3000 mAh battery? Some 5.1 inch phones have even more battery than that, and considering the increased size compared to the Galaxy S6, I feel like battery life will not have gotten any better - and this is on their line for heavy users. Keeping it non-removable (as it seems) will not make it any better. I'm glad I purchased a S6, the only reason I had considered waiting for this phone was an improved battery, and 3000mAh honestly doesn't feel like much of an improvement, especially considering the larger screen.
Missed that. In that case, might be more interesting, although their S6-esque design seems like it would be very difficult to remove, not the standard plastic back attached with those hinges. I wonder how the replaceable part will be implemented, given the phone's design.
It boggles me that samsung is so determined to destroy its true flagship product. I am not talking only about the lack of SD and removable battery, quite honestly, the faux leather back looks better and more "note-y" than this chunk of glass.
By "everyone" you mean every pathetic crapple fanboy who couldn't think of a substantiated argument and was dying on the inside that crapple had nothing even close to the note?
I'd prefer faux leather to real leather back cover, the faux is more durable, and I am not really a fan of having dead animal body parts in my electronic products. It could also have been some kind of durable fabric, molded with epoxy, that could too achieve vintage and note-y look.
I agree with you but the market has sanctioned the resilient, modular and overall common sense design of the past. The market has validated instead shatter prone, electromagnetically challenged, thin and"flexible" iphones. Also, the tech journalists en masse, even on this very site, have always praised "premium" design over common sense one.
Samsung's always break very easily because of their flimsy designs. They also bend at the same pressure as the iPhone 6, except that the glass shatters at that pressure, so don't get your panties too tight .
False. The S6 was voted most durable by the guys who did the bend test you're referring to and their results for a bend test in the center say that: - the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus bent at 110 lbs pressure in the center - the iPhone 6 case also separated at 110 lbs - the S6 did not bend at 110 lbs pressure - the S6 Edge did not bend, but got a cracked screen at 110lbs pressure
Computer Bild tested the weak spot for the iPhones instead, pressure at the point near the volume buttons instead of the center: - iPhone 6 started bending at 44 lbs - iPhone 6 Plus started bending at 66 lbs.
In other words, a massive difference between the S6 and iPhone 6.
The market has NOT validated iPhone design. iPhone is only ruling in the USA. In the rest of the world others rule. Also, iPhone is still losing market share. Most of the world is teetering on the edge or recession, china is crashing (on three fronts) and the cheap Chinese 'quality' makers are expanding rapidly. That's the new frontier and they have designs for almost everybody, incl. those who want memory card slots and swappable batteries.
The high end luxury goods? They were never meant for power users.
The future power user phones will come from China, while Samsung, Apple, LG & Sony will be fighting over the diminishing luxury high end category and barely breaking even on their mid-end portfolio, that will get crushed by Chinese makers.
The fact that Samsung destroyed their only blue ocean strategy phone (they had NO competition in the Note space, how stupid it is to start competing against yourself there?), just shows how internally conflicted the company is. Design by a comittee and a bunch of bill-of-material excel bean-counters. The exact same thing that became the downfall of Nokia, btw.
At the price its only make sense if you also expect premium design. Know to pick the balance betwen function and aesthetic otherwise they just that of dull person.
Do t be an ass. Complaints about how fragile Samsung's phone are have been around for years. Go to Android Nation to read the tests they do every year. But this seems to be looking for a drop anyway, with all that glass. Apple found that the 4 series had broken glass about at a 30% higher rate than the 3 series, and the 5 series has had little of that problem, the same as the new 6 series.
So why Samsung would go to glass on the back, knowing that, is beyond me. The phones look and feel much better though.
No, no, you're being deliberately wrong with the bending issue. And I know that you, as an AI mod, are certainly familiar with the critical nuance you omit(on purpose). It's not the middle bending pressure. That is what blindsided Apple in the first place. It's the bending in the upper 1/3 portion of the device, where the buttons are. It's an unexpected 2nd point of failing that is unique to the iphone in CR's test.
i've never seen a samsung phone break, ever! and 70% of people around me uses a Samsung. the other 25% use other androids..
the 5% who use icrap all had their icrap6+ replaced at least due to bending issue. before they had icrap5, and at least 3 occasions they had to replace their broken lcds.
You essentially invalidate anything you say as a result of this "crapple" drivel.
I can't stand apple, I very much like android, and I very much dislike that cheap and chintzy faux leather. It was pretty pathetic. It wasn't just apple fans who thought it a load of rubbish, many people did.
and personally I prefere the genuine article. As most non-hippy vegans do :p hence why people happily pay more for a genuine leather watch strap or belt than something synthetic.
I am not a vegan, I eat a lot of meat and also slaughter the animals I eat. I am just not one of those idiots who see leather as premium. It is primitive and barbaric, leather was a viable solution back in the days when people have not invented fabrics, and were reduced to hunting animals, skinning them to wear their hides for protection from the elements. Leather is just an inferior material, based on its properties. And there is too much cruelty in its commercial production, and I don't mean the slaughtering of animals, but the kind of "life" they go through before that. For me having leather products is like wearing clothes someone died in.
By "everyone" I think he means the tens of millions of people who didn't buy the Note, forcing Samsung to change design language to ape the super successful iPhone 6+. There are estimates that Apple sold 16m 6+ on launch with another 16m the next two quarters. I mean, yeah, Samsung sold 11m or so Notes a year, but Samsung can't survive on that (see their recent profit plunge).
My thoughts exactly. I could not agree with you more. I am so put off by this latest design. I dont see HOW they could sit in a board room and go BACKWARDS in design by about 2 years.
Another note, every other site (I checked about 5 ish?) covering the S6+/Note 5 explicitly writes that the battery is non-removable/replaceable, which seems more in line with what one might expect given the unibody design. Anandtech, are you sure about the replaceable battery?
Where does it say replaceable battery? It says that there are external batteries. As far as everything elsewhere says, the battery is not replaceable, and there is no SD card slot, just like the S6 series.
The review in Arstechnica says no replaceable battery, or slot. In fact, there have been many posts there complaining about that.
The battery is not SWAPPABLE. It maybe "buy this extra kit to pry open your phone and spend 30 minutes changing the spare part battery you hunted down from cheap China web site" replaceable.
Also, as Verge correctly states, NO 128GB model (it was a fluke by Samsung).
Total flop and failure this model. No 7422, no cam upgrade, small battery (anybody who has used S6 Edge heavily knows it lasts half a day under heavy use scenarios) and too little memory and too high price.
I will eat my hat if Note 5 sells well (more than Note 4).
Samsung has lost the plot for now. Time for LG, Sony, Xiaomi and others to step up. There are lots of power users looking to switch right now.
I really, really thought they'd keep the battery and MicroSD for their note line. Especially with the Edge+! Why not have one model that offers it and one that doesn't? Sure, it costs more now in engineering I bet, but by next year, they'd definitively know whether users want power or style with their phablets. They also could have easily upped the battery size if they were going non-removable - 4000 mAh or so would probably have been enough to be satisfied with the performance. Non-Removable batteries supposedly gain more volume, but that doesn't really seem to happen much. (Although the Note 5 is thinner than the G3, who cares? Add a couple mm and +20% battery).
I'd wait for the reviews before judging battery life. But even if it was better than the Note 4, I'm also equally disappointed they didn't fit a larger battery regardless provided the size of the device.
It seems like Samsung is confident enough that their new phone doesn't need that much power. As seen in this comparison between the Note 5 and its older sibling, the Note 5 has a much smaller semiconductor size which means it should in theory be able to do more work while using less battery power.
It's the screen that uses the battery - the transistor size on the cpu doesn't matter all that much. Screens are more power efficient nowadays, but a bigger battery will always help out.
Speaking as a developer, you don't know what you're talking about. I can kill a battery in under an hour if I push the processors too much; however, I can browse the web with the same screen being backlit for several hours on the same battery.
Very true. People are really underestimating the power draw of these newer SoCs.
Flagship processors and GPUs, for the past couple of years, are much more power hungry IF they're unnecessarily and constantly pushed to the limits. However, they're also more power efficient if used optimally. The Note 2 had legendary battery life (7-8 hours SoT) because its 32nm SoC was great for the screen resolution (720p) and overall workload. The last flagship from Samsung to have an optimal configuration was the GS5.
Also, Android has been getting less battery friendly as of late. Apps are getting more "visually appealing", with lots of animations and features that use more resources, and I'm afraid Android isn't yet as efficient as it should be with hardware acceleration...
I'll be sticking to my Note 3 for the time being as well. No SD card slot and no removable batter == no purchase for me. Removable battery also means easily replaceable battery, battery giving out is the N1 reason why people throw away "old" and buy new phones. I still make 7-8 days of "phone usage" out of my original battery, which I cycle with the 2 extra I bought, so as long as I don't drop and break it, it will be useful for another 3-4 years easily.
I was really looking to upgrade my Note 3 to Note 5.
What would I get?
- Less space (I'm at 32GB+128GB xdsd) - Less battery run time (several hours in heavy use, as proven by S6 edge experiences) - No way to swap the battery - Really stupid S-pen eject design (IMHO) - Faster SoC, +1GB RAM, lots of flash speed and good cam upgrade
For $900 and I'd have to import from the US or Asia?
The sales figures for the S6 and S6 edge seem good compared to S5 and S$, therefore I suspect that Note 5 and S6 edge+ will be better than Note 4. Global sales ranking for **May 2014** were:
Considering that there are now two different screen sized iPhones to compete against the Galaxy range seems to be doing OK.
Therefore I would suggest that most, though not all, users don't want replaceable batteries or SD cards but do want nice looking metal phones (considering that describes all the current top 5). So you would think that the Note 5 and S6 edge+ will do well and one or the other will replace iPhone 5S in the top 5.
^This is, sadly, very accurate. I have the Note4 and I absolutely love it, apart from a few main issues:
1) The battery is either totally oversized or the CPU and GPU are not clocked nearly high enough. I run a not insignificant overclock on both the CPU and the GPU (I have the Qualcomm version) and my battery still easily lasts more than 4 hours on a single nightly charge. I can only imagine what would have been possible with a proper metal heatsink to boost the wieght and thickness of the phone, while optimising the SOC for the internal battery size and the maximum safe current it can provide.
2) The PenTile display (yes, yes I know, and I do hold the phone out as far as my arm will go, but sadly my hand can only get to about 1.4m from my face so the grainy, leaky subpixel appearance is still quite bad on any kind of solid or smoothly gradiated colour).
3) Its really just waaaayyy to thin for its planar size (I had to go searching quite far and wide to find a shop with a suitable back-cover replacement that adds at least another 10mm to its thickness to make the phone more comfortable to hold and use).
4) The display has been optimised for a stupidly high amount of light output at the cost of pixel response time (especially in very dark halftones) and colour accuracy. I have never had set my display's brightness above 10% outdoors, in direct sunlight, and I almost always have it set at around 4-5% for normal indoor use, as anything higher is just uncomfortably bright; kind of like staring into one of those high-powered LED torches at close range. :(
Now I wished that at least one of these issues would someday have been addressed with a new Note revision, however it seems that there truely is no hope for any sort of a balanced, thicker z-height or any further display improvements, or indeed, any sort of improvement in the most critical areas of the Note4's performance.
What kind of Stretch Armstrong mutant are you? You do know that 1.4m is 4.6 feet and MUCH longer than anyone's arms should be right? Unless you are somewhere around 12 feet (about 3.6m) tall that arm length is just not possible.
Are people as worried about the 3000 mAh non-removable battery in the Moto X Pure/Style? It has a large screen, too, and it's arguably more power hungry, being IPS backlighted.
I plan to wait for nexus, microsofts offerings, heck, i'll just keep on waiting till the next round if I have to. This gen of flagships is an utter waste of time imo. Nothing to get excited about, mostly just gimmicks.
Funny how much effort you put into promoting Samsung while you don't even report on the biggest mobile news of the day , the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2. What are you a PR trumpet, nothing more?
I'm not sure that a device that won't be available (except through the gray market) in most of the developed world qualifies as "the biggest mobile news of the day."
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 is worth covering, absolutely, but is of significantly less near-term relevance than the latest product release by Samsung, which, IIRC, sells more mobile devices in the the developed world than anyone else.
I'm pretty sure this troll post by Anandtechs biggest troll is in reference to the extreme price difference. Taken from techcrunch (first google search option... entitled 'Xiaomi Trolls Samsung With Redmi Note 2 Launch'): Xiaomi has today announced the 799 RMB ($125) Redmi Note 2, and the 999 RMB ($155) Redmi Note 2 Prime.
Doubt this device will be seen in North America, and understandably so. As one poster on the site states: Half the ram, dual core, 8GB internal 5 MP camera. You can get those specs (or better) in a free phone from any of North America's cell service providers.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 looks like a great phone, but the "Note" in the name is misleading. The S Pen and all the S Pen features and apps are what makes the Samsung Note a Note.
Are you serious? The Edge has greatly outsold the standard variant at least as far as the Galaxy S6 is concerned. (One of many sources: http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s6-edge-dem... The main problem is that Samsung expected the standard version to outsell the Edge by 3-to-1 and ran into production capacity constraints with the curved display. Hopefully they won't make the same mistake with the Edge+.
I feel usability features like battery life, removable battery, SDCard and Pen are much more important to Note purchasers than the design/weight and form of the device.
In a few months the sales figures will provide all the data to confirm one way or the other.
Exynos :'(. While the raw performance will no doubt be cool, I really wanted a Samsung flagship with atleast the hardware to ease custom ROM development. Too bad, really like the Samsung Pay feature.
I find it incredible that Samsung could actually be this bad in understanding what their users want. They seem to think that they are Apple who can enforce features that its customers don't want. This is another nail in Samsung mobile coffin.
Let's face it, MicroSD is a niche unless Google by some miracle opens it wide up. I've been on the MicroSD bandwagon myself since Android devices very first came out. But honestly, the feature is so crippled at this point that it's just not worth it. I have 32 GB of onboard storage + 64 GB MicroSD. My internal storage is mostly full and my MicroSD card is mostly empty, even after moving everything I could over to it. I agree that OEM's like to overcharge for incremental storage upgrades, but it's sure as hell way more functional and convenient given Android's currently extremely limited MicroSD support. Now if Android took an approach similar to Windows' Storage Spaces feature (where your MicroSD would simply add to your overall storage capacity) then I'd be all over it. But as it stands now, my next phone is going to have an abundance of internal storage. If it has a MicroSD slot, fine. If it doesn't, fine.
Let's face it, MicroSD is not a niche just because you don't use it and aren't forced to use it doesn't mean its useless for others. Now, before some snobbish prick comes along and scream how "slow" MicroSD is, any half-decent card will work flawlessly for 1080p video playback let alone music which are the primary uses for such storage.
Be honest with yourself, how much time do you actually spend watching TV or video on a 5.7" screen? I watch movies in the cinema or on a large screen TV at home from the comfort of my sofa, which I can imagine is probably what most the population of the planet do unless you're hobbit and live in a cave with no electricity.
I watch the odd thing on the phone for pure convenience, maybe a video or 2 if I don't have my laptop with me or want to show a friend something funny on youtube, but I certainly don't have dozens of movies on there because, well, whats the point. And as for music, no-one has their entire library on loop so they don’t need it with them at all times and if you say you do, you’re lying because even if you did have it on rotate, you’d be skipping tracks constantly.
No one since time began likes every track in their music library so why keep it with you, particularly when space is restricted.
I'd really love to meet these people who need 64GB of music and another 64GB of films on their phones and check their hidden device logs to see exactly what the access times are for that data and how frequently they use it. I'm pretty sure the results would be conclusive, about 5 or 10% of it gets used, the rest just sits there doing f all other than eating up space.
I travel a lot, I have an iPad, a laptop and a Galaxy note 3, I use the iPad on the train and if I'm away from home, I use the laptop. I can honestly say in the years of travelling, I've never spent hours watching movies on my phone, why give myself a headache, run down the battery (which incidentally I want for the MAIN purpose of my phone - calling and texting) when I have other, better, more suitable devices with me.
I work in IT and see this shit every day, people who have huge hard drives with stacks of stuff on their and the dates of last access are literally years old, I always just ask why they don’t have them in the cloud or on a NAS rather than their laptops or desktops. Everybody always wants more and more space, but in the real world, most ordinary people use sod all of it - thats why cloud based storage took off so strong, its there on the of chance you need it, but it’s not hogging expensive local storage. I’m yet to encounter a situation with any device over 15 years in IT where there isn’t data on it that couldn’t be moved to free up space.
People paint these imaginary pictures of why they need a boat load of storage, but in 90% of cases, they’re just bollocks problems created by themselves just to make a point - when you look at the actual reasons, they’re so weak and lacking in any real world point that they’re laughable.
If you really have 128 odd GB of video and music on your phone, you need a lesson in learning to tidy shit up, not a bigger memory card.
