Hands On Samsung's New Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 At Unpacked New York

MojoKid writes: Samsung held their Unpacked 2015 event in New York City today and the company unveiled its latest flagship, big-screen smartphones, the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note5. Immediately following the on-stage presentations and reveals, Samsung opened up a demo area featuring the new devices for direct hands-on time. Both of these phones feature a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a QHD screen resolution (2560x1440), though the sides of the S6 Edge+'s display are curved. Powering the both devices is the the same octal-core Samsung Exynos 7420 processor that's at the heart of the previously-released Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. These new phones, however, are packing 4GB of RAM—not just 3GB, like the older models and also have LTE Cat9 support and high-speed wireless charging built-in. Samsung has also beefed up the cameras; these new devices pack the same 16MP sensor from the Galaxy S6 with OIS, but an additional digital image stabilization algo which complements the optical solution to further smooth out video is included as well. Built-in software on the new devices also allows for live-streaming to YouTube.

Comments

Algo

[wonkey_monkey]

but an additional digital image stabilization algo

So much cooler than a boring old algorithm.

Re:Algo

[Joce640k]

Does the "Edge" designation mean it comes with Microsoft Edge? I'd totally buy one if it did.

Backwards Step

[Anonymous Coward]

Smaller battery, no removable storage and more Apple-like - no thanks

Re:Backwards Step

[Anonymous Coward]

Who the fuck needs removable storage when External Storage already exists? Plus these two devices also have an external battery for any phone, iOS or Android.

Re:Backwards Step

[Anonymous Coward]

Right? And who the fuck needs built in speakers when small external speakers already exist?

Re:Backwards Step

[Anonymous Coward]

All you need is a utility belt, like Batman.

Re:Backwards Step

[tompaulco]

Who the fuck needs removable storage when External Storage already exists? Plus these two devices also have an external battery for any phone, iOS or Android.

Who the f*ck needs external storage, when you could have removable storage?

Re:Backwards Step

[danbob999]

Yeah and the camera, GPS, speakers could be external too. The whole point of a smartphone is to have an integrated device.

Organ or refinancing

[rodrigoandrade]

Will I have to sell an organ or refinance my home to buy one of these? Decisions, decisions...

Re:Organ or refinancing

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait a few months and like the S6 they will drop in price by around 20%

(owner of an S6)

Live streaming

[AmiMoJo]

Live streaming to YouTube sounds like a great feature if you ever need to interact with cops, for example. No chance of destroying the evidence because it is already in the cloud.

Re:Live streaming

[jbernardo]

Nice that my Xperia z1 compact has that feature for over one year and half...

Re:Live streaming

[Anonymous Coward]

You've been able to do that for years.

Re:Live streaming

[Viol8]

If someone stuck a live camera in my face while I was simply trying to do my job they get a smack in the face, live feed or not.

Re:Live streaming

[known_coward_69]

most of us get by just fine without interacting with the police

Re:Live streaming

[serviscope_minor]

Does your job give you the legal right to assult and kidnap people?

Re:Live streaming

[LaurenCates]

Yes, because all cops everywhere are straight and narrow and won't hassle/overreact to you for jollies.

Re:Live streaming

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

You should watch the news some time.

Re:Live streaming

[Hognoxious]

Walking down the street isn't a crime. No, not even if you're black!

Re:Live streaming

[Viol8]

Oh I watch it fine thanks.

Re:Live streaming

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

What you said suggests otherwise.

Re:Live streaming

[R3d M3rcury]

Fox News doesn't count.

Re:Live streaming

[Viol8]

I don't live in the USA so its not even an option. Some of us have real news providers.

Both devices value form over function

[jbernardo]

Let's see if losing the sd slot and removable battery is as big a sales failure as it was for the S6 and S6 edge.

My impression is that only Samsung fanbois will buy these. Everybody else who prefers style over function will buy an idevice, as always.

Re:Both devices value form over function

[allquixotic]

I'm *probably* going to buy the Note 5. I'm not 100% positive yet, but it's likely. I currently own a Note 4.

