Performance
For my performance testing I started by running through our mobile phone benchmark suite. The suite consists of a range of tests to test different subsystems, situations, as well as a few overall performance benchmarks. Before I get into that I did want to run through what is powering the Note 5 as talking about a CPU or Gpu doesn’t really fit into our photo section where we cover other phone features. The Note 5 has the same Exynos 7420 processor that the S6 has. They both range in clock speed from 2.1 to 1.5 depending on the power mode. For the GPU the Note 5 has a Mali T760MP8 running at 772MHz, again just like the S6. In fact, if we look even deeper both phones have the same 4GB’s of LPDDR4 ram and similar capacities for total memory. With that we should expect to see similar performance numbers in our tests.
The first set of tests are all focused on browser performance. I tested using Googles Octane v2 benchmark, Browsermark 2.1, and SunSpider’s JavaScript benchmark. In Octane the Note 5 tops the charts by a significant amount. As I was just mentioning that the S6 should be similar in performance with browser testing the update often enough that it is possible to say that they have optimized the browser or even the firmware slightly going from when I tested the S6 to now. In Browsermark the result was similar as well. It wasn’t until we got to SunSpider where I found results that were faster than the Note 5, here the now dated Nokia was faster as well as the much larger Shield.
The next batch of tests were all focused on how well the Note 5 would game. This is especially important to me with the Note 5 because I think its large form factor could be much better to game on than a smaller phone like the S6. Oddly enough here the Note 5 fell behind a little and no that isn’t a typo, I did see higher performance numbers with the Note 4 when I tested it originally. In addition to the 3DMark Ice Storm benchmark I did also test with the new Sling Shot benchmark, but considering our past phones had to be sent back we will have to wait until our next mobile review to get a better idea of where the Note 5 stands on that one. The last gaming benchmark was Basemark X. here the Note 5 performed better than its predecessor but still lower than the S6 Edge that shares the same Gpu and CPU, I guess our Note 5 sample is a little on the weak side.
Next I wanted to test the read and write performance of the NAND in the Note 5. TO do this I used AndroBench. Here the Note 5 pulled ahead in both the read and write speed performance. The read performance was especially good with a sequential read speed of 389MB/s.
The next subsystem I wanted to focus on was the CPU. Here I used Vellamo to benchmark the CPU in both single core and multicore situation. In addition, I also slipped in another browser benchmark for good measure. Once again in the browser benchmark the Note 5 dominated. In the single core benchmark the results with the S5 Edge were almost exactly the same but the multicore results show where our slowdown was in the previous tests. The results are still faster than the Note 4, but it’s clear the Note 5 firmware or thermals are holding the CPU back a little more than they did with the S6.
To put all of the previous testing together I used two different benchmarks that don’t focus on any one specific thing. Both Basemark OS II and PCMark benchmark the entire device including gaming, cpu and memory performance, and many other tests to get an overall score. In Basemark OS II the Note 5 pulled well ahead of the Note 4 and stayed very close to the S6 Edge in which it shares the same internals with. In PCMark using the word performance test the Note 5 was actually at the top of our charts with the S6 and S6 edge just behind it.
The last benchmark I ran on the Note 5 is in my opinion the most important benchmark. That is the battery performance benchmark using PCMark. Your device can be the fastest on the market, but if it dies half way into your day none of it matters. Each device tested is set to 50% screen brightness to get a fair result and I turn on airplane mode as well. It would be much nicer to be able to see what the numbers would be with the mobile network on, but sadly it would also be inconsistent. If one phone had a slightly lower signal it might have much worse battery usage. Anyhow, how did the Note 5 do? Well its 3,000mAh battery is a bit larger than the 2600mAh battery in the S6. With that it ran under heavy load for 474 minutes or nearly 8 hours. This translates to a full day and more of moderate to heavy use typically, our battery benchmark keeps the screen on and the CPU and GPU running at full load, normal use is a lot less demanding.
Beyond benchmarks I spent a lot of time using the Note 5 day to day. This gave me a chance to get a feel for how it performs in factors that can’t be graphed. For example, the audio performance of the Note 5. With the bottom mounted speaker I was surprised at just how many times I would end up covering up the speaker and muffling notification sounds or even music when I would play it. I would love to see Samsung move to a front mounted speaker to avoid those issues, I also think it would make the ringtone louder when it is in your pocket. Currently when you put the phone in your pocket the speaker faces down and you lose a lot of the volume.
For the most part a lot of the Note 5’s features are all shared with the S6. But the larger screen size and the stylus aren’t so I focused a lot on those when testing. Life with the stylus wasn’t exactly game changing. I found myself toying with it here and there when I first got the phone but I quickly stopped once the novelty wore off. I think having a stylus will be better received by people slightly older than me, specifically people who prefer to write over type. The other issue I had with the stylus was the pop out end, all too often It would pop out in my pocket or when I was holding the phone. The stylus wouldn’t fall out of course, but I would always have to make a point to click the thing back down.
The other big feature of the Note 5 is as I previously mentioned its screen size. The OLED screen for the Note 5 was surprisingly bright in nearly every situation. Even in direct sunlight, something I hate, I had no issues with not being able to see the screen. Beyond that the larger screen size made browsing the internet much easier, especially when you find a funny picture or meme and you want to show someone. I do wish Samsung would have gone up to a 4k screen, but at no time did I have any issues with the screen quality. In fact, the overall color reproduction is great and the whites are bright and the blacks are black.
Given that Verizon sent the Note 5, I should also point out that the Note 5 and Verizon network had good reception everywhere I went with the exception of one small area in my office. This included great hotspot speeds anytime I needed including right now as I write this.
