When the new Samsung Galaxy Note 5 launched in August, all of the big telecom carriers – Rogers, Bell, Telus SaskTel, WIND Mobile, MTS and Videotron all made their proper announcements. However, even some of the smaller, regional carriers, as Halifax based Eastlink said on the website that the Galaxy Note 5 was coming and they even took pre-orders. Today, Eastlink has officially added the Galaxy Note to its lineup at $299 with an easyTab plan plus, or $851 on a no-term deal.
Eastlink is a well-known in Canada for their cable television and telecom services – generally bundled packages…but they are also a wireless service provider. Founded by in 1971, it was not until 2008 when they started purchasing AWS spectrum – $25 million worth – for 19 licenses. Finally, in 2011, they announced they would be offering wireless services in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and in 2013 they launched HSPA+ and LTE wireless services. Eastlink has been fairly quiet in the battles that rage between the Big Three, but earlier this year, Eastlink was offering a promo for $200 if you ported your number over to them and activated a new account.
As small as Eastlink is, they still offer the top flagship devices and were right there with the Big Three, confirming that they would release both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. They also wasted no time in announcing that they would carry the new Galaxy Note 5 and now they are selling this top-of-the-line phablet. It is essentially a larger Galaxy S6 – which is not a bad thing at all – with an extra gigabyte of RAM, minus the IR Blaster, but adds the infamous S-Pen. Samsung also designed the Note 5 with a curve on the back of the device’s edges, making it feel smaller and more comfortable to hold. They also made even more improvements in the S-Pen’s sensitivity and feel and upgraded the software that works with the pen.
Just to remind you of the awesome specs on the Galaxy Note 5 – it comes sporting a 5.7-inch Quad HD (QHD) Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 and 518 pixels-per-inch (PPI). It uses Samsung’s own 64-bit Exynos 7420 octa-core processor with four cores clocked at 1.5GHz and four cores clocked at 2.1GHz. It packs 4GB of the faster DDR4 RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of the new and faster UFS 2.0 Flash memory with no means to expand. The Note 5 has the same great camera setup as the Galaxy S6/S6 Edge – 16MP for the main shooter and 5MP for the front-facing camera (FFC). It is powered by a 3,000 mAh non-removable battery, but offers a quick charge battery and quick wireless charging. It also has an improved fingerprint sensor that is PayPal certified, Samsung Pay ready and Android Pay ready.