Samsung Unpacked Event Recap (Note 5/Glaxy S6 Edge+) Gear S Teased [Updated 14 August]

[jos]

Launching 4 flagships per year doesn't make any sense if you ask me. But still, I'd rather be able to buy the Note 5 than having to buy the edge 6+ or whatever it is called

I hope they release s6 edge + with S-Pen.. or note 5 with dual edge

[LAwLz]

Uhhhm hold your horses for a second! Ranting about having almost the same hardware is fine, but think for a moment is the Exynos 7420 not up for the job, or does the camera need to be actually better? What I'm getting at is consumer tries to scream what they need and they do need to listen, but the bottom line is it needs to be implemented well. A good example would be the Snapdragon 810 and its flaws instead of taking their time developing their own custom core they rushed to catch up with the octacore trend and ended up with a product with an Achilles' heel. It takes time to get things right and that's what Samsung does implement when it's the right time for it to come out

I agree with you in some places. I almost choked on my sandwich when a read that it was a 3000mAh battery. That is disgraceful.

 

On the other hand, I don't think you should be so quick to criticize Samsung for using the same processor and camera as the s6. As long as they perform very well on the phone and people like the results, and as long as it's an improvement over the last note, who cares? How would you feel if the s6 didn't exist and this processor performed like a beast in the note on its own? I understand that new and amazing stuff is great, but it's more important whether or not it is objectively good.

I didn't intend for the comment about the processor and camera to be seen as critisism. I even said "I can't really complain, but it's not really exciting either". But I do think they should have upgraded for example the camera flash. It's something they are behind with and continues to ignore.

[Darkman]

I hate samsung to be honest!

Only product I own of samsung is a washing machine

I have one of their old 200W plasma tvs in my room... The only thing I like from them is their ram chips as the generally overclock like hell.

[VerticalDiscussions]

Gosh to imagine that Samsung feels so comfortable with theyr camera apertures and processor to come from the S6 to the Note 5 is something kinda remarkable indeed!

[6God]

- Power user phone

- doesn't have removable battery, doesn't have a high capacity battery, doesn't have a microSD slot, doesn't have a 128gb storage option

Umm....Samsung? We need to talk. And it's not about the S2 watch that no one cares about (smart watches are not that big even now, unless you have Apples fan base)

You turned your power user Note into a larger S6. But we have a larger S6 now, so what's going on? The S Pen doesn't overcome the obvious lack of battery life and expandable storage.

Android is not as good with power management and Samsug isn't the best out of all of the Android OEMs - what the hell were they thinking?

This is truly a downgrade from the Note 4.

Thinner for what? Looks? Glass back for what? Looks? Don't you dare tell me they couldn't have maintained removable batteries and mSD and still had a glass back, that isn't rocket science. This is disappointing.

I don't know what to upgrade to. At least the Note 4 will become cheaper as a result.

[captain cactus]

So, the only available name for a larger phone is *phone name*+ now or what?

 

Photocopiers are up and running again.

[AxelRantila]

There's also the fact that a lot of people will just shove low quality microSD cards in there and complain about how they're slow or lost their data, and then blame the phone.

I've seen it happen over and over again. So I do kind of understand phasing them out. Though I'm not overly happy about it.

At this point I have tried different MicroSD cards and overall I'm still not happy. Always some problem no matter what. Currently, my biggest gripe is that many apps outright refuses to work with expandable storage. So my next phone will be some S6 phone most likely, or something with high-internal capacity

[NinerL]

They're trying to be more like Apple by limiting functionality they think it'll attract iOS users  , soon the only thing separating them will be the OS. No 128gb option and the battery size seems a bit odd though.

[dizmo]

At this point I have tried different MicroSD cards and overall I'm still not happy. Always some problem no matter what. Currently, my biggest gripe is that many apps outright refuses to work with expandable storage. So my next phone will be some S6 phone most likely, or something with high-internal capacity

Yeah. To be honest, I'm fine with 16gb right now. I have my music on a separate player, because I don't see the point in having it on my phone.

If I go for a jog, I don't want to take my phone. It's too bulky. I'd rather have a little PMP.

So, if I want to carry music with me somewhere, I'll just grab that instead as well as the phone since I already have it.

 

Other than pictures and perhaps movies, I don't see what else needs to go on a phone.

