Samsung has brought the once-oversized Galaxy Note closer in line with the more traditional Galaxy S line in 2015, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Cleaner software, a new-and-improved hardware design and the industry-leading S Pen add up to a wonderful phone, even though some will bemoan the loss of a removable battery and SD card slot. The Note 5 has one of the best screens available in a phone, is easier to hold thanks to the new hardware design and the internals offer a significant performance boost over the Note 4 — and even so, battery life is a non-issue. This is a Note made for even more people to enjoy, and it’s a really great choice if you want a large screen.
THE GOOD
- Great new design
- Easier to hold than previous Notes
- Fantastic camera
- Refined S Pen experience
THE BAD
- Underwhelming speaker
- Glass back still somewhat slippery
- Seriously expensive
- May cause Galaxy S buyer’s remorse
- Samsung’s Galaxy Notes started out as a niche product. But with each subsequent release it’s pulled closer to the mainstream. Or maybe the definition of a “mainstream” phone has also pushed closer to the Note. In any event the Galaxy Note 5 is the biggest realization of this movement, as it borrows many of its design cues, features and specs directly from this year’s Galaxy S6, the phone historically targeted at the widest portion of the market.
The Note 5 brings a shiny new exterior built on slick glass and well-crafted metal, shrunken down to be easier to hold while integrating a beautiful screen, one-touch fingerprint sensor and a great camera. And of course it retains the well-known S Pen. With all of the advancement, two things that haven’t stuck around this year are the removable battery and SD card, which up to this point have been hallmarks of the Galaxy Note.
Nope, the Note 5 no longer is a niche device. It’s aimed to be a big phone for even more people — and that means dropping a few lesser-used features for an overall device that’s appealing to a broad swath of the public. Broadening the appeal of a phone without unintentionally dumbing it down can often be tough, but Samsung has put enough into the Note 5 to make sure that doesn’t happen. We’ll show you
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