First of all, it's presumptuous to imply that your 15 potentially irrelevant years in IT gives you an especially deep insight into how power users should use their devices. "IT" in the first place is a nebulous term and how some office lady uses her Hewlett-Packard in 2001 is nothing like how an android power user might use their Note in 2015
For one thing, the entire reason why many power users choose android is precisely because they don't want someone (Apple) dictating their experience - something which you are doing right now.
Secondly, your entire argument is nonsensical at its very core. If space does not matter, why do manufacturers even bother creating smaller and bigger capacity models? For that matter, why are we increasing capacity at all? Everyone should just be at 16GB since the OS only requires 4-5GB and mostly everything should be loaded onto the cloud, right?
The only sensible argument that I'm willing to accept for the lack of expandable storage is UFS 2.0 and how it's difficult to integrate slower flash storage memory because I can understand that there would be form factor and power efficiency concerns with building in a separate controller for that sort of thing. Even then I don't accept this as some insurmountable problem.
Lastly, sometimes people would just rather not be entirely dependent on the cloud. As a 15 year IT veteran you should know that redundancy is damned nice to have. My sister's Galaxy S2 broke down? Well, I can just swap the microSD into a new Xperia and she can keep all of her media with her.
I'm with my significant other and the topic goes towards places traveled? I can whip out my phone and open up the appropriate travel photos folder to share stories I've experienced and places I've been to while we're snuggled up in a tent without having to be concerned about LTE coverage and my data caps.
I'm on a road trip and the mood strikes me for the twang of some country music? I can start up the appropriate playlist - again, without having to be concerned about not having data access or with running up GB's worth of data usage streaming from the cloud during the trip.
Owning a few devices and reading some forums doesn’t make you an expert either. Trying to patronise me just makes you sound like a dick, and I fail to see how working every day with hundreds of different devices is irrelevant experience, but anyway, these petty things aside, on to your points.
I never said size wasn't relevant at any point, you're twisting my words, I was talking about managing your available space, it’s something ALL businesses do with data and normal end users do too, it’s just being organised and recognising that because your available space is finite, filling it with unnecessary crap is dumb.
I'm not trying to dictate what people should do, I'm merely saying from real world experience (as opposed to your personal device experiences and forums), devices are full of things people don't need, which is not just some deluded opinion I’ve plucked out of my ass, it’s fact and if you administered mobile and static user devices daily for a job, it would become abundantly apparent to you too. Because we have the technology to hold large amounts of data doesn’t mean we need to fill it.
When I go on holiday, I could pack my entire wardrobe, but I don't because I understand I wouldn't wear most of it and recognise that It’s retarded to fill all my valuable space with things I don't need. By your logic, you think that because you have a big case, you have to use it all, it's a moronic mentality because it makes your device slower and you end up storing a load of pointless stuff for no good reason other than ”on the off chance" you need it.
I'm not suggesting either that you are reliant on the cloud, just saying that it's a useful storage method for things you are unlikely to need. It's not rocket science, its just about using your space intelligently. And I understand redundancy funnily enough, it’s a technology servers were using long before smart phones or SD cards ever existed, I back my phone up to my laptop and use the cloud for redundancy.
Your sisters phone breaking incident is interesting - I’m curious as to what scenario your sister was in that she was that desperate to access her SD card contents that couldn’t wait for her to get home, thats a really bizarre set of circumstances that I can’t imagine most people ever recreating!
Re your playlists comment, I also use them strangely enough, I just know I don’t need every album I own every day of my life. If I think I want to mix things up outside of my already unnecessary 30 albums saved on my phone, when I get home from work, I change my music, it takes around a minute, I can’t imagine that your time is any more important than any other human being on the planet so I’m sure you could find a minute to spare as well and in turn save yourself a load of wasted expensive flash storage.
Ultimately, what you choose to put on your devices is your choice, if you want to spend a shit aload of money on loads of flash storage and put heaps of stuff on there you don't need, then great for you, I'm not dictating what anyone can and can't do, just suggesting that it can be viewed from another perspective and that maybe, just maybe, there is a perfectly reasonable and simple remedy for your perceived space problems.
Personally, I’ll keep on buying devices because they hold useful value and I enjoy using them - if I ever hit a point where I realise I’ve made a horrible mistake and my life would have been much more enhanced if my phone only had Metallica, Beethoven and the Proclaimers in my playlist alongside our Prague holiday snaps from 1992, I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong, but you may be waiting a while.
Hate to say it but you're just wrong on so many fronts. First and foremost people have the want/need for things that they may or may not use. This goes for everything. You do this, I do this, especially with tech. Now, specifically with storage I sure as hell want more space than I would want just in case I do need them. Sure I may not use them all the time but they are there and available when I need them. This is the key point. I care more about spending the hundreds of hours to manage and organize my music, movies, photos and so on, a ritual I do every single freaking year.
In a perfect world where you are as organized as you imply then yes maybe that will work. Implying that people don't use their phones to watch videos and other stuff is ludicrous. The market is huge. I like having a SD slot to be able to carry more. It doesn't hurt that I don't use it all but it sure as hell does when I need the space and I have none. Why do you think PC enthusiasts buffer on their purchases? Why are we all on Anandtech?
And yes don't dictate to others what you think they should have or be doing. Keep it your opinion and don't make it sound as though those of us that do are nothing but lazy, messy aholes who don't know what the hell they're doing. I had an IT guy once brag about his IT job and his responsibilities in a meeting. To put this person in their place I answered him by saying I'm an Engineer, design engineer; I can design and program what you think you know. IT guys, most think they know it all. Bunch of idiot kids is what I think personally.
The problem with you line of thinking, and I really have no beef with it other than most people aren't so organize, is that you believe you are what you state. As much as there is no God I say 99.9999% say that you're no different from the average person. Humans have the urges, the wants, the needs. Yours may not be storage but when you lust after something and want a little bit more than you're part of it. There is no shame to this, it's human nature to want things, hence driving innovation as well. You may want to consider Australia since innovation is almost dead there. They like it organized and neat.
OK fella, whatever you say. I'm voicing an opinion, it just happens to not be the same as yours - that's what happens in the real world, not everyone agrees with each other - I bet you make a great engineer, listening to no-one else's opinions other than your own.
You are voicing your opinion that you find no need for the SD card slot and as such nobody else should.
My most recent phone didn't have an SD slot, I routinely fill its internal storage with pics and videos of my kids and family that I would much rather not have to wipe every month or two. My baby girl adores looking at videos of family and friends and to have to wipe it so often is incredibly frustrating.
Filling it with video and images also means that I cannot store much music at all on it so if I go for a jog or to the gym I often have to stick to just a couple of albums worth of music or change it up all the time.
It is a major inconvenience to not have it. Some users may not want it, they are free to get a phone without one, those that do want an SD slot do want one. How can you argue against that?
My wife has a fairly low to mid range phone that is cheap as chips, she then puts an SD card that is reusable in her next phone and all of a sudden she also can take lots of photos and videos. She has more storage in her phone than mine and it cost her about half of what mine does.
My next phone will have SD support, it is that simple.
Some people want it, you can voice your opinion that you do not need it but when you live in an area where relying on your cellphone signal for even phone calls is hard enough using the cloud is just not something that is even remotely an option.
Lol. I have no issue with you voicing your opinion but to tell everyone else that it is unnecessary because you seem to think you don't need it is ridiculous and arrogant. It is fine if you like it that way but don't assume others do. And then you got upset and tell me that I don't listen to others? Where did you even get that interpretation from. My argument is as general as it can be...we're humans, we have wants and needs. How this translate to I don't give a fck about anyone else is beyond me. You have a serious problem. Good day.
Having my entire music collection with me allows me the freedom to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want. I don't always know what I want to listen to before I head out.
Just because you don't feel the need to do this does not mean it's pointless to everyone!
Taking the entire contents of my fridge with me to work gives me the freedom to make what I want for lunch because I don't always know what I want to eat midday before I leave.
I'm not saying it's pointless, it's just an expensive way of doing it and in my opinion there are other, better options.
I didn't realise Devo2007 was having to lug around a huge suitcase full of LPs to listen to his music collection. Oh that's right, we are in 2015 and we can have the convenience of carrying the media we want so we can listen to what we want without having to rely on potentially crappy signal.
Stop assuming your use case is the only one that matters. Local storage is far cheaper and much more convenient than cloud storage, if you can have there is no reason not to have it.
I wasn't assuming my case was the only one that matters, you need to learn how to read instead of attempting to sound smart, which you clearly aren't - hop back on your horse white knight and jump on another band wagon somewhere else.
I read the countless comments on every phone review where lots of people are saying they regularly make full use of the sd card support in their phones.
You yourself said in your opinion 90% of people could be using alternatives so even in your first world experience there is 10% that could make use of sd card support. Step outside the city and that increases. Get into a town like mine where you barely get cell phone signal and the cloud is not an option in the majority of places you go.
Start adding ask this III and there are a lot of people that could make use of SD support. Add in even more that have a basic phone and the cheapest contact going and the case for SD support gets even stronger.
There are countless use cases for SD card support. I am not white knighting for anything, your opinion that SD card support is pointless, outdated or whatever your argument is is just wrong, lots of people want it for a very good reason.
You cannot take the entire contents of your fridge as that takes physical space. Imagine if you never had to pack your launch each day, you just had access to your entire fridge in a device that took up the same amount of space as your old launch bag. It would make your life so much easier (no more packing a lunch each morning + you would have more variety at launch).... Instead you seem to be arguing against such a device.
More space on the phone is better. Worse case scenario files do not get accessed for months, other wise you have access to more files more reliability (and spent a lot less time micromanaging storage.)
The lack of SD card alone kind of kills the s6 for me. Maybe if samsung had offered a more reasonably priced 128GB model...
If you're that obsessed with having a gazillion songs in FLAC format on a library of microSD cards that you carry around with you 24/7, buy a freakin' $50 MP3/FLAC player. I seriously doubt that demographic is responsible for making any phone manufacturer money, so I hardly think Samsung or anyone else cares.
LOL! Exactly how I feel. Each to his own, I guess, but I don't think Samsung sees a compelling business case for making a phone so you can carry 500 movies and 5,000 songs in your pocket. "Oh, but I want songs in FLAC format!" First world problems.
I'm so happy that you're life is peachy and you don't feel the need for extra storage. I, on the other hand, do. If I visit the parents, who literally live in the middle of nowhere and have no internet service, then I actually need a large uSD card to survive the week. I also bring a couple of portable HDDs (2X2TB) with movies and t.v. shows my little brother and sister that they typically don't get to watch (since they have no cable either). My wife... she actually lives watching video off of her S5. She'll watch that over the 55" most of the time. I'll be moving her up to a 64 GB uSD card to replace the 32 GB that's too small to hold her favorite t.v. show. In all honesty, it would be nice to have a uSD card with 512 GB of storage (and a phone that could use it) so I could fit all of my music on it without a problem. Sure there's some stuff I rarely listen to, but I'm not in the mood to delete/add stuff just to satisfy your perceived need for limited storage. It's far easier to have everything in that location to begin with. It's also one more backup copy in case something happens to my workstation and the backups in the fire file.
If that's what works for you, that's great, do it, I'm not saying you're wrong for doing it, just suggesting that there are other options, it's just an opinion after all, like everyone else's.
No you are saying that SD support is not necessary today. What he is saying proves your opinion to not fit every scenario.
There are many use cases where cloud storage is unusable, if you want lots of media at your finger tips and cannot rely on wifi or cell signal (far more common in a lot of the world than those in cities would imagine) then internal storage is the only option.
If you fit into the category that cannot use cloud storage and do not want to spend the extra money for 128Gb internal built in then SD storage is the only option. Hell if you want more than 128Gb then SD is the only real convenient option.
You are saying hey its just my opinion that nobody should need SD slots because there are other options, and yeah you are right for some people but for a lot of other people they want an SD slot in their phone and they are not wrong to want it.
You're like a forum based hemorrhoid, clinging onto my every comment and coming to the virtual rescue of everyone you see in the hope of making some friends. I'm sure people are capable of backing up their own arguments without you speaking for them.
It's good to have your own opinion sometimes, you should try it.
Ok will as you are incapable of having a grown up conversation with me I'll leave everyone else to tell you that you are wrong as they are doing anyway.
Its not a grown up conversation though is it Jimbo, it's just you telling me how deluded my point of view is and rubbishing everything I say because you disagree with me.
We're both entitled to points of view, a forum just gives you a voice to share it, whether you agree with me or not is your choice but theres a way of debating your point without trying to patronise others and make them out to be complete morons just because they don't share the same view as you.
arrogance in pronouncing extra storage unnecessary is amusing.
I bought my first 120MB HDD in the early 90's for my Amiga 500 that i used for many years. I originally switched from the iPhone4 to the Note2 due to the larger screen, LTE support and microSD. I was planning to upgrade to the Note 3 last December as it was cheap until I tried the Gear VR headset. I bought the Note4 instead specifically for that and the resolution of the panel is only just adequate for that.
I currently have around 40GB of demos and short surround videos on my 128GB microSD card. Wait until the full games start rolling and surround videos become more mainstream on Samsung's MilkVR and Google's YouTube. Your declaration will seem as silly as the historical assumption that 640KB of RAM will be enough for anyone.
All the above is academic though as Samsung is in the business of selling these devices so what people think they "WANT" is much more important than what they actually end up using. I liked the fact the Note2 had a removable battery and I used that feature "advantage" to help convince myself to switch from iOS (which i preferred) to Android. I didn't end up using the extra battery I bought much. An external battery pack that can charge multiple devices proved more practical.
On the Note4 though using VR drains the battery REALLY fast. It won't last 4 hours so now that i know the Note5 doesn't have any of my feature wish list: UHD panel, much larger battery, or more storage capacity (I currently have 32GB + 128GB), a second battery for my note4 is my next purchase instead of my expected note5 Christmas present to myself. So for Samsung a $50 sale instead of $1000. Any customer thinking similarly to me will affect their bottom line.
I'd expect Gear VR for the Note 5 to have USB passthrough like the S6 version, so you can work around the battery issue. Lack of SD is unfortunate. VR software and videos fill up memory quickly.
From what I can tell you are in IT but too specialized to be in management. Because you seem to have a particular focus and a very closed minded view of tech.
I am an IT Security Consultant and I have a Note 4 with a 128GB microSD. I do have tons of FLAC but the biggest storage use for me is backing up my ROMs and settings. I am very meticulous about certain settings of my custom rom and apps. I backup my favorite versions of a particular app so whenever a developer changes the code for the worst. I have a backup that I can restore to and not lose functionality.
MicroSD has served me well as well as swappable batteries. As a traveling consultant I get to go out a lot and not everywhere you can find an outlet and charge. So having portable chargers and batteries is a must for me.
And of the millions of people Samsung would like to sell phones to, how many do you think have the need to store ROM backups? I would bet all custom ROM users added together aren't enough of a market for Samsung to notice.
Since I have had the great misfortune of being born into a country with basically NO internet (An 'uncapped' 1mbit/s connection (average download speeds about 80~95KB/s) over here has a total cost of around $20 a month and a throttling 'cap' of around 10GB).
We don't use the 'cloud', because it would take an eternity to download a single 15MB (between 2x and 8x that for high bit depth and high sample rate tracks) FLAC song (if the downloads could even be completed in a month) downloading around 70 of those files would place most users into the 1-5kB/s 'throttled' zone for the rest of the month.
Also, I find it extremely convenient to always have an effective 64GB "flash drive" on hand to transfer files betwewn PCs
Good argument for, completely see the need for it in this instance, but not everyone here debating is the same, most of the arguments for SD storage are incredibly flimsy and the supposed issues for not having it are easy to work around.
I had crappy internet as well so I know where you're coming from.
Thank god we have you and your 15 years of IT experience to judge what users can have. Are you sure you don't work for Samsung?
You realise that all your examples are a little ridiculous, right? If I could take my entire wardrobe and fridge around in a space as big as a micro sd, I'm going to do it.
I've spent most of my entire life around and working in 'IT', and the main lesson I take is: having options is always best and I don't see any logical arguments about that.
Anyway, it's a moot point as 'somebody else' has decided that Europe does not want the note so we don't get to even have a have a chance to buy it till next year...
This is what I mean by your arrogance. You said it yourself and agree, people have different needs. Leave it at that and stop with the religious preaching that microSD isn't needed. Using storage for convenience is incredibly flimsy and there are easy workarounds? WTF are you talking about. First accusation doesn't makes sense at all. Second accusation implies there are easier ways other than copying files to the microSD card and you're done. You can't be serious.
You don't want microSD, fine. Now stop preaching and accusing others of things that don't make sense. Fcking kids, think they know it all.
They don't make sense to you because you're a narrow minded idiot who is incapable of listening to another persons point of view. Quite a few other people have chipped in now thankfully who completely understand what I wrote, it is English after all, perhaps you want to have a look at their comments and hurl them some abuse as well, although I'm starting to think you may have difficulty with reading, fortunately most of the curse words are 1 syllable so you should be ok.
