Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Review

Unboxing

Samsung Galaxy Note5 unsurprisingly features a retail box with the same design as that of Samsung Galaxy S6. Its contents include the handset, wall charger, microUSB cable, stereo headset, and replacement tips for the S Pen.
As far as basic accessory needs go, the Note5 has you covered right out of the box. Samsung is offering a range of optional accessories for the flagship phablet.
The hardware keyboard case is arguably the coolest accessory averrable for the Note5. It covers the bottom quarter of the display, but the UI adjusts accordingly, so you don't need to remove it to access the dialer, for example.
You also get hardware Task switcher/Home/Back buttons, since the ones underneath are inaccessible. When you don't need the keyboard, you can simply snap it on the back of the case and continue in full screen mode.

Design and build quality

Samsung Galaxy Note5 features the design language that debuted alongside the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge, dominated by a decidedly premium fusion of metal and glass. The most distinctive design feature in the phablet is its back, which is curved towards the edges - a unique touch in a Samsung device for the time being.
There is no denying that Samsung Galaxy Note5 is the best looking member of the product family to date. The handset finally looks as premium as its price tag and industry reputation require, yet it cannot be mistaken for anything other than a Samsung Galaxy Note.
Samsung Galaxy Note5 will be available in five colors - Black Sapphire, White Pearl, Gold Platinum and the newly introduced Silver Titanium. It is worth noting that color availability will vary by markets.
Build quality of the Samsung Galaxy Note5 is exceptional. The handset is a crafted entirely from metal and Corning Gorilla Glass 4, so it will stand up even to the demands of the heaviest power user.
The only downside of having a smartphone made of glass is that the material might be prone to cracking in an accidental drop. A protective case is therefore highly recommended.
With physical measures of 153.2 x 76.1 x 7.6 mm, Samsung Galaxy Note5 is considerably more compact than Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (153.5 x 78.6 x 8.5 mm). The 2.5mm difference in width between the two devices is particularly impressive - it makes the new Note feel considerably more compact than its predecessor despite packing a screen with the same size.
At 171 grams, the new Note is also lighter than last year's model despite utilizing more premium materials. All in all, the handset is a massive improvement over the outgoing model in terms of physical measures.
Samsung Galaxy Note5 is quite possibly the easiest device with a 5.7" display to handle thanks to its fairly compact measures, which allow many common tasks to be performed with one hand. Users with small hands however, might find the device a tad slippery without a case.
The tactility of the smartphone is superb thanks to the premium materials used in its making. However, the same materials make the Note5 prone to smudges.

Display

Samsung Galaxy Note5 comes with a 5.7" Super AMOLED display with QHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) resolution, which results in a pixel density of 518ppi. The diagonal sweet spot was already established with the Note 3 and for third generation in a row it has remained unchanged.
The Galaxy Note family has always boasted some of the best displays in the business and the tradition continues with the latest iteration. Alongside the usual infinite contrast, the screen boasts accurate colors (you can still make them saturated in the settings), as well as top notch brightness and viewing angles.
Sunlight legibility is excellent too. Samsung has once again tuned the display to go above the brightness level that's available to the user when in bright environment. The feature allows you to read your email even under direct sunlight.
Overall, Samsung Galaxy Note5 deserves high marks for its design and build quality, as well as for its handling. The 5.7" QHD on the other hand, will once again be a measuring stick in its segment.

Gallery

The gallery's default view shows photos grouped based on time. Thumbnails are shown on a clean white background and you can change their size with a pinch zoom gesture.
Events uses time and location to group photos and automatically create "Video highlights," a slideshow accompanied with music. You can export that to a video to share on your social network of choice.
The Categories view groups multimedia by type - pictures, videos, slow-mo videos, Virtual shots and so on. The People category groups photos based on the faces in them. There's also a Documents category. You can use the Search shortcut to look for photos based on category, people, time, event, location and so on.
Batch operations are gone, but you can easily move photos to Private mode (this requires activating the mode). Editing tools include simple things like Auto adjust, crop and rotate, but you can also do collages and go into the Photo editor, which is the usual Android editor with more advanced crop and rotate tools, color adjustment, effects and dedicated portrait enhancements (slim face, large eyes, you get the idea).
The Share button allows you to send a photo to a device over DLNA, to a TV using screen mirroring or to a wireless printer. Samsung also has a special feature to send profile photos and high-resolution images to your contacts as a sort of mini social network. For non-Samsung devices, recipients get a link over text message, the link expires after a certain period.

