Samsung has unveiled two new high-end phablets today, the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 edge+, and both of them are really gorgeous to look at. Their metal unibodies that are covered with Gorilla Glass 4 on both the sides are nothing short of art. However, a lot of changes have been brought on the inside as well. If you are someone who owns one of the Note series phablets from the yesteryears, and if you are wondering whether the Galaxy Note 5 is a worthy upgrade over your existing device, have a look at the comparison table below to know how it compares to the Galaxy Note 4 and the Galaxy Note 3.
The Galaxy Note 5 features a 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED display that’s similar to the one used in the Galaxy Note 4, but has a higher resolution than the Galaxy Note 3. The new octa-core Exynos 7420 processor is faster, and runs in 64-bit mode to take the full advantage of Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. As opposed to the previous Note series phablets, RAM has been increased to 4GB. Samsung has decided to remove a microSD card slot in favour of faster UFS 2.0 internal storage that come in two variants; 32GB and 64GB.
If you are coming from the Galaxy Note 3, you’ll find a huge upgrade in the camera department. The Galaxy Note 5 features an excellent combo of a 16-megapixel primary camera and a 5-megapixel secondary camera that was used in the Galaxy S6. Even though the primary camera uses the same sensor that was used in the Galaxy Note 4, there’s a quite improvement in final image and video quality, thanks to better software and F/1.9 aperture. Samsung has thrown in a heart-rate monitor and an IR blaster as well. It runs a newer version of TouchWiz UI ( running on top of Android 5.1.1 Lollipop) that is improved a lot when compared to older TouchWiz that is running in the Note 3 and the Note 4. There are some neat S Pen related software enhancements.
It also features a combination of a touch-based fingerprint scanner and an NFC chip that could be used for transactions through Samsung Pay. Improved connectivity features include Cat. 6 LTE, dual-band Wi-Fi ac/b/g/n, and Bluetooth v4.2. The battery that’s used in the Galaxy Note 5 is non-removable, and its capacity has been reduced to 3,000 mAh battery. This seems like a downgrade coming from a 3,220 mAh battery that was used in the Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy Note 4. To compensate for the lack of a removable battery, Samsung has equipped the Galaxy Note 5 with Fast Charge as well as wireless charging.