Photos and Features

One of the things that I find interesting about all of the Galaxy phones is that every time they introduce a new model they always have the same look. Frankly I could sit the Note 5 down and without putting it next to older models most people are going to have a hard time knowing if it is the latest model or the Note 3 or 4. The size of course makes it clear that it’s not an S series phone, but even there they share a lot of styling features. I wish Samsung would be a little more aggressive in the styling changes but to some people there is a lot of comfort in getting your new phone and having it be a lot like your old one.

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The front of the Note 5 gives a very thin bezel on the sides but room up top and on the bottom, like past models. This gives room to include the oval shaped button on the bottom that sits between the hidden menu and back buttons for Android navigation. Up top the bezel space gave room for Samsung to slip in a Samsung logo. Above the logo we have a thin but wide handset speaker with a chrome finish. To the left of it we have an LED status indicator and also sensors for light and also a second to let the phone know when you have the phone close to your head to make sure it turns off the screen so you don’t hit buttons with your ear when talking. To the right the large dot is the front camera. Samsung went with a 5MP camera here for better quality selfies.

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The Note 5 is available in three different colors, black, white, and gold. In my opinion the gold looks more like a champagne. That said our sample came in white. On the front of the phone you can see the color of choice in a few places but it is the back of the phone that the color is most visible. With the phone being 6 inches tall and 3 inches wide, that is a lot of space. Surprisingly Samsung doesn’t go crazy filling that space though. The back of the phone has a Galaxy Note 5 logo down near the bottom in a reflective chrome finish. Then farther up is the Verizon logo along with their 4G LTE logo. But really the only important thing on the back is just a little higher. The back of the Note 5 has a 16MP rear facing camera that sticks out. I’ve commented about this in the past but having the lens sticking out like this is begging for it to get damaged. Next to the camera the Note 5 does have a single LED for flash and tucked in below that is the heartbeat sensor.

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Moving around the sides of the Note 5 starting with the right side there is just a single button. This is the power button that also locks and unlocks the screen. The button is the same as what I saw with the S6, a thin but long chrome plated button that is easy to get at and is in what I would consider to be the standard location for a power button on an android phone rather than on the back or up top like on some devices.

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Up along the top edge we have the sim card holder with its small release hole. To get to the sim card you push the included tool in the hole and the tray will slide out. The other hole here is a microphone hole for ambient sound pickup. The two transparent plastic bits in the outer aluminum ring help absorb some impact should the Note 5 fall.

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The left side of the Note 5 has twice the number of buttons with a total of two. These are the volume controls. They use the same long and thin buttons that the power button has. In the photo below we can also see that the aluminum ring that goes around the phone does have a little radius to it on the back edges along the sides. This helps keep the already large phone gripable.

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Then finally we have the bottom edge of the Note 5. Where the other edges only had one or two things, the bottom edge is basically where everything is hidden. For starters in the middle we have the micro-USB connection for data transfer and charging. It’s weird to me still that Samsung went from USB 3.0 a few models ago back down to USB 2.0. I have to wonder if there were problems or if people didn’t like the change. The other connection down here is the headphone connection where you can hook up headphones or a microphone/headphone combination. There is a set of 10 small holes to the right of the USB connection, these holes are the phones external speaker. I love this location because in a few cases including a few Samsung phones they have put the speaker on the back of the phone. This causes issues when you lay your phone down on a table when on speakerphone. The small pinhole next to the external speaker is the other microphone, namely the microphone that gets used when you use the handset. Then last but not least the oval on the far right is the stylus, the feature that helps give the Note its name.

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The way the stylus works on the Note 5 is the end has a small portion that when pressed extends out. This helps you remove the stylus from the phone. Be warned, if you pull the stylus out and put it back in the phone backwards it can and will get stuck. When you remove the stylus the phone makes a sound similar to someone removing a sword. At the same time the phone automatically opens up a notepad on screen for you to write on. The stylus has a plastic tip and along the side is a small button. It is made of aluminum just like the outer ring of the Note 5 and it has a solid feel to it in hand.

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The most prominent feature of the Galaxy Note 5 is of course the 5.7-inch screen. The large screen is what pushes the Note 5 into the Phablet size category that fits in between a normal phone and a smaller 7-inch tablet. The 5.7-inch size isn’t any different than the Note 4 that the Note 5 replaces. In fact, if we just look at the specifications the screen seems unchanged. It is still a Quad HD Super AMOLED screen and it has a resolution of 2560 x 1440. It is a little weird to me that they didn’t jump to a 4k screen for the Note 5, the smaller S6 has the same resolution in a smaller form factor giving it a better PPI (pixel per inch). The S6 PPI is about 577 where the Note 5 is 518. I will find out in my testing how well the screen works.

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #37352 02 Dec 2015 20:35
Today I check out the Note 5, it shares a lot of features with the Galaxy S6 but does stand out with its larger size and stylus

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