Nexus 6 to Note 5?

harmattan

harmattan

Supreme [H]ardness
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Feb 11, 2008
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The trouble and strife and I are looking to upgrade our Nexus 6. She wants to move back to a Samsung device, I'm simply looking to move to something new perhaps with a better screen and ergonomics. Has anyone made the jump from a Nexus 6 to a Note 5? Good experience?

Any other suggestions? We are looking for something with at least a 5.5" screen and at least 32GB.
 
Note 6 is at least 8 months away...

I have a Note 5 and I absolutely love it. Fast, amazing screen and sometimes the S Pen comes in handy. Don't forget the wireless charging capabilities, that's probably one of my favorite features.
 
mi7chy said:
Note 5 is better hardware, more features, higher quality and with more manageable ergonomics.

Size Comparison
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/size/Google-Nexus-6,Samsung-Galaxy-Note-5/phones/8626,9462

Note 5 vs Nexus 6 Review Comparison
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Samsung-Galaxy-Note5-vs-Google-Nexus-6_id4067
Click to expand...

Better hardware...crappy software that lord knows if and or when it might be updated.

Oh yea, and then you're boned into having a carrier specific device with carrier specific crapware and carrier specific firmware.
 
Crappy hardware is permanent unlike software. Lollipop is the sweet spot while app developers have to update apps that Marshmallow break. And, nobody wants to waste time with crappy broken custom ROMs. So, Note 5 is better hardware and software.
 
mi7chy said:
Crappy hardware is permanent unlike software. Lollipop is the sweet spot while app developers have to update apps that Marshmallow break. And, nobody wants to waste time with crappy broken custom ROMs. So, Note 5 is better hardware and software.
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Your definition of "crappy" is pretty laughable. It is like saying that an i7-4790 is a "crappy" CPU.

I'd take middling level hardware over the lockdown firmware shit Samsung peddles that is updated for a year and then abandoned, security flaws and all.
 
+1 for the note 5. The note 6 might be exciting, but for the time being I am going to stick to my Note 5
 
Both are good phones. The vast majority of users don't give a rats ass about pure Android vs TouchWiz, unlike forum people. TouchWiz is perfectly fine and usable, so is Android (except for its sometimes buggy releases, like 5.0). Note 5 has by far superior battery life, screen, ergonomics, N6 has of course more customizable software, if you care about custom rom's etc, which 99.9% of people don't.

I'm very happy with my $250 N6 :)
 
willx said:
Has anyone tried the N6P?
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My question as well... Unfortunately, wireless charging is a must for me so the N6P is not an option.

I am now comparing the Note 5 to the Mate 8 which looks pretty good apart from the lower-res IPS screen.
 
MrCrispy said:
Both are good phones. The vast majority of users don't give a rats ass about pure Android vs TouchWiz, unlike forum people. TouchWiz is perfectly fine and usable, so is Android (except for its sometimes buggy releases, like 5.0). Note 5 has by far superior battery life, screen, ergonomics, N6 has of course more customizable software, if you care about custom rom's etc, which 99.9% of people don't.

I'm very happy with my $250 N6 :)
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People do tend to care about updates and specifically security updates in the wake of this years Android vulnerabilities. That being said...I would n't pay $500USD for a new device in order to lose a carrier-free unlocked phone I can take anywhere and be forced into a 2-year agreement.
 
bastage said:
How about a g4?
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V10 is more comparable. In fact, I just saw this decent comparison vid between the V10 and Note5. I think I'd take the V10 even though I love the AMOLED on newer Samsung phones (my wife has a GS6). The V10 has a wireless charging back available as well. It's surprising how many stellar reviews the V10 has gotten, I would consider it myself if it had front facing speakers, I'm spoiled from that on my M8 now and won't consider another phone without them. It's cool the V10 comes with 64GBs internal storage though, plus you can add a ridiculous 128+GB SD card for pretty cheap now. Also, it seems LG is doing a bit better than Samsung on updating their phones since the G4 is on Marshmallow on most variants now. I'd say the V10 isn't far behind.
 
Perfect thread for me.

In the past year and a half, I've owned; HTC One M8, OnePlus One, iPhone 6 Plus, Nexus 6, and now the Note 5.

