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Galaxy Note 5

4h Screen On time, just blows, my Nexus 6 routinely gives me on average 5.5h Screen On time, and overall like 25 to 30 hours total battery life, and bad days I may only get 4.5h Screen On time with like 20 hours total battery life, but 9 times out fo 10, I get the 5.5h Screen On time.

To me my Nexus 6 giving me 5.5h Screen On is the borderline, of the minimum I need. Usually I find the 5.5h just barely enough to get me through the day, I need and want more battery life, because I hammer my phone all day and night long, couple hours of phone calls per day, million text messages, million e-mails, GPS Navigation, surf the web, watch YouTube, take photos.

Bottom line, if the Note 4 only gets around 4h Screen On time, that's terrible for a Phablet, phone would be useless for me by afternoon. Samsung screwed up big time, long gone are the glory days of the awesome Note 2 getting 6.5h to 7h Screen On time, the Note 2 was known as a battery champion king.
 
Samsung Galaxy Note5 Review
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Samsung-Galaxy-Note5-Review_id4059

Don't mean be a nitpicker. But reading this review, a few interesting notes pop up. Seems besides the amazing new build quality, it isn't a major night and day upgrade over the Note 4, compared to the Note 4 over the Note 3 which was a HUGE update.

Has Samsung stagnated or slowed down on progressing technology each generation now ?

- Display = They say it's great and all, but pretty much like the Note 4's ( Which is already awesome, I know ) But I thought Samsung would've pushed for an update. When the Note 4 came out, it was regarded as the bests screen technology ever seen on a smartphone. But the Note 5's is pretty much the same as last years.

- Processor / SoC = Pretty much the exact same hardware as the Galaxy S6's. Which is a first for a Note. All other Note phone always used the next gen updated processor over the S line. This is the first time, Samsung didn't update it for the Note.

- Camera = Same as the S6. Which is great, but usually the Note gets the next updated camera over the S line.
 
This review says the Note 5 has significantly better battery life than the iPhone 6 Plus ( Which IMO the 6 Plus is a beast for battery, one of the best ) So the Note 5 is even that much better ?

This review shows it getting like 50% better battery life WTF, no friggin way. 6 Plus with 6h 32m and the Note 5 with 9h 11m. I don't know, I'm confused on those results, or what they even mean ?
 
Battery life is a function of display brightness, CPU and GPU cores utilized and reception. That's why Gsmarena battery test shows talk time > movie playback > web browsing. If they add two more categories that I like, idle and 3D gaming, it'll be idle > talk time > movie playback > web browsing > 3D gaming for obvious reasons. Even more important than the results is that they keep the test standardized across devices so you can see how one device does relative to another. For comparison, on the Verizon Galaxy S6 I get ~4h 3D gaming, ~6h browsing and ~7-8h movie watching so Note 5 results are inline if not better but no surprise considering the screen is ~12% bigger but with ~18% bigger battery while everything else being equal.
 
I've never trusted PhoneArena or GSMArena's battery life tests. The 200 nit test especially is so biased for AMOLED screens. It's also unrealistic that people will leave their screens dimmed like 40% all the time. Instead, they should keep the phones in a standard light controlled room and set the phone brightness to auto.

And what websites did PA or GA choose? And are the pages always the same? Or will one test has more black backgrounds than another?
 
CHANG3D said:
I've never trusted PhoneArena or GSMArena's battery life tests. The 200 nit test especially is so biased for AMOLED screens. It's also unrealistic that people will leave their screens dimmed like 40% all the time. Instead, they should keep the phones in a standard light controlled room and set the phone brightness to auto.

And what websites did PA or GA choose? And are the pages always the same? Or will one test has more black backgrounds than another?
Click to expand...

I'm not too worried about brightness consistency. The issue is whether or not the tasks do anything to reflect real-world use. GSMArena made it seem like the S6 had a good battery, but as anyone who's actually used it can attest, it's pretty mediocre.

You should always look at not just the synthetic tests, but the real-world experiences. How long can reviewers last in typical use before they have to charge up?
 
It will depend on the individual but from what I'm seeing in general from comments from those that have received their phones early, battery life seems to be pretty acceptable. The same or better than the Note 4.

My planned scenario with the Note 5 is to have a wirless charging pad in places I hang out (work, living room table, bedside table) and instead of putting my phone on the table, just put it on the charging pad. I highly doubt that I will truly need to charge during a normal day but it's handy to be charged all the tine.

