Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) Review

When the Samsung first announced the Galaxy Alpha after the
Galaxy S5 debacle, it seemed like the company was trying to
head in a new direction. For years, it had been criticised about
the build quality and plastic materials of its smartphones. The
Galaxy Alpha addressed many of those issues but was over-
priced and had a lot of shortcomings. Jump to March 2015
when I reviewed the Samsung Galaxy A7 right after the Galaxy
S6 and S6 edge announcement and I could see Samsung’s
plans falling into place. The A7 was a fresh new take on what
a mid-ranger should be and showcased what Samsung is
capable of achieving given the right push. Fast forward to
today and now we have the second generation i.e A7 (2016)
which builds on the same ideals as the original but promises
to refine the smartphone and provide a premium experience in
a mid-ranger smartphone like never before.

Unboxing

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) smartphone in Golden color
In-ear headset
2-pin fast charger (9V-1.67A / 5V-2A)
Micro USB cable
SIM ejector tool
Quick start guide and user manual

Design, Materials and Build Quality

The first Galaxy A7 had a really good build quality. The
smartphone got rid of the removable back panel and opted for
premium materials as well as a unibody design that really
worked wonders. The Galaxy A7 (2016) is actually a bigger
leap in terms of build quality and materials used than even the
first generation. The 2016 variant also has a unibody design
but incorporates glass on both the sides in addition to the
metal body. It has a really simple design that seems like a mix
between the Galaxy Note5 and the A7 2015 version. What you
get as a result is a really simple yet beautiful device that
handles like a dream. The glass at the back isn’t curved like
the one on the Note5 or one of the newer Galaxy S7 devices.
However, it fits in your palms really well and feels great to
hold and handle especially with the 2.5D curved glass effect
being applied on both the sides.

At first, I was worries that the glass on both the sides would
make this device really slippery but I’ve not had the phone
slipping out of my hands yet and that is saying a lot for a
phone with glass on two sides. The OnePlus X which had a
similar construction was notoriously slippery but luckily the A7
(2016) is an exception. The edges of the bezel are also
beveled on the right and left sides however are flat at the top
and bottom unlike the previous generation.

In terms of physical footprint, the newer A7 is more or less
identical to the previous generation. It is almost the same
height but is a good 2 mm narrower and a whole millimtere
thicker owing to the larger battery inside. The weight too has
gone up by around 30 grams but that is expected considering
the amount of glass used. Rest assured, the smartphone
doesn’t feel heavy as the weight distribution is done very well.

The front houses the earpiece, front facing camera as well as
the ambient light and proximity sensors above the display.
Below the display lie the customary keys – 2 capacitive keys
on either side of the physical home key which also houses the
fingerprint sensor.

The right side of the smartphone features the power key along
with the first tray that houses the primary nanoSIM and
microSD card slot. The left side has two separate buttons for
volume up and down which seems like a better
implementation than the single volume rocker of the last
generation.The feedback from these keys are quite good too.

At the top, you will find the secondary SIM card tray and the
secondary microphone (If you have the single SIM variant, you
on’t find a SIM card slot here). At the other side, things are
quite busy at the bottom since the microUSB port, primary
microphone, 3.5mm audio jack and speaker grille are located
here.

Moving over to the back, you will see just the primary camera,
LED flash and Samsung logo. The back looks really clean
since the loudspeaker has been moved from the back to the
bottom of the smartphone. That was one element in the
previous generation A7 that really detracted the elegance of
its design.

The back panel is non-removable and neither is the battery.
The smartphone comes in 4 colours – Black, White, Gold and
Pink. In our personal experience, the Gold variant does a good
job at keeping fingerprints relatively unseen at the back. The
same should apply for the White and Pink variants too with
the White version being able to hide them the best. However,
the Black variant is likely to be a fingerprint magnet and would
require your constant attention in order to remain spotless.

Display

The display remains more or less the same on paper. 5.5″
1080p SuperAMOLED is what you got with the previous
generation as well. However, there is a world of a difference
when it comes to the feel when using it thanks to the new
2.5D curved glass. The display is really smooth to use and
swipe across. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4 as well
and does a good job at keeping scratches at bay. The
brightness has been improved both at the higher and lower
end as you will find that the display can go really low and
really high in terms of brightness.The contrast ratio is great as
you would expect from a SuperAMOLED display with deep
blacks and the sunlight legibility too is one of the best we’ve
seen recently. The resolution of 1080p doesn’t feel less as the
content still looks sharp enough. For a mid-ranger, that
resolution seems justified and also considering that more
pixels require more battery and processing power to push, we
are glad Samsung stuck to 1080p.

The capacitive keys are backlit and offer haptic feedback
when pressed. We miss the option where you could turn off
the backlighting altogether or keep it on always whenever the
screen is on. We hope that Samsung would bring it back in the
future. The smartphone screen mode can be adjusted to your
liking. AMOLED Cinema is the most vivid profile while
AMOLED photo is quite standard and basic feels quite under-
saturated but is more easy on the eyes since the amount of
blue light emitted from the screen is cut down. Alternatively,
you can use the Adaptive Display option to let the smartphone
choose what mode is best according to the content on screen.
There is a smart stay feature that prevents the phone from
going to sleep as long as the front camera detects that you
are looking at the screen.

Fingerprint Sensor

One of the major exclusions on the previous A7 was a
fingerprint sensor. Considering how popular and cheap
fingerprint sensors have gotten in the past year, it would’ve
been ignorant of Samsung if they didn’t include one on the A7
(2016). Luckily they have and the fingerprint sensor is located
within the home button up front. The accuracy is really good
and the unlocking speeds are right up there as well. In fact, I
find that it is faster than my Galaxy Note5 as well but not quite
as fast as the S7 or S7 Edge. It falls behind the Nexus 6P and
5X as well but considering that this is a mid-range device, it is
surprising that it is faster than the Note5 itself. Accuracy too
seems to have been improved and the sensor seems to have
more of a tolerance to dust and moisture than previous
smartphones from Samsung.

As usual with other fingerprint sensors these days, you just
need to tap your finger and there is no need to swipe across
the sensor pad. You need to wake the phone from sleep first
however either by pressing the power key or home key and
then placing your finger on the home button. In our experience
waking it up using the home key and unlocking it is the fastest
solution as you don’t even need to lift your finger off the
button. A fraction of a second after waking the phone, the
sensor detects the fingerprint and unlocks the smartphone.