As a train commuter... a lot. I watch movie a day or 2 TV episodes in and out of the city. I like to drop 3 or 4 movies at a time on my card so I have a choice. I listen to music in my car based on categorized folders with the shuffle feature. I'm pretty honest with myself and I use double digit GB per day on my card. Could I work around that? Sure, but I'd rather not have to.
I do some work in sports where I can swap the card from my camera into my phone to publish something live much faster than if I transfer it to a computer first.
So yeah, the micro SD card is kind of a big deal to me.
Do you think we care about how you use your phone, where you watch your video or how you manage your collections? You can get a dumb phone and call it a day but I want a smart phone with an SD card slot so I can swap/share my files without having to delete then copy&paste from my PC. I watch movies and access files from my NAS at home sometimes but I guess you don't know there're speed limits to these network file transfer protocols. What about when you're out of your wifi range, cloud you say? Most of us aren't comfortable storing our personal files in some cloud server and not all of us can afford unlimited data plan or big cloud storage.
I've been in IT myself since 2000 and I've never seen anyone in IT field that has thinking like yours. When a company hires you to fix/maintain or administer their network etc., you don't reorganize/change their whole system and everything on it to your liking or lecture them how to tidy their things.
So what if we like to have a phone with an SD card slot and carry all our files/collections in a bunch of tiny SD cards. So what if we like to have the freedom to access our files whenever and wherever we want, as long as our phones battery allows us to do so. That's our choice. We don't need someone like you to tell us how to run our things. Get a life!
As an IT professional, you don't dictate, but you do make decisions on how the network runs and recommend things that make the network run smoother which can help save the customer money, data management is part of this. Companies expect you to give them advice, if you didn't do that, you wouldn't be a very good engineer.
You're not really in IT though are you kid? "You can get a dumb phone but I want a smart phone" - You must be, what, 13, 14?
Everyone is entitled to an opinion though, even kids, even if you are just hopping on the bandwagon with other people, its only when you get older that you realise that you don't have to have an opinion the same as other people because its safer, you can make a decision for yourself. You'll be there soon kiddo.
"If you really have 128 odd GB of video and music on your phone, you need a lesson in learning to tidy shit up, not a bigger memory card."
You called this advice? You sound very hateful and it makes you look like you're dictating others with your twisted logic. Anyway, there's no point for us debating or arguing with an illogical ahole like you. So what if we like something you don't. Deal with it!
The logics fine, I explained myself pretty clearly, it just doesn't tie in with what you think. So what if I think carrying around 128GB of music is pointless, it's not going to stop people doing it, I'm merely suggesting it's not a necessity.
In all honesty though, it doesn't look like Samsung give a shit about people who want to carry around 128GB of music either, which would suggest that according to Samsungs market research, people like you are a small fish in a big ocean - It doesn't phase me in the slightest, you're the one getting so butt hurt about it!
What I do is copy a season of a TV series to my SD card and watch it during commuting on the train which is 2 hours per day. Next to this I have a large music library which I use when cycling to and from the train. Not to mention that some free games like hearthstone use up a lot of space that the internal memory is just not sufficient for anymore.
I guess different people use their phablets differently. Not only do I use a large MicroSD I even plug thumb and hard disks to my phone with an on-the-go cable. When I had a phone without uSD I was constantly managing my storage to have enough space for pictures and videos but now my phone camera is configured to save stills and videos to uSD. My phone is for work and my employer could demand I surrender it at any time. Since most of my personal stuff is on uSD I could just pop it out and give my phone back without loosing anything important. I was a very loyal Galaxy Note user but lack of uSD will make me look around when it is time for a new phone.
And you are one of the 10% that sound like you have a legitimate reason for storage, I'm obviously not blanket saying everyone is the same, but I'm willing to bet a lot of the people in this forum are in their teens and only have their entire music library or movies on their phones just because they can, it's more a choice rather than an everyday requirement.
If you're recording footage or taking a lot of photos, I get that, I use the phone for photos and video capture for personal use and work as well, but the whole music and films argument, it's just old and invalid these days.
It's exactly the reason Apple don't make a giant capacity music juke box anymore, it did sell when it was available, but it sold because people chose to have their entire music library available - did they ever listen to even a tenth of it months on end, no, but the space was available so they used it. Particularly with the advent of things like google and apple music, storing huge amounts of music is a waste of valuable storage space and ultimately pointless.
I use my note more for internet than for media, it's really useful, particularly with the big screen - I do use it for video, photos and the odd tv show if i'm really stuck, but space is a commodity that people take for granted, it's a lot cheaper to be organised and it's amazing how much space you really have available when it's not filled with unnecessary clutter.
There is clearly room enough in the whole worldwide market for at least 1 power-user business phone, that just lasts forever (i.e. big, user-swappable battery) and with tons of storage options.
Ever have to fly transcontinental? Ever in bad reception? Debugging clients stuff? Need all the files, but 1yr + attachments worth of email storage. Lots of docs, video and your own music collection (and I have a PDF fully content indexed databse)?
There are millions of users in the world like this. Others just want to have LOTS of storage.
And no, cloud doesn't cut it (I've described why).
People use their phones constantly in offices, near a charger, in constant 4G/LTE-A reception with maybe 2 weeks of mails and a few podcasts and 30+ apps have no concept of what a power user is, what the use scenarios are and what they need.
There is a big enough and well-paying (take my money, please) segment like this in the world and they don't ask questions about the price, if you give them the features.
Samsung didn't with Note 5 and they will lose most of this segment really fast.
There's a great opening now for the fast Chinese makes, like Xiaomi and others to move into this space and own it. The profits in this segment are to die for (Apple level)....
I get your points, I just honestly don't think the removal of an SD card slot and removable battery is going to drastically affect Samsung's sales of the Note or S6 in any variant.
I think what people here are trying to get you to understand is that the market segment buying the Galaxy Note series is very different from those buying the Galaxy S series.
Speaking for myself personally, I have had exactly ZERO interest in any of the S series models (S2 through S6+). I bought the Note2 for the stylus, large display and LTE (with removable storage and MicroSD being nice to haves). When I went to upgrade (nearly went Note3 12 months after release but switched to Note4 for GearVR support) I found that the stylus and MicroSD were now essentials.
I showed my Note2 to our CEO and he bought the Note2 on company money (despite iPhones being our corporate standard) within a month, when it broke he bought the Note3 (money no object he can any phone he wants). He has a MicroSD in his as well.
As I said the sales figures will be interesting, but lots of Note buyers WANT those two features.
You'll appreciate i hope that "lots" is not a percentage as I obviously haven't done any formal polling. As I said above in another quarter we'll see the sales figures and then we'll know.
Well obviously. Most people prefer apple. If people doesnt realize it yet samsung want to embrace more on mainstream consumer which they doesnt care much about the lack of some features namely microsd and battery. Obviously people who are ready to leave samsung just for that doesnt realize that they would miss some of samsung top notch and most advance hardware. I am sure even the true geeky would ready to sacrifice micro sd for that super amoled or exynos chips or the excelent build and design.
"There is clearly room enough in the whole worldwide market for at least 1 power-user business phone, that just lasts forever (i.e. big, user-swappable battery) and with tons of storage options."
Carrying around your entire music library in FLAC format doesn't sound like a power-user business case to me.
Poor sales for a phone that will cost as much as $900 and be a marginal upgrade from the Note 4 are pretty much assured. The upgrades are not what, I believe, the Note buyer was expecting. Samsung seems to have misread its target market. Unless it was targeting first time Note purchasers. Good luck with that.
I agree poor sales are assured. The note4 edge is the pretty version of the note4 and it didn't sell nearly as well as the note4 std. Thus Samsungs complete mostead of sales ratios on the s6 vs S6 edge. Buyers of the note series care more about utility than design elegance and weight. I've never heard a note user say their phone is too heavy or big. Battery life seems the main complaint for most. For us very few VR nuts it's resolution, overheating and battery life.
Samsung likes to flood the market with a crazy number of handset models. Here's hoping for a Note5 VR edition - Note4 with higher resolution screen, faster GPU, removable (or much larger battery), microSD or 256GB internal NAND and USB C connector.
I am VERY upset with Samsung. I really need to buy a new cell. But they took everything the S5 had that people like and removed itwith the S6 and note 5. 1. Micro sd - Removed 2. Removable battery - Removed 3. Water resistance - Removed 4. Happy customers - Removed
I hope nobody buys their stupid phones so that they learn that they need to listen to the customers.
I switched from I-phones to Galaxy Note 2 for mainly 3 reasons...The large screen, a micro-SD slot, and the ability to just use the phone as a folder on your computer (avoiding I-Tunes or any equivalent). Now 2 of those advantages are gone. I'm happy with my current Note 4, but unless the Note 6 is a big step in the right direction, I'll seriously consider going back to an Iphone. Disappointing release.
And why would you go to iPhone? Did it get SD card and replaceable battery recently? Even without these features Note 5 is still twice the device that iPhone is so why would you want to downgrade that much?
He/she is obviously saying that they liked the iPhone better, but the old Note had something they needed. (large screen, micro-SD, etc.) Now that 2 of the advantages that made them switch to the Note are gone, why not go back to the iPhone.
Comments like yours are getting tiresome. No one that has any credibility thinks that the Note 5 is twice the device that the iPhone is. You are projecting your opinion onto others.
The benchmarks speak for themselves. Samsung's phones and the iPhone are close enough hardware performance-wise that which device you choose comes down to preference on software.
Anandtech could use some more moderation on their commenting system. Seems to be fairly clogged with trolls lately.
The Note's pen functions are great. Now if they would only make the screen a bit wider (and shorter), those of us who work w/ docs could actually read the document. This candy bar obsession is annoying. Besides, any phone @ 5 to 5.5 and up is not a one-handed device.
Just like I said when the S6 launched, no removable battery & no sd card slot means no deal for me. My current phone is starting to get a little long in the tooth and once a suitable flagship launches with those features and a solid SoC (holding out for something 14nm at this point). It could have been an S6, it could have been a Note 5, but they decided to make a more fragile model with less features than essentially all that came before it.
I own the Note4 owner and am mostly happy. Android itself is a limiting platform for MicroSD. You need to root your phone to get access to the folders on the MicroSD which presents a set of other limitations. Plus if you get bad sectors on the MicroSD it is hard to fix. I use a charging battery 10400 mah on the go for camping trips, as opposed to changing a spare Note 4 battery. This way I can charge my tablet too.
We are not Samsung's target audience. As more and more carriers are making customers pay full price for a phone, a $700-$900 "flagship" is going to be a much tougher sell. The new MOTO G might start to look better to a lot of folks just because of the cost savings. LG is dangling the ability to unlock the bootloader on some of it's current G4 phones. If they do that, and keep replaceable battery, plus sd card storage, they might have a lock on the "enthusiast" market, but I don't really have a sense of the actual size of that market. If you hang around Anandtech, it will look huge, but what is it in the real world?
This comment on upcoming nonsubsidy plans is perfect foreshadowing to samsung building to the present and losing its future. The user willing to pay $500 more is already a niche user. When subsidies blended a $400 and $800 phone together, no big deal. If America embraces nonsubsidy plans (which I doubt) then the lack of SD and removable battery is a huge limiting factor. How much better is your phone then one cheaper when you've differentiated on appearance? My guess is the "want pretty" folks will continue with iPhones. Someone will build a utilitarian power user android device for cheap. Some custom roms and that's that.
Samsung could have continued to cater to the niche under the Note line while expanding the edge line. Instead we get different flavors of what the unibody pretty line forsaking options for power users. We remember and when new options appear we will move.
"I suspect that this will be a litmus test for the S-Pen functionality in general, as sales may prove Note functionality has a relatively small effect on the desirability of a phablet."
I don't care about the pen at all, but given the choice, I would still pick the Note 5 over the inconveniently bent display of the S6 Edge+. At least you can just tuck the pen away and pretend it doesn't exist. It's harder to ignore a misshapen display.
Honest question, why are even considering the Note if you're not interested in its defining features? There's a plethora of devices that have good specs and larger batteries and similar sized screens...
In my case - other similar sized phones do not have the reputation of Samsung phones (which served me well for many years). None of them has equally powerful processor (at this moment), equally good display and/or camera. Most won't have a finger-print sensor. I believe in this case the premium price is fully justified - highest price for the best phone.
"Honest question, why are even considering the Note if you're not interested in its defining features? There's a plethora of devices that have good specs and larger batteries and similar sized screens..."
I have a Z3C and I'm still looking for a phone. It's not easy as you think. I visit gsmarena phone finder page at least twice a week. There are 830 phones with display resolutions at least at 720p but they all fall into one or more of my dislikes: Protruding camera, speaker on the back, weak battery, off-centered display, display that's not IPS or AMOLED, terrible display with visible touch grids like my Z3C's, display PPI less than 290, display PPI more than 450, without support or update in the U.S.
Oh well, I guess I'll keep on waiting and checking the news.
There's a few that meets my expectation but Oh my! They're just too ugly to look at. I wish the Galaxy A5 a bit thicker so the camera can flush with the back, more battery life too. And c'mon Samsung, move that damn speaker from the back already.
They still are without a doubt, just not as expandable as before... Performance should be better and more consistent than the GS6 since the SoC has a bit more thermal headroom. The screen should also be better. The camera software and processor are updated, more RAM, UFS storage, quick charging (of all types), and arguably the prettiest design...
Listen, I love removable batteries and SD cards too, but that doesn't mean that the phone isn't best in class, because it absolutely is.
If your use case for a smartphone is to take high resolution videos of on site issues, the ability to pop out a MicroSD card and plug that directly into your PC for editing can make file transfer much faster (especially as they canned the USB3 port moving from the Note3 to Note4).
If you record a lot of video, being able to swap in another battery every few hours is a BRILLIANT feature.
It really comes down to how much utility do you get from your "SmartPhone". For enough users in this niche the MicroSD and/or removable battery have become ESSENTIAL FEATURES IN THEIR BUYING DECISION.
Again, I wholeheartedly agree. My main camera during my honeymoon was my smartphone and 2 64GB SD cards. I made better footage that those with dedicated cameras (call me crazy, I even took my laptop with me). I'm NOT happy with Samsung's design decisions.
That said, people like you and me are niche customers at best. Samsung is a business, they cant cater a mainstream device that sells tens of millions for niche uses. They're going to make compromises, and ditch what MOST of their current and potential customers don't care fore when buying a PREMIUM device.
I value practicality and function over form to an extent. People like me don't buy a phone ever 6 months or a year. Most of the others like me won't even go near a $700 phone. But the customers that do buy $600-800 smartphones value brand, looks, "the latest and greatest", and a device that works. IE: they want a device that looks and feels expensive, yet sports the latest tech. They DON'T consider SD Cards and removable batteries the "latest tech" for most people. THESE are the customers Samsung, as a business, value, and I surely don't blame them. If I owned a business I'd do the same.
What I find interesting is that Samsung sells so many different models into the market.
Given their general trend to sell as many models into as many market niches as possible, having no high end phones with MicroSD and/or a removable battery seems an odd choice to me.
Time will tell if "people like you and me" are a significant enough niche to target. One positive of the Note5 is they'll now have a really good chance to find out how important these features actually are by looking at actual sales figures.
You have a valid point. But don't forget that their sales were already falling. Falling sales are harder to improve. Saying that "sales weren't as good as expected" might not be more accurate than saying "sales could have been much worse if we didn't they didn't go that route"...
The declining sales had lots of reasons. It's a fact that Samsung's Galaxy S and Note series have been very reliable and expandable devices. Practical users weren't as inclined to upgrade. It's also a fact that the design was as attractive to lots of other users. Again, Samsung, as a business, is fixing both these issues for better or worse. Their not going to make their devices expandable so that the former type of users are more inclined to upgrade, and their fixing their design so that the second type are more likely to hop in.
Competition in the Android space is also a huge factor. 3 years ago, Samsung didn't have that much competition. But that's changed now and it's contributing to their declining sales. Which isn't Samsung's fault.
The funny (and sad) truth is, lots of the "reviewers" criticizing the omission of the SD card, non removable battery and the lower battery life of the GS6 and S6 Edge are all now using these device as their daily drivers. All or most of them. If these reviewers can put up with the "decreased" battery life and "lost functionality" for the looks, I'm sure most consumers would do the same.
Anandtech really needs an edit button (they can at least make it time limited)...
First paragraph:"sales could have been worse if *they didn't go that route". Second paragraph: It's also a fact that their design *wasn't as attractive to many.
Having owned all 5 Notes and the Note Edge, I can tell Samsung....you have lost me. If I wanted no SD, no replaceable batt and limited 64gb memory, I would have bought an iphone long ago. Well, here I come Apple, because this is NOT what buyers of the Note want. Goodbye Samsung.
You are acting as if SD card and replaceable battery were the only things where Note phones outplay iPhone. How about 4x RAM, 2x screen resolution, better camera, 4K video, real NFC etc.? If these two things are really important to you, you'd be much better off by buying Android phone with iPhone specs for half the price.
samsung need to learn a lesson Following apple will backfire themselves. Removing SD slot and lowering battery cap over copy cat design wont bring benefit to samsung nor buyers.