Games, I suppose, but one hardly needs more than 64gb for those. If they do perhaps they need to thin the herd

[geforceftw]

Well, with that battery I will be skipping the Note 5. Thanks Samsung. I think my Note 3 should last another year or two.

 

On the other hand, It looks like a good phone..  And whats with the S6 Edge Plus naming scheme? Just name it a freaking Note 5 Edge. They should of relased the S6 Plus with the S6 IMO

[Nineshadow]

Apparently the Note 5 isn't coming to Europe

What the hell Samsung?

Seriously?

[beebskadoo]

I thought their whole new thing was streamlining the amount of mobile devices...Why the fuck do they need another large phone that isn't a note device?

 

This is why I can't stand Samsung 

[LAwLz]

What the hell Samsung?

Seriously?

Yeah that threw me off. The Galaxy S6+ will come to Europe. But the Galaxy S6+ is just an incomplete Note 5...

[Nineshadow]

Yeah that pretty threw me off. The Galaxy S6+ will come to Europe. But the Galaxy S6+ is just an incomplete Note 5...

I guess they are going to stop making Note devices soon.

I mean, why did they even make the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus?

Last year it was the Note Edge.

 

They probably want to work with just 1 line of flagship devices I assume.

[Mew]

Hmmmm disappointing about the battery.

FFS companies, having fast charging is not a substitute for a larger battery! I'm not going to carry around a charger with me, and hunt for a wall outlet because my phones dying.

It also won't help me if I'm out in the wild, away from any kind of charging solution.

 

Fail.

On to the next phone release.

Maybe Huawei will nail the Nexus phablet.

 

Fast charging is a work around for the *slow* relative charging that you have with a giant battery. The solution is always more efficient hardware. 

[dizmo]

Fast charging is a work around for the *slow* relative charging that you have with a giant battery. The solution is always more efficient hardware. 

So what you're saying is that fast charging is for large batteries, however they use it as an excuse to not include a large battery.

Thus making your argument invalid.

[Mew]

So what you're saying is that fast charging is for large batteries, however they use it as an excuse to not include a large battery.

Thus making your argument invalid.

 

That's not really my argument, my argument in the grand scheme of things is that enthusiasts are blindsided by meaningless specs. However, here, it's irrelevant if the Note has a *big* or *small* battery or if it has fast charging to compensate for the otherwise long charging times, it's that most people focus on battery capacity as if it's the only thing that dictates battery life; it's not. If it were as simple to throw more at the problem in order to fix it, Intel wouldn't need to improve IPC, power consumption every generation, they could just throw more cores at it for more performance. Same here, the solution isn't to throw more mah at the battery for *better* battery life, it's to tweak the SOC so that it runs at an optimal voltage and frequency as well as to get the software to work well and efficiently. Don't give me the bs that "oh, it's android, it has to run on everything so it has horrible battery life" because Windows (phone) also runs on a number of hardware config and generally has good battery life. 

 

So, please don't jump to any conclusions just because the battery capacity seems *small* to you because it's the actual results that matter, not the spec that you look at. 

[dizmo]

That's not really my argument, my argument in the grand scheme of things is that enthusiasts are blindsided by meaningless specs. However, here, it's irrelevant if the Note has a *big* or *small* battery or if it has fast charging to compensate for the otherwise long charging times, it's that most people focus on battery capacity as if it's the only thing that dictates battery life; it's not. If it were as simple to throw more at the problem in order to fix it, Intel wouldn't need to improve IPC, power consumption every generation, they could just throw more cores at it for more performance. Same here, the solution isn't to throw more mah at the battery for *better* battery life, it's to tweak the SOC so that it runs at an optimal voltage and frequency as well as to get the software to work well and efficiently. Don't give me the bs that "oh, it's android, it has to run on everything so it has horrible battery life" because Windows (phone) also runs on a number of hardware config and generally has good battery life. 

 

So, please don't jump to any conclusions just because the battery capacity seems *small* to you because it's the actual results that matter, not the spec that you look at. 

I wouldn't say it's really meaningless at all. It in many ways dictates how long the phone will last.

You can't honestly tell me that the Note 5 with a 3000mah battery will last as long as the Note 5 if it had received a 4100mah battery.

