Galaxy Note 5

Zorachus said:
I'll give a more detailed review this weekend, but first my quick comment after owing the Note 5 for a few days. I've owned all three of the these phones now. Will explain that in more detail later.

The Note 5 feels like the iPhone 6 Plus and Nexus 6 had a baby together.

The N5 reminds me and feels like a 6 Plus in a good way, super high quality build, very good looking phone, jaw dropping beautiful display. But of course is running Android, but not the stock Android we all love, so this TW OS feels almost like a mix and mash of iOS9 + Android in a strange way.

I've rooted my Note 5, and am running a custom ROM, which is tweaked performance, better battery life, and debloated. I am also using Nova launcher, and a different icon theme, and the Material Dark theme from the Samsung store.

So my Note 5 now looks like a stock Nexus type phone, but with the added Touchwiz stuff like S-Pen apps, and actually some of the default apps are nicer than I expected. Like the dialer I prefer this TW Dialer more than Stock Android's. And just the way certain core apps run and operate I surprisingly like better than stock Android. When a phone call is over, the screen fades away after a few seconds back to the home screen, without me pressing the home button. Just little tweaks on TW that I am shocked seemed to be nicer than stock Android.

Battery life seems to be really good, easily on par with my tweaked Nexus 6, I am thinking it will be even better. This Note 5 will easily get 5h to 6h Screen On time for sure.
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Wow, I ignore this forum for a few days and I come back to Z praising Samsung and Touchwiz of all things. World is going crazy I say. Almost as crazy as this weather we're having. I'm in Ontario CA, and even though it's 104 degrees outside, we just had a brutal thunderstorm roll through with 60 mph winds and quarter size hail. Makes no sense.
 
Mother nature is disappointed with Apple's announcement that's why. Overpriced iPad Galaxy Note Pro, iPhone 6samesame and TV silliness with needing an app per channel when really all you need is a universal browser.
 
mi7chy said:
Mother nature is disappointed with Apple's announcement that's why. Overpriced iPad Galaxy Note Pro, iPhone 6samesame and TV silliness with needing an app per channel when really all you need is a universal browser.
Click to expand...

Jesus, iOS looks more dated and stale than ever, now in Fall 2015. Sure Apple makes nice looking phones, and good hardware. But man, they need to do a major update to iOS. The home screen looks like someone left the app drawer open. That was acceptable in like 2010, when Android still pretty rough. But not today. The iPhone 6 design is gonna get pretty old looking next year, compared to the Galaxy S7, One M10, G5,
 
Johnny78 said:
Wow, I ignore this forum for a few days and I come back to Z praising Samsung and Touchwiz of all things. World is going crazy I say. Almost as crazy as this weather we're having. I'm in Ontario CA, and even though it's 104 degrees outside, we just had a brutal thunderstorm roll through with 60 mph winds and quarter size hail. Makes no sense.
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I'm still a Nexus fan at heart, but was looking for a change, and trying something new.

It seems some super geeks think Galaxy phones aren't even running Android, but Samsung's in house Tizen OS, and that Galaxy phones should be avoided at all costs.

But after tweaking my new Note 5, it is indeed an Android phone at the core :p stripping away Touchwiz, I rooted and installed a custom TW ROM, and running Nova launcher, using a different Icon pack, and then the Material Design theme in the Samsung store, and installing Xposed modules like Wanam to tweak it even further and deeper, transforms this Samsung phone into a pretty powerful little machine. I like this a lot.

Now a stock Galaxy phone, out of the box, with zero tweaks and no root. No thank you, I'll pass on that.
 
Zorachus said:
...it is indeed an Android phone at the core :p stripping away Touchwiz, I rooted and installed a custom TW ROM, and running Nova launcher, using a different Icon pack, and then the Material Design theme in the Samsung store, and installing Xposed modules like Wanam to tweak it even further and deeper,
Click to expand...

It seems some super geeks think Galaxy phones aren't even running Android
Click to expand...

That's a whole lot of shit you needed to do, to make it feel like an Android phone.
 
Pringle said:
That's a whole lot of shit you needed to do, to make it feel like an Android phone.
Click to expand...

I do that on all my phones. My iPhone 6 Plus I Jailbreak and tweaked the crap out of it.

Even my Nexus 6, was rooted, running a custom ROM, with a custom kernel I tweaked heavily, and I also had Xposed installed on my Nexus running several tweak apps like Gravity Box to further customize the phone. And of course Nova Launcher too.

A stock out of the box Nexus 6 is way to plain vanilla for my tastes.
 
Easily get 6h Screen On time with my Note 5. I think with some more updates from T-Mobile and Samsung and the ROM's mature, I will get 6.5h to maybe 7h :D

This is on 4G all day, no WiFi at all.