Music player

Samsung's TouchWiz music player used to be one of the most feature-bloated apps, but the company has done some work to trim the fat. The app looks very clean now, essentially it has just two screens.
One lets you browse tracks and playlists, with a dropdown menu to switch between views including Folder view. The Music square is gone. The other screen is the Now playing with album art and a few playback controls. You can transfer playback to a Bluetooth or a DLNA device.
SoundAlive has gotten rid of the square view too, now it has two dials - one changes the balance between bass and treble, the other between instrumental and vocals. You can tap the Details button for a manual 7-band equalizer. Audiophiles should know 16-bit and 24-bit FLAC audio works out of the box.
Adapt Sound is available to automatically tune the equalizer based on your headphones and your hearing. Additional options include SoundAlive+ (creates a surround sound effect) and Tube Amp. There's also Smart volume to balance the volume between tracks and playback speed if you want to slow down or speed up the playback (useful for audio books we guess).
One of the most important additions to the audio credentials of Samsung Galaxy Note5 is the UHQ Upscaler. Developed by Samsung, the feature enhances the "sound resolution" of music and video files for better experience with headphones.

Video player

The video player supports all kinds of video file types and codecs, up to 4K 2160p encoded with the new H.265/HEVC codec. As with most phones though, multi-channel audio (AC-3, DTS) is not supported.
The Pop up mode puts the video in a small floating window so you can keep watching while using the phone.
There are extensive subtitle settings with adjustable font and text size, text color, edge and background. Multiple presets are available and you can make your own.
You can send video files to DLNA players or use screen mirroring. Alternatively you can beam just the audio over Bluetooth, the Play audio only option is useful for music videos - playback continues, while you use the phone as normal.
There are built-in video editing options including trimming, video color effects and adding background music (with sliders to control the audio volume from both the video and the background music). A more advanced video editor can be downloaded. It can assemble multiple videos and audio tracks together.

Splendid audio quality

The Samsung Galaxy Note5 is yet another member of the series to deliver seriously impressive audio output. The phablet downright crushed the first part of our test mixing very loud output with impeccable quality – nothing to frown at really.
More impressively, plugging in a pair of headphones caused next to no distortion – even the hike in stereo crosstalk was virtually unnoticeable. An impressive showing even for the high end class and one that we wouldn’t call perfect only because the volume levels dropped from very high to just above average.
And here go the results.

Test	Frequency response	Noise level	Dynamic range	THD	IMD + Noise	Stereo crosstalk
Samsung Galaxy Note5	+0.04, -0.01	-93.6	93.5	0.0024	0.0076	-94.7
Samsung Galaxy Note5 (headphones attached)	+0.02, -0.05	-93.1	93.2	0.0023	0.030	-84.1
Samsung Galaxy Note 4	+0.01, -0.04	-96.6	93.4	0.0015	0.0086	-94.2
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (headphones attached)	+0.03, -0.02	-96.8	93.5	0.011	0.035	-55.2
LG G Flex2	+0.01, -0.06	-92.5	92.5	0.0031	0.012	-91.5
LG G Flex2 (headphones attached)	+0.03, -0.10	-92.6	92.1	0.0027	0.387	-60.1
Apple iPhone 6 Plus	+0.04, -0.04	-94.0	94.0	0.0013	0.0064	-72.0
Apple iPhone 6 Plus (headphones attached)	+0.10, -0.04	-94.0	93.9	0.0016	0.087	-64.1
LG G3	+0.02, -0.08	-99.4	98.9	0.0016	0.035	-100.0
LG G3 (headphones attached)	+0.02, -0.09	-93.7	93.3	0.0060	0.032	-78.5
Oppo Find 7	+0.04, -0.10	-93.8	93.1	0.0053	0.177	-94.4
Oppo Find 7 (headphones attached)	+0.70, -0.20	-93.7	91.5	0.013	0.446	-52.6

Samsung Galaxy Note5 frequency response