[Official] I Got My Galaxy Note 5 / Note 5 Edge

[Jeffrey]

The next Samsung flagship, Galaxy Note 5/ Note 5 Edge may arrive as early as July. and most of us here are pretty excited about it.

Let us know you have ordered yours, and first impressions when it arrives.​

 

[Sydman]

Well, Bestbuy tricked me, ended up getting one on Saturday. They gave me a $200 gift card for my Moto E I never use, and threw in a free wireless charger, though not fast charging.

I have not decided whether I am keeping it or not, but going to give it a fair shot. First impressions.

1. Oh my the bloatware is bad, even though my last two phones were Nexus 5/6, come on Sammy? Yellow Pages and Uber app that I can't uninstall, just disable. Not to mention all the At&t stuff and useless Samsung apps. Strike 1
2. Feels much more manageable in the hand than the Nexus 6, and nicer in the pocket too.
3. The screen, enough said.
4. Touchwiz is actually very fluid and had no real complaints there after I applied a dark material theme to the device. Though I did end up going with the GEL because I don't like Flipboard, and I like my Google Now cards.
5. Battery life seems to be better than the Nexus 6. 13 hours yesterday with an hour and 45 minutes of screen on time, and the battery was down to 48%.
6. I miss my front facing stereo speakers, probably strike 2.
7. Been having problems with unlocking the screen when I have a trusted device active. I don't need my fingerprint anymore, but I have been having to wake the screen, and then swipe twice to get it to unlock. I could be doing something wrong, still investigating that.

Seems like a great device for sure, no doubt about that. I am still torn between it feeling nice and thin width wise, to being too thin for me. Being used to the Nexus 6 and gaming and watching videos on that, things are a little more scrunched up. So it will be a trade off in usability, and a nice big screen.

Jury is still out, going to give it a week or so and decide. Good thing is either way I get to keep the $200 gift card to Bestbuy since my Moto E is long gone to their corporate office.

Edit 1: Forgot, the constant listing of the connected WIFI on the notification bar, that is a shame. I imagine root will come and you can kill that with Xposed, still not sure why they think that is a useful feature.

 

[bkdodger]

Keep us posted brother.. I'm hearing aggressive app and ram killing on early reviews..

NexusSix

 

[Sydman]

Keep us posted brother.. I'm hearing aggressive app and ram killing on early reviews..

It is real hard not to be a fan of it. I had a Note 3, but have had Nexus devices since. I loved my Note 3, but Touchwiz was never great for me. They have really improved it, with some minor head scratchers. I miss my AOSP volume profiles, just one push of volume button and and you can choose Priority or No notifications. I used that, but can get over it. I do like one volume down push gives you the option to choose from all of your volume levels.

My Spigen case should be here tomorrow or the next day and I can ditch this crappy case Bestbuy had, just had to get it in something. If I am keeping it, will need to get the At&t globe off the back, though don't want to scratch the glass. I am sure some S6 owners already have a way to do that, so I will search that out.

It does seem like it does not like leaving things hanging out there in memory, which I don't mind. Yet recalling apps from recents, or even loading anew is very fast. The only lag I have seen on the device is because of GEL, scrolling back and forth between the Google Now page, and it was minimal.

It is actually smoother than my Nexus 6 when it comes to general UI stuff. I miss my Hotspot quick launch, but I am sure an aftermarket app can bring that back. If I could kill the constant WIFI notification without root, I would be pretty happy. Did some searching on that and killing the settings app does not seem to be working for this one. Nor do I know what other consequences that might have.

Multi-tasking works great and you don't realize how useful that is until you have it. One of those things you don't think about until you need it. Helps for work stuff, copying and pasting between email and Skype for example. The S-pen screen write is awesome, pulling the pen out with the screen off, writing a note and putting back the pen to turn the screen back off. I can see where that will be very useful for some people.

Anyway, I am rambling, just some general thoughts. If anyone has specific questions please shout and I will do my best to answer them.