Why? Well, a few reasons.

First, between my SD card and the internal storage, I'm barely using 28 GB of space on my Note 4. Getting the 64GB model of the Note 5 still provides me plenty of room. And this is with having the Note 4 since launch day, and never deleting any pictures or videos I've taken (and I took something like 200 pictures during a vacation). Even if I kept the Note 5 for 2-3 years -- which is unlikely -- I'd literally have to spend MAYBE 1 or 2 hours over that entire 2-3 year period moving old pictures and recorded videos from my phone to my desktop and/or Google Drive and/or my dedi's FTP server. Then I'd be back down to a reasonable margin of free space again.

Second, whenever I go anywhere with my phone and either do not know how long I'll be without a chance to charge, or know that I will be somewhere for long periods without being able to charge, I always bring my 10,000 mAh battery case. Having the Note 5 sealed off isn't going to stop people from making battery cases; they'll just have to plug into the USB port. I'm not afraid of having a bulky or heavy phone if I need the extra juice. However, I don't actually need it all that often: most of the time I'll either be at home or at work, both of which are places that I can charge my phone without worry. Those also tend to be the two places where I use the phone most heavily and thus would be using the most energy, but it doesn't matter because I can leave it plugged into the charger, or periodically charge it when the battery gets low.

Third, my household has one other smartphone, a Motorola Droid Maxx, that has a non-replaceable battery. This phone is still in use about 2 years after it was purchased, and its battery life is still very good. The battery's capacity hasn't been reduced as much as some people claim. Heck, my power-hungry 1-year-old Note 4 probably gets WORSE battery life than the 2-year-old Droid Maxx because the Note 4's SoC and screen use significantly more energy than the comparatively simple components on the Droid Maxx, yet both have nearly identical battery capacity (out of the factory, that is).

I really DISLIKE the fact that they're taking away the microSD and the removable battery, but for me it's not a deal-breaker. The S-Pen latency reduction might finally enable me to take notes regularly on my phone, thus eliminating the need for pen and paper. And the more efficient Exynos chipset provides better performance than Snapdragon with much better energy efficiency at idle or background workloads.

I definitely prefer functionality and utility over appearance, but I imagine one of the advantages of having a non-removable battery is that you can make the unit slightly more water resistant. It's not IP6x certified, no, but I can see the tiny separation between the back cover and the main chassis on my Note 4. That separation should be more or less sealed off with the Note 5.

Re:Both devices value form over function

[Anonymous Coward]

Sadly, this is the direction it's all going because they do not want you to own a phone for more than 6 months, they want you locked into the upgrade cycle (ios anyone?) and will continue to remove features power users want, to allow for thinner phones.

I still see no point in the edge, at all. It's a useless gimmick, and yes I've seen one and played with it, it's a nice phone but the edge screen is pointless.

I hover between rage and indifference in regards to the SD slot. Yes, I am used to having one, yes it's useful for storage. Is it a make or break feature? It was when I decided on the S4, it's not now as I haven't filled the phone enough to require any additional space and it's only 16 gb to begin with. That feature I could willingly lose and be fine.

Non replaceable battery? Deal breaker. I know too much about battery technology to be foolish enough to spend 600$ on a device that becomes a brick once the cells can no longer generate a reaction to charge. You have a limited set of charge cycles, and these cycles don't care if you are charging from 0% or from 96%. This is one huge reason I'll never own an iphone, and a deciding factor in whatever phone I get once my current contract is finished.

I'll stick with android, but for previous upgrades the ability to flash the firmware and root the phone, as well as expandable memory, was a major concern.

All I really care about with the next phone is battery life and the ability to replace that battery. Samsung is going down a dead end road here trying to become apple. Android owns the market right now because it's so diverse and offers so many niches of users a flavor. Slowly removing the things that make android great are not good for anyone, including android developers and phone manufacturers.

I've watched so many features being stripped out for no reason that I can't even fathom what this os ecosystem will look like in 2 years.

