My insatiable obsession with Technology or as some people say foolishness, I purchased the Samsung Note 5, a couple of weeks back, the review below is my take on this flagship from Samsung. Let’s look at The Good, Bad and Ugly of this Beast of a Device.
As always the Review would not be Technical but purely from the User Point of View.
The Good:
1) Display: Gorgeous, Stunning or Beautiful whatever you’d like to call it, the Note 5 has one of the Best Displays on a Cell Phone, the colors are true, with right amount of saturation and multimedia( especially the HD Videos) look amazing, this should be the benchmark not just for Samsung but all future Devices.
2) Camera: Samsung, of course has had some of the Best Camera’s for a Long time and Note 5 takes it forward, it’s not just the Numbers that Count, what matters is the result.
I particularly loved the speed of capture, Image Stabilization( A shaky hand won’t give you a shaky picture), Modes( Simple, user friendly and more importantly sensible).
There are also some extra modes you can download directly from the Photo App that is a huge relief since am not a fan of 3rd Party Apps for Camera.
Just in case Numbers matter to you: Rear Camera: 16 MP, Front 5 MP.
3) Multi-tasking: With a 4GB RAM, multi-tasking is expected to be reasonably fast and reliable which the Note 5 does manage, however what is more satisfying is some of the tricks you can manage like the Split Screen, Screen Shots, wonderfully integrated S Planner( Calendar) and the Magical S-PEN( More on this below).
4) S Pen: Just one word for the S-PEN, i.e "WOW", I know people write-off the Stylus more often than not, but once you get used to the S-PEN on the Note 5 am sure this will be an addiction!. You want to capture the whole webpage, how about a little screen shot of the Video? or may be note down a quick message / phone number without switching on the phone, write anything and put a reminder, or even preview the content - all of this and more be done with the S Pen, now that is a feature that can be called as an " Innovation".
Only downside with the S Pen is you may break it if you insert it in the wrong direction!.
Now, The Bad:
1) Storage: I am unable to figure out the rationale in making such a useful phone and making it restricted to 34 / 64 GB without an option of expanding, it’s like a Buffet where you are allowed to taste everything and you love the food but you can’t have extra servings even if you are willing to pay, that’s not fair.
2) Speaker: Even though the Clarity is decent, it’s not mind-blowing and to make it worse its placed at the bottom of the phone which inevitably gets blocked while you hold the phone in Landscape mode.
3) Battery: Half a Day battery is just not good!, less said the better.
Yes it has fast charge, wireless charge, but a phone that dies on you by 5 p.m is not cool.
Finally, the Ugly:
It’s not the Price or non-removable battery or Samsung’s skin( which is irritating and lags quite a bit), for me the most Ugly part of the phone is, the more I use it I feel Samsung has intentionally avoided going full-on with this device, I am sure a lot more could have been done but hasn’t been done just to ensure the Next one is better or has more to offer, this I’ve felt from a Long time and not just with Samsung, now this belief gets more stronger with the Note 5.
Overall,
Amazing phone with some drawbacks, useful for Business / Corporate users, needs some learning to make full use of the device.
And beware a Small drop can shatter this into pieces and the Note will make you spend more Notes!
Purchase Price:
49, 000 /- and after a 30 minute bargain got a Sony Blue tooth handset free.