NEW DELHI: Less than a month after unveiling Galaxy Note5, Samsung has announced the availability of its flagship phablet in India.
Successor to Galaxy Note 4, the new device breaks away from how Samsung typically designs the Note devices and instead follows the company's flagship smartphone, Galaxy S6. The phablet comes with a much refined S-Pen stylus capabilities for better multi-tasking and improved video capabilities. We spent some time with the Note5 at the launch event and here's a brief look at the phone...
Samsung Galaxy Note5 looks like a bigger version of the Galaxy S6 complete with a metal frame and glass panels at the front and back. However, the back is curved at the edges to enhance grip. This is critical especially since the Note5 is a large device though the phone's width is slightly lesser than that of the Note 4.
Read full specs of Samsung Galaxy Note5
Thanks to the super-thin bezel, Samsung has been able to fit the 5.7-inch display in a relatively smaller body which means the phone doesn't feel unwieldy though not exactly optimum for one hand use. It's undoubtedly a premium device and feels great to hold but the back is very prone to smudging. Also, it felt a bit slippery.
You no longer get access to the phone's battery as the phone has a unibody design and a non-removable back and this is slightly disappointing. It also doesn't feature a microSD card slot so you have to live with the built-in flash storage.
On the metal-clad edge, you'll see the power button on the right, volume rocker keys at the left, sim card slot at the top and the micro-USB port at the bottom along with the S-Pen slot and 3.5mmm headset jack. The bottom edge of the phone would remind you of the iPhone 6/6S. There's no Infrared port unlike the Note 4 so you won't be able to use your phone as a remote control.
The front of the phone features the 5.7-inch display with the physical Home button just placed below it. The button also integrates a fingerprint sensor. Two capacitive navigation keys are located next to it.
The back features a shiny Gorilla glass panel. There's a camera module with the lens protruding out a bit along with an LED flash and a heart rate sensor.
The Note5's 5.7-inch dual-edge Quad HD (1440x2560p) or 2K resolution Super AMOLED display offers vibrant albeit slightly saturated colours, deep blacks and excellent viewing angles. It's one of the most pixel-dense phones offering super sharp text and images.
The Galaxy Note5 is powered by a Samsung Exynos octa core (2.1GHz Quad + 1.5GHz Quad), 64 bit chip and 4GB RAM (LPDDR4). It comes in 32GB and 64GB storage variants but there's no microSD card slot for expansion. In terms of connectivity, the the phone supports WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, MIMO(2x2), Bluetooth 4.2 LE, ANT+, USB 2.0, NFC, GPS/GLONASS, and 4G LTE Cat.9 / LTE Cat.6 options. The phone comes with a fingerprint sensor and heart rate monitor.
The phone runs Android 5.1 Lollipop with a new optimized version of Samsung's TouchWiz UI layer with icons that look good and suit the high-resolution display.
The newly-designed Galaxy Note5 provides a new set of productivity tools such as SideSync, along with a much refined 5th generation S Pen capabilities for better multi-tasking.
Samsung claims the Galaxy Note5's new S Pen feels more solid and balanced in the user's hand, offering improved writing capabilities and a variety of tools. It features a clicking mechanism to offer a better experience and users can now quickly jot down ideas or information even when the screen is off without even unlocking the phone through a low power mode. The 'Air Command' feature has also been given an upgrade; now the icon hovers for instant access to all of S Pen tools from any screen at any time. Users can also annotate on PDF files and capture lengthy web articles or long images at once via 'Scroll capture.'
In our brief time with the phone we did not encounter any stutter or lag while navigating through the user interface and switching between apps.
The Note5 sports a 16MP rear camera with Optical Image Stabilisation and a 5MP front-facing camera.
Samsung's new phone also comes with improved video capabilities including Steady Video, which provides Video Digital Image Stabilization on both the front and rear cameras for sharp, crisp video on-the-go, and Video Collage Mode, which allows users to record and edit short videos easily in various frames and effects. The Galaxy Note5 also features 4K(UHD) video filming and Live Broadcast, which lets users instantly live stream Full HD video straight from the phone to any individual, group of contacts, or even the public through YouTube Live.
It's backed by a 3,000mAh battery that supports fast charging with both wireless and wired chargers.
The phone will be available at Rs 53,900 for 32GB and Rs 59,900 for 64GB variant. We feel that Samsung has priced the new Note device sensibly and it would be interesting to see how it would stand against Apple's upcoming large-screen iPhone and Sony Xperia Z5 Premium. We'll soon have a full review of the phone.
- The Times of India