Galaxy Note 5 (and S6 Edge+) review—big, premium phones, big premium prices

Specs at a glance: Samsung Galaxy Note 5/S6 Edge+
Screen	2560×1440 5.7"(518 ppi) AMOLED
OS	Android Lollipop 5.1.1 with TouchWiz
CPU	Eight-core Samsung Exynos 7420 (Four 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57 cores and four 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 cores)
RAM	4GB
GPU	Mali-T760
Storage	32GB or 64GB
Networking	Dual Band 802.11b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS
Ports	Micro USB 2.0, headphones
Camera	16MP rear camera with OSI, 5MP front camera,
Size	Note 5:153.2 x 76.1 x 7.6 mmEdge 6+: 154.4 x 75.8 x 6.9 mm
Weight	Note 5: 171 gEdge 6+: 153 g
Battery	3000 mAh
Starting price	Note 5: $750, S6 Edge+: $800
Other perks	Fingerprint reader, heartrate monitor, RGB notification LED, IR blaster, NFC, Qi and PMA wireless charging, Qualcomm and Samsung quick charging, Samsung Pay (coming with software update)

Another year brings another Galaxy Note—this is the fifth version of Samsung's category-defining device. Samsung has had the big-phone market to itself for years, with only a small amount of competition from other Android OEMs. Almost a year ago, though, it gained a very high-profile competitor in the iPhone 6+, a 5.5-inch device released alongside the iPhone 6. The Note 5 is the first chance Samsung has had to respond, and the Note is an entirely different device this year. Everything from the materials to the feature set to how the device complements the Galaxy S line seems to have changed.

In the past the Note series was a completely different product from the Galaxy S line—or at least as different as any two Galaxy phones ever are. The Galaxy S was usually released around April, and the Note usually came in September. The two devices were on different development tracks, and while they definitely shared DNA, they would leapfrog each other and were free to have different designs.

When Apple launched the iPhone 6 and 6+ side-by-side, it made a "phablet" just another screen size option. To Samsung, the phablet was a totally second product, but the iPhone 6+ is just a bigger iPhone 6, and Samsung seems to have followed suit with the Galaxy Note 5. The Galaxy S and Note were still released five months apart, but the Note 5 is just a big Galaxy S6 and an S-Pen.

Samsung's lineup is further complicated by the new "Edge" version of the devices. The Galaxy S6 launched along with the Galaxy S6 Edge, which was just a Galaxy S6 with a screen that curved in along the left and right side. Along with the Note 5, Samsung made a big "Edge" device, too, but rather than call it the "Galaxy Note 5 Edge," Samsung removed the pen and called it a "Galaxy S6 Edge+." So to recap we've got the Galaxy S6 (flat 5.1-inch screen), Galaxy S6 Edge (curved 5.1-inch screen), Galaxy S6 Edge+ (curved 5.7-inch screen), and the Galaxy Note 5 (flat 5.7-inch screen with an S-Pen). There are some minor differences, but they are all pretty much the same device. Today we're reviewing the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge+, but, for the sake of readability, we're just going to call both the "Note 5" unless we're specifically talking about the differences.

Since the Galaxy Note 5 is just a bigger Galaxy S6, it has all the pros and cons we covered in the S6 review. The device is the most premium feeling phablet Samsung has ever built. The entire device is a glass-and-metal sandwich—a glass front, rounded metal sides, and a glass back. It's the first Note where the build quality can stand up to the metal devices from Apple or HTC. You also get an excellent camera, a speedy SoC without the heat concerns of the Snapdragon 810, and a great tap-style fingerprint reader.

It also comes with some downsides, though. Glass is very fragile, and while every smartphone has a glass front and isn't designed to be dropped, adding glass to the back makes it more likely to take serious damage from a fall. Also, like the Galaxy S6, Samsung has done away with all of the removable components—you can't swap out the battery or insert a Micro SD card. On this model the storage situation is even worse than the S6, though—devices come in 32GB or 64GB, not 128GB.

Galaxy Note 5—an S-Pen and a much more comfortable body shape

The major differences between the phones are that the Note 5 has a flat screen and an S-Pen, and the Galaxy S6 Edge+ has no S-Pen and a curved screen. The Note 5 and S6 Edge+ are kind of mirrors of each other. While the S6 Edge+ is curved on the front, the Note is curved on the back, making holding the large device a lot nicer than the usual square build. This is a design that seems ripped straight from the Xiaomi Mi Note, but it's much more comfortable, so we're happy with it.

The S-Pen is the same as it has always been—a stylus for niche smartphone use cases like handwriting or drawing. We have the same complaints about the S-Pen we've always had. While the Note 5's build quality has been seriously upgraded, the S-Pen is still a hollow plastic tube that feels about as premium as a five-cent Bic pen. And while it's very easy to hit the back and overview button with the S-Pen, transferring force through a slippery plastic nub into the clicky home button makes the S-Pen feel like an afterthought.

There is one new S-Pen feature that we really like: Action Memos. With the screen off, just take out the S-Pen and start writing on the screen. Removing the S-Pen causes the screen to wake up and instantly launch into S-Note for some quick note taking. There's no lock screen or app drawer to contend with, just whip out the pen and start writing.

Even if you have a secure lock screen, Action Memo will work (although you can turn this off). It's really not a security concern since you can only add new notes, not read existing ones or access any other part of the device—it's a lot like the camera shortcuts. Bypassing all the smartphone roadblocks makes this a really wonderful user experience—it's just as easy as pen and paper.

This year the S-Pen holster has been redesigned to a spring-loaded mechanism where the S-Pen docks flush with the bottom of the phone. To take the pen out, you press it into the phone, the top pops out, and then you pry the exposed nub out of the phone with your fingernail. The old design seemed much quicker—part of the S-Pen was exposed, and you could just jam a fingernail into it and rip it out of the phone. It was a much faster process than "press in, release, and pull out."

The new design has a serious problem, too—put the pen in blunt-end-first and it will get stuck in the phone. There's a spring-loaded hook that traps the S-Pen in place, but when placed in upside-down, the hook clamps onto the top of the S-Pen and is very difficult to get out. It's important to note that this happens with zero force. Just allowing the pen to fall into the phone via gravity will get it stuck in the device.

From here it's possible that removing the S-Pen will permanently damage the device. A small sensor in the pen slot can be ripped out when you remove the S-Pen, causing the S-Pen removal features to no longer work. We've also been sent reports of the S-Pen top completely breaking off and getting stuck in the pen slot. Samsung knew about this problem when it shipped the Note 5, as a line in the instruction manual says inserting the S-Pen backwards can "cause the S-Pen to become stuck" and that "Forcefully detaching the S-Pen from the slot may cause damage to the S-Pen and your device."

So far Samsung's only response to "Pengate" (or "Penghazi," take your pick) has been "We highly recommend our Galaxy Note 5 users follow the instructions in the user guide to ensure they do not experience such an unexpected scenario caused by reinserting the S-Pen in the other way around." The manual doesn't actually ship with the Note—it's online somewhere.