Calls and Messaging

The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) has good quality audio over
the earpiece. Calls are loud and clear both for you as well as
the party at the other end thanks to the noise cancelling
microphone. In terms of loudspeaker, the quality is good but
the volume seems low especially if you have some
background noise, it becomes difficult to hear what the other
person is saying. The dialer is large and easy to use. It has
shortcuts to place calls and send messages with either SIM
since the smartphone supports DualSIMs. The smartphone
also has video call functionality built into the stock phone app.

The keyboard that comes on the A7 (2016) is the Samsung
keyboard which like the Google Keyboard has one of the best
layouts. It is customizable, supports trace input and has an
extra numeric row at the top for faster typing. You can easily
download and use a 3rd party keyboard if the one included
isn’t your cup of tea.

Software and UI

The Galaxy A7 comes with Android Lollipop 5.1.1 with
TouchWiz UI on top. The UI layer has become less obtrusive
compared to past iterations and the specifications of the
phone are powerful enough to ensure a smooth performance.
The smartphone will most definitely receive the upgrade to
Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The only question is when. Since
most of last years flagships such as the S6 lineup and the
Note5 have already been updated or are getting update, we
believe that the A7 (2016) too will get the update in a month
or two (if no delays or obstacles appear in the update cycle).

The smartphone comes with motions and gestures that make
certain tasks easier. For example, taking a screenshot can be
done by pressing the home key and power button
simultaneously. Alternatively, users can just swipe from one
edge of the screen to the other using their palm to capture the
screen. The phone can be set to vibrate and notify you of any
missed calls or notifications when you pick the device. You
can also mute incoming calls and notifications by turning the
phone over onto its display or by placing your palm over the
display.

Since the smartphone has a large display, Samsung has
bundled a few features that will make the life of users easier
to use with one hand. You can choose the reduce the screen
size by pressing the home key thrice in quick succession. As a
result, the entire UI shrinks to a corner of the screen and you
can align it to the bottom left or right corner of the screen.
You can also shrink the size of certain individual apps without
making the entire UI smaller and finally you have a one-
handed input mode where certain aspects such as the
keyboard, dialer, lock pattern etc can be made smaller and
aligned to either the left or right side to make one-handed
usage easier.

Storage, Connectivity and Performance

The biggest improvement from past generation is probably the
least highlighted one as well. This time around, Samsung has
ditched the Hybrid DualSIM slot and actually gone for
dedicated card slots. The smartphone has a primary tray at
the right side which houses a nanoSIM as well as a microSD
card slot. There is a secondary tray at the top which can house
another nanoSIM card as well on the DualSIM model. This
means that you can put in two SIM cards and a microSD card
without having to choose between the two.

You wouldn’t really want to make a choice like that especially
if you can’t do without DualSIMs since the smartphone comes
only in a 16GB variant which will likely run out soon enough for
most people. The A7 supports microSD cards upto 128GB in
capacity. The smartphone supports 4G LTE on both the SIM
cards but only one SIM at a time can run on 4G while the other
one will stay in 2G mode.The smartphone also supports Dual-
Band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.1 but doesn’t
support 802.11 ac. Being a mid-range device in 2016, we
expected that to be a standard spec by now.

The smartphone is powered by an octa-core Exynos 7580
chipset from Samsung and comes with 3GB of RAM as well.
Performance is smooth and doesn’t lag. The 3GB of RAM is
good enough to handle multi-tasking of apps well too.

Music Player and Audio Quality
The Galaxy A7 comes with Samsung’s own music player. You
can sort your music according to tracks, artists, album, genres,
folders, composers and playlists. A wide variety of audio file
formats are supported. Users can scroll between them or jump
to an alphabet using the quick scroll option at the side or even
directly search for a song. The Now Playing screen features
the album art as well as track controls and options for shuffle
and repeat. You can favorite a song and also use on-screen
volume controls instead of the hardware ones. You can even
set the play speed to be faster or slow and also have an auto
off timer for the player to quit and stop playing music. You can
choose from one of the presets or specify your own time. The
smart volume feature allows the phone to automatically adjust
the volume so that every song appears to be at the same level
acoustically. You also have sound quality and effects such as
SoundAlive+ and Tube Amp both of which really failed to grab
our attention. They’re more of a marketing gimmick than an
actual use case.

Sound quality was really good through earphones and the
volume was more than loud enough too. There was a good
dynamic range with minimal crosstalk and had a punchy bass
whenever the need arose. The sound through the speakers
however isn’t that great as it is a bit washed out and lacks in
terms of volume as well.

The primary camera on the Galaxy A7 (2016) is a 13 Megapixel
unit with OIS,PDAF and LED flash. The sensor has a default
aspect ratio of 4:3 which means that to get the full resolution
of 13 MP, you will need to capture images in 4:3 aspect ratio.
Images in 16:9 can be captured at a maximum resolution of
9.6 MP. The 28mm FoV (Field of View) is pretty good for most
shots including landscapes but a 26mm lens would’ve been
welcome too. The f1.9 aperture does a good job at creating
bright images and good bokeh with a shallow depth of field.
The images are not as saturated as per usual Samsung
standards but have a more natural colour tone and balance.
The smartphone is quick to focus but the only downside is that
it can’t really focus onto objects that close. We would’ve liked
to go even closer to many of the objects that we tried
capturing but the smartphone wasn’t able to lock focus. The
shutter speed is quite fast too unless you are taking a HDR
photo which takes a longer time to process. You can click on
any photo below to get the full resolution samples.

The phone manages to capture pretty good detail for a 13
Megapixel sensor but what is impressive is the dynamic range.
You can still capture a lot of detail from the shadows and
have perfectly exposed highlights by metering on the
highlights. In case you still want more detail and dynamic
range, you have to resort to the HDR mode. The photos on the
left are taken in HDR mode while the photos on the right are
captured in auto (normal) mode.

The front camera is pretty good too offering good detail and
bright images thanks to the 5 Megapixel f1.9 lens. There is a
beautify option with different settings as well if you want to
smoothen your skin etc.

Panorama mode works well and does a good job at stitching.
It is better to take images in portrait and then pan to get
maximum detail from a scene. Note that the viewfinder has a
bit of delay when in panorama mode so you’ll have to move
slow in order to compensate for that. Video recording
resolution peaks at 1080p at 30 fps. The detailing is pretty
decent but nothing to boast about. 4K video would’ve been a
nice addition but the processor would have difficulty handling
it.

