Earlier this week, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 went up for sale in the United States and various other parts of the world. With the sales of the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge losing momentum and the Korean giant losing market share over the last few quarters, a lot depends on the Galaxy Note 5 for Samsung. To counter the impending launch of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus and to prevent it from cannibalising the sales of the Note series, Samsung decided to unveil the Galaxy Note 5 a month earlier than its usual launch time frame. The company announced the Galaxy Note 5 at its Unpacked Galaxy event last week and released it across major markets of the world on August 21. So how good is the Samsung Galaxy Note 5? We round up some of the notable reviews of the device to help you save time and make your decision of buying the device easier.
The Verge: The publication found the Galaxy Note 5 to be a bigger version of the Galaxy S6 with some design tweaks, though they say that it is not really a bad thing. Additionally, the found the display on the phablet “gorgeous”, which should not really come as a surprise since the display on the Galaxy S6 was crowned as the best display found on a smartphone earlier this year. As for the S Pen, this is what Dieter Bohn had to say about it: S Pen: Despite coming with a smaller 3,000mAh battery, the Galaxy Note 5 did well in The Verge’s battery tests. Battery: To conclude, this is what the publication had to say about the Galaxy Note 5: Android Central: The publication’s review of the Galaxy Note is very positive, and they say the design and internal improvements more than make up for the lack of two of the favorite features of power users: a removable battery and a microSD card slot. The website praises the reduced bezels on the Galaxy Note 5, which makes the device feel smaller than it actually is. Additionally, it notes that the curve on the back edges of the device help improve its ergonomics, which was a big pain point on the Galaxy S6. Build Quality: It did, however, criticise the Note 5’s speaker for being tinny and barely audible. Software: Samsung greatly improved TouchWiz with the Galaxy S6 and the same version of its skin is found on the Galaxy Note 5, though the iconography has been tweaked slightly to give the UI a slight refresh. Android Central notes that the Galaxy Note 5 comes with the same display density as the Galaxy S6, which is higher than what the Galaxy Note 4 had despite coming with the same screen size and resolution. This increase in DPI might take many existing Note users a few minutes to adjust to the screen, but after that they will find everything on their previous Note display hilariously big. Performance: When it comes to performance, Andrew Martonik notes that the Galaxy Note 5 offers almost lag free experience. Whatever lag that used to show up on the Galaxy S6 in certain parts of the UI are completely eliminated from the Note 5. He also notes that either due to software optimisations or the extra gigabyte of RAM, the Galaxy Note 5 is a better multi tasker than the Galaxy S6. Battery life: The Galaxy Note 5 should be easily able to last you a day, but don’t expect anything more from it. In the end, Android Central notes in its review of the Galaxy Note 5 that if you can afford it, you should definitely purchase the device. What do you think about the Galaxy Note 5 based on the reviews above? Will you be buying the device or are you waiting for the iPhone 6 Plus?