 
Zorachus, let's say you liked everything about the Moto X Pure hardware components, i.e. its construction, size, battery, camera, screen, and design, et al.

Am curious to know what you think of the way Motorola implements and adds its embellishments to Android.
Would you be content with it, and not feel a need to hack into it, and alter it's Android implementation?
 
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Supersnake said:
Zorachus, let's say you liked everything about the Moto X Pure hardware components, i.e. its construction, size, battery, camera, screen, battery, and design, et al.

Am curious to know what you think of the way Motorola implements and adds its embellishments to Android.
Would you still have the desire to mod it?
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What kind of silly question is that? Of course he would. Z is one of those guys who if he can tweak something to get even 1% more performance, he will. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with that. That's his right. I think that's largely the allure and appeal of android at its core for people like Z (and myself to an extent). We get bored with tech easily and we need to constantly change it to make it interesting for ourselves.

My real question is this Z....how did you go about getting your Note 5? I can't imagine many of these are trading on CL yet. Did you just break down and fork over the $800?
 
I always look forward to reading about Zorachus' experimentations and assessments. My question was not addressing tweaking for improvements in performance, and I find it great that tweakers respond to the allure and appeal of tweaking Android. My question could also have been phrased as "Would you feel the need to modify Motorola's manner in handling Android's features, and if not, what is it that you would want to remove or modify"?

After reading this I hope that you will then find my question to be appropriate. ;)
 
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What Z is doing is the equivalent to getting clothe custom fitted by a tailor.

On the other hand, jailbreaking is like getting pants pockets added when it should've been included in the first place. Had to stop using Apple mail app on the iPad since it kept flaking out with a blank page. Installed Gmail app but it was painful just moving the icon to the first home page for convenience.
 
mi7chy said:
What Z is doing is the equivalent to getting clothe custom fitted by a tailor...
Click to expand...

Well expressed. That is why I am interested to find out if he is satisfied with the Motorola Android tailoring - or to find out if he wishes it to be further tailored.
 
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Had my note 5 for a couple of days, upgraded from a s5. Don't feel like I've lost anything with microsd/removable battery yet, but who knows that might change later on. I'm loving this phone it feels really good in the hand and is just gorgeous to use/look at. Definitely going to out a case on it because it does feel pretty slippery at times. Ended up getting a Dash microsd reader for the phone for those times I need to swap in microsds to view something (I record alot of videos on my go pros when I surf/snowboard/etc)

Also got mine off CL for 400 (32gb). Was kinda sceptical and imagined the phone was stolen/blacklisted ESN or the guy was a axe murderer but it worked out. For now I'm happy :)
 
Do I think this Note 5 is way better than my Nexus 6 ? No, not at all. I really prefer stock vanilla Android #1, and the Nexus 6 is / was a great phone, but it was pushing the limits on size, especially the width, really hard to reach to the other side one handed.. But...with all these tweaks my Note 5 looks and runs just like a Nexus now.

But there are some key benefits the Note 5 has over the Nexus 6;

- Screen / Display: The Note 5's screen is bar none the best display I have ever seen on a smartphone. The best colors, and bright enough to see outside on a sunny afternoon. Viewing angles great.

- Camera: This camera blew me away. I'm no photographer, but man this camera shoots super clear sharp pictures, with amazing detail and clarity. The Nexus 6 wasn't even close to these kind of pictures. This is even better than my iPhone 6 Plus. One of the reasons I was looking to dump my Nexus 6, was the crappy focus and blurry pics it was taking, and would take forever to land a perfect picture, you'd have to stand there and aim it, and wait for the focus to settle, and then move it around, and then get lucky if you got a good pic. With the Note 5 it's point and click, and takes a crystal clear sharp image immediately.

- Battery life: Battery is huge deal to me, and I needed a phone that was at least as good as my tweaked Nexus 6 that gave me 5h to sometimes 5.5h Screen On time. Well this Note 5 does match and beat that a bit. So battery life is actually a little better on the Note 5 compared to my Nexus 6, I'd say about 15% to 20% better.

- Flat back: Silly little thing, but when I owned the iPhone 6 Plus, one thing that really surprised me, was laying the phone down on a table, and it being flat, and never rocking back or forth, it made it very easy to use it on a table, and I really enjoyed that and thought all phones should be flat to lay on a table. The Nexus 6 curve sucked for that, and always rocked back and forth like a canoe in rough water. As far as feel in the hand, it feels great, and very easy to hold.

- Fingerprint scanner: It is nice to have it work just like the iPhone, to unlock the phone. Very easy one handed operation with that,. Just press and hold your thumb there for a second, and the screen unlocks. It's faster and easier than swiping up to unlock. Not sure how I'd like it on the back of the phone, where the new Nexus phones will have it.