Streaming straight to youtube is a great feature and kudos to Samsung for following along with some other suppliers and baking that right into the OS, removing the need for 3rd party apps. It's not a make or break feature by any stretch, but it would be useful, I keep my phone pretty trimmed up and the closer to stock is can be, while letting me do what I want, the better.

Re:Both devices value form over function

[Mr. Droopy Drawers]

This is EXACTLY the reason why I bought the S5, replacing my S3. I went into the Verizon store to plunk down the $575 (IIRC) for the S6 -- the S6 Edge looks like a gimmick. But:
1) No SDCard
2) No Replaceable battery
3) Not waterproof!!!!!!

I see that the quiet release of the S6 Active on AT&T fixes #3, if I want to be on AT&T. But, the first two are deal breakers in my book. I replaced the battery on my S3 and my son is happily using it today. Without the SDCard, one is forced to pay an extra $150 for 32GB of storage. If I wanted an iphone, I would have bought one.

I really like the S5. When it comes time to upgrade it in a year or so, I hope they've changed course and I can replace it with another Galaxy.

Re:Both devices value form over function

[Fire_Wraith]

Yes. If I wanted a phone with a pretty glass back that I never see or touch because I have to put it in a bulky protective case, that I can't just pop my SD card full of music/files/etc in, that I can't pop the battery out if I need to... yeah, I'd just buy an iPhone.

Anyone have any suggestions on where to go for something new, Android-wise, from the Galaxy S line instead of to the S6?

Re:Both devices value form over function

[allquixotic]

It's not true that the battery suffers the same kind of "charge cycle" whether you're charging it from 0% to 96%. For lithium ion batteries, there is no "memory" effect, but there is a "depth of discharge" effect. A deeper discharge will reduce the battery's maximum capacity more severely than a minor discharge.

It's not the act of plugging the battery into the charger that reduces its usable life; it's the process of actual charging. If you're doing less charging, your battery lasts longer. If you regularly drain your battery because you're under the misconception that all charge cycles affect the battery in the same way regardless of depth of discharge, you're actually making the problem much, much worse by discharging the battery completely.

In actual testing, the best results have been to charge the battery once it reaches 70 to 80% of its maximum charge level (as in, the max it can actually hold before the charging circuit cuts off, not the theoretical max that's advertised by the manufacturer). This depth of discharge doesn't really put much stress on the battery, and it doesn't generate as much heat as having it constantly plugged in, so it's a happy medium.

Re:Both devices value form over function

[tlhIngan]

It's not true that the battery suffers the same kind of "charge cycle" whether you're charging it from 0% to 96%. For lithium ion batteries, there is no "memory" effect, but there is a "depth of discharge" effect. A deeper discharge will reduce the battery's maximum capacity more severely than a minor discharge.

It's not the act of plugging the battery into the charger that reduces its usable life; it's the process of actual charging. If you're doing less charging, your battery lasts longer. If you regularly drain your battery because you're under the misconception that all charge cycles affect the battery in the same way regardless of depth of discharge, you're actually making the problem much, much worse by discharging the battery completely.

In actual testing, the best results have been to charge the battery once it reaches 70 to 80% of its maximum charge level (as in, the max it can actually hold before the charging circuit cuts off, not the theoretical max that's advertised by the manufacturer). This depth of discharge doesn't really put much stress on the battery, and it doesn't generate as much heat as having it constantly plugged in, so it's a happy medium.

Age of battery matters too - "charge cycles" is rarely reached before the battery ages too much to hold a useful charge. And that's the problem with replacement batteries - if you're getting NOS, the capacity is only marginally better than what you currently have.

Maybe you're lucky and bought a popular phone so 3rd party suppliers still make new cells, but if not, having a replaceable battery just means you're choosing between dead and deader.

Shallow cycling is best, though Android devices seem to consume a lot more power than iOS, so perhaps that leads to more premature aging of the battery?