I also already carry a USB charging pack for other mobile devices anyhow for emergency charging away from an outlet. The removable battery in my Note 4 has been a slight convenience but I like the built in wireless charging better (yes, I know I can buy an optional rear cover for my note 4).
 
The Note 4's display was better than the S6? I would think they would compare to the S6 as well since it was their newest phone before these came along and had a same or better display than the Note 4.
 
Their conclusion for S6 vs Note 4:

The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 4 are neck-and-neck record holders for display performance, effectively tied or alternating between first and second place in almost all categories except screen size for the much larger Galaxy Note 4, and the much higher pixels per inch for the Galaxy S6. What is especially impressive is that the overall display specs and performance of the Galaxy S6 have been maintained or improved after being scaled down by 20 percent in area from Galaxy Note 4. So… The Galaxy S6 matches the Galaxy Note 4 in overall display excellence and record performance and joins it as the Best Performing Smartphone Display that we have ever tested.
Click to expand...
 
I'm extremely excited about these improvements to the display . They should have marketed that better!
 
Aurelius said:
I'm not too worried about brightness consistency. The issue is whether or not the tasks do anything to reflect real-world use. GSMArena made it seem like the S6 had a good battery, but as anyone who's actually used it can attest, it's pretty mediocre.

You should always look at not just the synthetic tests, but the real-world experiences. How long can reviewers last in typical use before they have to charge up?
Click to expand...
DisplayMate just showed that the Note 5 display goes from 556-861 nit in auto-brightness in a high ambient light room. 50% brightness according to DisplayMate is 382 or 456 nit (don't ask me why that is 50%). So when PA set the brightness to 200 nit, it's just not a realistic test, and that they are basically choosing the benchmark that proves what we know of AMOLED displays already.
 
Zorachus said:
......it isn't a major night and day upgrade over the Note 4, compared to the Note 4 over the Note 3 which was a HUGE update.
Click to expand...


Interesting as I never went for the Note 4 as I was told not much difference over my Note 3. I do however know that my battery has gone to crap after I upgraded to kitkat and procrastinated to going back.

I bought 2 extra batteries and 2 dock stations - 1 for work and 1 for home... so I tolerate the lack of battery..

now on the side note to the battery issue. I thought of buying the brick... 10,000mah battery. Yes makes the phone even more of a brick..but some saying 4days of HEAVY use.. so could do that..


I do not use a case with my note 3 and it shows.. every corner dinged, dented, plastic chipped away.. but never broke the screen.

only case I use is my redpepper waterproof (since lifeproof doesnt make a case) and only when I need to stand at soccer in the rain or when going to the beach...

if your saying there is a super difference from note 3 to 4... then i will love going note 3 to note 5!!!!!!!!!!!! :D
 
This display brightness and quality between the note 3 and 4 was significant in my experience. Not as significant as note 2 to 3 but still worthwhile in my opinion.
 
so sorry to throw this out there..
just went and read up on the note 5...

is it still worth it going from note 3 to 5.. when you loose the ability to add a battery and also loose the option to install your 128gb micro sd?

thinkin maybe go note 3 to 4 since yall are saying big improvement...

but still note 5.. to loose those features.. UGHHHHHHHHHHHH
 
TeleFragger said:
is it still worth it going from note 3 to 5.. when you loose the ability to add a battery and also loose the option to install your 128gb micro sd?

thinkin maybe go note 3 to 4 since yall are saying big improvement...

but still note 5.. to loose those features.. UGHHHHHHHHHHHH
Click to expand...

It depends. Do you still miss the floppy drive? If so, maybe the Note 4 with uSD slot is better for you otherwise larger, faster and more reliable internal storage is king especially when you can install apps on it unlike uSD. I just got my RMA replacement for a Sandisk 64GB uSD that died prematurely. Fortunately, it went into read-only mode and is not completely dead so I can pull files off of it but bad that I couldn't format it before sending it in so they got pictures of my hairy ass. On a side note, one less license that Microsoft can leech off of Android for the FAT32/exFAT tax.

As for removable battery, it depends on your previous experience. If you're like me with the original 2012 Note II battery that's still going strong then removable battery may not be so important since you'll likely replace your phone after 3 years. On the other hand, if you've had to replace it sooner then maybe Note 4 is better. The fast wired and wireless charging on the Note 5 are still attractive though if you're moving away from wired like the convenience of not fumbling with wires/connectors with wireless car dock.