You can launch the camera app by either using the shortcut on
the lockscreen or using the app shortcut once you unlock the
device. Alternatively, you can use the home button as a trigger
to launch the camera app as well. Double tapping the home
key quick launches the camera app and you can begin
capturing. The camera app is quite similar on the ones found
on high-end Samsung devices like the S6 series, Note5 or S7
series albeit with lesser options to play with. You still get a pro
mode but the only controls you get are ISO, White Balance
and Exposure compensation. There is no support for RAW
photos and neither can you set the focus or shutter speed
manually. We feel that a manual focus could’ve helped us
achieve closer macro shots than we could manage with AF.
One weird thing is that the HDR mode is still present as a
separate mode within the camera app rather than a quick
toggle in auto mode. This is fine for some but for those who
are used to the quick toggle, they may find it annoying. But the
worst part about HDR is probably the resolution. Users can’t
take HDR photos in full 13 Megapixel resolution. Instead, they
have to opt for 4:3 images at 13 MP or 16:9 images at 6 MP
or 2.4 MP.

Battery Life

The Galaxy A7 (2016) comes with a non-removable 3300 mAH
battery which is a big jump from the 2600 mAH battery of the
previous generation which was also non-removable. The
increase in battery capacity while keeping the screen size and
resolution the same has led to a better battery life. The A7
(2016) got a one charge rating of 15 hours 04 minutes in our
battery tests which is a good 4 hours more than the previous
generation.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)is a beautifully constructed
device especially for the price. You need to see and handle
one in person to really appreciate the design and quality as the
photos and videos don’t really do it justice. It is a powerful
smartphone too overall but at the price of Rs 35,000, the
smartphone is definitely costly. There are several options from
Chinese OEMs that will get you flagship grade specifications
(more powerful processor, higher resolution display etc) at a
cheaper price but none of them offer the build quality and
finish that the A7 offers. The A7 (2016) also has very few
flaws that could really set you off from buying the phone. The
main deterrent is probably the price. If you are someone who
values a phone’s design and aesthetics as much as whatever
is inside it, then this phone is definitely worth the premium
and you’ll find yourself staring at the beauty of the smartphone
from time to time once you buy it.

Pros
Beautiful Design and Brilliant Build Quality
Great Screen
Fast and Accurate Fingerprint Sensor
DualSIM 4G LTE Capability with Dedicated microSD Card
Slot
Good Battery Life
Good Camera Quality

Cons
A Bit Expensive
Camera has difficulty taking close-up shots
Feeble Loudspeaker

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Samsung Galaxy On5 Review

Samsung launched the new ‘Galaxy On’ series of smartphones, Galaxy On5 and Galaxy On7 with 4G support in India last month. The Galaxy On5 is the affordable model of these two, which is priced at Rs. 8,990. Is the Galaxy On5 worth the price? Let us find out in the complete review.

Unboxing

• Samsung Galaxy On5 smartphone in Gold color
• 2-pin Charger (5V-1A)
• Micro USB cable
• Earphones with microphone
• 2600mAh battery
• Quick Start Guide

Display, Hardware and Design

The Galaxy On5 has a 5-inch TFT display with a pixel resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and a pixel density of around 294 PPI. Even though the display is smaller than the On7, the pixel density better. The display is bright, has decent viewing angles and offers vibrant color output. The sunlight legibility is good too, but it is not as the Super AMOLED display on the Galaxy J2 that is also priced similar. This doesn’t have a scratch resistant glass hence it is prone to scratches. The smartphone is 72.1mm wide and 142.3mm tall, and weights 149 grams, almost similar to most of the 5-inch smartphones.

On the top there is a 5-megapixel camera with f/2.2 aperture with wide-selfie that captures 120-degree wide panorama to accommodate more people. Images from the front camera have a lot noise if the lightning is poor and doesn’t have much details. It has a proximity sensor next to the earpiece, but the smartphone lacks an ambient light sensor, even though there is a cutout for it. It also lacks notification LED that is present on most of the smartphones in this price range.

Since it doesn’t have an ambient light sensor you have to adjust the brightness manually using the slider depending on the conditions. There is an outdoor mode option that increases the brightness for 15 minutes or until the screen is turned off.

There is Samsung’s signature home button below the display that has a metal finish around it. The capacitive touch buttons for menu and back are present on both the sides. These are not backlit, neither offer haptic feedback when pressed.

The power button is present on the right side, you can also see a small ridge on the side to open the back cover. The phone has a chrome finish on the side and the smartphone is 8.5mm thick, slightly thicker than the Galaxy On7.  The volume rockers are present on the left side, micro USB slot, primary microphone and the 3.5mm audio jack are present on the bottom.

The Galaxy On5 has a 8-megapixel auto focus camera on the back with f/2.2 aperture and single LED flash. The speaker grill is present next to it. The back cover has smooth, leather-like finish and the phone has sturdy build quality offering a nice grip. We have the golden-colored variant and the smartphone also comes in black color.

It has two dedicated micro SIM slots and a microSD card slot (expandable up to 128 GB) under the back cover. Both these slots support 4G.

It also has a 2600mAh removable battery so that you can replace it easily. Even though the smartphone doesn’t look premium, the build quality is good.

Camera

Coming to the camera, the 8-megapixel auto focus rear camera with f/2.2 aperture is decent. The camera UI is similar to other Samsung smartphones running Android Lollipop. It has several modes (Auto, Pro (lets you adjust white balance, ISO and exposure manually), Panorama, Continuous shot and Beauty face), Effects ( Grey-scale, Sepia, Negative), and timer ( 2, 5 or 10 seconds). You can also press the home button twice to launch the camera, even when the screen is off and use the volume rockers as camera shutter. Sadly it doesn’t have HDR mode, similar  to the On7.

Coming to the image quality, daylight shots are good with vibrant colors and details. Macro shots are good too, thanks to f/2.1 aperture and it focuses quickly, unlike the On7. Low-light shots have a lot of noise as usual and images with flash are average and could have been better.

Coming to the software, it runs on Android 5.1.1 (Lollipop) with Samsung’s own UI on top, similar to most of the latest Samsung smartphones. The lockscreen shows weather info and lets you launch the dialer and camera easily. The drop-down notification bar has several toggles and lets you customize the row accordingly. It also has brightness slider with a toggle for outdoor mode and an option to switch either SIMs as primary.

It has a Smart Manager app lets you manage your device’s battery life, storage, RAM usage, and security all in one place. The Ultra data saving mode powered by Opera Max compresses cellular data across all contents such as videos, photos, media, almost all apps and websites. It compresses and reroutes data to the data-savings cloud using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). You can also add app exceptions if you don’t want data from an app to be compressed. It offers timeline of app usage and how much data is saved in a day or month. You can also check out data savings by individual app as well.

Out of 1.5GB of RAM, you get 1.39GB of usable RAM, out of which about 619MB of RAM is free when the default apps running in the background. Out of 8GB of internal storage, just 4.34GB of storage is usable. You can also move compatible apps to the SD card when you insert one. Even though the phone has option to move apps to the SD card, 4.34GB of storage is less since all the apps don’t have option to move to the SD card. This is definitely a downside.