As for heating - remember LiIon batteries hate to be trickle charged - you start with a CC charge, which then switches to CV. Then you turn the charger off and let the battery self-discharge. Which either happens naturally (powering the protection circuit), or because the device needs a surge of power so it draws it from the battery.

The typical level is "full" is between 90 to 100% of capacity - once you stop CV charge, you wait for the battery to go below 90%, then restart CV charge.

Re:Both devices value form over function

[Znork]

I was considering a Note 5, but the lack of microSD and removable battery was a deal-breaker. Got a Note 4 instead, so we'll see what's available with a removable battery after that one dies.

Re:Both devices value form over function

[Znork]

For lithium ion batteries it's heat-age that matters. If you store them at 0C and 40% charge and you'll have a capacity loss of about 2% per year, so you can keep replacement batteries around for a long time.

Re:Both devices value form over function

[Solandri]

This is what I don't understand. Samsung makes like a hundred different phones. Instead of one flagship phone and one flagship phablet, why can't they just make two - one to try to appeal to the fashionistas, and one to appeal to their traditional buyers who want a micro SD slot and removable battery.

Re:Both devices value form over function

[excelsior_gr]

Meh. I haven't seen someone carry around an extra battery in a LONG time. Also, the internal SSD is large enough for most people. Although I like to have them as options in my Note 3, they are unimportant for 99% of the buyers out there. Nobody will notice they're missing.

Re:Both devices value form over function

[Anonymous Coward]

I personally do not understand the killer feature that is removable storage and removable battery. For me batteries have always been too expensive to be worthwhile as an option to extend the life of the electric device. And removable storage has always been a hassle for me. I just buy a battery brick for the case I really need an extended battery life. This has even more advantages than a removable battery. A removable battery requires you to turn of your device and your device will only last twice as long. With a battery brick I can use my device for days without switching batteries. On top of that, a battery brick is cheaper than the "especially made for your device" removable battery.
 
And removable storage, why is that needed? What do you do that you require removable storage? When you replace your memory card, you lose the data on the memory card that you just removed. You have to track what data is on which memory card. The memory cards are too small to write on. I did have removable memory on my previous phone, but that just meant that I had to browse in a virtual file system to save or find my data. No, I'm not convinced about removable batteries and memory cards, just give me lots of room and a battery that can go all day.

The only thing I used the old removable battery for was to immediately turn of a device, like when I dropped it in a bucket of water, or when it locked up. That's something I'm missing, the ability to reset a phone.

Galaxy....

[Feral Nerd]

I challenge the next astronomer who discovers a new galaxy to call it Samsung....

Re:Galaxy....

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

With the way Samsung's promotional budget has been going they may buy the naming rights to the Milky Way at some point.

Re:Galaxy....

[siddesu]

Unpossible, there's no Galaxy with only three stars.

Re:Galaxy....

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not as funny as it sounds, as "Samsung" in Korean means three stars. So calling a galaxy "three stars" doesn't make a whole lot of sense does it,
as typical gallaxy has 100 billion stars.

Wake me up...

[Zontar The Mindless]

When I can remove/replace the battery again.

When I get removable storage back.

And most especially when I can buy a 12" tablet from them again!

Re:Wake me up...

[Anonymous Coward]

Samsung's 'wallhuggers' commercial comes back to bite them.

Re:Wake me up...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to mention the fact I have to buy the 'active' version to get the same waterproofing my S5 comes with...

Re:Wake me up...

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no remote assistance app on my GS5, but it's an international model purchased in Europe. I'm also able to disable things like the Beam/NFC app.

And I would think that the fact you can even get and install something like Cyanogenmod on it makes it much more attractive than an iSomething, where, even if you root the device, you're still stuck with iOS, no?

No microSD slot, no replaceable battery? NO SALE.

[NimbleSquirrel]

I have enjoyed previous Galaxy Notes, but my current will probably be my last. The upgradeable storage and removable battery were (for me and many others) key points of difference over the iPhone, but Samsung have decided that they don't want to be different.