I do know this was about the two "phablets" from samsung, but i just keep wondering, if the "sub 5" market" is dead? i have owned all from 3.2" to 4.2" to 4.7" and now (1+1) 5.5"... but know i just want to crawl back, but i can't find any flagships below 5" (except iPhone 6, and i find 4.7 to be my upper screen limit)... When will i ever see a phone i can use on my back in my bed? :( Is this market just all dead for flagships? :( I know you can get "mini's" but wow are they crap :( I only ask... WHEN! :(
As a previous owner of the S2, S3, S4, Note 3, Note 4 and Note Edge, all I can say to Samsung is to give them a royal finger for taking away the 2 main features that made me choose them over an IPhone. I see your FU Samsung, and I raise you with a mighty GFY.
Moving forward, I will be looking at what LG, Nexus, HTC has to offer. Hell, I might even go for a Windows phone next.
I vote for Option 2. I have the Note4 and it's an excellent SmartPhone. The screen colour and resolution on the 5.7" OLED display is great, fast processor, and pen is super handy for taking quick notes.
Have a play with the Gear VR headset as well, everyone who's tried mine has said it's better than they expected. I would sell the Note5 or Note5 Edge immediately on eBay without opening the box if someone gave me one.
It always intrigues me that somehow they can make the phone as big as 6.6 inches but can't add a couple of millimeters in thickness so camera doesn't protrude and give the device much more battery life. What's going thru these retarded mind? (Yea I'm looking at you, Samsung engineers).
Why am I so against protruding camera? Even a kid knows that pressure becomes greater as the area of contact gets smaller. Picture it every time you put down your phone face up on a hard surface like a counter top, how much strain that certain part of the phone get? Let alone protruding camera can cause wobbling when use on flat surfaces like tables. Try Bejeweled or calculator with one of these phones on a table and you'll see.
OK now you maybe telling me to get a case. Really? What's the point of designing a thin phone? But wait, 10 mm isn't thin? It has to be 7 mm to be called thin right?
Until they fix this retarded design flaw and even tho I'm in need of a phone now, I won't be buying any device with protruding camera or has less than a day of battery usage.
I currently have the 32GB Note4 with a 128Gb MicroSD. The 128Gb would be the minimum size I'd consider, but I won't be buying a Note5 anyway mostly due to the resolution not increasing, but the loss of removable battery and MicroSD card seals the decision not to buy. Hoping the sales are dismal to encourage a return to the Note4 form factor with an impressively large battery.
I'll pass...next! Unbelievable for a flagship phone/phablet like this to be crippled with only a 3000 mAh battery. Was going to buy it but passing on it. Hate having to keep charging the phone. Yes, wireless charging, but only at home or work, not on the go and do they think I'm hauling that around?! With poor sales, hopefully they'll get the message people want and expect more, not less!
HORRIBLE, just HORRIBLE - What do Samsung think that they are doing? If a person wants a HEAVY METAL, NON-BATTERY SWAPPABLE, NON-MEMORY ADDABLE BRICK, they can always go over and buy a useless IPHONE.... My Note 3 is LIGHTER than the "new" My Note 3 has MUCH MORE MEMORY (160GB) than the "new" My Note 3 can swap to my spare batteries anytime for indefinite power-life, unlike the DEAD-BATTERY "new"....
Your Note 3 has UFS storage with SSD performance... Oh wait, it doesn't. eMMC SD cards would cripple the performance of a phone like this. You wouldn't buy a high performance PC and cram a mechanical disk in it just to save money after, would you?
My old 16GB Note2 ran out of storage just from apps, not a single video and precious few photos. My 32GB Note3 has under 1GB free again mainly from apps. The video, photos, music, VR apps etc. are all on the MicroSD card. I'm already using over 64GB of storage.
The only time I found the storage on my Note2 to be too slow is when it was nearly full, that destroys performance.
I have a high end SSD in my PC. When I next upgrade I may even upgrade to a PCIe flash for the OS. I also have many TBs of HDDs. I don't need all my storage to be super fast even in my PC.
Why would I want to pay $200 extra to get an extra 96GB of super fast storage in a smartphone? That's Apple customer crazy.
I have a Note 4. I have ditched the SD card in it because it just drains the battery even when I'm not using the phone. I've got half a day extra battery simply by removing that card. And you know what, I have no congestion issues. Sure, I'm subscribing to Tidal to be able to stream HiFi quality music, Plex for my videos and I'm smart enough to use OneDrive to store all of my data.
On your desktop, the performance and power usage hit literally is a non-issue, as you have an endless stream of power coming into it. You don't drag a long extension cord around with you for your mobile, do you? :D
Why would you pay more to get the best performing storage on your phone? For the exact same reason you buy SSD's for you r PC to improve its performance or battery life. It's really not that complicated. Yes, I agree the manufacturers are too greedy for the storage size upgrade prices, but they all do that. Even Google.
Thanks for the info on battery life differences using a MicroSD. I've never checked that.
My point is I don't want to pay 1000's to upgrade all my TBs of storage when for the majority of the content there will be no difference to the end user experience. Reading or writing a single 60Gb computer backup file doesn't require SSD throughput.
I have around 2GB of music on my phone, not that big a deal. But the 20+Gb of VR content is a problem for smartphones with smaller capacity, and that can't practically be stored in the cloud as a single 5 minute video is 1Gb and monthly data limits in Australia on mobile are quite low, and ADSL2+ can be quite slow (Max 3.5Mbps at my Dad's place).
I generally like having a MicroSD card because with the small amount of available space that are on the regular phones themselves and the fact that apps are getting larger, when the main phone's space fills up, it affects overall performance of the phone. With having a MicroSD card, I can keep all my files on it, so I don't encounter those performance problems if I should fill up my MicroSD card. And on a limited data plan, cloud storage wouldn't be worth it to me. As a consumer, I like having the options, even if I never use it.
Galaxy note is a phone for power users, and 64GB is not enough for a lot of them. And filling it up will slow the phone down. And with a smaller and not replaceable battery this is a downgrade. What a pity, as there were some nice software features... The only problem, Note has little competition. What other phablets with a pen have it's specs? I think a lot of people will stick with their current note or buy a note 3 or 4 if necessary...
Samsung has lost there way and jk shin should have been fired after he lied about making a 32gig S5. Now they are eliminating the features that made there phones the best.removable battery and micro SD card. Maybe jk Is a stalking horse for apple.
The phones themselves look good. But I think the Note 5 seems like a better buy than the Edge+. One of the benefits of the Note series is the S-Pen function from what I observed from the people around me using. The Edge+ apart from being bigger than the Edge, I don't see much benefit to get it.
The Galaxy S6 is a direct competitor to the iPhone6 The Galaxy Edge+ is a direct competitor to the iPhone6+
The Note4 was a huge sales success. The Note4 Edge failed in the market as it didn't offer enough additional utility. The Note5 is a major step backwards from the flexibility of the Note4 removing features a lot of Note2/3/4 buyers thought useful. I predict Samsung will be very disappointed with Note5 sales.
Yeah, it's so common with curved display these days! I mean, Samsung has done it once, let's not forget all the other manufactures doing this over and over and over! Right? :D
Some people are freaking out over the lack of an IR blaster. Let's see... the Note 5 has...
- Best display - The pressure-sensitive S Pen - S Pen apps and features - Take notes on lock screen - Multiple windows open at the same time - Best phone camera - Fastest 8 core processor - 4 GB of RAM - Fastest local storage (UFS) - The ability to mirror to a PC via SideSync - The ability to make payments simply by holding it up to a magnetic strip reader - Quick charge - Wireless charging - Fast WIRELESS charging
But no IR blaster? Deal-breaker!!! I'd rather pay $800 for a phone that lets me change the channel on my TV than spend six bucks on a universal remote. ;)
Note 4 has most of those features and the improvements in RAM, CPU, storage etc. can be hardly perceived compared to note 4; "fast" wireless charging is too slow and useless on the go... Battery life is essential on the go, as is storage in the long run (64 is not enough for many).
I went into the samsung store today and had a look at the note 5 and edge+, versus my wife's note 4. To be honest, I thought the edge+ seemed more vibrant (but it could be the background image or screen brightness settings). Both my wife and I liked it better in our brief non-scientific look.
I really wish the note 5 hadn't reduced the battery size and lost the replaceable battery. I never really used my s-pen for much, so it was primarily the size that interested me.
I agree. I need to carry 10,000 songs in FLAC format and 500 movies in my pocket at all times. Cloud storage? HAH! What if I'm in a cave in Noobeckistan with no signal and I want to listen to Justin Bieber?
Yes. I liked its features. screen on the Galaxy Note 5. quad HD Super AMOLED panels panel with 518 ppi pixel density, but the number of pixels not represent the quality of the screen. Vivid colors amazing, impressive contrast ratio than any previous screen of Samsung, and simple definition is very great. http://www.kizinew.in
You know, it feels like Samsung is purposely crippling their device so they can sell new versions sooner when storage capacity requirements have increased and battery needs replacement. Personally I am still a very satisfied user of the Note 2 and not even had to replace battery yet and no shortage of storage space (which I would have had without the sd card, running games like hearthstone, watching TV series on the train to/from work, listening to audio on my bike to/from train and taking pictures and movies with my camera etc...) I was going to recommend the new note to my dad for his new phone but now I will probably recommend the older model that does have these features.
One would have thought that Samsung would learn from its disappointing S6 and S6 Edge sales. These were among two of the most highly anticipated Samsung phones but after the initial sales flurry, consumers seemed to have lost interest in these phones. Not surprising as a lot of the internet comments expressed dismay at the lack of microSD and removable battery. I was looking forward to a new Note 5 when I renew my telco plan later this year but now it looks like I will be looking elsewhere.
Funny - gadgets are cool and a decent size screen is very important to me but the first thing I care about on a PHONE is the call reception in areas where it drops frequently and the talk time.
I love the real black of OLED screens, perfect for reading with white letters and black background, but the removal of SD cards was too much for me, I had to go with the LG G4.
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tareyza - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
3000 mAh battery? Some 5.1 inch phones have even more battery than that, and considering the increased size compared to the Galaxy S6, I feel like battery life will not have gotten any better - and this is on their line for heavy users. Keeping it non-removable (as it seems) will not make it any better. I'm glad I purchased a S6, the only reason I had considered waiting for this phone was an improved battery, and 3000mAh honestly doesn't feel like much of an improvement, especially considering the larger screen.Shadow7037932 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
It says replaceable battery.tareyza - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Missed that. In that case, might be more interesting, although their S6-esque design seems like it would be very difficult to remove, not the standard plastic back attached with those hinges. I wonder how the replaceable part will be implemented, given the phone's design.ddriver - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
It boggles me that samsung is so determined to destroy its true flagship product. I am not talking only about the lack of SD and removable battery, quite honestly, the faux leather back looks better and more "note-y" than this chunk of glass.lilmoe - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Where were you when everyone was calling it cheap, tacky and ugly?ddriver - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
By "everyone" you mean every pathetic crapple fanboy who couldn't think of a substantiated argument and was dying on the inside that crapple had nothing even close to the note?I'd prefer faux leather to real leather back cover, the faux is more durable, and I am not really a fan of having dead animal body parts in my electronic products. It could also have been some kind of durable fabric, molded with epoxy, that could too achieve vintage and note-y look.
id4andrei - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
I agree with you but the market has sanctioned the resilient, modular and overall common sense design of the past. The market has validated instead shatter prone, electromagnetically challenged, thin and"flexible" iphones. Also, the tech journalists en masse, even on this very site, have always praised "premium" design over common sense one.melgross - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
Samsung's always break very easily because of their flimsy designs. They also bend at the same pressure as the iPhone 6, except that the glass shatters at that pressure, so don't get your panties too tight .TedKord - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
I've never had a Samsung break. I've also never seen a single report of one bending in a front pocket.TrojMacReady - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
False. The S6 was voted most durable by the guys who did the bend test you're referring to and their results for a bend test in the center say that:- the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus bent at 110 lbs pressure in the center
- the iPhone 6 case also separated at 110 lbs
- the S6 did not bend at 110 lbs pressure
- the S6 Edge did not bend, but got a cracked screen at 110lbs pressure
Computer Bild tested the weak spot for the iPhones instead, pressure at the point near the volume buttons instead of the center:
- iPhone 6 started bending at 44 lbs
- iPhone 6 Plus started bending at 66 lbs.
In other words, a massive difference between the S6 and iPhone 6.
halcyon - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
The market has NOT validated iPhone design. iPhone is only ruling in the USA. In the rest of the world others rule. Also, iPhone is still losing market share. Most of the world is teetering on the edge or recession, china is crashing (on three fronts) and the cheap Chinese 'quality' makers are expanding rapidly. That's the new frontier and they have designs for almost everybody, incl. those who want memory card slots and swappable batteries.The high end luxury goods? They were never meant for power users.
The future power user phones will come from China, while Samsung, Apple, LG & Sony will be fighting over the diminishing luxury high end category and barely breaking even on their mid-end portfolio, that will get crushed by Chinese makers.
The fact that Samsung destroyed their only blue ocean strategy phone (they had NO competition in the Note space, how stupid it is to start competing against yourself there?), just shows how internally conflicted the company is. Design by a comittee and a bunch of bill-of-material excel bean-counters. The exact same thing that became the downfall of Nokia, btw.
Medtxa - Thursday, August 20, 2015 - link
At the price its only make sense if you also expect premium design. Know to pick the balance betwen function and aesthetic otherwise they just that of dull person.melgross - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
Do t be an ass. Complaints about how fragile Samsung's phone are have been around for years. Go to Android Nation to read the tests they do every year. But this seems to be looking for a drop anyway, with all that glass. Apple found that the 4 series had broken glass about at a 30% higher rate than the 3 series, and the 5 series has had little of that problem, the same as the new 6 series.So why Samsung would go to glass on the back, knowing that, is beyond me. The phones look and feel much better though.
id4andrei - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
No, no, you're being deliberately wrong with the bending issue. And I know that you, as an AI mod, are certainly familiar with the critical nuance you omit(on purpose). It's not the middle bending pressure. That is what blindsided Apple in the first place. It's the bending in the upper 1/3 portion of the device, where the buttons are. It's an unexpected 2nd point of failing that is unique to the iphone in CR's test.TrojMacReady - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
Pretty durable.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpsyGweP5so
beggerking@yahoo.com - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
i've never seen a samsung phone break, ever! and 70% of people around me uses a Samsung. the other 25% use other androids..the 5% who use icrap all had their icrap6+ replaced at least due to bending issue. before they had icrap5, and at least 3 occasions they had to replace their broken lcds.
hughlle - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
You essentially invalidate anything you say as a result of this "crapple" drivel.I can't stand apple, I very much like android, and I very much dislike that cheap and chintzy faux leather. It was pretty pathetic. It wasn't just apple fans who thought it a load of rubbish, many people did.
and personally I prefere the genuine article. As most non-hippy vegans do :p hence why people happily pay more for a genuine leather watch strap or belt than something synthetic.
ddriver - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
I am not a vegan, I eat a lot of meat and also slaughter the animals I eat. I am just not one of those idiots who see leather as premium. It is primitive and barbaric, leather was a viable solution back in the days when people have not invented fabrics, and were reduced to hunting animals, skinning them to wear their hides for protection from the elements. Leather is just an inferior material, based on its properties. And there is too much cruelty in its commercial production, and I don't mean the slaughtering of animals, but the kind of "life" they go through before that. For me having leather products is like wearing clothes someone died in.xerandin - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
I thought I was alone. Good to see that there are people of good sense. I'll take premium metals and/or fabrics over animal hides any day.michael2k - Tuesday, August 18, 2015 - link
By "everyone" I think he means the tens of millions of people who didn't buy the Note, forcing Samsung to change design language to ape the super successful iPhone 6+. There are estimates that Apple sold 16m 6+ on launch with another 16m the next two quarters. I mean, yeah, Samsung sold 11m or so Notes a year, but Samsung can't survive on that (see their recent profit plunge).LoganPowell - Friday, November 27, 2015 - link
Truly these phones are fantastic both receiving high review from customer base on satisfaction (see sample ranking http://www.consumerrunner.com/top-10-best-phones/)Sladeofdark - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
My thoughts exactly. I could not agree with you more. I am so put off by this latest design. I dont see HOW they could sit in a board room and go BACKWARDS in design by about 2 years.beggerking@yahoo.com - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
most people I know love and use android phones especially Samsung. icrap are just toys.GTRagnarok - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
The distinction is that it's not easily user removable. iPhone batteries are also replaceable.Andrei Frumusanu - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Sorry, it's non-replaceable. We corrected the spec-list.tareyza - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Another note, every other site (I checked about 5 ish?) covering the S6+/Note 5 explicitly writes that the battery is non-removable/replaceable, which seems more in line with what one might expect given the unibody design. Anandtech, are you sure about the replaceable battery?Adul - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Battery is non-replaceable according to the table.Devo2007 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
They fixed it. Before it did say replaceableHideOut - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Mmmm Everything I've seen says NON removable. No removable. no microSDmelgross - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
Where does it say replaceable battery? It says that there are external batteries. As far as everything elsewhere says, the battery is not replaceable, and there is no SD card slot, just like the S6 series.The review in Arstechnica says no replaceable battery, or slot. In fact, there have been many posts there complaining about that.
halcyon - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
The battery is not SWAPPABLE. It maybe "buy this extra kit to pry open your phone and spend 30 minutes changing the spare part battery you hunted down from cheap China web site" replaceable.Also, as Verge correctly states, NO 128GB model (it was a fluke by Samsung).