Apps

Apart from the usual set of utility apps and Google Apps, the smartphone comes with MixRadio, which is available for all the Samsung phones through exclusive partnership with MixRadio and Opera Max, which powers the Ultra data saving mode. It doesn’t have any other bloatware or additional games, which is good since the storage is already less.

Music Player and FM Radio

It doesn’t have a dedicated music player, so you have to rely on Google Play Music. It also doesn’t have equalizer, but it has SoundAlive+ and Tube Amp sound effects that can be enabled from the settings. This improves the audio when listening through earphones. That said, audio through earphones and the loudspeaker output are good. It has FM Radio with auto scanning and recording, which lets you store the recorded files in phone memory or SD card.

Dual SIM and Connectivity

It has the usual set of connectivity features such as WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. It has 4G connectivity with support for TD-LTE 2300MHz (Band 40) and FDD-LTE 1800MHz (Band 3) for India. Both the SIMs support 4G, but you can enable 4G only in one SIM at a time, while the other goes to 2G. As usual it has Smart Dual SIM feature, similar to other latest Samsung Dual SIM smartphones. This automatically forwards calls from the phone number on SIM 2, even if a user is on the phone with SIM 1’s number. It also has USB on-the-go (OTG) support.

Performance and Benchmarks

Coming to the performance, the 1.3GHz quad-core Exynos 3475 28nm processor offers average performance, but it doesn’t have any heating issues. 1.5GB of RAM can handle multitasking fine, but the Exynos processor with ARM’s Cortex A7 CPU is not powerful compared to Snapdragon 410 with Cortex A53 64-bit CPU found in most of the 4G smartphones in the market, including the Galaxy On7. 

It has 600 MHz Mali T-720 GPU. We tried several games. Most games were smooth and the graphics was decent too. It supports both USB or PS3 controllers via USB.

Battery life

Coming to battery life, the 2600mAh battery lasts for the whole day from average to heavy use such as 4G LTE with both the SIM cards With minimal use, it lasts for two days. Based on my average use it lasted for almost 2 days with screen on time of about 3 and half hours. The power saving mode and ultra power saving mode lets you extend the battery life. The smartphone also has a removable battery, so you can swap it easily when required.

Conclusion

At a price tag of Rs. 8,990, the Galaxy On5 is just an average budget 4G smartphone from Samsung. It has a good display, but it is not as good as the Super AMOLED display on the Galaxy J2. It has 4G support on both the SIM slots and offers brilliant battery life, but Samsung has missed out the ambient light sensor for auto brightness adjustment, yet again. Camera is decent, and few additions such as Ultra data saving mode are good, but the performance is not up to the mark and the 8GB of storage is not enough since only 4.3GB is usable.

Those things aside, Samsung has priced the Galaxy On5 at Rs. 8,990, which is decent compared to its earlier smartphones in the price range. Since there is heavy competition in the similar price range, Samsung still needs to get aggressive when it comes pricing. It is exclusive to Flipkart, but it is not sold through flash sales, so you can get it easily.  To summarize, here are the pros and cons of the smartphone

Pros

• Good display
• Brilliant battery life
• Decent camera
• Dedicated SIM slots with 4G support on both

Cons

• Average performance
• No ambient light sensor
• Only 4.3GB of usable storage

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Samsung Galaxy J7 Review

Samsung introduced the Galaxy J series smartphones, the Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J7 in China with 4G support and 5MP front-facing camera with selfie flash light back in June. These smartphones were launched in India in July exclusively on Flipkart. The main change in the Indian version of the Galaxy J7 (SM – J700F) is that it is powered by an Octa-Core Exynos 7580 processor, instead of Snapdragon 615 SoC in the Chinese version. Is the Galaxy J7 worth the price? Let us find out in the complete review.

Box Contents

• Samsung Galaxy J7 smartphone in Gold color
• Earphones with microphone
• 2-pin AC charger (2V-1.55A)
• Micro USB cable
• 3000mAh battery
• Quick Start Guide and Warranty information

Display, Hardware and Design

The Galaxy J7 has a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display with a pixel resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and a pixel density of around 267 PPI. The display is bright, has good viewing angles, offers vibrant color output and the sunlight visibility is also good. Since it doesn’t have an ambient light sensor you have to adjust the brightness manually using the slider depending on the conditions. There is an outdoor mode option that increases the brightness for 15 minutes or until the screen is turned off.

Blacks are perfectly black, thanks to the AMOLED panel. The display is not sharp compared to Galaxy A7’s screen, since the pixel density is low, but it is good compared to LCD displays on other smartphones in the price range. Samsung doesn’t says if the smartphone has Corning Gorilla Glass or any other scratch-resistant glass for protection. The display is prone to smudges since it is bit glossy.

There is no major change in the design in the new Galaxy J series. Samsung sticks to its old design with curved corners seen in the Galaxy E series. It also has a familiar shiny chrome rim running on the sides, similar to the Galaxy Grand series. Since the sides have anti-smudge anodised CMF coating, it doesn’t attract dust or smudges.

On the top there is a 5-megapixel camera with 85-degree wide-angle lens and f/2.2 aperture along with LED flash light for capturing better selfies in low lighting conditions. Selfie shots have a lot noise even if the light is slightly less and the images lack details. Flash light helps to capture a subject clearly in poor lighting conditions, but it is not too bright. The front camera is just average. It has a proximity sensor next to the earpiece, but the smartphone lacks an ambient light sensor, even though there is a cutout for it. It also lacks notification LED that is present on most mid-range smartphones.

There is Samsung’s signature home button below the display that has a metal finish around it. The capacitive touch buttons are present on both the sides. These are not backlit, neither offer haptic feedback when pressed.

The power button is present on the right and the volume rockers are present on the left. The primary microphone, micro USB slot and the 3.5mm audio jack are present on the bottom. There is nothing on the top of the smartphone. The smartphone is just 7.5 mm thick on the edge, since it has a curved design.

Even though the smartphone doesn’t have a premium build like the Galaxy A series, the phone is sturdy and offers a nice grip when holding it, since it has a polycarbonate back cover with smooth finish. It is 78.6mm wide and 152.4mm tall, almost similar to the Galaxy E7, which has the same 5.5-inch display, but it is a bit heavy at 171 grams. Even the Galaxy A7 with a metal body weighs just 141 grams. There is a 13-megapixel camera on the back with single LED flash. The loudspeaker grill is present next to it. The 4G and Duos branding are present on the bottom part of the back.

