Samsung Galaxy Note5 India Hands-on and First Impressions

Samsung today unveiled the Galaxy Note5 in India. It’s the fifth generation of the uber-phablet which created an entire category of smartphones. At 5.3-inch the OG Galaxy Note was the biggest smartphone at its time, many, including us made fun of phablets at the time. Now, the game has changed. Samsung has the biggest market share in large-screen smartphones.

Even Apple had to acknowledge the growth of Samsung’s large-screen dominance with the new iPhones and it was the Galaxy Note that started it all. With refinement over five generations, the Galaxy Note5 is poised to be the best Note in the series with Samsung clearly forging ahead in terms of design and engineering.

In terms of build, Samsung’s love for metal and glass has improved with the Galaxy Note5. It carries the same design-pedigree as the Galaxy S6. But power-users would be sad to learn that there’s no microSD card slot here, nor a removable battery. Moreover storage it capped at 64GB, there’s no 128GB variant this time around. That’s the price you pay for a better build, and I would take that over the faux-leather back of the previous Note. But the new build is more fragile and the back/front are fingerprint magnets. You can protect the back with a case but the front would still need that occasional wipe on your shirt sleeve.

The front and back are adorned with Gorilla Glass 4 protection. The sides are very subtly curved to make the in-hand feel better. Moreover, Samsung has made the Note5 quite thin at about 7.6mm weighing in at 171 grams.

The 5.7-inch Quad-HD Super AMOLED display is as bright and sharp as you’d expect from a 2015 flagship. No matter how close you look, you won’t be able to able to make out individual pixels. Below the display you’ll find the home button flanked by the recent apps and back touch-capacitive buttons which are backlit. The home button also doubles as the fingerprint sensor which is as swift as the Galaxy S6. No matter how you place your finger, the phone gets unlocked within milliseconds. Gone are the awkward days of swiping your fingers. Samsung Pay will further make the fingerprint sensor more useful.

The volume buttons and power button offer good tactile response. They don’t wobble and offer a satisfying click. The top of the Galaxy Note5 is quite clean with an unexpected omission, the infrared sensor, which we had come to love with Samsung flagships. Its strange that even with the larger frame Samsung wasn’t able to incorporate it on the Note5.

Moving on, the nano-SIM card slot is present at the top alongwith the noise-cancellation mic and again Galaxy Note users would be missing the micro-SD card slot here. The bottom of the smartphone is quite busy with the primary microphone, speaker, micro-USB port, audio-jack, S-Pen slot all crammed there.

Which brings us to the S-Pen. Which has been redesigned to give a more premium look. The S-Pen now has a click mechanism to get it out. Even though you have the S-Pen out, you will find yourself clicking it for no reason. The new mechanism is more robust. But that’s not all, Samsung has also added a new feature to the Note5.

As soon as you take the S-Pen out, the Galaxy Note5 is ready to take notes even with its screen off. A low-power Note mode is activated instantaneously so you can jot down that important task/meeting schedule without even turning your phone on. When you are done jotting down, simply slide the S-Pen in and your note would be saved.

Air Command has also been improved with the inclusion of the ability to launch your favorite apps. You can now annotate PDF’s as well alongwith the ability to take long screenshots, actually 22-screens long, so you can easily capture entire web pages. Rest of the Air Command features remain the same.

Samsung’s famed camera from the Galaxy S6/Edge has made it to the Note5 as well. Its 16MP f/1.9 aperture camera at the back and a 5MP front-camera for selfies. Samsung’s new camera module has been regarded as the best Smartphone camera in almost every review including blind tests and the Galaxy Note5 is expected to follow in the same route.

We have already taken this camera for a spin earlier and it produced some great results in both good as well as low-light. Images are sharp and quite color-accurate. You can record crisp 4K videos with the rear camera as well. Optical Image Stabilization also comes baked in for better images in any light. Although the camera app has virtually remained unchanged from the Galaxy S6, the Note5 gets a live YouTube stream mode, using which you can live-stream at 1080p directly. RAW capture in Pro-mode by default is another great addition.

Samsung has packed a 3000 mAh battery which is 220 mAh less than the Note 4 and its non-removable. But Samsung has packed its new fast charging tech with the Note 4 which can charge it from 0 – 100 in flat 90 minutes. Even with the new fast wireless charger you can get a full charge in 120 minutes. This definitely softens the blow of the smaller battery.

Powering the innards is Samsung’s own Exynos 7420 featured on the Galaxy S6/Edge/Edge+ coupled with 4GB RAM, making the Galaxy Note5 one of the most powerful smartphones available today. Mali-T760 GPU takes care of graphics while Android 5.1.1 Lollipop bosses everyone around.

Coming to the software, Samsung has toned down TouchWiz to a huge extent. We saw that with the Galaxy S6 and with the Note5 there is a slight change in iconography but the intent remains same. Reducing bloat. The Galaxy Note5 zips through tasks with ease without the need of a breath between them. We played some games as well, and found them to perform exceptionally well but then again its expected.

Samsung has also made few covers and cases for the Galaxy Note5 which look good and more importantly don’t add any heft, keeping the clean lines of the device.

The Galaxy Note5 will be available in Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum and Silver Titanium colors in India priced at Rs. 53,900 for the 32GB variant and 59,900 with 64GB storage, starting September 20th. Accessories will also go on sale around the same time.

With the purchase of the Galaxy Note5 you’ll get free one-time screen replacement within a year alongwith a free wireless charger if you purchase it within the pre-order period. Samsung has also partnered with banks in India to provide easy interest-free EMIs for the Galaxy Note5 and the Galaxy S6 edge+.

It is the smartphone to beat when it comes to flagships. The S-Pen is more useful, the build is a welcome change even though I would’ve liked to have a microSD card slot atleast but more importantly Samsung has understood the meaning of restraint. The Galaxy S6/S6 Edge are among the best designed smartphones and the Galaxy Note5 just takes it one step further making it the workhorse we all crave for.