It was a big day for Samsung announcements, although there was nothing earth shattering that we did not already know by now…but that doesn’t make it any less exciting. The first big news was the new Galaxy Note 5 that is really a larger version of the Samsung Galaxy S6 with an extra GB of RAM and the S-Pen. That is not a bad thing as the Galaxy S6 was well received by critics and the public for the most part. The new design with the glass front and back of the Galaxy Note 5 with its solid metal frame holding it all together is an object of beauty.
The same complaints for the Galaxy S6 are holding true for the Galaxy Note 5 – many are upset over the non-removable battery and the size of the battery…if you are not allowing the user to replace the battery, it would be nice to have a large battery. The Note 5 does offer quick charging of the battery and quick wireless charging as well. The other big complaint is the lack of a microSD card slot to expand the memory options of 32GB or 64GB – Samsung did away with the 128GB option.
The Galaxy Note 5 will be available August 21 on the majority of Canadian carriers in your favorite color, Black Sapphire. Rogers is selling it for $359.99 on a two-year term or $860 for an outright purchase with pre-orders beginning August 14. Videotron is looking at $359.95 on a two-year term and an outright purchase price of $799.95 with pre-orders now live. SaskTel is selling it for $359.99 on a two-year term and $799.95 outright and pre-orders are live now. Bell, Telus and Wind Mobile have not yet announced pricing, but we expect them to be quite similar.
The new Galaxy Note 5 is sporting a 5.7-inch QHD display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 with 518 pixels-per-inch (PPI) and using Samsung’s Super AMOLED technology. The processor is also a homegrown 64-bit Exynos 7420 octa-core 14nm processor clocked at 2.1GHz with 4GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of non-expandable memory. The RAM is the faster DDR4 variety and the flash memory is the new UFS 2.0 – also faster. The camera is the excellent 16MP with f/1.9, OIS, phase detection autofocus and LED flash that comes on the S6 Galaxy. The front-facing camera (FFC) is 5MP with the f/1.9 aperture and includes wide-angle for great group selfies or video chatting. It has a 3000mAh battery with built-in wireless charging. It is running Android 5.1 and measures 153.2 x 76.1 x 7.6mm and weighs in at 171 grams.