I don't want Cloud storage. Why would I waste my phone plan's data allowance when I should just have expandable local storage? Oh, I should pay for model with the largest capacity? No, not for the price per GB that they're selling.

Sure, I may be able to charge in 90 minutes (with Samsung's charger only, of course), but what happens when my battery gets end of life? Planned obsolescence sucks.

I also liked that the previous flip covers and smart covers, that clipped on instead of the battery cover, more or less became part of the phone. That was much more useful to me than a back plate of glass that will just be a crack magnet.

Yes, this release was the standard fare of a processor/RAM bump and screen resolution bump, but for me this release is far more notable for the features that have been removed....

imagine...

[Anonymous Coward]

... a Beowulf cluster of those!

Sorry, couldn't resist. This is my first /. visit in about 15 years, just wanted to post a blast from the past.

For any Younlings reading this: a Beowulf cluster is this thing, you know, from the ninety nineties.

Re:imagine...

[q4Fry]

a Beowulf cluster is this thing, you know, from the ninety nineties.

Please tell me that in 9090, they have better parallelization than a beowulf cluster.

Wake me up...

[Anonymous Coward]

When it doesn't come with spyware installed, aka 'remote assistance' that lets them take over full control of the phone remotely. (This was the feature that hackers recently hacked, but it always was just spyware for the carriers).

When it has a battery life of weeks not hours.

When it comes with Cyanogenmod or something that lets me remove rights to my private data after installing an app. If an app can demand more rights eah upgrade, then I want to remove rights I previously agreed to! My phone, my data, fuck off Google.

what next, hot grits?

[0xdeaddead]

Natalie portman?

Oh man the new star wars is going to be so awesome!

S6 Edge... 1 March 2015

[0xdeaddead]

already obsoleted. I'm hoping at least for some good price drops on the Chinese dual sim variety. But the Meizu stuff works well enough.

Samesung

[Plumpaquatsch]

So the "S6 Edge+" is actually the "Note 5 Edge", but Samsung needs something to counter the "iPhone 6+" at least by name.

Nice memory upgrade

[robi5]

Wow, going from 3GB to 4GB, nice. A better improvement would have been a properly designed phone. Apple, HTC know how to build something that doesn't have a plastic rim or hard plastic masquerading as faux stiched leather on the back. The last design from Samsung was this: http://www.gsmarena.com/samsun...

Re:Nice memory upgrade

[danbob999]

Why do you care so much about design? It's just a fucking phone.

Re:Nice memory upgrade

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you care so much about design? It's just a fucking phone.

I've never actually tried using my phone for that, but I can see how a hard plastic rim with stitching might not be ideal for that use case.

Re:Nice memory upgrade

[Fire_Wraith]

As cheap as the plastic back comes off, I have to think about real world uses. I almost never see the glass back of an iPhone - it's almost always ensconced in a bulky plastic/rubber protective case. The ones that don't are are riddled with cracks.

On the other hand, my S3 with its "cheap plastic back" has survived admirably without such a case, despite suffering many falls. Just last week I accidentally dropped it on an escalator of all things, and while the back popped off, it was no worse for the wear once I put the battery back in and snapped the 'cheap plastic' back in place.

Re:Nice memory upgrade

[Anonymous Coward]

A properly designed phone fits in your pocket, has a real keyboard and a battery that lasts several days.

Re:Nice memory upgrade

[robi5]

It's not that I want awesome design, but, surprisingly to me, I find that if the phone design is crap (fake stitches, plasticky parts), then I feel repulsion when I look at it or hold it in the store, and if its design is OK, or perhaps good, then it's a positive feeling. It doesn't have to be flashy, it just shouldn't feel cheap. Most of Samsung plastic feels cheap, and the lack of design is cheap (no good designer was hired). Plastic itself isn't even the problem, the little plastic in the HTC One M7, or the plastic coating of the Apple Newton, or former Thinkpads were good. Maybe taste comes in - just like eyewear, a watch, or a piece of clothes, a phone is considered a personal, everyday item with which we interact a lot, and some of us are more picky about that than about a cable modem . No offense, I bet some people feel strong about their cable modem design too.

