Many Samsung users are waiting for their Android 6.0 Marshmallow update, especially those holding their expensive and high-end Galaxy Note 5. Telus has already released its software update schedule – which is constantly revised – and they are posting a March 9 date for their Note 5 update. Bell does not put out a software update like Telus and Rogers, so we always have to assume it will be close to the others. There were a couple of tweets to Bell support asking when it will be released, and as you can see from Bell’s tweet back, “Marshmallow will be released in March 2016, but no fixed day yet, Stay tuned.” That is a quite a window, but our best guess would be March 13. Bell also said in another tweet that Marshmallow for the Samsung Galaxy S6 will also arrive in March with “no exact day yet.” Talk about playing it safe – first Bell does not put out a schedule and when they finally respond all they give you is a month, which is better than nothing.
The Galaxy Note 5 is the latest of the Note series from Samsung, as we wait for the emergence of the new Galaxy Note 6 and maybe even a Galaxy Note 6 Edge model. No one knows for sure if there will be just three models this year – Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge and Galaxy Note 6 – or if Samsung will squeeze in another curved display model. After all, they increased the size of the Galaxy S7 Edge to 5.5-inches and they may be content on keeping the Galaxy Note 6 as their sole 5.7-inch device.
The Galaxy Note 5 was an impressive device sporting a 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED display, fingerprint sensor, the Exynos 7420 octa-core processor with 4GB of DDR4 RAM and faster UFS 2.0 internal memory of either 32GB or 64GB. Gone are the expandable memory and removable battery, although this year the expandable memory should come back to the Note 6 as it did to the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. The Galaxy Note 5 has an excellent 16MP main camera and 5MP front-facing camera for selfies and video chatting. It has the usual suspects – WiFi, v4.2 Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, v2.0 MicroUSB port for charging and data transfer. It offers quick wireless charging for both Qi or PMA formats and a 3,000 mAh non-removable battery, a heart rate monitor, oxygen saturation sensor and a speaker at the bottom of the device.