TiredBloatware is still hanging around. These things are fingerprint magnets. Beauty don't come cheap.
How We Rate1/10A complete failure in every way2/10Barely functional; dont buy it3/10Serious flaws; proceed with caution4/10Downsides outweigh upsides5/10Recommended with reservations6/10A solid product with some issues7/10Very good, but not quite great8/10Excellent, with room to kvetch9/10Nearly flawless, buy it now10/10Metaphysical product perfection
Phablets are dead. Long live huge phones.
There are a few stragglers left, clutching their iPhone 5s and claiming that life was better when everyone was squinting at tiny screens. But most people have come around. Good thing, too: Big phones are great. People who have big phones use them more, more efficiently, for more things. Calling phones like the new Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ phablets pretends that theyre a mix of phones and tablets, which theyre not. Theyre just phones. Big, powerful, excellent phones.
In most ways, theyre the same phone. Same processor, same camera, same software, same bad ideas about how many built-in apps people want. In fact, theyre overwhelmingly similar to the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge as well. Its confusing, but luckily it doesnt really matter, because you cant pick wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ4Aeeo11Bk
There is one that stands out above the rest, though. For my money, its the best Android phone on the market right now: the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+. (Terrible name, excellent phone.) It was clearly created in response to the surprising demand for the S6 Edge, which came out in March. The Edge+ is that phone, only bigger. It has a 5.7-inch, 14402560 display that is straight-up the best display youll find on a phone anywhere. Its crystal clear, super accurate, and even relatively viewable in direct sunlight.
The Edge gets its name from the doubly-curved display, which drips off to the left and right as you hold the phone vertically. This does a few things, in addition to being just generally impressive. It makes the screen look bigger than it actually is, like one of those billboards that bursts out of its frame. It hides the bezel, giving the display a never-ending kind of effect. It also distorts things on the edges a bit, which is frustrating every once in a while as you watch a movie. But I cant say it ever really bothered me.
Having the screen curve toward the back also let Samsung make the phone thinner. The Note 5 is hardly unwieldy, at 7.6mm thick and a hair over six ounces, but the Edge+, at 6.9mm and 5.3 ounces, feels much lighter. I cant think of another phone this big, or even close, thats felt so comfortable to use. Its glass and metal body still feels sturdy, and its beautifully simple.
Josh Valcarcel/WIREDThere is a tinge of form over function, admittedly. The camera bumps out of the back in such a way that the phone wobbles every time I touch it while its resting on a flat surface, and the glassy back feels pretty slippery. It also took about two minutes for its back to be absolutely covered in fingerprints. Luckily, my dark blue Edge+ doesnt show them so much, but my gold Note 5 constantly needs to be cleaned.
Before I get to all the identical things about the Note 5 and Edge+, theres one more difference. The Note 5 has a stylus, called an S Pen, lodged in a sheath in the bottom-right corner of the phone. For a certain kind of user, the pen is terrific. Its fast and accurate, and launches a helpful menu every time you take it out. (It even has a nice clicky thing at the top, which does exactly nothing except satiate my constant need to fiddle.) The best feature is a new one: If your screen is off and you pop the pen out, a chalkboard-like notepad pops up for you to doodle on. Its flat-out the fastest way to take a note on a phone, and it works really well.
At least it did, until I stupidly tried to corroborate an issue some people were having by sticking my S Pen in backward. Its now stuck in the slot, probably forever. It was stupid, and if youre not stupid, youll be fine. But be warned: If you buy a Note, always look when you put the S Pen back. Otherwise youll have a stylus nib poking you in the leg every time you put your phone in your pocket.
To summarize: The Edge+ is a better-looking phone. Its thinner, lighter, and just cooler. The Note 5 has a great pen. Got it? Good. Moving on.
Everything else about these two phones is identical. They both run Samsungs latest Exynos processor, which is absurdly fast. They both run Android 5.1, along with Samsungs TouchWiz skin. Ive grown less angry at TouchWiz, as Samsung has scaled back its aesthetic horrors, but there are still spots where the phone will stutter or lag. Thats not Android, and its not the processor or the 4GB of RAM. Thats TouchWiz. These are minor grievances, of course, and for the most part the phone runs splendidly. But Samsungs definitely not finished here.
The other thing that comes with TouchWiz is a lot of bloatware. Some is useful stuffMicrosofts Office apps, for instancethat Id still rather just install myself. Mostly, though, its Samsungs apps that are just knockoffs of better Google apps. Internet is my favoriteits just a bad browser, which you should never use because Chrome is literally right there. Thats just on my unlocked, international device, tooU.S. carrier versions will be much worse. You can either hide or uninstall most of the apps and then tweak the look with the theme store, and you should. Samsungs gotten spectacularly good at building devices, but software is still a rough spot.
Josh Valcarcel/WIREDThe camera, on the other hand, is unadulterated good news. The 16-megapixel sensor and f/1.9 lens produce images that are as good as, if not better than, any other smartphone on the planet. Theyre bright, dynamic, accurate, and sharp, a quartet you wont find often. They shoot in gorgeous 4K, and can even livestream directly to YouTube right from the camera app. You can shoot in RAW, use image stabilization in videothe list goes on and on. Oh, and not for nothing, double-clicking on the home button is the best way ever to open the camera app and every other phone should copy Samsung immediately.
You can argue over little things, like whether you prefer Apples religious color accuracy to Samsungs tendency to slightly over-brighten dark backgrounds, but the argument between Samsungs best phones and any others will ultimately boil down only to personal preference. All four of Samsungs flagship phones, including the Note 5 and Edge+, have phenomenal cameras. Full stop.
Despite their relative size differences, both phones have the same 3,000mAh battery. No, its not removable, because Samsung has given up on its most demanding users to focus instead on being totally mainstream. In both cases, Ive had no trouble getting a day or even a day and a half of normal use before the battery croaks. Even more exciting is the phones crazy-fast charging, which means you can top off in the time it takes to drink your coffee. Someday, well have week-long batteries; until then, this is about the best we can expect.
It comes down to this: The Note 5 and Edge+ are great phones. With about 10 minutes of customizationdownloading the right theme and hiding the right appstheyre exceptional phones. Theyre expensive phones, certainly, on par with the iPhone 6 Plus and costlier than even their slightly-smaller counterparts. At AT&T, for instance, the base model, 32GB Edge+ costs $814.99 outright, or $27.17 monthly, and the Note 5 starts at $739.99 or $24.67. You can get the smaller models for less, and get a lot of the same benefit.
If moneys no object, though, get the big phones. Yeah, theyre just bigger. Thats the whole point. And big phones are awesomejust dont call them phablets.
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http://www.wired.com/2015/08/review-samsung-galaxy-s6-edge-note-5/