I really liked my Nexus 6, running AOSP ROM's was great, and it was a very fast and smooth phone, but, the size was just too much for me, mainly the width being very difficult to ever one hand the phone with any use. Plus the camera sucked on that phone, and battery life was ok, not bad, not great. And I hated the curved back, it rocked back and forth like a canoe in choppy waters. I much prefer flat back phones, it's just smart design, and lays on the table for better use.

The Note 5 in comparison, is just as smooth, surprisingly with Touchwiz, but you really need to install a "Material" theme to get rid of the hideous looking Touchwiz. The display is way nicer on the Note 5, and much much better for outdoor use too. The camera is night and day better on the Note 5. And battery life too is better on the Note 5.

Bottom line the Note 5 compared to the Nexus 6, the N5 is a massive leap forward in tech. The Note 5 has one of the top cameras of all smartphones, the display is fantastic, the build quality rivals Apple, very good battery life. Whereas the Nexus 6 has a crap camera, the display is pretty poor, and build quality is whatever.
 
willx said:
Has anyone tried the N6P?
Click to expand...

I've owned one for a few months and....its been kind of a mixed bag at this point. Hardware is quite good; its very light and thin (though this makes it a bitch to hold without a case), camera is good and the screen (in sRGB mode) is awesome. Software, specifically with Marshmallow 6.0, was very good as well. Unfortunately, my experience has taken a nosedive since Marshmallow 6.0.1 came out. Now the screen won't auto-rotate, the front and back cameras don't work, and the screen won't turn off when I bring the phone up to my ear for calls. Going Nexus gives you fast updates, but the downside is you're also effectively beta testing said updates.

In general, its a very good device provided an OTA updates doesn't break anything. I'm sure my opinion will improve dramatically if a re-flash fixes all the above problems (another benefit to having a Nexus is that re-flashing updates or entire OSes is very easy).
 
MrCrispy said:
TouchWiz is perfectly fine and usable...
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I take it that you haven't experienced TouchWiz on the Note 4. Ever since I obliterated that garbage from my phone, it runs way better.

I'm really excited to see if the eventual Marshmallow update for the N4 can bring me back.
 
perhaps you can wait until end of next month?
apparently Samsung is announcing S7 little early this year and this time it will come in two sizes like iphone
 
I use nexus 6, the 2014 model. Butter smooth...paid $350 on amazon. I also have google project Fi....right now i pay about $25 a month since I use wifi 95%.
 
Seems like a sidegrade to me, which is a hard sell at $700+. The Note 5 has indisputably better hardware, but the N6 has indisputably better software, when you really get down to it. Unless the N6 is struggling to keep up with actual applications you use on a regular basis (seems doubtful), it's not worth it.

After owning a phone that runs AOSP out of the box for a few months now, I just couldn't ever go back. Someone could offer me a free swap from my MXPE to a Note 5 right this second and I'd decline, unless I were promised official GPE ROMs from Google through at least Android N. AOSP is just too much of a pleasure and hassle-free to use day-to-day relative to shitty OEM skins, and custom ROMs for Samsung devices are never going to be truly stable and flawless (in my experience).
 
brettjrob said:
N6 has indisputably better software, when you really get down to it. Unless the N6 is struggling to keep up with actual applications you use on a regular basis (seems doubtful), it's not worth it.
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Well, no. Newer software isn't necessarily better. If you're a power user newer Android is actually worse for things like Tasker and newer means you're beta testing. Also, lightly skinned also means light on conveniences like lack of one-time 'unknown sources' toggle which is brilliantly simple and lack of features like split screen multitasking to name a few. And, while I'm a big fan of the original Motorola build quality and software updates they seem to have gotten crappier since they were sold off. So, the Nexus 6 is like a base Chevy Impala to a Lexus LS like Note 5. To a basic user they're both cars but to an enthusiast there's quite a difference.
 
I hate vanilla Android, I actually prefer samsungs touchwiz to vanilla any day.


I have a Note 4 (coming from Note 3), friend has the note 5, Love the phone (4 and 5) Awesome screen, pretty awesome camera, and it's plenty fast. 2 coworkers also have the nexus 6, and 6p, I'd take the Note 5 any day. I don't care for 0 day updates, which by the way, made my nexus 7 FHD nearly unusable.

Few pros of touchwiz:

Phone app (better)
Contacts Manager (better)
Camera software (better)
S-pen specific apps.
 