Re:Nice memory upgrade

[robi5]

I welcome cognitive reasoning. Once a car salesman wanted to sell me a white car when I didn't want one, saying, I can't see the color of the car when I'm sitting in it. I checked and it was true but I didn't buy it.

But let's face it, a smartphone isn't an essential thing like slightly dirty yet potable water in the middle of a desert. They're a choice, especially if one ventures into flagship price territory. I don't want to pay 10% (or less) less and put up with a design that's 10% (or less) of the alternative.

I just couldn't untouch the fake stitches and fake bumpiness.

Re:Nice memory upgrade

[danbob999]

At least you admit it's all about the feeling and design, and not the build quality itself.
Some so-called "cheap plastic" phones can be as durable if not more. Plastic absorbs shocks better than metal and is lighter, therefore chances to survive a drop are higher.

I understand that some phones are made to appeal people who like design and fashion. However the problem these days is that all phones seems to be made for those people and there is nothing left for those of us who prefer function over form.

how much are these things?

[known_coward_69]

i only ask because i still owe $200 on my Note 3 to AT&T for NEXT payments and i'm not feeling the urge to sign up for another two years of $30 monthly payments. I'm thinking of keeping my Note 3 for maybe 5 years and making do with the smaller phone bills. maybe buy an ipad mini for reading and if i want to game with a faster CPU and graphics

Re:No microSD slot, no replaceable battery? NO SAL

[Anonymous Coward]

I dunno about that, the internet says Android is massively more popular overall.

http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp

Why so many pixels?

[phizi0n]

My PC monitors and TV aren't even QHD so why should my phone be? My phone is 330 ppi and the pixels are already indistinguishable but QHD @ 5.7" is 515 ppi. More pixels causes more battery drain so can we stop with the resolution wars please?

Re:Why so many pixels?

[Anonymous Coward]

Samsung gotta have them big buck spec numbers, how else are the geeks going to feel superior to each other.

Re:Why so many pixels?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because someday your TV will be, and when you look back on that video it won't look old-res

Re:Why so many pixels?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wish we could stop calling it QHD since QHD also refers to 960x540. Why can't we call it WQHD anymore?

Re:No microSD slot, no replaceable battery? NO SAL

[tompaulco]

You're in the minority. Apple, the most successful company on the planet, never do this, and they don't give a fuck about people like you and your moaning. The market has spoken, you and your ilk, lost. Get over it.

The market has spoke, and what it said was that lots of people wanted an option that allowed SD cards and removable batteries, otherwise there wouldn't have been the tremendously successful Samsung line of smartphones. Now Samsung has come up with the incredible idea that rather than sell to people who wanted something a little bit different, they are going to try to sell to people who already are iphone fans and who will probably never switch from apple even if Jobs rises from the dead and flings poo at them.

Go For Motorola

[CycleFreak]

Moto X Pure Edition is a tremendous phone (or, at least based on the pre-release specs, it is).

Starting at $399 with no carrier lock-in. Pure Android experience.
microSD up to 128GB.

To hell with carrier lock-in.
To hell with the horrible crapware that comes pre-installed from Samsung and the carriers.

Avail Sep 3rd, according to TheVerge

Re:No microSD slot, no replaceable battery? NO SAL

[Lodlaiden]

We will get lost; as in our sales will disappear. The non-removable battery and no SD card is why I left HTC for Samsung. Sounds like my next mobile device won't be a Note.

Knox and cm

[Anonymous Coward]

I love the new hardware, but what i really need is root! I want cyanogenmod and most importantly linux deploy or linuxonandroid. Anything else and i'm stuck on a different handset. The kicker is that Samsung knox is nearly impossible to bypass. It took 6 months to get my gs5 fully rooted. Now get off my lawn!