But if the rumors are true on the Huawei Nexus 6X, being extremely similar in size and shape and build quality as the Note 5, with the Nexus 6X having flat back, metal build, 5.7" screen, AMOLED display, and of course running stock Android 6.0 Marshmallow , I would be very tempted to move to that, and call it a day :)
 
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Easily getting over 6h Screen On time, was on the 4G network like 90% of the day, only on WiFi when I got home later tonight. I've had the phone for one week now, battery has settled in;



 
I just got mine last week. Upgraded from the note 3. I'm loving it so far. Only disappointed about not having the microsd slot.. Once you get passed that, its stunning.
 
If your into the deep black themes, this one is great for the Note 5. On the AMOLED display it looks stunning, true deep black hole, not dark grey, or midnight blue, but black as black.

To run this theme, you need two things;

#1: Material Dark theme installed from the Samsung store
#2: Flash this zip in Recovery "Blackery" from this link below;
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24052804347771058

All credit goes to Cambunch on XDA here;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/themes-apps/wip-material-design-theme-s6e-t3108155





 
New Note 5 owner here :cool:

On a whim, I walked into T-Mobile after being really disappointed with my Nexus 6 in several ways, and walked out with the Note 5 on my hip. Set it up that day, and needless to say, this has spun my original impression with Samsung and TouchWiz altogether.

The camera is AWESOME.
The screen is just right for me - I can type as fast as I want on it, switching between apps and watching videos is superb, and I'm loving the split screen use for apps!
I have not had one single blip with the phone... yet. As a matter of fact, I got into such a rhythm with rebooting my phone every morning when I woke up, and I actually went two weeks without rebooting this phone, and didn't even realize it.
I had the chance to not charge my phone at all throughout an entire day, and the battery life suited me just fine. I consider myself a relatively heavy user, and taking it off the charger at 100% at 6AM, then getting home from work at 6PM with 15%, I was amazed.
Fingerprint reader, yes, YES!! That was the first thing I set up, and have not swapped it yet.
I'm having fun with themes and fonts too. Always changing things up here and there.
Well worth the time I spent at T-Mo!
 
Galaxy Note 5 Case, Ringke SLIM

http://www.amazon.com/Ringke-Essent...1442611872&sr=1-1&keywords=note+5+slim+ringke

Wow, just wow. I have never liked a case so much. This thing fits like a frigging glove, very tight close fit, and is almost like a thick skin as opposed to a case.

Yeah this won't save the phone from big drops, but it does prevent dings and scratches, and feels much better in the hand nice rubbery grippy feel, than the naked slippery phone.
 
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Zorachus said:
Galaxy Note 5 Case, Ringke SLIM

http://www.amazon.com/Ringke-Essent...1442611872&sr=1-1&keywords=note+5+slim+ringke

Wow, just wow. I have never liked a case so much. This thing fits like a frigging glove, very tight close fit, and is almost like a thick skin as opposed to a case.

Yeah this won't save the phone from big drops, but it does prevent dings and scratches, and feels much better in the hand nice rubbery grippy feel, than the naked slippery phone.
Click to expand...

Z, which Note 5 do you have? T-mobile?

One of the daily deals on eBay today is the n920i international version for $589.99. Sold by Monoprice so no concerns with the seller.

Thanks, Bill
 
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Do you guys use adaptive screen mode or basic? Also auto brightness or do you manually set the brightness? Just want to know what the best display settings are. Screen mode and brightness setting.

Note 5 kicks freaking ass! Best smartphone I've owned, easily.
 
I use basic or adaptive since I prefer the cooler white whereas the other modes have a warmer white.

Auto is a tad too bright so I manually set. Too bad there isn't a custom offset setting since all devices are either too dim or too bright when set to auto.
 
I like Photo mode, and most XDA are using that display mode too. I think Adaptive can be a battery drainer ?
 
Just so impressed with this ROM + kernel combo. I am getting amazing battery life even with heavy usage, easily 6h Screen On time. This is as good as my old OnePlus One battery life, and much better than the Nexus 6 battery, and this Note 5 is getting close to iPhone 6 Plus battery life.
.

Today, I really hammered my phone all day. Unplugged off charger at 6:30am, was on 4G network all day, I used GPS Navigation for like 1 hour this morning. Made a ton of phone calls. Sent a million texts. Did a lot of e-mails. Surfed the web a ton. Watched YouTube tonight.

From 6:30am to now 9:15pm, here is my battery after all of that;





Thank you
 
What is the best way to live stream on youtube with the Note5? There are all sorts of ways to do this on youtube. Private or public. How do I set up my encoder correctly for 1080p 60fps streams that the Note5 does? Is this done all automatically when the phone starts? Or do I have to log onto youtube and set this up also? Please help!
 