Total flop and failure this model. No 7422, no cam upgrade, small battery (anybody who has used S6 Edge heavily knows it lasts half a day under heavy use scenarios) and too little memory and too high price.
I will eat my hat if Note 5 sells well (more than Note 4).
Samsung has lost the plot for now. Time for LG, Sony, Xiaomi and others to step up. There are lots of power users looking to switch right now.
mlkmade - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
it clearly says "NON-REMOVABLE" battery on both phone's spec sheets.I am really happy with the note 4 I bought 3 weeks ago for $1. No external media/no removable battery = no go.
Istvan80 - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
It says non-removable (in the specs)CoryG89 - Tuesday, August 18, 2015 - link
It's not replaceable, it says right in the specs, non-removable. Both versions.Drumsticks - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I really, really thought they'd keep the battery and MicroSD for their note line. Especially with the Edge+! Why not have one model that offers it and one that doesn't? Sure, it costs more now in engineering I bet, but by next year, they'd definitively know whether users want power or style with their phablets. They also could have easily upped the battery size if they were going non-removable - 4000 mAh or so would probably have been enough to be satisfied with the performance. Non-Removable batteries supposedly gain more volume, but that doesn't really seem to happen much. (Although the Note 5 is thinner than the G3, who cares? Add a couple mm and +20% battery).retrospooty - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Yeah, I was really hoping the 4100mah rumors were true. Crap. I can live without SD or rem batt, but 3000mah in a 5.7 inch screen phone seems low.lilmoe - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I'd wait for the reviews before judging battery life. But even if it was better than the Note 4, I'm also equally disappointed they didn't fit a larger battery regardless provided the size of the device.The Rogue Tomato - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
The Moto X Pure/Style has a 5.7" screen (LCD/IPS) and a 3000 mAh non-removable battery, too.Love the Angry Beaver name, "retrospooty".
jb958 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
It seems like Samsung is confident enough that their new phone doesn't need that much power. As seen in this comparison between the Note 5 and its older sibling, the Note 5 has a much smaller semiconductor size which means it should in theory be able to do more work while using less battery power.LauRoman - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Are those semiconductors in the screen or the LTE antenna? No? Well then it don't matter do it?kmmatney - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
It's the screen that uses the battery - the transistor size on the cpu doesn't matter all that much. Screens are more power efficient nowadays, but a bigger battery will always help out.Eidigean - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Speaking as a developer, you don't know what you're talking about. I can kill a battery in under an hour if I push the processors too much; however, I can browse the web with the same screen being backlit for several hours on the same battery.lilmoe - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Very true. People are really underestimating the power draw of these newer SoCs.Flagship processors and GPUs, for the past couple of years, are much more power hungry IF they're unnecessarily and constantly pushed to the limits. However, they're also more power efficient if used optimally. The Note 2 had legendary battery life (7-8 hours SoT) because its 32nm SoC was great for the screen resolution (720p) and overall workload. The last flagship from Samsung to have an optimal configuration was the GS5.
Also, Android has been getting less battery friendly as of late. Apps are getting more "visually appealing", with lots of animations and features that use more resources, and I'm afraid Android isn't yet as efficient as it should be with hardware acceleration...
WAR1944 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
As an owner of the Note 4, there are so many reasons that I won't be buying the Note 5. This is not an upgrade worth paying $900 for.ddriver - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I'll be sticking to my Note 3 for the time being as well. No SD card slot and no removable batter == no purchase for me. Removable battery also means easily replaceable battery, battery giving out is the N1 reason why people throw away "old" and buy new phones. I still make 7-8 days of "phone usage" out of my original battery, which I cycle with the 2 extra I bought, so as long as I don't drop and break it, it will be useful for another 3-4 years easily.mkozakewich - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
It's really rare that there's a reason to upgrade after only one year. Maybe if you had bought an Apple iPhone S, the next iteration might be enough.halcyon - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
I was really looking to upgrade my Note 3 to Note 5.What would I get?
- Less space (I'm at 32GB+128GB xdsd)
- Less battery run time (several hours in heavy use, as proven by S6 edge experiences)
- No way to swap the battery
- Really stupid S-pen eject design (IMHO)
- Faster SoC, +1GB RAM, lots of flash speed and good cam upgrade
For $900 and I'd have to import from the US or Asia?
No thanks. Samsung, you lost another customer.
hlovatt - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
The sales figures for the S6 and S6 edge seem good compared to S5 and S$, therefore I suspect that Note 5 and S6 edge+ will be better than Note 4. Global sales ranking for **May 2014** were:iPhone 5s, Galaxy S5, Galaxy S4, Note 3, iPhone 5c (http://www.counterpointresearch.com/top10may2014)
For **June 2015** (latest):
iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, iPhone 5S (http://www.counterpointresearch.com/apple-iphone-6...
Considering that there are now two different screen sized iPhones to compete against the Galaxy range seems to be doing OK.
Therefore I would suggest that most, though not all, users don't want replaceable batteries or SD cards but do want nice looking metal phones (considering that describes all the current top 5). So you would think that the Note 5 and S6 edge+ will do well and one or the other will replace iPhone 5S in the top 5.
Xenonite - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
^This is, sadly, very accurate.I have the Note4 and I absolutely love it, apart from a few main issues:
1) The battery is either totally oversized or the CPU and GPU are not clocked nearly high enough. I run a not insignificant overclock on both the CPU and the GPU (I have the Qualcomm version) and my battery still easily lasts more than 4 hours on a single nightly charge. I can only imagine what would have been possible with a proper metal heatsink to boost the wieght and thickness of the phone, while optimising the SOC for the internal battery size and the maximum safe current it can provide.
2) The PenTile display (yes, yes I know, and I do hold the phone out as far as my arm will go, but sadly my hand can only get to about 1.4m from my face so the grainy, leaky subpixel appearance is still quite bad on any kind of solid or smoothly gradiated colour).
3) Its really just waaaayyy to thin for its planar size (I had to go searching quite far and wide to find a shop with a suitable back-cover replacement that adds at least another 10mm to its thickness to make the phone more comfortable to hold and use).
4) The display has been optimised for a stupidly high amount of light output at the cost of pixel response time (especially in very dark halftones) and colour accuracy. I have never had set my display's brightness above 10% outdoors, in direct sunlight, and I almost always have it set at around 4-5% for normal indoor use, as anything higher is just uncomfortably bright; kind of like staring into one of those high-powered LED torches at close range. :(
Now I wished that at least one of these issues would someday have been addressed with a new Note revision, however it seems that there truely is no hope for any sort of a balanced, thicker z-height or any further display improvements, or indeed, any sort of improvement in the most critical areas of the Note4's performance.
Definitely no sale for me.
ddriver - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
LOL, your hands are 1.4 meters long and you see "grainy subpixels" on solid colors from that distance... You seriously got me laughing.Perhaps you should wear cryptonite so that you supress your superpowers...
Your entire post makes about zero sense.
Michael Bay - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
No wonder you type incoherent bullshit most of the time, you`re a gorilla!Camikazi - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
What kind of Stretch Armstrong mutant are you? You do know that 1.4m is 4.6 feet and MUCH longer than anyone's arms should be right? Unless you are somewhere around 12 feet (about 3.6m) tall that arm length is just not possible.The Rogue Tomato - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
Are people as worried about the 3000 mAh non-removable battery in the Moto X Pure/Style? It has a large screen, too, and it's arguably more power hungry, being IPS backlighted.DigitalFreak - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Meh. I think I'll wait to see what the new Nexus phones are like before I buy.hughlle - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I plan to wait for nexus, microsofts offerings, heck, i'll just keep on waiting till the next round if I have to. This gen of flagships is an utter waste of time imo. Nothing to get excited about, mostly just gimmicks.jjj - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Funny how much effort you put into promoting Samsung while you don't even report on the biggest mobile news of the day , the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2.What are you a PR trumpet, nothing more?
Black Obsidian - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I'm not sure that a device that won't be available (except through the gray market) in most of the developed world qualifies as "the biggest mobile news of the day."The Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 is worth covering, absolutely, but is of significantly less near-term relevance than the latest product release by Samsung, which, IIRC, sells more mobile devices in the the developed world than anyone else.
lilo777 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
While Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 has fairly average specs (not even close to Note 5) it does have one notable feature - FM radio.ws3 - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
FM radio is a useless non-feature.mrochester - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
Come on, it's not the 90s anymore. It's like people thinking IR blasters are a thing. Wasn't it cool to have an IR blaster on your watch in the 90s?b1gtuna - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
LOL never seen a xiomi phone. No one around me is using one, and I live in NA.wolfemane - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I'm pretty sure this troll post by Anandtechs biggest troll is in reference to the extreme price difference. Taken from techcrunch (first google search option... entitled 'Xiaomi Trolls Samsung With Redmi Note 2 Launch'): Xiaomi has today announced the 799 RMB ($125) Redmi Note 2, and the 999 RMB ($155) Redmi Note 2 Prime.Doubt this device will be seen in North America, and understandably so. As one poster on the site states: Half the ram, dual core, 8GB internal 5 MP camera. You can get those specs (or better) in a free phone from any of North America's cell service providers.
Thanks for trolling, keep up the great work.
The Rogue Tomato - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 looks like a great phone, but the "Note" in the name is misleading. The S Pen and all the S Pen features and apps are what makes the Samsung Note a Note.danbob999 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I think Samsung will drop their Edge phones next year when they realize they do not sell.cwolf78 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Are you serious? The Edge has greatly outsold the standard variant at least as far as the Galaxy S6 is concerned. (One of many sources: http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s6-edge-dem... The main problem is that Samsung expected the standard version to outsell the Edge by 3-to-1 and ran into production capacity constraints with the curved display. Hopefully they won't make the same mistake with the Edge+.danbob999 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
your link is a 404 not foundGigaplex - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Ars link parsing included the closing brackets in the URL. Try deleting it and it should work.FozzyofAus - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
The Note4 versus Note4 Edge sales at the end of Jan 2015 were allegedly versus 4.5M versus 0.6M.http://www.androidauthority.com/note-edge-sales-wo...
I feel usability features like battery life, removable battery, SDCard and Pen are much more important to Note purchasers than the design/weight and form of the device.
In a few months the sales figures will provide all the data to confirm one way or the other.
spiralzz - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Exynos :'(. While the raw performance will no doubt be cool, I really wanted a Samsung flagship with atleast the hardware to ease custom ROM development. Too bad, really like the Samsung Pay feature.Andrei Frumusanu - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
You wouldn't have Samsung Pay with a custom ROM anyway.beehofer - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
No Mini!!??No micro SD!!??
No Samsung!!
No Thank you!!
WAR1944 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
PerfectSpeedfriend - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I find it incredible that Samsung could actually be this bad in understanding what their users want. They seem to think that they are Apple who can enforce features that its customers don't want.This is another nail in Samsung mobile coffin.
cwolf78 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Let's face it, MicroSD is a niche unless Google by some miracle opens it wide up. I've been on the MicroSD bandwagon myself since Android devices very first came out. But honestly, the feature is so crippled at this point that it's just not worth it. I have 32 GB of onboard storage + 64 GB MicroSD. My internal storage is mostly full and my MicroSD card is mostly empty, even after moving everything I could over to it. I agree that OEM's like to overcharge for incremental storage upgrades, but it's sure as hell way more functional and convenient given Android's currently extremely limited MicroSD support. Now if Android took an approach similar to Windows' Storage Spaces feature (where your MicroSD would simply add to your overall storage capacity) then I'd be all over it. But as it stands now, my next phone is going to have an abundance of internal storage. If it has a MicroSD slot, fine. If it doesn't, fine.StrangerGuy - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Let's face it, MicroSD is not a niche just because you don't use it and aren't forced to use it doesn't mean its useless for others. Now, before some snobbish prick comes along and scream how "slow" MicroSD is, any half-decent card will work flawlessly for 1080p video playback let alone music which are the primary uses for such storage.tenoutoften - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Be honest with yourself, how much time do you actually spend watching TV or video on a 5.7" screen? I watch movies in the cinema or on a large screen TV at home from the comfort of my sofa, which I can imagine is probably what most the population of the planet do unless you're hobbit and live in a cave with no electricity.I watch the odd thing on the phone for pure convenience, maybe a video or 2 if I don't have my laptop with me or want to show a friend something funny on youtube, but I certainly don't have dozens of movies on there because, well, whats the point. And as for music, no-one has their entire library on loop so they don’t need it with them at all times and if you say you do, you’re lying because even if you did have it on rotate, you’d be skipping tracks constantly.
No one since time began likes every track in their music library so why keep it with you, particularly when space is restricted.
I'd really love to meet these people who need 64GB of music and another 64GB of films on their phones and check their hidden device logs to see exactly what the access times are for that data and how frequently they use it. I'm pretty sure the results would be conclusive, about 5 or 10% of it gets used, the rest just sits there doing f all other than eating up space.
I travel a lot, I have an iPad, a laptop and a Galaxy note 3, I use the iPad on the train and if I'm away from home, I use the laptop. I can honestly say in the years of travelling, I've never spent hours watching movies on my phone, why give myself a headache, run down the battery (which incidentally I want for the MAIN purpose of my phone - calling and texting) when I have other, better, more suitable devices with me.
I work in IT and see this shit every day, people who have huge hard drives with stacks of stuff on their and the dates of last access are literally years old, I always just ask why they don’t have them in the cloud or on a NAS rather than their laptops or desktops. Everybody always wants more and more space, but in the real world, most ordinary people use sod all of it - thats why cloud based storage took off so strong, its there on the of chance you need it, but it’s not hogging expensive local storage. I’m yet to encounter a situation with any device over 15 years in IT where there isn’t data on it that couldn’t be moved to free up space.
People paint these imaginary pictures of why they need a boat load of storage, but in 90% of cases, they’re just bollocks problems created by themselves just to make a point - when you look at the actual reasons, they’re so weak and lacking in any real world point that they’re laughable.
If you really have 128 odd GB of video and music on your phone, you need a lesson in learning to tidy shit up, not a bigger memory card.
CrazyElf - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I keep a large FLAC collection. Last time of access? Today?lilmoe - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
2 mins ago...Zanna-K - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
First of all, it's presumptuous to imply that your 15 potentially irrelevant years in IT gives you an especially deep insight into how power users should use their devices. "IT" in the first place is a nebulous term and how some office lady uses her Hewlett-Packard in 2001 is nothing like how an android power user might use their Note in 2015For one thing, the entire reason why many power users choose android is precisely because they don't want someone (Apple) dictating their experience - something which you are doing right now.
Secondly, your entire argument is nonsensical at its very core. If space does not matter, why do manufacturers even bother creating smaller and bigger capacity models? For that matter, why are we increasing capacity at all? Everyone should just be at 16GB since the OS only requires 4-5GB and mostly everything should be loaded onto the cloud, right?
The only sensible argument that I'm willing to accept for the lack of expandable storage is UFS 2.0 and how it's difficult to integrate slower flash storage memory because I can understand that there would be form factor and power efficiency concerns with building in a separate controller for that sort of thing. Even then I don't accept this as some insurmountable problem.
Lastly, sometimes people would just rather not be entirely dependent on the cloud. As a 15 year IT veteran you should know that redundancy is damned nice to have. My sister's Galaxy S2 broke down? Well, I can just swap the microSD into a new Xperia and she can keep all of her media with her.
I'm with my significant other and the topic goes towards places traveled? I can whip out my phone and open up the appropriate travel photos folder to share stories I've experienced and places I've been to while we're snuggled up in a tent without having to be concerned about LTE coverage and my data caps.
I'm on a road trip and the mood strikes me for the twang of some country music? I can start up the appropriate playlist - again, without having to be concerned about not having data access or with running up GB's worth of data usage streaming from the cloud during the trip.
tenoutoften - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Owning a few devices and reading some forums doesn’t make you an expert either. Trying to patronise me just makes you sound like a dick, and I fail to see how working every day with hundreds of different devices is irrelevant experience, but anyway, these petty things aside, on to your points.I never said size wasn't relevant at any point, you're twisting my words, I was talking about managing your available space, it’s something ALL businesses do with data and normal end users do too, it’s just being organised and recognising that because your available space is finite, filling it with unnecessary crap is dumb.
I'm not trying to dictate what people should do, I'm merely saying from real world experience (as opposed to your personal device experiences and forums), devices are full of things people don't need, which is not just some deluded opinion I’ve plucked out of my ass, it’s fact and if you administered mobile and static user devices daily for a job, it would become abundantly apparent to you too. Because we have the technology to hold large amounts of data doesn’t mean we need to fill it.