I know you didn't ask but might as well cover IR. IR is a dinosaur technology like the analog phone. Are you still attracted to the limited range and line-of-sight limitations or do you prefer WIFI or bluetooth devices like Chromecast? I've never touched the IR feature so no loss but if you use it maybe the Note 4 is better.

Either way you can't go wrong with either one.
 
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I'm pretty sure that's not a "bug" and it's by design at this point. No way Samsung isn't aware of that "issue" on the S6 and didn't change it if they didn't want to. I'm sure they are more aggressive at killing background processes to compensate for their smaller batteries now and to save power. Though I really don't get the point of having 3-4 GBs of RAM is you're not going to allow anything to utilize it all. Unused RAM is wasted RAM.

That said, their super fast UFS 2.0 memory almost makes up for it by initially loading apps much faster than anything else. I'd say for the vast majority of people, that's more important than waiting an extra second or so to refresh an app you had open recently.
 
Aurelius said:
It turns out that the dual-SIM Note 5 doesn't have a microSD slot. Samsung might be frosting off removable storage fans, but at least it's frosting them off equally.

This could still be a quality device, but I have seen numerous people suggest that Samsung is eliminating some of the reasons why you'd get a Note over an iPhone 6 Plus. Then again, microSD and removable batteries didn't prevent Samsung's phone shipments from taking a nosedive before, I'm not sure that they're the key to a recovery now.
Click to expand...

lol ya they probably aren't key to a recovery but they may very well be key to a further increase in the nose dive. This year is going to be very interesting. I cant wait to see how it pans out. I honestly believe Samsung will see significant erosion of their market share due to this foolery. Guess all we can do is wait for Chinese competitors to bring their game on.

Zorachus said:
LOL, read this long thread on the Note 5, here;
http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/galaxy-note-5.1864153/page-54#post-21713934

The iSheep have become SamSheep now. Just so much defending Samsung on the Note 5, and they all saying battery life is truly awesome with 7.5h Screen On time. Yeah ok guy, calm down, let's wait for real world in hands, after the phone has been out a couple weeks, with several days usage.
Click to expand...

isheep are not Samsung lovers they just are trying to defend the decisions because logically they would be admitting their own phones are bullshit if they didn't. Same reason a lot of people here are defending Samsung whom are likely iphone users. I guess the best example is anandtech. From an iphone users perspective the more Samsung makes their phones devoid of features like iphones the more the couple things apple does better will outshine Samsung. And the more the lower tier android makers will copy and not stick out as well. Looks like we are heading into another multi years cycle of very little consumer choice in phones.

One other good thing about this whole fiasco is we found out who the real Samsung fanbois are as many people such as myself are willing to admit our disappointment with this device despite praise of earlier devices. But some people like mitchy just wont give it up. The sad thing to me is that a fanboy if they really love a company should be able to give that company critism to help them get better.


My decision is now final next week I will be ordering 2 more galaxy note 4s for members of my family and then we will all be sticking it out for a while waiting for something to change.
 
From the behavior I've seen on Galaxy S6 it's too predictable to be a bug. It feels more like intentional aggressive garbage collection where if an app doesn't explicitly says to leave it running in the background it'll get closed if many apps are running. Some apps never seem to close running in the background like BubbleUPnP, My Cloud Player (Soundcloud), IRC for Android, JuiceSSH, MX Player, etc. even when they're all running.
 
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TeleFragger said:
fyi best buy is giving $200 bb card with tradein of ANY smartphone...
Click to expand...


With Verizon ending contracts are we people that are still getting unlimited data plans still gonna lose our plans if we upgrade to new phones?

Just wondering if we still have to buy phones outright or if we can now upgrade with their monthly payment plan and keep UDP. Anyone know?
 
Pure-Platinum-190 said:
With Verizon ending contracts are we people that are still getting unlimited data plans still gonna lose our plans if we upgrade to new phones?

Just wondering if we still have to buy phones outright or if we can now upgrade with their monthly payment plan and keep UDP. Anyone know?
Click to expand...

You still have to buy full price. The only thing you "lose" is the ability to spread it out over 24 months, so just stick to the unlimited plan.
 
Pure-Platinum-190 said:
With Verizon ending contracts are we people that are still getting unlimited data plans still gonna lose our plans if we upgrade to new phones?

Just wondering if we still have to buy phones outright or if we can now upgrade with their monthly payment plan and keep UDP. Anyone know?
Click to expand...