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Update: Follow this link for updates.

http://slickdeals.net/f/8123900-verizon-note-5-subsidized-upgrade-while-keeping-unlimited-data-with-200-trade-in-on-any-phone-from-any-carrier?v=1

Sharing with you guys how I just scored a subsidized Verizon Note 5 while retaining unlimited data plus $200 trade in on any junker phone from any carrier (I used a 2008 Sprint HTC Touch Pro).

Requirement is you have to be upgrade eligible.

Log into Verizon online

Go to My Verizon or My Devices and add Note 5 as upgrade with 2-year contract extension

Select and do the trade in and it should show $200 value

When it informs you that your unlimited data plan is no longer available and to change your plan just view cart, confirm it shows your old plan and check out

When it arrives cut up the inserted SIM and don't activate it to ensure your unlimited data plan doesn't change.

Enjoy the best device on the market!
 
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Last Friday I moved from Verizon to T-Mobile. I was on an unlimited plan with Verizon with my parents and siblings. My fiancee and I joined a family plan togeather on T-Mobile. She has 10gb of data and I have 20gb. I originally had a S5 and going to the Note 5 has been great. The pen has been handy when I need to jot down a phone number someone is telling me without unlocking the phone. My S5 always had camera focusing issues with things that are somewhat near. The Note 5 focuses much better and I am really pleased with it.
 
The new Samsung fast wireless charger is fast! 115 minutes from 0 to 100% with fast wireless compared to 90 minutes with fast wired. Goodbye wired.

On sale at Newegg for $56.99 and another $15 off if you pay with Chase Sapphire.

http://phandroid.com/2015/09/25/samsung-fast-wireless-charging-comparison/
original.jpg
 
My T-Mobile Note 5 setup, giving me around 6h Screen On time, and buttery silky smooth performance;

First you need to root and install a custom Recovery, here are some good videos to watch on how to do this, it's really simple, just follow the step by step directions;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We6OUJvzve0
http://galaxynote5root.com/galaxy-note-5-root/how-to-root-galaxy-note-5/

And then the ROM I am using;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/tmobile-galaxy-note5/development/deodexed-stock-n920taoge-t3186037

Kernel;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note5/development/arter97-kernel-galaxy-note-5-t3189907

Debloat zip
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2075993

So in a nutshell, you root and install a custom Recovery on your T-Mobile Note 5 first. Download the ROM + Kernel + zip debloater, and throw into the phone. Reboot into Recovery, do a complete system wipe, and then first flash the ROM, and then flash the Kernel, and then flash the zip to run the debloater, it will give you an option for full debloat, go with that. And then reboot, setup your phone and profit :)
 
As predicted, LG G4 camera is good but the camera in S6, S6E, S6E+ and Note 5 still lead by a fair margin according to the authority DxOMark. New iPhone 6S+ should move up to 4th or 5th.

http://www.dxomark.com/Mobiles
* View site on desktop browser to see ranking on right side
overall_ratings-680x327.jpg


8h 27m battery life on the new new stock Note 5 on 802.11ac. Lucked out again with another South Korean made one and the quality is consistently perfect.

Screenshot_2015-09-26-18-05-50_zpsfei15gdg.png


Screenshot_2015-09-26-18-05-56_zps13flkxnx.png
 
★[ROM] ☆ DARTHSTALKER NOTE5 | VERSiON 1 | Aroma | Multi-Carrier/Device | 9.27.2015 ☆
http://forum.xda-developers.com/tmo...m-darthstalker-note5-version-1-aroma-t3212091

This is it, the first true big time ROM developer making his custom ROM for the Note 5, And man, for the first version, this thing is a beast, tons of customization and tweaks, and warp speed fast.

My Note 5 makes my old Nexus 6 feel like a slow poke outdated phone.
 
Curious, how many of you run apps to control apps and help battery life ?

- Does Greenify Xposed really help a ton on battery life ?
- App Ops ? Allows you to stop apps from using Location, or starting up, and a bunch of other things. Does it really help ?
- Disable Applications [ROOT] ? It allows total freezing of any app you choose, but be careful you can stop things from working

My point is, I am having Calendar widget issues with Chronos, I use the Chronos Calendar Widget all the time, and it shows my work schedule meetings. But with some of these apps, I must have frozen something wrong, and now it won;t list my events. Makes me wonder if running those three above apps is worth it ?

Opinions ?
 
Big Nexus fan, but will most likely pass on the 6P;

With my Note 5, I bought three of their cool wireless fast chargers. Now if I get a Nexus 6P they are useless until some other cool phone next year.

And with the 6P having a lesser camera than the Note 5, most likely a lesser display too, and the hot SD810, and 3GB RAM vs 4GB RAM, I am thinking just keep my Note 5, now with the great XDA development really starting up for it.
 
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