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.

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

[serviscope_minor]

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

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

[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.

Galaxy....

[Feral Nerd]

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

Re:Galaxy....

[siddesu]

Unpossible, there's no Galaxy with only three 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!

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....

what next, hot grits?

[0xdeaddead]

Natalie portman?

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

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: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.