I highly doubt Verizon will subsidize an upgrade and let you keep unlimited data unless there's another loophole. Best thing to hope for is pay full price and try to take advantage of the $200 Best Buy trade in claiming it's a gift and that the recipient will activate it. To be safe bring an extra phone that shows a value on Best Buy online estimator. Going to try to get rid of my HTC Touch Pro 1st and Palm Treo 700wx 2nd which show zero value and worst case one of my $25 Moto Gs which does show a value. As a backup plan you can try a 10% off USPS mover's coupon which has a restriction that you can't use it on contract phone but I successful argued that it's not a contract phone if paid in full so it worked on the Galaxy S6.
 
Zorachus said:
Very impressive video

https://youtu.be/2XhHFWs5iYM
Click to expand...

you know what strikes me right away, why does Samsung have to change the shortcut keys on shit constantly? Small screen was an a gesture prior to the note 5, now its tap home key 3 x lol, and 2 home clicks is voice activation on my note 4, but now on the note 5 its going to be camera.
 
mi7chy said:
It depends. Do you still miss the floppy drive? If so, maybe the Note 4 with uSD slot is better for you otherwise larger, faster and more reliable internal storage is king especially when you can install apps on it unlike uSD. I just got my RMA replacement for a Sandisk 64GB uSD that died prematurely. Fortunately, it went into read-only mode and is not completely dead so I can pull files off of it but bad that I couldn't format it before sending it in so they got pictures of my hairy ass. On a side note, one less license that Microsoft can leech off of Android for the FAT32/exFAT
Click to expand...

It's not the issue of apps - though next android is supposed to let you install apps on SD. It's the question of fluff you have - Spotify offline lists, pictures, comics, books. videos, own music and so on, that will clog the space for apps and which, in other phones you can just offload on SD card.
 
What a beautiful phone. It's such a shame it has shit for brains with Touchwiz.

I'll wait for the new Nexus 5 or 6.
 
Is the Note 5 at least water-proof?

If it's submersible and I can shoot video with it while rafting etc, that's the only reason the lack of removable battery could possibly be justified, IMO.

The way my upgrade schedule is setup, I'm about 90% sure I'll be skipping the Note 5 and waiting on the 6, or just going to another brand next year anyways, but I'm still wondering why on earth they would opt for some of the downgraded features at this point.
 
madFive said:
Is the Note 5 at least water-proof?

If it's submersible and I can shoot video with it while rafting etc, that's the only reason the lack of removable battery could possibly be justified, IMO.
Click to expand...

Nope. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S5 with a removeable battery is waterproof.
 
I know people are getting their pre-orders in early in the mail, but would I be able to walk into a Verizon store today and pick one out?
 
have you guys checked out note 5 in person before making your decision?

and reviews are coming in slowly and they say that battery life is better than note 4 and should last a day easily
 
Man, I'm probably the most vocal person on here who bitches on TouchWiz in the past when TouchWiz really was a piece of shit. But TouchWiz on the GS6 isn't so horrible. And I expect that it wouldn't be so horrible in the Note 5 either. Obviously I would prefer a cleaner, faster experience, but it's not so horrible. (That TW ram saving "feature" is kind of stupid, though.) Only thing I could really complain about TouchWiz now is the speed that Samsung could update. If I get a Nexus or a Motorola (and not one of those Verizon branded Droid devices from Motorola), I would expect quick updates in security and Android OS version as well. Samsung may promise monthly security updates, but who knows how quick that would really be with carriers in the way (especially on Verizon). Samsung also isn't promising quick updates to the next Android version. If it's anything like getting the 5.0.x OS updates, I would wish to not be stuck on that shit for very long.

One of the biggest reasons that I'm using an iPhone 6 now is that my HTC One M8 was updated to Android 5.0.1 and then 5.0.2 soon after. Google then released 5.1 to fix the memory leak bugs, but HTC is skipping the 5.1 update. (And HTC is historically better at updating than Samsung.) 5.0.x OS is a piece of shit, and being stuck on there made my phone barely usable. I was forced to root my phone to install the Android 5.1 GPE ROM in order to not have to restart my phone multiple times a day to use it. Sure, I could use my HTC One M8 again, but that TMo Jump On Demand deal with the iPhone was too good to refuse.

I am eagerly awaiting the Nexus 5 2015 and whatever the Huawei Nexus will be called, so just I wouldn't be stuck in a crap OS update. Google screwed a lot of OEM skins with 5.0.x, which could be a conspiracy to get more people to buy Nexus phones.
 
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