When I go on holiday, I could pack my entire wardrobe, but I don't because I understand I wouldn't wear most of it and recognise that It’s retarded to fill all my valuable space with things I don't need. By your logic, you think that because you have a big case, you have to use it all, it's a moronic mentality because it makes your device slower and you end up storing a load of pointless stuff for no good reason other than ”on the off chance" you need it.
I'm not suggesting either that you are reliant on the cloud, just saying that it's a useful storage method for things you are unlikely to need. It's not rocket science, its just about using your space intelligently. And I understand redundancy funnily enough, it’s a technology servers were using long before smart phones or SD cards ever existed, I back my phone up to my laptop and use the cloud for redundancy.
Your sisters phone breaking incident is interesting - I’m curious as to what scenario your sister was in that she was that desperate to access her SD card contents that couldn’t wait for her to get home, thats a really bizarre set of circumstances that I can’t imagine most people ever recreating!
Re your playlists comment, I also use them strangely enough, I just know I don’t need every album I own every day of my life. If I think I want to mix things up outside of my already unnecessary 30 albums saved on my phone, when I get home from work, I change my music, it takes around a minute, I can’t imagine that your time is any more important than any other human being on the planet so I’m sure you could find a minute to spare as well and in turn save yourself a load of wasted expensive flash storage.
Ultimately, what you choose to put on your devices is your choice, if you want to spend a shit aload of money on loads of flash storage and put heaps of stuff on there you don't need, then great for you, I'm not dictating what anyone can and can't do, just suggesting that it can be viewed from another perspective and that maybe, just maybe, there is a perfectly reasonable and simple remedy for your perceived space problems.
Personally, I’ll keep on buying devices because they hold useful value and I enjoy using them - if I ever hit a point where I realise I’ve made a horrible mistake and my life would have been much more enhanced if my phone only had Metallica, Beethoven and the Proclaimers in my playlist alongside our Prague holiday snaps from 1992, I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong, but you may be waiting a while.
The0ne - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Hate to say it but you're just wrong on so many fronts. First and foremost people have the want/need for things that they may or may not use. This goes for everything. You do this, I do this, especially with tech. Now, specifically with storage I sure as hell want more space than I would want just in case I do need them. Sure I may not use them all the time but they are there and available when I need them. This is the key point. I care more about spending the hundreds of hours to manage and organize my music, movies, photos and so on, a ritual I do every single freaking year.In a perfect world where you are as organized as you imply then yes maybe that will work. Implying that people don't use their phones to watch videos and other stuff is ludicrous. The market is huge. I like having a SD slot to be able to carry more. It doesn't hurt that I don't use it all but it sure as hell does when I need the space and I have none. Why do you think PC enthusiasts buffer on their purchases? Why are we all on Anandtech?
And yes don't dictate to others what you think they should have or be doing. Keep it your opinion and don't make it sound as though those of us that do are nothing but lazy, messy aholes who don't know what the hell they're doing. I had an IT guy once brag about his IT job and his responsibilities in a meeting. To put this person in their place I answered him by saying I'm an Engineer, design engineer; I can design and program what you think you know. IT guys, most think they know it all. Bunch of idiot kids is what I think personally.
The problem with you line of thinking, and I really have no beef with it other than most people aren't so organize, is that you believe you are what you state. As much as there is no God I say 99.9999% say that you're no different from the average person. Humans have the urges, the wants, the needs. Yours may not be storage but when you lust after something and want a little bit more than you're part of it. There is no shame to this, it's human nature to want things, hence driving innovation as well. You may want to consider Australia since innovation is almost dead there. They like it organized and neat.
tenoutoften - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
OK fella, whatever you say. I'm voicing an opinion, it just happens to not be the same as yours - that's what happens in the real world, not everyone agrees with each other - I bet you make a great engineer, listening to no-one else's opinions other than your own.jimbo2779 - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
You are voicing your opinion that you find no need for the SD card slot and as such nobody else should.My most recent phone didn't have an SD slot, I routinely fill its internal storage with pics and videos of my kids and family that I would much rather not have to wipe every month or two. My baby girl adores looking at videos of family and friends and to have to wipe it so often is incredibly frustrating.
Filling it with video and images also means that I cannot store much music at all on it so if I go for a jog or to the gym I often have to stick to just a couple of albums worth of music or change it up all the time.
It is a major inconvenience to not have it. Some users may not want it, they are free to get a phone without one, those that do want an SD slot do want one. How can you argue against that?
My wife has a fairly low to mid range phone that is cheap as chips, she then puts an SD card that is reusable in her next phone and all of a sudden she also can take lots of photos and videos. She has more storage in her phone than mine and it cost her about half of what mine does.
My next phone will have SD support, it is that simple.
Some people want it, you can voice your opinion that you do not need it but when you live in an area where relying on your cellphone signal for even phone calls is hard enough using the cloud is just not something that is even remotely an option.
The0ne - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
Lol. I have no issue with you voicing your opinion but to tell everyone else that it is unnecessary because you seem to think you don't need it is ridiculous and arrogant. It is fine if you like it that way but don't assume others do. And then you got upset and tell me that I don't listen to others? Where did you even get that interpretation from. My argument is as general as it can be...we're humans, we have wants and needs. How this translate to I don't give a fck about anyone else is beyond me. You have a serious problem. Good day.sonny73n - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
Good job correcting that jerk. Two thumbs up!However, I don't think he can realize how narrow-minded he is.
Devo2007 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Having my entire music collection with me allows me the freedom to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want. I don't always know what I want to listen to before I head out.Just because you don't feel the need to do this does not mean it's pointless to everyone!
tenoutoften - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Taking the entire contents of my fridge with me to work gives me the freedom to make what I want for lunch because I don't always know what I want to eat midday before I leave.I'm not saying it's pointless, it's just an expensive way of doing it and in my opinion there are other, better options.
jimbo2779 - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
I didn't realise Devo2007 was having to lug around a huge suitcase full of LPs to listen to his music collection. Oh that's right, we are in 2015 and we can have the convenience of carrying the media we want so we can listen to what we want without having to rely on potentially crappy signal.Stop assuming your use case is the only one that matters. Local storage is far cheaper and much more convenient than cloud storage, if you can have there is no reason not to have it.
tenoutoften - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
I wasn't assuming my case was the only one that matters, you need to learn how to read instead of attempting to sound smart, which you clearly aren't - hop back on your horse white knight and jump on another band wagon somewhere else.jimbo2779 - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
I read the countless comments on every phone review where lots of people are saying they regularly make full use of the sd card support in their phones.You yourself said in your opinion 90% of people could be using alternatives so even in your first world experience there is 10% that could make use of sd card support. Step outside the city and that increases. Get into a town like mine where you barely get cell phone signal and the cloud is not an option in the majority of places you go.
Start adding ask this III and there are a lot of people that could make use of SD support. Add in even more that have a basic phone and the cheapest contact going and the case for SD support gets even stronger.
There are countless use cases for SD card support. I am not white knighting for anything, your opinion that SD card support is pointless, outdated or whatever your argument is is just wrong, lots of people want it for a very good reason.
ComputerGuy2006 - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
You cannot take the entire contents of your fridge as that takes physical space. Imagine if you never had to pack your launch each day, you just had access to your entire fridge in a device that took up the same amount of space as your old launch bag. It would make your life so much easier (no more packing a lunch each morning + you would have more variety at launch).... Instead you seem to be arguing against such a device.More space on the phone is better. Worse case scenario files do not get accessed for months, other wise you have access to more files more reliability (and spent a lot less time micromanaging storage.)
The lack of SD card alone kind of kills the s6 for me. Maybe if samsung had offered a more reasonably priced 128GB model...
The Rogue Tomato - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
If you're that obsessed with having a gazillion songs in FLAC format on a library of microSD cards that you carry around with you 24/7, buy a freakin' $50 MP3/FLAC player. I seriously doubt that demographic is responsible for making any phone manufacturer money, so I hardly think Samsung or anyone else cares.The Rogue Tomato - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
LOL! Exactly how I feel. Each to his own, I guess, but I don't think Samsung sees a compelling business case for making a phone so you can carry 500 movies and 5,000 songs in your pocket. "Oh, but I want songs in FLAC format!" First world problems.Fujikoma - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I'm so happy that you're life is peachy and you don't feel the need for extra storage. I, on the other hand, do. If I visit the parents, who literally live in the middle of nowhere and have no internet service, then I actually need a large uSD card to survive the week. I also bring a couple of portable HDDs (2X2TB) with movies and t.v. shows my little brother and sister that they typically don't get to watch (since they have no cable either).My wife... she actually lives watching video off of her S5. She'll watch that over the 55" most of the time. I'll be moving her up to a 64 GB uSD card to replace the 32 GB that's too small to hold her favorite t.v. show.
In all honesty, it would be nice to have a uSD card with 512 GB of storage (and a phone that could use it) so I could fit all of my music on it without a problem. Sure there's some stuff I rarely listen to, but I'm not in the mood to delete/add stuff just to satisfy your perceived need for limited storage. It's far easier to have everything in that location to begin with. It's also one more backup copy in case something happens to my workstation and the backups in the fire file.
tenoutoften - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
If that's what works for you, that's great, do it, I'm not saying you're wrong for doing it, just suggesting that there are other options, it's just an opinion after all, like everyone else's.jimbo2779 - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
No you are saying that SD support is not necessary today. What he is saying proves your opinion to not fit every scenario.There are many use cases where cloud storage is unusable, if you want lots of media at your finger tips and cannot rely on wifi or cell signal (far more common in a lot of the world than those in cities would imagine) then internal storage is the only option.
If you fit into the category that cannot use cloud storage and do not want to spend the extra money for 128Gb internal built in then SD storage is the only option. Hell if you want more than 128Gb then SD is the only real convenient option.
You are saying hey its just my opinion that nobody should need SD slots because there are other options, and yeah you are right for some people but for a lot of other people they want an SD slot in their phone and they are not wrong to want it.
tenoutoften - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
You're like a forum based hemorrhoid, clinging onto my every comment and coming to the virtual rescue of everyone you see in the hope of making some friends. I'm sure people are capable of backing up their own arguments without you speaking for them.It's good to have your own opinion sometimes, you should try it.
jimbo2779 - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
Ok will as you are incapable of having a grown up conversation with me I'll leave everyone else to tell you that you are wrong as they are doing anyway.Enjoy your ignorance, nobody else is.
tenoutoften - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
Its not a grown up conversation though is it Jimbo, it's just you telling me how deluded my point of view is and rubbishing everything I say because you disagree with me.We're both entitled to points of view, a forum just gives you a voice to share it, whether you agree with me or not is your choice but theres a way of debating your point without trying to patronise others and make them out to be complete morons just because they don't share the same view as you.
akdj - Sunday, August 23, 2015 - link
10 outta 10, I concur. Still laughing my ass off!!! Classic man, "Forum Based Hemmorhoid"Love. It!
FozzyofAus - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
arrogance in pronouncing extra storage unnecessary is amusing.I bought my first 120MB HDD in the early 90's for my Amiga 500 that i used for many years. I originally switched from the iPhone4 to the Note2 due to the larger screen, LTE support and microSD. I was planning to upgrade to the Note 3 last December as it was cheap until I tried the Gear VR headset. I bought the Note4 instead specifically for that and the resolution of the panel is only just adequate for that.
I currently have around 40GB of demos and short surround videos on my 128GB microSD card. Wait until the full games start rolling and surround videos become more mainstream on Samsung's MilkVR and Google's YouTube. Your declaration will seem as silly as the historical assumption that 640KB of RAM will be enough for anyone.
All the above is academic though as Samsung is in the business of selling these devices so what people think they "WANT" is much more important than what they actually end up using. I liked the fact the Note2 had a removable battery and I used that feature "advantage" to help convince myself to switch from iOS (which i preferred) to Android. I didn't end up using the extra battery I bought much. An external battery pack that can charge multiple devices proved more practical.
On the Note4 though using VR drains the battery REALLY fast. It won't last 4 hours so now that i know the Note5 doesn't have any of my feature wish list: UHD panel, much larger battery, or more storage capacity (I currently have 32GB + 128GB), a second battery for my note4 is my next purchase instead of my expected note5 Christmas present to myself. So for Samsung a $50 sale instead of $1000. Any customer thinking similarly to me will affect their bottom line.
JeffFlanagan - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I'd expect Gear VR for the Note 5 to have USB passthrough like the S6 version, so you can work around the battery issue. Lack of SD is unfortunate. VR software and videos fill up memory quickly.Xipher_NCSU - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
This guy nails it, and the rest of you must have MicroSD and Removable Battery Nazis are the niche market. You need to be comfortable with that.There are numerous ways to recharge your phone these days, join the rest of us. The MicroSD must have is also a very small user base... period.
vision33r - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
From what I can tell you are in IT but too specialized to be in management. Because you seem to have a particular focus and a very closed minded view of tech.I am an IT Security Consultant and I have a Note 4 with a 128GB microSD. I do have tons of FLAC but the biggest storage use for me is backing up my ROMs and settings. I am very meticulous about certain settings of my custom rom and apps. I backup my favorite versions of a particular app so whenever a developer changes the code for the worst. I have a backup that I can restore to and not lose functionality.
MicroSD has served me well as well as swappable batteries. As a traveling consultant I get to go out a lot and not everywhere you can find an outlet and charge. So having portable chargers and batteries is a must for me.
NetMage - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
And of the millions of people Samsung would like to sell phones to, how many do you think have the need to store ROM backups? I would bet all custom ROM users added together aren't enough of a market for Samsung to notice.Xenonite - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Since I have had the great misfortune of being born into a country with basically NO internet (An 'uncapped' 1mbit/s connection (average download speeds about 80~95KB/s) over here has a total cost of around $20 a month and a throttling 'cap' of around 10GB).We don't use the 'cloud', because it would take an eternity to download a single 15MB (between 2x and 8x that for high bit depth and high sample rate tracks) FLAC song (if the downloads could even be completed in a month) downloading around 70 of those files would place most users into the 1-5kB/s 'throttled' zone for the rest of the month.
Also, I find it extremely convenient to always have an effective 64GB "flash drive" on hand to transfer files betwewn PCs
tenoutoften - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
Good argument for, completely see the need for it in this instance, but not everyone here debating is the same, most of the arguments for SD storage are incredibly flimsy and the supposed issues for not having it are easy to work around.I had crappy internet as well so I know where you're coming from.
SirCanealot - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
Thank god we have you and your 15 years of IT experience to judge what users can have. Are you sure you don't work for Samsung?You realise that all your examples are a little ridiculous, right? If I could take my entire wardrobe and fridge around in a space as big as a micro sd, I'm going to do it.
I've spent most of my entire life around and working in 'IT', and the main lesson I take is: having options is always best and I don't see any logical arguments about that.
Anyway, it's a moot point as 'somebody else' has decided that Europe does not want the note so we don't get to even have a have a chance to buy it till next year...
tenoutoften - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
When you said you work around and in IT, using the tills at McDonalds doesn't count.The0ne - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
This is what I mean by your arrogance. You said it yourself and agree, people have different needs. Leave it at that and stop with the religious preaching that microSD isn't needed. Using storage for convenience is incredibly flimsy and there are easy workarounds? WTF are you talking about. First accusation doesn't makes sense at all. Second accusation implies there are easier ways other than copying files to the microSD card and you're done. You can't be serious.You don't want microSD, fine. Now stop preaching and accusing others of things that don't make sense. Fcking kids, think they know it all.
tenoutoften - Tuesday, August 18, 2015 - link
They don't make sense to you because you're a narrow minded idiot who is incapable of listening to another persons point of view. Quite a few other people have chipped in now thankfully who completely understand what I wrote, it is English after all, perhaps you want to have a look at their comments and hurl them some abuse as well, although I'm starting to think you may have difficulty with reading, fortunately most of the curse words are 1 syllable so you should be ok.Skinnedy - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
As a train commuter... a lot. I watch movie a day or 2 TV episodes in and out of the city. I like to drop 3 or 4 movies at a time on my card so I have a choice. I listen to music in my car based on categorized folders with the shuffle feature. I'm pretty honest with myself and I use double digit GB per day on my card. Could I work around that? Sure, but I'd rather not have to.I do some work in sports where I can swap the card from my camera into my phone to publish something live much faster than if I transfer it to a computer first.
So yeah, the micro SD card is kind of a big deal to me.
sonny73n - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
Do you think we care about how you use your phone, where you watch your video or how you manage your collections? You can get a dumb phone and call it a day but I want a smart phone with an SD card slot so I can swap/share my files without having to delete then copy&paste from my PC. I watch movies and access files from my NAS at home sometimes but I guess you don't know there're speed limits to these network file transfer protocols. What about when you're out of your wifi range, cloud you say? Most of us aren't comfortable storing our personal files in some cloud server and not all of us can afford unlimited data plan or big cloud storage.I've been in IT myself since 2000 and I've never seen anyone in IT field that has thinking like yours. When a company hires you to fix/maintain or administer their network etc., you don't reorganize/change their whole system and everything on it to your liking or lecture them how to tidy their things.