Unlike the A series smartphones, this has two dedicated micro SIM slots and a microSD card slot (expandable upto 128 GB) under the back cover.

It also has a removable battery so that you can replace it with another one when it runs out of juice. Overall the build quality of the smartphone is good for the price.

Camera

The Galaxy J7’s 13-megapixel auto focus camera with f/1.9 aperture with single LED flash is average, but no the best. The camera UI is similar to other Samsung smartphones running Android Lollipop. It has several modes (Auto, Pro (lets you adjust white balance, ISO and exposure manually), Panorama, Continuous shot, Beauty face, Sound & shot, Sports and HDR.), Effects ( Grey-scale, Sepia, Negative), and timer ( 2, 5 or 10 seconds). You can also press the home button twice to launch the camera, even when the screen is off and use the volume rockers as camera shutter.

Daylight shots are decent, but the exposure is not consistent, so most images end up dull or over exposed. Macro shots are good offering nice bokeh effect, thanks to f/1.9 aperture. Images are sharp and the color reproduction is good. HDR shots are better, again you face exposure issues in daylight. It is recommended to use the pro mode and adjust the exposure accordingly. Low-light shots have some noise as usual, but the images are not too bad. Images with flash are good since the flash offers an ample amount of light and is not over powering.

Software

Coming to the software, it runs on Android 5.1.1 (Lollipop) with Samsung’s own UI on top, which has a lighter tone compared to Samsung’s KitKat-based UI.

The lockscreen shows weather info and lets you launch the dialer and camera easily. The drop-down notification bar has several toggles and lets you customize the row accordingly. It also has brightness slider with a toggle for outdoor mode and an option to switch either SIMs as primary.

It has two additional themes, apart from the default theme. You can also go to the Theme Store to download paid or free themes. The Smart Manager app lets you manage your device’s battery life, storage, RAM usage, and security all in one place.

Out of 1.5GB of RAM, you get 1.37GB of usable RAM, out of which about 575MB of RAM is free when the default apps running in the background. Out of 16GB of internal storage, about 11.6GB of storage is usable. You can also move compatible apps to the SD card when you insert one.

Apps

Apart from the usual set of utility apps and Google Apps, the smartphone comes with WeChat and some Microsoft Apps such as OneDrive, OneNote and Skype. It also has some games that includes Bubble Bash 3, Midnight Pool 2, Prince of Persia and Zombie Infection 2.

Music Player and FM Radio

It doesn’t have a dedicated music player, so you have to rely on Google Play Music. It also doesn’t have equalizer, but it has SoundAlive+ and Tube Amp sound effects that can be enabled from the settings. This improves the audio when listening through earphones. That said, audio through earphones is good, but the loudspeaker output is low even in full volume. So you can’t hear the ringtone clearly in noisy environment. It has FM Radio, which has a new and simple look compared to earlier Samsung smartphones. It also has auto scanning and recording, which lets you store the recorded files in phone memory or SD card.

Connectivity and Dual SIM

It has the usual set of connectivity features such as WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. It has 4G connectivity with support for TD-LTE 2300MHz (Band 40) and FDD-LTE 1800MHz (Band 3) for India. Both the SIMs support 4G, but you can enable 4G only in one SIM at a time, while the other goes to 2G. As usual it has Smart Dual SIM feature, similar to other latest Samsung Dual SIM smartphones. This automatically forwards calls from the phone number on SIM 2, even if a user is on the phone with SIM 1’s number. It also has USB on-the-go (OTG) support so that you can connect OTG drives easily.

Performances

Coming to the performance, the smartphone has Samsung’s own Octa-Core Exynos 7580 64-bit SoC with eight ARM Cortex-A53 CPUs each clocked at 1.5 GHz per core. The performance is good and there are no lags. 1.5GB of RAM is enough to run several apps in the background, but the TouchWiz UI uses more RAM. Multitasking would have been better if the smartphone had 2GB of RAM. It doesn’t have any heating issues even when using 4G or during intensive gaming. 

Battery life

Coming to battery life, the 3000mAh battery lasts for the whole day from average to heavy use such as 4G LTE with both the SIM cards, some image captures, couple of hours of music playback and some gaming. With minimal use, it lasts for more than a day. The power saving mode and ultra power saving mode lets you extend the battery life. The smartphone also has a removable battery, so you can swap it easily when required.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy J7 is a decent mid-range smartphone for the price. It has a good display, there is no issue when it comes to performance or any heating issues and the battery life is good too, but Samsung has missed out the ambient light sensor for auto brightness adjustment, which is present even in budget smartphones. Even though flash light for the front-facing camera is a good addition, the front-facing camera is just average for a selfie-focused smartphone. Those things aside, Samsung has priced the Galaxy J7 at Rs. 14,999, which is decent compared to earlier Samsung smartphones in the price range. But the pricing needs to be more aggressive to compete with other companies. Even though it is exclusive to Flipkart, it is not sold through flash sales, so you can get it easily. To summarize, here are the pros and cons of the smartphone.

Pros

• Good display
• Good battery life
• Octa-Core Exynos SoC offers good performance
• Dedicated SIM slots with 4G support on both

Cons

• No ambient light sensor
• Average cameras
• Average gaming performance
• Loudspeaker output is low

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Samsung Galaxy Note5 Review

Every year at IFA, Samsung unveils one of the most awaited smartphones of the year, the new Note smartphone.  This year, Samsung announced the Note5 earlier than usual prior to IFA which is its usual stomping ground in an attempt to enter the market prior to the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. Alongside it came the Galaxy S6 edge+ which is a larger version of the S6 edge with an extra gig of RAM and a larger battery.

Unboxing

The contents of the box are:

• Samsung Galaxy Note5 in Black Sapphire color
• In-ear headset
• AC charger (9V-1.67A or 5V-2A) with Adaptive fast charging
• Micro USB cable
• SIM ejector tool
• Accessories for S Pen stylus
• Warranty information and Quick Start guide

Design, Materials and Build Quality

It doesn’t take a genius to guess that the Note5 is a part of the Galaxy Note series of smartphones. The design does immediately remind you of it. Over the years, the design has changed in several different ways but the Note5 is probably the biggest change in design language since the Note II. The Note5 uses the basic shape and design of the Note 4 and combines it with the materials and aesthetics of the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge. In fact, it is probably best to call it as an inverse in terms of aesthetics compared to the S6 edge since the back half of the Note5 is curved while the display and the front of the S6 edge is curved.