I'm well aware that there are many things that dictate battery life, but the simple fact of the matter is that if this phone had a bigger battery, it would last longer than the same phone with a smaller battery. Period.

People are rightly annoyed to see a step down in battery capacity, even if it does get the same or slightly better battery life, because they could have had more.

[Mew]

I wouldn't say it's really meaningless at all. It in many ways dictates how long the phone will last.

You can't honestly tell me that the Note 5 with a 3000mah battery will last as long as the Note 5 if it had received a 4100mah battery.

I'm well aware that there are many things that dictate battery life, but the simple fact of the matter is that if this phone had a bigger battery, it would last longer than the same phone with a smaller battery. Period.

People are rightly annoyed to see a step down in battery capacity, even if it does get the same or slightly better battery life, because they could have had more.

 

Bigger battery doesn't even mean it would have better battery life, as is the case for the M9 vs the M8. I'd rather have the option of having a thin phone with great battery life over a thicker phone that has even better battery life because you can always throw on a battery case if you don't care about how the phone looks and feels. 

[dizmo]

Bigger battery doesn't even mean it would have better battery life, as is the case for the M9 vs the M8. I'd rather have the option of having a thin phone with great battery life over a thicker phone that has even better battery life because you can always throw on a battery case if you don't care about how the phone looks and feels. 

It does if you're comparing the same device, as I stated earlier.

I'm not saying Note 4 to Note 5. I'm saying Note 5 with a bigger battery than what it got.

Battery cases are pretty hideous and heavy. The weight added by those is huge compared to simply adding a larger battery from the start.

[TroubleKlef]

No USB-C  :lol: . Another year of non reversible chargers for Samsung phones.

[patrick3027]

On the other hand, It looks like a good phone.. And whats with the S6 Edge Plus naming scheme? Just name it a freaking Note 5 Edge. They should of relased the S6 Plus with the S6 IMO

If I was in charge, I would release a Galaxy S7 and S7+ in March with a glass back. In September, they would launch the Note 6 with removable battery, microSD etc.

This way you have a fashion device to counter the iPhone for the average user and a power phone for the specs geeks.

Would make more sense than releasing the same phone four times...

[jos]

Well, with that battery I will be skipping the Note 5. Thanks Samsung. I think my Note 3 should last another year or two.

 

On the other hand, It looks like a good phone..  And whats with the S6 Edge Plus naming scheme? Just name it a freaking Note 5 Edge. They should of relased the S6 Plus with the S6 IMO

Note need S-Pen.. I wish there was a note edge

[jos]

 doesn't have a 128gb storage option

 

 

There is 128gb version..

http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones/all-products?filter=galaxy-note

@jesper101996

[Arcmanov]

As a Note 4 user, the Note 5 is a disappointment. 

 

I happen to be a power user.  I usually have an extra battery on me, and my Note 4 has a 128 GB SDcard in it.

Where I live, 'the cloud' is not a viable option, so I tend to use my phone as it was intended: camera, apps, games, music, video, ebooks, social media...you name it.

I almost always have to swap batteries before the day is out, and my job is an active one, so an external battery-bank is too unwieldy for regular use.

 

No SD-card and no removable battery are complete non-starters for me, so there's little else that will compel me to upgrade to the Note 5.

 

The 'premium materials' gambit is totally lost on me because any Note power-user with any modicum of sense would have their phone in a case.

Samsung even made their own case for the Note 4 which I use.

 

I really thought Samsung would deviate from their trend of aping the design philosophy of the latest Galaxy S iteration into the corresponding Note release this time around.

It seems like they caved into the demands of the very vocal tech press constantly fawning over 'premium feel', and have basically crippled their latest flagship's capabilities

in favour of 'look' and 'feel'.

 

This decision leaves a lot of potential Note 5 buyers like me out in the cold so to speak.

 

I get that they're trying to compete directly with Apple, but why fix something that wasn't 'broken' in the first place?

We didn't buy the Note for its design aesthetics.  We bought it because it stood out as a powerhouse, with a form factor that Samsung basically created and refined.

 

I am sorely disappoint.

 

I guess it goes without saying that I'll be keeping my Note 4 for a while longer.  That Note 5 money will now go towards bigger SD-cards and extra, larger-capacity batteries.

 

 

 

I hope Samsung sees the error of their ways and redeems themselves with the Note 6.  (One can only hope)