Note5 First Day Impressions & Thoughts — What Do You Want Answered?

I have been handling the Galaxy Note 5 for almost a day now, getting used to it and trying to learn a bit more about the phone and its inner workings. In this short article, I will list some of my first impressions. Keep in mind that these are not supposed to be technical — those will have to wait until my full, in-depth review coming up soon. Now that I’ve had a solid look at the phone, however, I have some first impressions I’d like to share with everyone considering this device before I tackle a thorough analysis.

Design

Even as a big fan of the Note 4’s design, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I like the new design. In many ways, it doesn’t feel like a Note, but it is good in and of itself. The curved back coupled with the devilishly thin side bezels make this phone feel less blocky than the Note 4, and they also make reaching the top and top-left corner much easier than before. The phone feels surprisingly thin and small in the hand, and general handling is great because of what feels like a very even weight distribution. The metal sides are smooth unlike the Note 4’s, which were notorious for being too edgy and somewhat uncomfortable in the hand. The phone is very thin, and the curved back makes it look thinner than it is as well. I personally don’t feel too worried about dropping this phone because of how well it fits in the hand, but time will tell if my opinion changes (or if I drop it).

As far as the materials go, the glass front and back give it a very smooth feel and the sapphire back catches light and fingerprints like it’s its job. The former can lead to beautiful coloration at certain angles while the latter is a minor annoyance that will not go away unless you put a skin or case on the phone. Something worth noting is how light the phone is despite its glass and metal construction. Every button is clicky, and the home button is now extra stiff and responsive. It does not protrude as much as the one found in the Note 3 and Note 4, either. Unlike on various Samsung phones, the capacitive keys are not too hidden and you can see them without them needing to be on.

The S Pen is much better than before in terms of ergonomics. Previous S Pen designs were considerably more blocky and thus didn’t lend themselves to easy handling. This one allows you to easily rotate the pen around and grab it in a few extra ways. The storage mechanism and the pen’s button make me worry about an extra mechanical component failing, but subjectively speaking, the clicky pen adds a lot more personality to the device.

Display

The display on the Note5 is simply spectacular. We’ve known Samsung screens have been great for quite a while, but even when compared to the Note 4 side-by-side, some differences make themselves clear: the Note5 is slightly brighter at every setting, and the colors look a little more appealing. Whites look better on the Note5 as well, as the Note 4’s are slightly warmer. Another difference I’ve noticed is the blues, which do not look as punchy on the Note5. Better tests and measurements will follow, but for now, the Note5’s screen looks like a small improvement to an already great screen. It’s also worth noting that the Note5’s screen is more power-efficient as well, according to DisplayMate.

Performance

During the first few hours of testing and when setting up the system, performance was sluggish. After every app was ready about an hour later, the phone became much more responsive. The Exynos 7420 found in the Note5 is no slouch, and the UI has been very smooth throughout my usage. Apps fire up tremendously fast, especially when compared to my Note 4 running 5.1.1, on both 1080p and 1440p. Better comparisons will be presented in the final review. The RAM management device is still a mess: when comparing this phone’s app-holding capabilities side by side with a ZenFone 2 (another phone with 4GB of RAM), the Note 5 seems incapable of holding more than 8 apps at once, while the ZenFone 2 can sometimes keep almost twice as many without full reloads.

In-app performance is snappy, but not necessarily ultra-fluid. I’ve seen more dropped frames while sliding out action panels on the Note5 than I’ve seen on my AOSP-based ROMs on both the Note 4 and the ZenFone 2, but list scrolling is surprisingly fluid. The Play Store is able to load all content as I scroll at full speed without big stutters or framedrops. The multitasking key reacts instantly unlike the Note 4’s (up until 5.1.1), and scrolling through cards is also fluid… just don’t expect every app you see to be properly stored in RAM.

I’ve only ran a handful of benchmarks so far, but I intend to casually test drive the device up until next week before beginning more in-depth testing and research. Up until now, though, every score I’ve gotten is very high, and the numbers do show in the real-world performance of the device (excluding RAM). The games I played (Asphalt 8, Witcher Battle Arena, Leo’s Fortune) ran without a problem and looked beautiful. In my review, I will be testing these and other games to gather average FPS and other performance metrics.

Software

The software experience in this Note is much more bearable than in previous iterations, and more bearable than the 5.1.1 TouchWiz build running on my Note 4 as well. The interface has been cleaned up, and the ability to customize the UI with themes makes the device a lot more versatile. One thing I particularly do not like about the UI is the overabundance of text instead of iconography for simple things such as toggles or searches. But overall, setting menus are better labeled and clearer, and the ROM’s optimizations most certainly aid the overall responsiveness of the device.

There are many little things here and there that make this Note more pleasant to use. For example, the Wi-Fi icon in the toggles now updates its icon with signal strength and network name. The multi-window frames are narrower as well, making them much less intrusive. The screen density of the screen is different — better, as it now makes proper use of the big screen by displaying much more content than the default DPI of the Note 3 and Note 4.

Camera

The new camera UI is much better than what was seen on previous iterations, and it adds a few manual controls and visual cues to help you take better pictures. Given I received this device last afternoon, I wasn’t able to take many pictures, but you can find some samples below. Comparisons of shutter speed, focusing and more will follow.

Battery Life

Despite the loss of 220mAh in battery capacity, the Note5 seems to have better battery life than what my Note 4 running 5.1.1 (with a 3-month-old battery) is giving me. So far, it seems that I can get over 5 hours of screen on time throughout a day. I haven’t used it for more than a single charge (after installing my applications and charging it fully), but the results I am seeing right now are quite promising. An overnight idle test had the Note5 drain only 0.5% per hour while being untouched, but still receiving notifications (try managing an international team of writers!). I will report back after the end of my casual test drive to see if these numbers hold up, decrease or improve.

Thought Summary

So far, I believe the Note5 has plenty of potential and I’ve been impressed by many of its individual aspects. I still don’t know how these will hold up when I take them through more intensive testing, and I also don’t feel the price has justified itself yet. The Note 4 remains an amazing device and further comparisons should reveal whether the Note5 is worth the extra cash. For a phone without microSD and removable battery, this phone packs a lot of power user features.

I will be looking at this phone in-depth in the coming week to write an in-depth review akin to my ZenFone 2 review. If you like the style of that review, I believe you will love what’s coming. But most importantly, I want it to answer any question or doubt you might have. So I ask you,

 

What would you like to see in our upcoming Note5 review?

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