The Note5 is primarily made of glass and metal and that really attributes to the build quality. The entire device feels premium and while the Note 4 was a step in the right direction, the Note5 is probably the first device that we can say is worth the premium rate that Samsung charges for it. For years, Samsung has been criticised for their materials used for their device. Not that the build quality had issues but the materials used was majorly comprised on plastic which some people felt didn’t feel as premium in comparison to say what Apple offered with their iPhones or HTC offered with the One series. The Note5 feels really good to hold in your hand thanks to the curved back design although it is really slippery owing to the use of glass at the back. The same reason makes it quite prone to fingerprints as well which is probably where the White or Silver version would be slightly better as they don’t show the fingerprints as much.

The overall size of the phone is slightly smaller than the Note 4 in terms of footprint as the Note5 is slightly shorter and over 2 mm narrower than the previous gen. It is also almost an entire millimeter thinner than the Note 4. So even though it still is quite a big handset as it houses a 5.7″ screen, it is much easier to handle than most other phablets. In fact, the Note 4 had a screen to body ratio of 74.2% but the Note5 has a screen to body ratio of 75.9% which sounds even more impressive once you come to know that the G3 which is probably one of the most compact phablet smartphones of all time (Internationally) has a screen to body ratio of 75.3%.

Up front, you have the display above which there is the earpiece, notification LED, ambient light and proximity sensors as well as the 5 Megapixel front facing camera. Below the display, you have the physical home button which is clickable and houses a fingerprint sensor along with the capacitive keys for return and multi-tasking. We shall talk about the fingerprint sensor in detail later on in the review.

At the right side, you have the power/lock key and at the left, you have the volume rocker button. Both these sets of keys are easy to press and offer good tactile feedback. At the top, you have the secondary microphone as well as the SIM card slot which can also house 2 sims if you have the Dual SIM variant. Interestingly, Samsung has removed the IR blaster from both the Note5 as well as the S6 edge+ which may disappoint some users and even we are puzzled as to what is the reason behind the omission.

Things get quite busy at the bottom as it houses the 3.5mm audio jack, microUSB port, speaker grill, primary microphone and S-Pen slot. We’ll be talking about the S-Pen, its slot and the mechanism in detail a little later on.

At the back, you have the 16 Megapixel camera along with LED flash and the heart-rate sensor. The LED flash and heart-rate sensor module has been moved from the bottom of the camera module like with the S5 and Note 4 to the right of the camera module like on the S6, S6 edge and S6 edge+.

The back panel and battery is non-removable for the first time in the Note series. The battery has also gone down in capacity as it is now a 3000mAH unit compared to the 3230mAH unit on the Note 4. However, the device does get wireless charging by default. The Note5 is available in Black Sapphire, White Pearl, Silver Titanium and Gold Platinum colours. The Black and Gold colours have a dual colour kind of finish that changes from Black to Blue or Gold to Silver respectively based on the angle at which you look at the phone. The Silver variant does seem to be our favourite probably because it is something that wasn’t available before. The Emerald Green colour that impressed us on the S6 Edge is not available though.

Display

As with the case of every Note smartphone from Samsung, the display remains the main attraction on the Note5 as well. While the display size and resolution remains the same – 5.7″ 1440p just like on the Note 4, there is still quite a bit of improvement that has to be noted. For starters, the Note5 display is even brighter than the unit on the Note 4 which in turns also improves the sunlight legibility. In fact, the Note5 is the brightest SuperAMOLED screen that we’ve tested from Samsung. It feels really good to use thanks to the 2.5D glass and the screen size hits a sweet spot. There is Corning Gorilla Glass 4 for protection which seems to do well to keep the screen protected from scratches.

The viewing angles are great and so are the contrast levels. Colours are mostly vivid and rich. If that isn’t your cup of tea, you can easily change it by going to the screen mode and choosing one that’s more suited to your liking. By default, it is set to adaptive display that automatically enhances the visual experience and colours based on the content you are viewing. But there is AMOLED cinema, AMOLED photo and Basic. AMOLED cinema seems to be the crowd pleaser as it has very rich colours and also higher contrast levels and deeper blues. AMOLED photo seems to be the most neutral while Basic mode might be too yellowish for most of us to handle. Although it is probably the easiest on your eyes as too much of Blue light is known to affect your brain and might keep you awake at night.

The capacitive keys below the display have backlighting in white however the duration of the lighting is not customisable since the Lollipop update on Samsung phones. We hope that they do enable it again with Marshmallow as I personally prefer to have it off all the time as I know what each button does and where it is so why not save some battery by turning it off altogether. Some other people may like to keep it turned on all the time when the screen is on. However currently, the light stays lit for a duration of around 3 seconds if you press any of the capacitive keys and remains off till you touch one of those keys again.

The smart stay feature detects when you are looking at the screen and makes sure that the screen doesn’t turn off while you are reading or watching something. It makes use of the front camera so it will drain some battery if you do enable it but can be quite useful at times. It also requires decent lighting in order to accurately detect your eyes. Although the phone is pretty compact and has a good screen to body ratio, it still is a bit difficult for one-handed usage especially for people with smaller hands. For that, Samsung has included features that allow the user to be able to use the phone with one hand. The first feature allows you to reduce the screen size and essentially downscale the entire UI to only a portion of the screen by tapping the home button thrice in quick succession. After which you can choose to align it to either the left or right side. You however, can’t adjust the size to which you downscale the UI and it is fixed at about 2/3rds of the original screens size. Once done, you can easily head back to full screen mode as well. There is also the option of enabling one handed usage just for the input methods such as dialpad, keyboard, calculator and unlock buttons.

Double tap to wake still isn’t a feature but considering that you can wake the device using the power/lock key or even home button, it isn’t a drawback as such. There is a notification light above the display to the left of the ambient light and proximity sensors. It is an RGB sensor that is capable of displaying various colour and is bright enough to quickly notify you of any notifications.

Fingerprint Sensor

The fingerprint sensor is housed neatly inside the home button and while there are quite a few good smartphones out there with really fast fingerprint sensors at the back, we still find that a fingerprint sensor at the front is the fastest and easiest to use. Previous generation Samsung devices such as the Note 4 and S5 required the user to swipe from top to bottom along the home button in order to authenticate your fingerprint. Not only was that annoying but it was quite inaccurate as well. You had to have your finger kept almost 90 degrees straight in every instance and the swiping speed and direction had to be the same as well. Any slight deviation and the fingerprint wouldn’t be read properly.

Things have changed since then as Samsung incorporated new fingerprint sensors onto the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge smartphone. The user only had to wake up the device by pressing the power/lock key or home button after which he/she can simply place their registered finger onto the home button and in a fraction of a second it is unlocked. This is much faster and much more accurate compared to the previous gen Samsung smartphones and is comparable to the iPhone and iPad fingerprint sensors. The Note5 also follows the same technique as the S6 and S6 edge but we find that Samsung has further improved the accuracy and speed on the Note5. Even though the improvement is marginal, it is still there.