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Digital Viper-X- said:
I don't care for 0 day updates, which by the way, made my nexus 7 FHD nearly unusable.
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That's odd. My son's N7 runs great on Marshmallow. I was running it side by side with my Shield Tablet running 5.0.1 still and it was keeping up pretty well despite running significantly slower hardware. Battery life seems to have gotten crazy good on it since the update as well, esp. in standby time.
 
T4rd said:
That's odd. My son's N7 runs great on Marshmallow. I was running it side by side with my Shield Tablet running 5.0.1 still and it was keeping up pretty well despite running significantly slower hardware. Battery life seems to have gotten crazy good on it since the update as well, esp. in standby time.
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Mine is laggy as all hell now. :/ startup takes 3-4 minutes.
 
Nexus updates are overrated, I can't think of a single update in the last 2-3 years that hasn't introduced problems that required more fixes - quality is way down. L (5.0) was basically released in beta, it was terrible and full of bugs and unfinished features.

In contrast, when Samsung/LG release updates (note, don't confuse this with US carriers blocking updates for years) they are high quality and tested properly.
 
The grass is always greener. I went from a developer edition note 4, to a nexus 6. The note 4 is fast but its noticeably slower at opening apps and switching than the nexus 6.
 
Are you comparing a Note 4 running 5.0.x and not 5.1.1 or 4.4? Any .0 release is going rough around the edges.
 
mi7chy said:
Are you comparing a Note 4 running 5.0.x and not 5.1.1 or 4.4? Any .0 release is going rough around the edges.
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Many devices running the same stale firmware start lagging after 6 months to a year. Just like Windows used to. Course if Samsung reliably updated their firmware people wouldn't notice.
 
Are you running 6.1 to fix all the 6.0 issues? If not you're as much a Nexus sheep that the crappy custom ROMs can't do jack about.
 
mi7chy said:
Are you running 6.1 to fix all the 6.0 issues? If not you're as much a Nexus sheep that the crappy custom ROMs can't do jack about.
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"All the 6.0 issues"? I honestly don't know WTF you are talking about. 6.0.1r10 runs as well as 6.0 did. BTW 6.1 doesn't exist, maybe you should go back to Samsung R-education Camp to get some learnings. Crappy custom ROMs? They're only crappy on Samsung devices, due entirely to Samsung's stances on driver code and locking the hell out of your hardware.

It would be interesting to meet you and have a beer. I imagine you're 12-15 years old based on the last few posts. Course, legally you couldn't have a beer and would need a club soda.
 
mi7chy said:
You won't show up because you'll miss the notification.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/m/#!msg/nexus/Ayd_1TOemSE/JicOyhOSAAAJ

Now hush and leave the adults.
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I get email notifications just fine.

Are you one of those people who finds every bug report online in a desperate act to lend credence to your view....nevermind that those bugs are isolated incidents? Keep struggling. It would take a Samsung fan to try to turn not getting security updates that patch legitimate zero-day flaws....into somehow being a good thing.

Just stop defending the indefensible idiotic stances companies like Samsung take and we'll get along fine. They're phones and OSes, not religions.
 
Marshmallow has been flawless on my device, even though I installed it in early December (relatively early in its life cycle, by Android standards). I understand there were some significant problems with 5.0 in its early days, but I wouldn't say that's been the norm for AOSP over the past 4-5 years.

Samsung's software philosophy, proprietary drivers, etc. are indefensible, whether you personally care about AOSP/custom ROMs or not. My last phone was an S3, and AOSP-based ROMs were never perfect because of this. Meanwhile, Touchwiz was unbearable in both aesthetics and day-to-day speed. I can still remember my jaw dropping over the speed improvement when I first loaded CM9 on the S3 a few months after I bought it.

I would hope that TouchWiz has improved some in the three years since I last used it regularly, but after surveying lots of user reviews and a few videos, I don't buy that it's on-par with AOSP in speed and performance. The memory management issues on the S6/Note 5 are well-documented, and one of the reasons that as someone valuing real-world performance, I'll gladly stick with "lesser-hardware" AOSP devices like the MXPE or N6P (or even the N6, honestly, which is an incredible value right now aside from size-related ergonomics).
 
Marshmallow is not an option since it breaks a lot of apps like cppdroid besides the bugs and app developers just completed updating for Lollipop.