Re:No microSD slot, no replaceable battery? NO SAL

[Beat The Odds]

I have enjoyed previous Galaxy Notes, but my current will probably be my last. The upgradeable storage and removable battery were (for me and many others) key points of difference over the iPhone, but Samsung have decided that they don't want to be different.

I don't want Cloud storage. Why would I waste my phone plan's data allowance when I should just have expandable local storage? Oh, I should pay for model with the largest capacity? No, not for the price per GB that they're selling.

Sure, I may be able to charge in 90 minutes (with Samsung's charger only, of course), but what happens when my battery gets end of life? Planned obsolescence sucks.

I also liked that the previous flip covers and smart covers, that clipped on instead of the battery cover, more or less became part of the phone. That was much more useful to me than a back plate of glass that will just be a crack magnet.

Yes, this release was the standard fare of a processor/RAM bump and screen resolution bump, but for me this release is far more notable for the features that have been removed....

The screen resolution is identical to the Note 4

Re:No microSD slot, no replaceable battery? NO SAL

[kimvette]

> I hover between rage and indifference in regards to the SD slot. Yes, I am used to having one, yes it's useful for storage. Is it a make or break feature? It was when I decided on the S4, it's not now as I haven't filled the phone enough to require any additional space and it's only 16 gb to begin with. That feature I could willingly lose and be fine.

It is a deal breaker for me. I have two offline GPS apps with full maps installed and a third with regional maps. It takes a significant amount of space.
Add movies I've purchased and downloaded, my CD collection (which I'd like to re-rip when I can get a large enough capacity phone), and so forth... 64GB total storage doesn't count it, let alone 32. My phone has 96GB worth of storage (32GB phone + 64GB microSD card).

I want an SD slot. Fanbois invariably come back with "buy the larger capacity phone." Um, yeah. I live in NH - so there are two carriers worth a damn: Verizon and AT&T. Verizon won't give me unlimited data, so I'm stuck with AT&T. AT&T never seems to offer the largest-capacity devices - and besides from what I've gathered, the Note 5 maxes out at 64GB, which is less storage than I have NOW.

With the lack of a user-replaceable battery (spare me the you can replace it nonsense; the phones are glued rather than screwed together and I'd rather not bother with that) and lack of storage expansion, what reason do I have not to go back to the iPhone? My 3GS and 4 were great - aside from the battery and lack of storage expansion.

Oh, and I just learned that they dropped Consumer IR, so no more using Samsung phones as a universal remote control.

Samsung, why are you insisting on copying the iPhone's worst defects? Why are you taking functionality AWAY with these alleged "upgrades?"

Re:No microSD slot, no replaceable battery? NO SAL

[kimvette]

> Now Samsung has come up with the incredible idea that rather than sell to people who wanted something a little bit different, they are going to try to sell to people who already are iphone fans and who will probably never switch from apple even if Jobs rises from the dead and flings poo at them.

You, sir, win at internet today with that comment!!!

They going to bother to maintain them?

[GeekBoy]

I spoke to 2 support reps just Wed. One from the US and one from Canada. Neither could give me an assurance that another Samsung device won't end up as abandonware. All I got were vague answers that Samsung will update Android as long as the hardware is compatible; but they couldn't say when or how often. My Note 10.1 tablet hasn't had an Android update in 2 years and they couldn't promise me one was coming either.

Now that we have a Mac in the house, despite the fact that I hate my iPhone, I'm considering transitioning all of my devices to Apple (shudder.)

when will be Kies3 with contacts export?

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps with this great day new version of Kies will allow me to download contacts between Samsung phone and old plain PC with windows 7

Edge: Build By Marketing, For Marketing

[BrendaEM]

People make the silliest things sometimes.

The edge feature comes in handy once you put it in case?

: P

No Battery = No Buy

[Anonymous Coward]

Once you enjoy the freedom of an spare battery and charger, you would never go back to having to plug your phone into a wall. Therefor, I shall never buy a closed battery phone. Seriously...try it..never charging your phone again.. amazing!