So what if we like to have a phone with an SD card slot and carry all our files/collections in a bunch of tiny SD cards. So what if we like to have the freedom to access our files whenever and wherever we want, as long as our phones battery allows us to do so. That's our choice. We don't need someone like you to tell us how to run our things. Get a life!
tenoutoften - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
As an IT professional, you don't dictate, but you do make decisions on how the network runs and recommend things that make the network run smoother which can help save the customer money, data management is part of this. Companies expect you to give them advice, if you didn't do that, you wouldn't be a very good engineer.You're not really in IT though are you kid? "You can get a dumb phone but I want a smart phone" - You must be, what, 13, 14?
Everyone is entitled to an opinion though, even kids, even if you are just hopping on the bandwagon with other people, its only when you get older that you realise that you don't have to have an opinion the same as other people because its safer, you can make a decision for yourself. You'll be there soon kiddo.
sonny73n - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
"If you really have 128 odd GB of video and music on your phone, you need a lesson in learning to tidy shit up, not a bigger memory card."You called this advice? You sound very hateful and it makes you look like you're dictating others with your twisted logic. Anyway, there's no point for us debating or arguing with an illogical ahole like you. So what if we like something you don't. Deal with it!
tenoutoften - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
The logics fine, I explained myself pretty clearly, it just doesn't tie in with what you think. So what if I think carrying around 128GB of music is pointless, it's not going to stop people doing it, I'm merely suggesting it's not a necessity.In all honesty though, it doesn't look like Samsung give a shit about people who want to carry around 128GB of music either, which would suggest that according to Samsungs market research, people like you are a small fish in a big ocean - It doesn't phase me in the slightest, you're the one getting so butt hurt about it!
nascentian - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
Faze, not phase, you idiot.Ryan1981 - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
What I do is copy a season of a TV series to my SD card and watch it during commuting on the train which is 2 hours per day. Next to this I have a large music library which I use when cycling to and from the train. Not to mention that some free games like hearthstone use up a lot of space that the internal memory is just not sufficient for anymore.outerlimitsurvey - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I guess different people use their phablets differently. Not only do I use a large MicroSD I even plug thumb and hard disks to my phone with an on-the-go cable. When I had a phone without uSD I was constantly managing my storage to have enough space for pictures and videos but now my phone camera is configured to save stills and videos to uSD. My phone is for work and my employer could demand I surrender it at any time. Since most of my personal stuff is on uSD I could just pop it out and give my phone back without loosing anything important. I was a very loyal Galaxy Note user but lack of uSD will make me look around when it is time for a new phone.tenoutoften - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
And you are one of the 10% that sound like you have a legitimate reason for storage, I'm obviously not blanket saying everyone is the same, but I'm willing to bet a lot of the people in this forum are in their teens and only have their entire music library or movies on their phones just because they can, it's more a choice rather than an everyday requirement.If you're recording footage or taking a lot of photos, I get that, I use the phone for photos and video capture for personal use and work as well, but the whole music and films argument, it's just old and invalid these days.
It's exactly the reason Apple don't make a giant capacity music juke box anymore, it did sell when it was available, but it sold because people chose to have their entire music library available - did they ever listen to even a tenth of it months on end, no, but the space was available so they used it. Particularly with the advent of things like google and apple music, storing huge amounts of music is a waste of valuable storage space and ultimately pointless.
I use my note more for internet than for media, it's really useful, particularly with the big screen - I do use it for video, photos and the odd tv show if i'm really stuck, but space is a commodity that people take for granted, it's a lot cheaper to be organised and it's amazing how much space you really have available when it's not filled with unnecessary clutter.
nascentian - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
Apple is a singular noun, don't is a plural verb, so instead it should say doesn't, not don't. Did you fail English or something?tenoutoften - Tuesday, August 18, 2015 - link
And you're a twat, which is a noun.Gigaplex - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
If MicroSD is a niche, then what does the magstrip payment emulation qualify as?halcyon - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
Beg to differ.There is clearly room enough in the whole worldwide market for at least 1 power-user business phone, that just lasts forever (i.e. big, user-swappable battery) and with tons of storage options.
Ever have to fly transcontinental? Ever in bad reception? Debugging clients stuff? Need all the files, but 1yr + attachments worth of email storage. Lots of docs, video and your own music collection (and I have a PDF fully content indexed databse)?
There are millions of users in the world like this. Others just want to have LOTS of storage.
And no, cloud doesn't cut it (I've described why).
People use their phones constantly in offices, near a charger, in constant 4G/LTE-A reception with maybe 2 weeks of mails and a few podcasts and 30+ apps have no concept of what a power user is, what the use scenarios are and what they need.
There is a big enough and well-paying (take my money, please) segment like this in the world and they don't ask questions about the price, if you give them the features.
Samsung didn't with Note 5 and they will lose most of this segment really fast.
There's a great opening now for the fast Chinese makes, like Xiaomi and others to move into this space and own it. The profits in this segment are to die for (Apple level)....
tenoutoften - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
I get your points, I just honestly don't think the removal of an SD card slot and removable battery is going to drastically affect Samsung's sales of the Note or S6 in any variant.FozzyofAus - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
Time will tell on sales.I think what people here are trying to get you to understand is that the market segment buying the Galaxy Note series is very different from those buying the Galaxy S series.
Speaking for myself personally, I have had exactly ZERO interest in any of the S series models (S2 through S6+). I bought the Note2 for the stylus, large display and LTE (with removable storage and MicroSD being nice to haves). When I went to upgrade (nearly went Note3 12 months after release but switched to Note4 for GearVR support) I found that the stylus and MicroSD were now essentials.
I showed my Note2 to our CEO and he bought the Note2 on company money (despite iPhones being our corporate standard) within a month, when it broke he bought the Note3 (money no object he can any phone he wants). He has a MicroSD in his as well.
As I said the sales figures will be interesting, but lots of Note buyers WANT those two features.
NetMage - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
And you base "lots" on what evidence?FozzyofAus - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
You'll appreciate i hope that "lots" is not a percentage as I obviously haven't done any formal polling. As I said above in another quarter we'll see the sales figures and then we'll know.But there's no shortage of discussions on this, so it's definitely a concern to "many" (if you prefer that deliberately vague term better).
http://phandroid.com/2015/08/13/samsung-galaxy-not...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4-verizon/gen...
http://www.androidcentral.com/numbers-galaxy-note-...
Samsung's share price would seem to indicate Shareholders aren't excited either, peaked mid march and down 24% since!!!
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=005930.KS
Medtxa - Thursday, August 20, 2015 - link
Well obviously. Most people prefer apple. If people doesnt realize it yet samsung want to embrace more on mainstream consumer which they doesnt care much about the lack of some features namely microsd and battery. Obviously people who are ready to leave samsung just for that doesnt realize that they would miss some of samsung top notch and most advance hardware. I am sure even the true geeky would ready to sacrifice micro sd for that super amoled or exynos chips or the excelent build and design.The Rogue Tomato - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
"There is clearly room enough in the whole worldwide market for at least 1 power-user business phone, that just lasts forever (i.e. big, user-swappable battery) and with tons of storage options."Carrying around your entire music library in FLAC format doesn't sound like a power-user business case to me.
tenoutoften - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
lmao!The Rogue Tomato - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
"I find it incredible that Samsung could actually be this bad in understanding what I want."Fixed it for you.
CrazyElf - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Hopefully the sales do very poorly on this and they'll be forced to rethink the wisdom of removing the battery and SD card.That and the fact this thing has an Exynos assures no Cyanogenmod.
WAR1944 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Poor sales for a phone that will cost as much as $900 and be a marginal upgrade from the Note 4 are pretty much assured.The upgrades are not what, I believe, the Note buyer was expecting. Samsung seems to have misread its target market. Unless it was targeting first time Note purchasers. Good luck with that.
FozzyofAus - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I agree poor sales are assured. The note4 edge is the pretty version of the note4 and it didn't sell nearly as well as the note4 std. Thus Samsungs complete mostead of sales ratios on the s6 vs S6 edge. Buyers of the note series care more about utility than design elegance and weight. I've never heard a note user say their phone is too heavy or big. Battery life seems the main complaint for most. For us very few VR nuts it's resolution, overheating and battery life.Samsung likes to flood the market with a crazy number of handset models. Here's hoping for a Note5 VR edition - Note4 with higher resolution screen, faster GPU, removable (or much larger battery), microSD or 256GB internal NAND and USB C connector.
SuperStarMaui.com - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I am VERY upset with Samsung. I really need to buy a new cell.But they took everything the S5 had that people like and removed itwith the S6 and note 5.
1. Micro sd - Removed
2. Removable battery - Removed
3. Water resistance - Removed
4. Happy customers - Removed
I hope nobody buys their stupid phones so that they learn that they need to listen to the customers.
Now I really don't know which phone I will buy.
ToTTenTranz - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Why didn't they implement USB Type-C?sangreal - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Does the Note 5 not come in that silver color?Shashank Katiyar - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Ever wondered how a Note 4S would have looked like...Exactly like Note 5.JTI - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I switched from I-phones to Galaxy Note 2 for mainly 3 reasons...The large screen, a micro-SD slot, and the ability to just use the phone as a folder on your computer (avoiding I-Tunes or any equivalent). Now 2 of those advantages are gone. I'm happy with my current Note 4, but unless the Note 6 is a big step in the right direction, I'll seriously consider going back to an Iphone. Disappointing release.lilo777 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
And why would you go to iPhone? Did it get SD card and replaceable battery recently? Even without these features Note 5 is still twice the device that iPhone is so why would you want to downgrade that much?catinthefurnace - Friday, August 21, 2015 - link
He/she is obviously saying that they liked the iPhone better, but the old Note had something they needed. (large screen, micro-SD, etc.) Now that 2 of the advantages that made them switch to the Note are gone, why not go back to the iPhone.Comments like yours are getting tiresome. No one that has any credibility thinks that the Note 5 is twice the device that the iPhone is. You are projecting your opinion onto others.
The benchmarks speak for themselves. Samsung's phones and the iPhone are close enough hardware performance-wise that which device you choose comes down to preference on software.
Anandtech could use some more moderation on their commenting system. Seems to be fairly clogged with trolls lately.
jwcalla - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
It looks like Samsung has completely given up on the high-end phone market.olde94 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
how so?raiseApint - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
The Note's pen functions are great. Now if they would only make the screen a bit wider (and shorter), those of us who work w/ docs could actually read the document. This candy bar obsession is annoying. Besides, any phone @ 5 to 5.5 and up is not a one-handed device.nismotigerwvu - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Just like I said when the S6 launched, no removable battery & no sd card slot means no deal for me.My current phone is starting to get a little long in the tooth and once a suitable flagship launches with those features and a solid SoC (holding out for something 14nm at this point). It could have been an S6, it could have been a Note 5, but they decided to make a more fragile model with less features than essentially all that came before it.
Laxaa - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Strange that they removed the 128GB option in such a productivity focues device. Maybe the 128GB S6 wasn't selling enough?pav1 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I own the Note4 owner and am mostly happy. Android itself is a limiting platform for MicroSD. You need to root your phone to get access to the folders on the MicroSD which presents a set of other limitations. Plus if you get bad sectors on the MicroSD it is hard to fix. I use a charging battery 10400 mah on the go for camping trips, as opposed to changing a spare Note 4 battery. This way I can charge my tablet too.cadjak - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
We are not Samsung's target audience. As more and more carriers are making customers pay full price for a phone, a $700-$900 "flagship" is going to be a much tougher sell. The new MOTO G might start to look better to a lot of folks just because of the cost savings. LG is dangling the ability to unlock the bootloader on some of it's current G4 phones. If they do that, and keep replaceable battery, plus sd card storage, they might have a lock on the "enthusiast" market, but I don't really have a sense of the actual size of that market. If you hang around Anandtech, it will look huge, but what is it in the real world?hero4hire - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
This comment on upcoming nonsubsidy plans is perfect foreshadowing to samsung building to the present and losing its future. The user willing to pay $500 more is already a niche user. When subsidies blended a $400 and $800 phone together, no big deal. If America embraces nonsubsidy plans (which I doubt) then the lack of SD and removable battery is a huge limiting factor. How much better is your phone then one cheaper when you've differentiated on appearance? My guess is the "want pretty" folks will continue with iPhones. Someone will build a utilitarian power user android device for cheap. Some custom roms and that's that.Samsung could have continued to cater to the niche under the Note line while expanding the edge line. Instead we get different flavors of what the unibody pretty line forsaking options for power users. We remember and when new options appear we will move.
-Note4 user
BugblatterIII - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
Android 5 doesn't have the microSD access stupidity that Android 4 has.akdj - Sunday, August 23, 2015 - link
Yes it does, it's worse!SantaAna12 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I am sorry to see Samsung continue down this road. Non-replacable battery and no sd means no sale. Get a clue Samsung.JimmiG - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
"I suspect that this will be a litmus test for the S-Pen functionality in general, as sales may prove Note functionality has a relatively small effect on the desirability of a phablet."I don't care about the pen at all, but given the choice, I would still pick the Note 5 over the inconveniently bent display of the S6 Edge+. At least you can just tuck the pen away and pretend it doesn't exist. It's harder to ignore a misshapen display.
lilmoe - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Honest question, why are even considering the Note if you're not interested in its defining features? There's a plethora of devices that have good specs and larger batteries and similar sized screens...lilo777 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
In my case - other similar sized phones do not have the reputation of Samsung phones (which served me well for many years). None of them has equally powerful processor (at this moment), equally good display and/or camera. Most won't have a finger-print sensor. I believe in this case the premium price is fully justified - highest price for the best phone.sonny73n - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
"Honest question, why are even considering the Note if you're not interested in its defining features? There's a plethora of devices that have good specs and larger batteries and similar sized screens..."I have a Z3C and I'm still looking for a phone. It's not easy as you think. I visit gsmarena phone finder page at least twice a week. There are 830 phones with display resolutions at least at 720p but they all fall into one or more of my dislikes: Protruding camera, speaker on the back, weak battery, off-centered display, display that's not IPS or AMOLED, terrible display with visible touch grids like my Z3C's, display PPI less than 290, display PPI more than 450, without support or update in the U.S.
Oh well, I guess I'll keep on waiting and checking the news.
sonny73n - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
There's a few that meets my expectation but Oh my! They're just too ugly to look at. I wish the Galaxy A5 a bit thicker so the camera can flush with the back, more battery life too. And c'mon Samsung, move that damn speaker from the back already.ummduh - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
because they also tend to be the pinnacle of smartphone hardware performance, battery life, screen, etc..i guess that trend is dead now.
lilmoe - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
They still are without a doubt, just not as expandable as before... Performance should be better and more consistent than the GS6 since the SoC has a bit more thermal headroom. The screen should also be better. The camera software and processor are updated, more RAM, UFS storage, quick charging (of all types), and arguably the prettiest design...Listen, I love removable batteries and SD cards too, but that doesn't mean that the phone isn't best in class, because it absolutely is.
FozzyofAus - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
If your use case for a smartphone is to take high resolution videos of on site issues, the ability to pop out a MicroSD card and plug that directly into your PC for editing can make file transfer much faster (especially as they canned the USB3 port moving from the Note3 to Note4).If you record a lot of video, being able to swap in another battery every few hours is a BRILLIANT feature.
It really comes down to how much utility do you get from your "SmartPhone". For enough users in this niche the MicroSD and/or removable battery have become ESSENTIAL FEATURES IN THEIR BUYING DECISION.
lilmoe - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
Again, I wholeheartedly agree. My main camera during my honeymoon was my smartphone and 2 64GB SD cards. I made better footage that those with dedicated cameras (call me crazy, I even took my laptop with me). I'm NOT happy with Samsung's design decisions.That said, people like you and me are niche customers at best. Samsung is a business, they cant cater a mainstream device that sells tens of millions for niche uses. They're going to make compromises, and ditch what MOST of their current and potential customers don't care fore when buying a PREMIUM device.
I value practicality and function over form to an extent. People like me don't buy a phone ever 6 months or a year. Most of the others like me won't even go near a $700 phone. But the customers that do buy $600-800 smartphones value brand, looks, "the latest and greatest", and a device that works. IE: they want a device that looks and feels expensive, yet sports the latest tech. They DON'T consider SD Cards and removable batteries the "latest tech" for most people. THESE are the customers Samsung, as a business, value, and I surely don't blame them. If I owned a business I'd do the same.
You know the old saying; money talks...
FozzyofAus - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
What I find interesting is that Samsung sells so many different models into the market.Given their general trend to sell as many models into as many market niches as possible, having no high end phones with MicroSD and/or a removable battery seems an odd choice to me.
Time will tell if "people like you and me" are a significant enough niche to target.
