Pros:
Great looks. I mean it. The glass and metal coupled with the phone’s shimmery finish is going to attract eyes whenever pulled out.
Fingerprint scanner works pretty quick, Marshmallow coming up in less than 60 days will make it even faster at fingerprint recognition with the PayPal certified scanner.
TouchWIZ is pretty lightweight these days compared to 2 years ago. Felt really natural, even though it didn’t suit my tastes.
The best camera. It’s not even the fact that it packs 16 megapixels. It’s the software optimizations that Samsung baked into this thing’s sensor, it’s just amazing. Evidenced by the casual photos I took below, and it still comes out looking great.
Fast charging will save your life one day. Count on it.
Phone is fast, smooth, and fluid. Use Nova Launcher, forget TouchWIZ.
The screen is the best I’ve ever seen. 577 Pixels Per Inch, no jokes made. You cannot distinguish reading something on it from reading the pages of a book, it’s that crisp.
The best hardware money can buy at the moment. If you’ve got the courage to root, this thing will fly. Period. 65000~ points on AnTuTu after an hour of customization? Bonkers.
Sound quality is great. The speaker is good for a single loudspeaker. Clarity is good. Easy to muffle with just a single stray finger though.
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Cons:
Really, really slippery. whether you’re trying to grip the glass or the metal. Use a case. Please. Also, the little camera "hump" at the back is also one more reason why I bought a case to cover it up.
You get 25 GB of free space on the internal storage right out of the box( On the 32 GB version) . While it doesn’t matter to most users, some power users might want to get the 64 GB version.
Battery life is bad, until you debloat using Package Disabler Pro and disable things you will not use. Everything counts, all you need is a little googling and the effort to tweak it like it’s yours, and truly make it your phone. Lasted me approximately 12 hours until I got back from work with 1% battery left. It was the only time I didn’t take the fast charger with me, and after that, no sweat. A charging session while you have lunch, and it’s ready to go the distance.
The back of the phone is the only part that overheats, and that’s only when it is charging. Otherwise, nada. The Exynos chipset at work on the 14nm architecture really shows its bearings here. Slight heating when multitasking extensively or benchmarking.
The in-call speaker is somewhat quiet, but remedied by turning on an option when in-call( "Extra volume" as Samsung calls it) .
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Bottomline:
The phone feels, looks, and runs like a flagship, period. Go with your heart and buy this beauty. I was sorely disappointed by OnePlus, but that was after I bought this after enough waiting, and I’m glad I bought this beast. It’s a great phone, and will last you at least two years while being a great performer, no sweat. It’s nice and compact at approximately 138 grams( Lighter than my older Moto G2), and has a great 5.1" quad-HD screen that is so crisp it pops up at you.
Samsung has done it, and in what a style.