The process of registering a fingerprint is quite easy as well. All you have to do is place your desired finger on the key multiple times till it reaches a 100%. Once done, you can use the same finger to unlock the device or authenticate payments. Users can also set a backup password in case you are unable to authenticate using fingerprint or perhaps your loved ones also need to use the device, you can just tell them the password.

S-Pen

Just like with the case of the display, the S-Pen is one feature that Samsung can proudly say is unique to the Note series of smartphones. Samsung made styluses cool again by providing useful features that help increase creativity as well as productivity. Over the years, several other manufacturers have tried to release their own competitors to the Note series or device that utilize styluses but none of them have been able to recreate the usability and ease that the Note series possesses.

The latest S-Pen from Samsung is an evolution of that concept and it is the first time that the S-Pen features a clicking mechanism. The clicking mechanism doesn’t have an electronic function as such but it does have one primary purpose. It allows the stylus to be locked into the phone and also allows it to be taken out. Unlike the Note smartphones of the past, the Note 5 doesn’t have a groove on the outside of the smartphone that allows you to pull the stylus out. Instead, the user has to click it which will extend the end of the stylus which then allows you to pull it out. Once the stylus is out, the user can still click the end but it serves no particular function. Perhaps it could be used as a stress reliever but apart from that, its only use is as a locking mechanism.

There is however one flaw to this design. The Note smartphones of the past had a thicker end that made sure that the user couldn’t actually put the stylus in the wrong way i.e with the pointing end facing outward. However, it is possible to insert it that way with the Note5 and doing so will cause the breakage of a physical sensor if you pull it out after inserting it wrongly. The sensor is the one that detects that the S-Pen has been pulled out.Thus breakage of the sensor would lead to the user not being able to make use of the quick memo feature which we shall talk about later. Although, it is quite unlikely that most people would insert the pen in the other way around, it could happen so do be extra careful when you reinsert the S-Pen back into the phone.

So what is the Quick Memo feature? Basically when you pull out the S-Pen, the sensor detects that you have pulled it out and if your screen is locked, it launches a quick memo app on the screen. You can then immediately take down notes or make a sketch after which you can just put the S-Pen back in and it will save it for you automatically. This is something that could come in hand especially if you love taking down notes as it save you a few seconds at least. You could also share the memo with someone before locking the screen.

If you pull out the S-Pen when the screen is unlocked, Air Command opens up automatically. If you don’t want Air Command to open up directly after you’ve taken the S-Pen out, you can still disable it from the settings. Air Command gives you shortcuts to 4 features /apps by default – Action Memo, Smart Select, Screen Write and S-Note. The user can choose to add other shortcuts as well later on. Action memo allows the user to draw or scribble onto a pad and save it for future use or share it with someone. Smart select is basically an advanced method of screen capture. Users can choose to capture just a particular portion of the screen by using smart select. Selection can be done in rectangular, circular or lasso methods and there is even an auto shape method that chooses the shape of the screen capture depending on the object you wish to capture. Screen write too is another form of screen capture that takes it a step further by allowing the user to annotate it etc. Users can also make use of the scroll capture feature that allows you to capture multiple screen shots and stitch them together into one single screenshot. For example, if you are reading a long article, you can make use of this feature and take a single long screenshot than having to take multiple ones and then send them separately. In fact, the process of scrolling, capturing and stitching are automated thus making your job a whole lot easier.

The S-Pen makes you much more productive on the go, especially with features such as Quick Memo, scroll capture etc, it makes quite a lot of sense to use it. The S-Pen has good ergonomics and the wight distribution is good too. We also found that the accuracy is better than that of the Note 4. The S-Pen can also be used to click the capacitive multi-tasking and return key but you’ll need to use your hand to press the home key.

Calling and Messaging

The call quality is really good on the Note5 just like any other flagship Note device. Calls are loud and clear through the earpiece as well as the loudspeaker. The secondary microphone also does a good job at noise cancellation and helping your voice to reach the other party clearly. We even tried pairing the device to Bluetooth speakers and car kits, and call quality was quite good then as well.

The default keyboard on the phone is the Samsung keyboard and it is quite easy to use. The keys are well spaced out and the layout really makes use of the large screen estate. We particularly like the fact that there is a row of numeric keys above the alphabets which does save you time when typing. It has a dictionary that learns words based on your usage and also suggests words accordingly. Swiping is also accepted as a medium of input. Users can also make use of the S-Pen to type onto the keyboard if they wish.

One handed use mode allows users to minimize certain portions of the UI such as the dialpad, keyboard etc. and align them to the left or right. In our experience, making use of the One Hand Use optimization feature for the dialpad does help quite a lot as it allows you to align it to the left or right and still manages to provide decent space for input. On the other hand, the keyboard is really difficult to use if you enable one-handed use. I found it better to stretch a bit or make use of swipe gestures to send a message using one hand rather than use the miniature keyboard.

Software and UI

Note5 comes pre-loaded with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out of the box along with Samsung’s own UI on top. TouchWiz UI always has quite a bit of customization but some of the features are quite useful. Motions and gestures are one of the useful features. Users can enable or disable any of the following features. Direct call allows the user to directly call a person whose call log, message or contact entry is open simply by just putting the phone up to their ears. Smart alert basically lets the device vibrate when you pick it up in case you have any missed calls or notifications. You can also mute calls and other notifications simply by placing your palm over the screen or turning the device over onto its screen. Finally, you have the palm to swipe feature that allows the user to capture screenshots by swiping their palm across from the edge to the middle of the screen.

The notification drawer is customizable and you can have upto 10 quick toggles. Luckily, users can choose to disable the S Finder and Quick Connect shortcuts in the notification bar if needed. There is also a slider for brightness and a toggle for auto brightness. The app drawer can now fit an extra column of app icons due to the screen size compared to the S6 and S6 Edge. The device also has a built-in themes option that allows you to change the icons, wallpaper, colour palette etc. with a single theme. If you aren’t happy with the existing themes, you can head over to the online store to download ones that are more to your preference. Overall the experience is quite good and there really isn’t any lag due to the phone’s powerful processor and 4GB of RAM.

