Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Details Spilled
Samsung won't officially reveal the Galaxy Note 5 until Aug. 13, but that hasn't stopped images and specs from appearing across the Internet. New details show the phone is essentially a larger variant of Samsung's flagship Galaxy S6 smartphone.
Samsung made a big leap in design, materials, and manufacturing when it crafted the Galaxy S6. It dropped the flimsy plastic shells of previous generations in favor of high-quality metal and twin Gorilla Glass 4 panels. The result is a premium handset that looks and feels great.
The Note 5, Samsung's huge, professional-grade smartphone, will adopt these same design principles, according to photos published by Droid Life. The Note 5 has the same metal frame and twin-glass materials forming the shape, though there are some changes when compared to the S6.
For example, the frame is thinner along the sides to help the phone fit better in users' hands. The bezels along the sides of the display are incredibly thin.
The S Pen has been a core feature of the Galaxy Note devices since their debut in 2011. The stylus is hidden in the frame of the handset. In previous generations, the stylus was retrieved by pulling it out with your thumb. The photos of the Note 5 show a completely buried S Pen with no obvious way to remove it from its housing. Droid Life says the stylus is spring-loaded, meaning it will pop out when pushed.
Other features include the outgoing micro USB connector (and not USB Type-C), Samsung's Exynos processor with 4GB of RAM, and a 3,000mAh battery. There's no word yet on the camera, though it is likely Samsung will carry over the very capable camera from the Galaxy S6.
The Note 5 may run into problems, however.
The Galaxy S6 may be an attractive handset, but it introduced some compromises.
Samsung has always pitched its handsets as more flexible than the competition thanks to features such as removable batteries and support for memory cards. Those features were removed from the Galaxy S6 and now appear to have been removed from the Note 5, as well. That means the Note 5 will be limited to the 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB storage variants offered. It also means people will need to carry around external power packs rather than duplicate batteries.
Why might these changes spell doom for the Note 5?
All we need to is look at sales of the Galaxy S6, which have been near disastrous for Samsung. Fans of earlier generations of the Galaxy S line railed against Samsung for deleting certain features. Sales are way below expectations, and Samsung said it plans to reduce the price of the phone to stir up interest in the handset.
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It is possible the Note 5 will suffer from the same user backlash and a similar drop in sales. Samsung's desperation is showing, too, as it moved the launch of the Note 5 up by several weeks. Rather than show off its new phablet in early September -- just ahead of the new iPhones -- Samsung is getting to market three weeks earlier to put more room between the Note 5 and theiPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.