Difference between stock and CM sounds like an exaggeration because I don't see a difference in UI responsiveness between the two on Note II which is same era as S3. If anything I lose the wallpaper translucency for an ugly white background in app drawer and scrolling animation in games is more jerky in CM vs stock. Add to the fact that there's usually basic stuff that's been broken in CM for at least a year such as clicking on a link that opens another tab in stock browser that breaks scrolling, YouTube playback issue mentioned earlier, etc.

Touchwiz multitasks fine and it doesn't suffer from throttling issues. Try something like this. Oh, you can't and it throttles with just one app. Different strokes for different folks.

Screenshot_2015-08-25-16-07-52a_zps33cxsglv.png
 
mi7chy said:
Marshmallow is not an option since it breaks a lot of apps like cppdroid besides the bugs and app developers just completed updating for Lollipop.

Difference between stock and CM sounds like an exaggeration because I don't see a difference in UI responsiveness between the two on Note II which is same era as S3. If anything I lose the wallpaper translucency for an ugly white background in app drawer and scrolling animation in games is more jerky in CM vs stock. Add to the fact that there's usually basic stuff that's been broken in CM for at least a year such as clicking on a link that opens another tab in stock browser that breaks scrolling, YouTube playback issue mentioned earlier, etc.

Touchwiz multitasks fine and it doesn't suffer from throttling issues. Try something like this. Oh, you can't and it throttles with just one app. Different strokes for different folks.

Screenshot_2015-08-25-16-07-52a_zps33cxsglv.png
Click to expand...

Yes basic stuff is broken on CM....only on Samsung. Because Samsung. Like I said.


Further your developer "just just completed updating to Lollipop" speaks volumes about how either little time/effort they put into developing....or how much more they have bitten off than they can chew. Imagine someone griping about their favorite program JUST got updated to Windows XP and now W10 comes out.
 
If I can't even get TTL to admit to Sprint being a CDMA carrier or Foxconn being an electronic components manufacturer, what makes you think you could get him to admit to this? Give it up, Skripka.
 
mi7chy said:
Marshmallow is not an option since it breaks a lot of apps like cppdroid besides the bugs and app developers just completed updating for Lollipop.

Difference between stock and CM sounds like an exaggeration because I don't see a difference in UI responsiveness between the two on Note II which is same era as S3. If anything I lose the wallpaper translucency for an ugly white background in app drawer and scrolling animation in games is more jerky in CM vs stock. Add to the fact that there's usually basic stuff that's been broken in CM for at least a year such as clicking on a link that opens another tab in stock browser that breaks scrolling, YouTube playback issue mentioned earlier, etc.
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What old version of CM have you been using?

Never had the "broken scrolling" problem with the stock browser, even going all the way back to running CM9 on my Samsung Galaxy Exhibit;

Zero issues with YouTube playback on my Moto X and Note 4, both running CM12.1.;

As to the "ugly white background in app drawer", you could either change your launcher (I'm using Apex Launcher, which I even had installed while my Note 4 was stock), or install Xposed+GravityBox to change GNL/Trebuchet:
CM12.1 with Apex Launcher (ooh mystical transparency!)
vjUN4Cg.png
 
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JMccovery said:
What old version of CM have you been using?

Never had the "broken scrolling" problem with the stock browser, even going all the way back to running CM9 on my Samsung Galaxy Exhibit;

Zero issues with YouTube playback on my Moto X and Note 4, both running CM12.1.;

As to the "ugly white background in app drawer", you could either change your launcher (I'm using Apex Launcher, which I even had installed while my Note 4 was stock), or install Xposed+GravityBox to change GNL/Trebuchet:
CM12.1 with Apex Launcher (ooh mystical transparency!)]
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Latest stable 12.1 snapshot and fairly recent nightlies.

Here's one of the discussions regarding broken stock browser inertial scrolling on link that opens new tab.

http://forum.cyanogenmod.org/topic/109778-broken-inertial-scrolling-in-the-stock-cm12-browser/

And, bug report on different device for YouTube playback issue:

https://jira.cyanogenmod.org/browse/CYAN-7282

Bought Nova Prime and while it did restore wallpaper translucency it also introduced jerky app drawer scrolling. Gestures can be useful but as a whole it wasn't enough to convince me to keep it as I prefer KISS (SS for stock and stable).
 
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Odd, I use Nova Prime as well with a fully transparent app drawer and get zero stutters while scrolling through it. I just tried it several times in hand and not one dropped frame with 130ish apps/icons installed. This is on my One M8.
 
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