Connectivity, Storage and Performance

The Samsung Galaxy Note5 comes in both dual SIM and single SIM variants. The availability will depend on the region you are in. Single SIM variants will typically have model numbers like SM-N920I, N920C etc. while the Dual SIM version is the SM-N9208. However, regardless of which version you get, the phone will support 4G LTE and in the case of the Dual SIM version, the phone supports 4G LTE on one SIM only at a time while the other remains on 2G. Note that while 4G LTE is supported, you should be sure to get the device that supports LTE bands for your particular country or else the phone will only work on 3G and won’t support 4G. Another important thing to note is that if you plan on bringing a phone from another country, you have to make sure to use the phone for 5 minutes with a local SIM from that original country in order to unlock the device as there is a region lock. For example, both Singapore and India have the Note5 SM-N920I so the 4G LTE bands supported will be the same as well. However, if you want to use the phone in India, you will first have to use a Singapore SIM in it, make a call that lasts for 5 minutes or more to unlock it. If you don’t do so, the phone won’t accept the SIM card and you will need to get an unlock code before being able to use your SIM. The phone will still work, but won’t connect to any mobile networks in India.

The phone comes in both 32GB and 64GB variants. Samsung has decided to skip the 128GB option on both the Note5 and S6 edge+. We are guessing it was a decision that was taken after lackluster sales of the 128GB Galaxy S6 and S6 edge smartphones. No version of the Note5 supports microSD cards, not even the Dual SIM variant. Earlier, there were rumors stating that the DualSIM version would have a hybrid secondary SIM slot that accepts microSD cards as well, but that’s not the case. The user gets either 32GB or 64GB based on what he chooses and that’s it. Luckily, Samsung has got you covered in terms of cloud storage as the phone comes with 100GB of free cloud storage using Microsoft OneDrive.

In case you still need more storage, you can make use of the USB OTG functionality to connect your HDD or USB flash drive to view and transfer content. The phone also supports NFC, dual band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.2. The Note5 is powered by an Octa-Core Exynos 7420 chipset and has 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM as well. Performance is buttery smooth and the phone never hung up on us or lagged. There is still some lag courtesy of TouchWiz however, it isn’t as bad as the previous generation of flagship Galaxy smartphones. Although the system itself uses quite a bit of RAM and the RAM management issue still isn’t fixed, the device can easily handle several memory intensive apps at one time. We had no issues while playing heavy games or watching high-resolution video files either.

Music Player and Audio Quality

Audio quality is really great on the Samsung Galaxy Note5. Over earphone, the clarity is really good and the volume is more than enough for any environment you are in. The dynamic range is really good too and there is hardly any stereo crosstalk either. The speaker too is loud and clear and the placement is pretty good too however, you might accidentally cover the speaker when watching videos in landscape mode, but at least it won’t get muffled when you place it on its back.

The music player is really advanced. It has a wide range of features and has a really neat looking UI. It supports a wide range of formats such as MP3, FLAC, WAV, WMA, eAAC+ etc. Users can sort tracks in various ways such as artists, track names, albums, folders, composers etc. You have a quick set of controls to seek/skip and play/pause the current track when browsing through the library.

The now playing screen shows you the album art, gives you control to seek.skip and play/pause. Users can set shuffle and/or repeat on. They can also adjust the volume onscreen and also mark a track as their favourite. There is a built-in equalizer that is  quite easy to use. Users can adjust between bass and treble and also fine tune between vocal and instrumental. If you prefer, there is also the regular 7 band equalizer as well along with a few presets for different genres.

Users can also make use of smart volume feature that helps equalize the volume across different tracks. Users can also set the play speed as well as an auto time off function that stops playing music after the time is up. You can also choose to play the song through speakers or even on another device that supports DLNA.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy Note5 carries over the same impressive 16 Megapixel camera with OIS as found on the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. We used the camera extensively in various situations and in different modes to see its capabilities and this samples gallery will show you just that. However, it does get a few enhancements in terms of performance, thanks to better image processing and it receives a few new features in the camera UI. The camera app now supports RAW image capture, YouTube live streaming and the ability to control the shutter speed manually upto 10 seconds in Pro mode. Raw image capture did come on the S6 and S6 Edge with the update to Android Lollipop 5.1.1 but only through 3rd party applications.

The camera is even better than the S6 and S6 Edge in certain aspects and is on par with it on other aspects. The image quality and detailing is great and so is the low light performance. The noise levels are really minimal even in low light and the ability to shoot images with a shutter speed as slow as 10 seconds means you can capture images in some really low light situations. We hope that Samsung allows upto 30 seconds in a future firmware update. RAW capture really allows you to extract every bit of information out of the image possible and there is plenty to work with. The shutter speed and AF is among the fastest we’ve seen on any smartphone as well. The LED flash is good however could’ve been better if Samsung included a dual LED flash or better yet a dual tone LED flash with it.

Battery Life

The Note5 has a non-removable 3000mAH battery but it does support wireless charging (Qi and PMA standards) out of the box. While the capacity has decreased compared to the 3220mAH battery on the Note 4, the Note 5 still does perform as well or better than the Note 4. I personally prefer to have a large battery that can last me all day with heavy use than a phone that has moderate battery life that I have to charge during the course of the day even if it does support fast charging. This was one of the issues I faced with the S6 Edge as I had to charge it at least once during the course of the day and then again overnight when I go to sleep. That issue is largely solved on the Note 5 and I found that on most days, the phone allows me to get back home or even get into bed before needing to charge it. Like the S6 Edge, the Note5 does support quick charging when you do need it. I’ve had various instances where I had to leave the house in a hurry and that 10 minutes of charging time gave me enough juice to last till I got back home.

The phone got a One Charge Rating of 11 hours and 5 minutes. It actually went on to top the 3G and Wi-Fi browsing times as well.

Conclusion

Overall the Samsung Galaxy Note5 is a really  capable smartphone. It could be called a productivity powerhouse. It has improved a lot over its predecessor especially in terms of design, build quality and camera. Sure, two things that have been a part of all Note series phones till now, a removable battery and microSD card slot are missing and that is something that you will have to live with. But those are things which most of its competitors lack and if you look at advantages that the Note5 has over them, then that list is definitely longer. The high quality SuperAMOLED screen, S-Pen, superb camera etc. are things that not every other phone can offer. Just like every other Note smartphone, it does come at a premium price, but at least this time, you also get a premium design and build quality to go along with those features. The Galaxy Note5 retails for a price of Rs. 53,900 for the 32GB version and Rs. 59,900 for the 64GB version. If you are looking for a no-nonsense smartphone that has all the bells and whistles and have a large budget then you definitely cannot go wrong with this one.

Pros

• Brilliant Screen
• Solid Build Quality
• Good Audio Quality
• Great Camera
• S-Pen with Scroll Capture and Quick Memo
• Quick Charging and Wireless Charging out of the Box
• Good Performance

Cons

• No microSD Card Slot
• Non-removable Battery
• Slippery to hold

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