 

[bkdodger]

Good stuff... We are happy to hear it and more thoughts from you...

NexusSix

 

[pc747]

Nice review.

I been hearing some awesome things from those rocking the Note 5.

 

[cr6]

Well done @Sydman
Enjoy your new toy!

 

[pc747]

Upon further review the s6 edge plus is a nice looking device.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Just don't put the S pen in butt first!

 

[Miller6386]

I have NO intentions of changing phones but I am going to go in this week and get one in my hands.. I want to see more about what this edge device is all about..

 

[hammerhead13]

I also went through Best Buy and traded in my real old Samsung Omnia WinMo Phone for the $200 Gift Card and Wireless Charger. I have not see the same Bloatware on mine being Verizon except for the Verizon Bloat.

I missed the Larger Screen and S-Pen since my Note 2 and am Happy to Have a Note again. I like the Feel of the Phone as Opposed to my Note 2 but the first thing I did was throw it in a Otterbox Defender. Have to say that its nice that its not as Bulky as I thought it would be.

So far Im getting ~23hrs from it. A trade Down from my Droid Turbo getting ~36-40hrs.
Im also Glad that the Wireless Charging Works with The Samsung Charger and my Incipio Qi Charger with the Defender on.

My only Gripe and knowing this going into the phone is no SD & Removable Battery.

I like the Live Broadcast Feature. Played with that a little. Got to watch that Limited Data though, that will eat it alive.

 

[bkdodger]

Nice! Congrats @hammerhead13.. Full day usage is totally fine IMO.. Use and charge at night... And quick charge for extra busy days..

NexusSix

 

[TisMyDroid]

I did the same thing hammerhead13. Traded in my beat up RazrM. I really was not too excited about the N5. I wanted to get the Note edge but they are no longer available via Verizon and to reduce my line charge by $25, I had to purchase via the big V. That being said, I'm growing very fond of my N5. There are the obvious things anyone would like; the screen quality, the battery life is as good or better than my N3, the super quick responsiveness of anything you do. Other first impressions...
The things I love:
-fingerprint unlock. It is quick, convenient and very easy. I always just used swipe up. This is so much faster.
-the ability to change themes which changes colors, icons and fonts across the board. I choose the theme with the color and icon theme I want then change the wallpaper to what I want.
-The ability to change the size of font which applies it to the home screens and across all apps, etc. Nice feature for those of us with eyes that need a bigger font.
-the recent apps is capacitive touch to the left of home button instead of long press on home. Much much easier to access recent apps.
-Excellent improvement in how the s-pen writes. It actually looks like my own handwriting.
-s-pen quick launch always ready icon when you have the s-pen out. Very convenient to not have to push that button on the pen every time.
-being able to add your own apps to the s-pen quick launch. Again, very convenient to be able to add those apps that you frequently use your pen for.
-of course, being able to write a quick note on screen without having to unlock.
-camera has added some awesome abilities which are not preloaded but can be downloaded. Check out surround shot, sport shot and sound & shot.
-flashlight can be added to quick settings in status bar. Very convenient as I use flashlight often.

The things I don't like:
-that anytime you choose an app to perform a function, it is automatically given default status rather than being given the option to choose "just once." I do not like this at all. There are some similar apps I like to use for different purposes. For instance, I use the chrome browser most often but I also like to use the stock browser for some tasks. I don't want to have to go into app settings to clear the default just because I want to open a web page from an app, then go back to clear default again because I want to go back to using Chrome.
- I miss the menu option next to home button. It has been replaced by recent apps (which I love). But it would be great if app menu/settings could be a long press on the home button (or something of the sort). All apps have their menu/settings option but they are often in different places on the screen. Having a one place to access this would be convenient.
-when in phone app, you can't quickly choose contact info by tapping on contact's avatar. Have to go to menu option "more." Adds to many more steps when you want to call someone on their home phone when they called from their cell.


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