One positive of the Note5 is they'll now have a really good chance to find out how important these features actually are by looking at actual sales figures.
lilmoe - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
You have a valid point. But don't forget that their sales were already falling. Falling sales are harder to improve. Saying that "sales weren't as good as expected" might not be more accurate than saying "sales could have been much worse if we didn't they didn't go that route"...The declining sales had lots of reasons. It's a fact that Samsung's Galaxy S and Note series have been very reliable and expandable devices. Practical users weren't as inclined to upgrade. It's also a fact that the design was as attractive to lots of other users. Again, Samsung, as a business, is fixing both these issues for better or worse. Their not going to make their devices expandable so that the former type of users are more inclined to upgrade, and their fixing their design so that the second type are more likely to hop in.
Competition in the Android space is also a huge factor. 3 years ago, Samsung didn't have that much competition. But that's changed now and it's contributing to their declining sales. Which isn't Samsung's fault.
The funny (and sad) truth is, lots of the "reviewers" criticizing the omission of the SD card, non removable battery and the lower battery life of the GS6 and S6 Edge are all now using these device as their daily drivers. All or most of them. If these reviewers can put up with the "decreased" battery life and "lost functionality" for the looks, I'm sure most consumers would do the same.
lilmoe - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
Anandtech really needs an edit button (they can at least make it time limited)...First paragraph:"sales could have been worse if *they didn't go that route".
Second paragraph: It's also a fact that their design *wasn't as attractive to many.
FozzyofAus - Tuesday, August 18, 2015 - link
This sums it up nicely:http://www.technobuffalo.com/2015/08/13/galaxy-not...
The only reason I bought the Note4 instead of the Note3 to replace my 2 year old Note2 with a cracked screen was the VR support.
I wonder what happens next:
http://www.technobuffalo.com/2015/08/14/new-gear-v...
John Carmack suggests waiting until the Oculus Connect 2 Sept 23-25 for more details:
https://www.oculus.com/en-us/connect/
wintexan - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Having owned all 5 Notes and the Note Edge, I can tell Samsung....you have lost me. If I wanted no SD, no replaceable batt and limited 64gb memory, I would have bought an iphone long ago. Well, here I come Apple, because this is NOT what buyers of the Note want. Goodbye Samsung.lilo777 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
You are acting as if SD card and replaceable battery were the only things where Note phones outplay iPhone. How about 4x RAM, 2x screen resolution, better camera, 4K video, real NFC etc.? If these two things are really important to you, you'd be much better off by buying Android phone with iPhone specs for half the price.olde94 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
the pen god damnit! :O!ibeenazz - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
samsung need to learn a lessonFollowing apple will backfire themselves. Removing SD slot and lowering battery cap over copy cat design wont bring benefit to samsung nor buyers.
olde94 - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I do know this was about the two "phablets" from samsung, but i just keep wondering, if the "sub 5" market" is dead? i have owned all from 3.2" to 4.2" to 4.7" and now (1+1) 5.5"... but know i just want to crawl back, but i can't find any flagships below 5" (except iPhone 6, and i find 4.7 to be my upper screen limit)...When will i ever see a phone i can use on my back in my bed? :( Is this market just all dead for flagships? :( I know you can get "mini's" but wow are they crap :(
I only ask... WHEN! :(
kaisersoser - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
As a previous owner of the S2, S3, S4, Note 3, Note 4 and Note Edge, all I can say to Samsung is to give them a royal finger for taking away the 2 main features that made me choose them over an IPhone. I see your FU Samsung, and I raise you with a mighty GFY.Moving forward, I will be looking at what LG, Nexus, HTC has to offer. Hell, I might even go for a Windows phone next.
#BringBackOurMicroSD
Diver - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
God! All my nightmares since the S6 came out have come true!How did Samsung forget virtually everything that made the Note series unique?!
Oh sure, it still has the S Pen... BIG FREAKING DEAL!!!!
It's got "power" but virtually NO storage!
It's "powerful" but no way to change the battery so you're screwed if it goes dead and you're not near a plug!
Samsung took away every feature except the S Pen that made it worth NOT having a stupid iPhone!
I bought the Note more for the changeable battery and the expandable storage than I did for the S Pen!!!!
How in Gods name could Samsung not realize that about the people who bought the Note??!!
If I would've wanted an "iPhone wannabe"..... I would have bought THE REAL THINK TO START WITH!!!!!
They didn't even upgrade the Note 5 from the S6!
The same processor, memory, screen size, storage, resolution, camera as the S6 plus!
If I had wanted an S6 an wannabe, just without the S Pen, I WOULD HAVE BOUGHT A FREAKING S6!!!!!
AND... they top it off with a SMALLER BATTERY?!?!?!
What in the HECK is Samsung smoking, drinking, or shooting up?!?!
So... Now I have three choices...
1) stick with my Note 3, which has 32gb PLUS a 128gb card in it
2) go with the Note 4, and pray Samsung gets their collective heads out of their collective rear end and comes out with another REAL Note again
3) look for the best alternative to Samsung that still offer expandable storage and a changeable battery.
FozzyofAus - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I vote for Option 2. I have the Note4 and it's an excellent SmartPhone. The screen colour and resolution on the 5.7" OLED display is great, fast processor, and pen is super handy for taking quick notes.Have a play with the Gear VR headset as well, everyone who's tried mine has said it's better than they expected. I would sell the Note5 or Note5 Edge immediately on eBay without opening the box if someone gave me one.
FozzyofAus - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
Xiaomi may have something for you next year with their Note 2 Prime or whatever it's successor is:http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/xiaomi-red...
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/13/first-to-the-augu...
sonny73n - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
It always intrigues me that somehow they can make the phone as big as 6.6 inches but can't add a couple of millimeters in thickness so camera doesn't protrude and give the device much more battery life. What's going thru these retarded mind? (Yea I'm looking at you, Samsung engineers).Why am I so against protruding camera? Even a kid knows that pressure becomes greater as the area of contact gets smaller. Picture it every time you put down your phone face up on a hard surface like a counter top, how much strain that certain part of the phone get? Let alone protruding camera can cause wobbling when use on flat surfaces like tables. Try Bejeweled or calculator with one of these phones on a table and you'll see.
OK now you maybe telling me to get a case. Really? What's the point of designing a thin phone? But wait, 10 mm isn't thin? It has to be 7 mm to be called thin right?
Until they fix this retarded design flaw and even tho I'm in need of a phone now, I won't be buying any device with protruding camera or has less than a day of battery usage.
R. Hunt - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
Pretty sure the engineers were not the ones driving those decisions.y2kbugger - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
the Note 5 goes 32/64/128GBYou fricking scared me.....
http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones/SM-N9...
FozzyofAus - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I currently have the 32GB Note4 with a 128Gb MicroSD.The 128Gb would be the minimum size I'd consider, but I won't be buying a Note5 anyway mostly due to the resolution not increasing, but the loss of removable battery and MicroSD card seals the decision not to buy. Hoping the sales are dismal to encourage a return to the Note4 form factor with an impressively large battery.
PixyMisa - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Thanks. 128GB is enough for me not to care about the missing SD card.digiguy - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
No that was a mistake. There is no 128GB version.https://www.theverge.com/2015/8/14/9152581/samsung...
digiguy - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
Unfortunately not, no 128GB (the page has been removed and see the article I linked below)Rick91042@yahoo.com - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
I'll pass...next! Unbelievable for a flagship phone/phablet like this to be crippled with only a 3000 mAh battery. Was going to buy it but passing on it. Hate having to keep charging the phone. Yes, wireless charging, but only at home or work, not on the go and do they think I'm hauling that around?! With poor sales, hopefully they'll get the message people want and expect more, not less!bertbert - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
HORRIBLE, just HORRIBLE- What do Samsung think that they are doing?
If a person wants a HEAVY METAL, NON-BATTERY SWAPPABLE, NON-MEMORY ADDABLE BRICK, they can always go over and buy a useless IPHONE....
My Note 3 is LIGHTER than the "new"
My Note 3 has MUCH MORE MEMORY (160GB) than the "new"
My Note 3 can swap to my spare batteries anytime for indefinite power-life, unlike the DEAD-BATTERY "new"....
theduckofdeath - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
Your Note 3 has UFS storage with SSD performance... Oh wait, it doesn't. eMMC SD cards would cripple the performance of a phone like this. You wouldn't buy a high performance PC and cram a mechanical disk in it just to save money after, would you?FozzyofAus - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
My old 16GB Note2 ran out of storage just from apps, not a single video and precious few photos.My 32GB Note3 has under 1GB free again mainly from apps. The video, photos, music, VR apps etc. are all on the MicroSD card. I'm already using over 64GB of storage.
The only time I found the storage on my Note2 to be too slow is when it was nearly full, that destroys performance.
I have a high end SSD in my PC. When I next upgrade I may even upgrade to a PCIe flash for the OS. I also have many TBs of HDDs. I don't need all my storage to be super fast even in my PC.
Why would I want to pay $200 extra to get an extra 96GB of super fast storage in a smartphone?
That's Apple customer crazy.
theduckofdeath - Tuesday, August 18, 2015 - link
I have a Note 4. I have ditched the SD card in it because it just drains the battery even when I'm not using the phone. I've got half a day extra battery simply by removing that card. And you know what, I have no congestion issues. Sure, I'm subscribing to Tidal to be able to stream HiFi quality music, Plex for my videos and I'm smart enough to use OneDrive to store all of my data.On your desktop, the performance and power usage hit literally is a non-issue, as you have an endless stream of power coming into it. You don't drag a long extension cord around with you for your mobile, do you? :D
Why would you pay more to get the best performing storage on your phone? For the exact same reason you buy SSD's for you r PC to improve its performance or battery life. It's really not that complicated. Yes, I agree the manufacturers are too greedy for the storage size upgrade prices, but they all do that. Even Google.
FozzyofAus - Wednesday, August 19, 2015 - link
Thanks for the info on battery life differences using a MicroSD. I've never checked that.My point is I don't want to pay 1000's to upgrade all my TBs of storage when for the majority of the content there will be no difference to the end user experience. Reading or writing a single 60Gb computer backup file doesn't require SSD throughput.
I have around 2GB of music on my phone, not that big a deal. But the 20+Gb of VR content is a problem for smartphones with smaller capacity, and that can't practically be stored in the cloud as a single 5 minute video is 1Gb and monthly data limits in Australia on mobile are quite low, and ADSL2+ can be quite slow (Max 3.5Mbps at my Dad's place).
The0ne - Thursday, August 13, 2015 - link
Here's hoping that the rumor of Samsung bring a variant of the Note 5 with microSD support is true.richough3 - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
I generally like having a MicroSD card because with the small amount of available space that are on the regular phones themselves and the fact that apps are getting larger, when the main phone's space fills up, it affects overall performance of the phone. With having a MicroSD card, I can keep all my files on it, so I don't encounter those performance problems if I should fill up my MicroSD card. And on a limited data plan, cloud storage wouldn't be worth it to me. As a consumer, I like having the options, even if I never use it.OneEngi - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
It also supports ANT+ as a wireless connectivity option for the fitness gadget folks out there!digiguy - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
Galaxy note is a phone for power users, and 64GB is not enough for a lot of them. And filling it up will slow the phone down. And with a smaller and not replaceable battery this is a downgrade. What a pity, as there were some nice software features... The only problem, Note has little competition. What other phablets with a pen have it's specs? I think a lot of people will stick with their current note or buy a note 3 or 4 if necessary...Snotling - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
Power users vs toy users, I say the toy user needs more storage for all the apps, pictures, videos and music.Power users actually work on their phone and spreadsheets are much lighter than games and videos.
Thus is the first note I'll be buying and I've been watching the product line since the note 2
Pego99 - Friday, August 14, 2015 - link
Samsung has lost there way and jk shin should have been fired after he lied about making a 32gig S5. Now they are eliminating the features that made there phones the best.removable battery and micro SD card. Maybe jk Is a stalking horse for apple.watzupken - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
The phones themselves look good. But I think the Note 5 seems like a better buy than the Edge+. One of the benefits of the Note series is the S-Pen function from what I observed from the people around me using. The Edge+ apart from being bigger than the Edge, I don't see much benefit to get it.FozzyofAus - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
The Galaxy S6 is a direct competitor to the iPhone6The Galaxy Edge+ is a direct competitor to the iPhone6+
The Note4 was a huge sales success.
The Note4 Edge failed in the market as it didn't offer enough additional utility.
The Note5 is a major step backwards from the flexibility of the Note4 removing features a lot of Note2/3/4 buyers thought useful. I predict Samsung will be very disappointed with Note5 sales.
Ethos Evoss - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
Nothing new .. same boring thingtheduckofdeath - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
Yeah, it's so common with curved display these days! I mean, Samsung has done it once, let's not forget all the other manufactures doing this over and over and over! Right? :DThe Rogue Tomato - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
Some people are freaking out over the lack of an IR blaster. Let's see... the Note 5 has...- Best display
- The pressure-sensitive S Pen
- S Pen apps and features
- Take notes on lock screen
- Multiple windows open at the same time
- Best phone camera
- Fastest 8 core processor
- 4 GB of RAM
- Fastest local storage (UFS)
- The ability to mirror to a PC via SideSync
- The ability to make payments simply by holding it up to a magnetic strip reader
- Quick charge
- Wireless charging
- Fast WIRELESS charging
But no IR blaster? Deal-breaker!!! I'd rather pay $800 for a phone that lets me change the channel on my TV than spend six bucks on a universal remote. ;)
digiguy - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
Note 4 has most of those features and the improvements in RAM, CPU, storage etc. can be hardly perceived compared to note 4; "fast" wireless charging is too slow and useless on the go... Battery life is essential on the go, as is storage in the long run (64 is not enough for many).VEG - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
Why is there no USB 3.1 type C? :(andrewaggb - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
I went into the samsung store today and had a look at the note 5 and edge+, versus my wife's note 4. To be honest, I thought the edge+ seemed more vibrant (but it could be the background image or screen brightness settings). Both my wife and I liked it better in our brief non-scientific look.I really wish the note 5 hadn't reduced the battery size and lost the replaceable battery. I never really used my s-pen for much, so it was primarily the size that interested me.
IHR - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
no SD card NO Samsung phone for me.............. they don't get it!SanX - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
Intel fail with Broadwell/Skylake and now Samsung with Note5. It is hard to be on top for so long.mosu - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
No SD no buy, evidently no cloud!The Rogue Tomato - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
I agree. I need to carry 10,000 songs in FLAC format and 500 movies in my pocket at all times. Cloud storage? HAH! What if I'm in a cave in Noobeckistan with no signal and I want to listen to Justin Bieber?theduckofdeath - Sunday, August 23, 2015 - link
If you live in a cave in Noobeckistan you're not in the target demographics for a high-end smartphone anyway. Problem solved.pintin - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
Yes. I liked its features. screen on the Galaxy Note 5. quad HD Super AMOLED panels panel with 518 ppi pixel density, but the number of pixels not represent the quality of the screen. Vivid colors amazing, impressive contrast ratio than any previous screen of Samsung, and simple definition is very great.http://www.kizinew.in
Ryan1981 - Monday, August 17, 2015 - link
You know, it feels like Samsung is purposely crippling their device so they can sell new versions sooner when storage capacity requirements have increased and battery needs replacement. Personally I am still a very satisfied user of the Note 2 and not even had to replace battery yet and no shortage of storage space (which I would have had without the sd card, running games like hearthstone, watching TV series on the train to/from work, listening to audio on my bike to/from train and taking pictures and movies with my camera etc...) I was going to recommend the new note to my dad for his new phone but now I will probably recommend the older model that does have these features.Koenig168 - Tuesday, August 18, 2015 - link
One would have thought that Samsung would learn from its disappointing S6 and S6 Edge sales. These were among two of the most highly anticipated Samsung phones but after the initial sales flurry, consumers seemed to have lost interest in these phones. Not surprising as a lot of the internet comments expressed dismay at the lack of microSD and removable battery. I was looking forward to a new Note 5 when I renew my telco plan later this year but now it looks like I will be looking elsewhere.findtaps - Wednesday, August 19, 2015 - link
3000 mAh is verry cheap.http://www.findtaps.co.ukboe - Saturday, August 22, 2015 - link
Funny - gadgets are cool and a decent size screen is very important to me but the first thing I care about on a PHONE is the call reception in areas where it drops frequently and the talk time.Snotling - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
Wait, do people still use that legacy feature anymore. (I don't)mix1987 - Monday, August 24, 2015 - link
For all those who says consumers don't want/are dissapointed in the note 5, I'm just gonna leave this here...http://www.sammobile.com/2015/08/24/samsung-galaxy...
http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-note-5-stro...
clickbuzz - Sunday, August 30, 2015 - link
hello here is a website which help you to select best smart phone according to your budget and your pocket demand.........http://bestandroidphoneatamazon.weebly.com/Human Bass - Thursday, September 3, 2015 - link
I love the real black of OLED screens, perfect for reading with white letters and black background, but the removal of SD cards was too much for me, I had to go with the LG G4.jamejn - Saturday, September 12, 2015 - link
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relativityboy - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
Where's my removable battery and expandable memory? Do I really have to buy an HTC?