in the US on AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular. It isn’t coming to Europe (including the UK) at this stage, although that could change, and we have heard that the Note 5 can be found unofficially in Europe, but you’ll need to search for it.
A "trusted Samsung source" of Gadgette.com brought the news in early December that the Galaxy Note 5 would finally see a European release in 2016. The move comes with dubious timing, given that the device has been available for nigh on six months in the US, and the next line of Galaxy devices is due to be unveiled shortly, but consumers will surely be gladdened by the news, nonetheless.
The Galaxy Note 5 is reportedly going on sale in the UK first, in late January.
The Galaxy Note 5 price is reasonable considering its premium build, but you’re still going to fork out quite a bit for it. In the US, it’ll set you back US$250 on a two-year contract and US$696 off-contract with Verizon.
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 where to buy
These are the current best offers and deals for the Galaxy Note 5. All prices are correct at the time of writing.
AT&T, US$70 p/m (plus US$45 one-off activation fee and US$249 for the handset) with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 2 GB data, on a two-year contract
U.S. Cellular, US$70 p/m (plus US$40 one-off activation charge and a US$199.99 upfront fee) with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 1 GB data, on a two-year contract
You can also buy an unlocked international version of the Galaxy Note 5 with 32 GB of internal storage on Amazon for around US$762.
- Buy now: Samsung Galaxy Note 5 at Amazon.com from US$762
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 design and build quality
Samsung has applied the design language it used with the Galaxy S6 to the Note 5. Gone are the days of tacky fake leather and plastic for the Galaxy Note series: the Note 5 shines with an aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass 4 on the front and back.
The most striking thing about the Note 5’s design is its rounded rear edges. Imagine the curved front edges of the Galaxy S6 Edge+, transplanted to the back of the Note 5. The bezels surrounding the display are extremely narrow, particularly next to those curved edges, and they look great. Samsung has taken a real leap forward here in terms of design quality.
The Galaxy Note 5 is certainly beautiful. Its design and the materials used means it feels like a more premium device than its predecessors in the series, but it has lost a few typical Note features. There is no microSD card slot, for example, which will disappoint many fans of the series, and the battery is not replaceable.
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 display
The Galaxy Note 5 display is a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED unit with QHD resolution. There is no display quite like it – not even the dual edge display of the Galaxy S6 Edge (with or without a plus) looks quite as good.
The Galaxy Note 5 display is actually more comparable with that of the Galaxy S6. Both have a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels, but because the Note 5 display is bigger (5.7 inches compared with 5.1 inches), the pixel density is lower. It still amounts to 518 ppi though,which we don’t imagine would be a cause for complaint for anyone.
DisplayMate test results
To get a broader set of results for our testing, we’ve used turned to experts in the field of smartphone and tablet displays. Every year, DisplayMate tests displays using complex procedures to identify color fidelity, color space, brightness, sharpness, reflections, viewing angle stability and so on. Samsung gets top honors virtually every year.
The Note 5 display is much brighter than the Note 4s. It can be seen much better in bright ambient light, and it is also significantly more power-efficient. According to DisplayMate, it provides the best color reproduction of all mobile displays. The Note 5 also set a new record on display brightness.
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 special features
The special feature of the Note series is the S Pen. A novel feature of the Galaxy Note 5’s S Pen is that it now has an ejecting mechanism. By pressing the thruster on the end, the stylus pops out from its housing and can be pulled out.
You can use the pen in two modes. Pulling it out while the phone is in standby mode starts the minimalistic launcher.
When the phone is unlocked, removing the Note 5 stylus launches Air Command. This shows a list of S Pen-specific apps that you can access quickly.
To use the S Pen for typing, you need to change the keyboard to pen input. You can find this on the Samsung keyboard to the left of the spacebar.
Following the Note 5s release, many users reported a design flaw. They claimed it was easy to insert the S Pen into the slot the wrong way round, and that doing so made it difficult to remove the pen, and caused the pen removal detection to stop working.
Now, Samsung has quietly corrected this flaw. New models feature a small internal tab that allows for damage-free ejection of the stylus when it is inserted incorrectly. The discovery was made by a user over at Phandroid and was laterconfirmed by Samsung, who had previously included warning labels on the packaging, which evidently proved insufficient.
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 software
The Note 5 has already had numerous software updates. The T-Mobile Edition we used came immediately with performance updates based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. An update to Android Marshmallow is on the way.
Our review unit came with some bloatware apps installed, but not an excessive number; just the S Pen apps in addition to the usual Facebook and Microsoft apps. Samsung still runs its TouchWiz UI over the top of its Galaxy series.
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 performance
The Galaxy Note 5 packs the powerful Exynos 7420 processor, which has eight cores and a clock speed of more than 2.1 GHz. It has 4 GB of RAM. As with the Galaxy S6 Edge+, there is only the choice between 32 GB and 64 GB versions.
In processor speed and and memory performance benchmarks, the Note 5 performance sits somewhere between the S6 Edge+ and the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact.
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