Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Officially Announced – What You Need To Know

Today was the day that Samsung held their long awaited event to announce what were becoming some of the “best known” secrets.  With frequent leaks of images and rumored specs of the Galaxy Note 5 and other devices the anticipation kept building and building, and then we had the official announcement today.

The event went about as could be expected with several new devices announced, a little bit of trash talking their competitors and promises of devices that would awe and inspire.

The Galaxy Note 5 takes a lot of its features from both the S6 and the Note 4.  In looks it leans more towards the S6 but in size and features it stays true to the Note series.

This is the first time a Note device comes with a sealed body, this means no removable battery or external storage.  Despite this setback Samsung managed to make the Note 5 look really nice.  It comes with a glass back and a metal frame.  The bezel on the front of the device is so thin as to be almost barely there.

One of my biggest complaints with my old Note 2 was the way the device felt in my hand, it was so big that it didn’t feel comfortable.  Samsung took that into account with the Note 5 and gave it a curved back.  The curve almost looks like the front of the S6 Edge and although I haven’t had a chance to try it myself, it looks like it would fit much more comfortably than the older phones in the Note line.

One of the features I am most excited for is the addition of wireless charging.  As a Palm and WebOS fan I miss the days of my old Touchstone.  Although the Qi and Powermat wireless charging standards are nowhere as good as Palm’s Touchstone they are a step in the right direction.

Samsung  also made a few improvements inside the Note 5 by throwing in an octa-core Exynos processor and upping the memory to 4GB.

Touchwiz hasn’t changed much from the S6 but there are some minor changes to the software for the S-pen.

The Galaxy Note 5 will be available on 8/21/15 and is available for pre-order with most US carriers.

What do you think?  Are you going to be lining up to get it?

Official introduction video and specs below.

Specs:

Operating System	Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, TouchWiz
Display	5.7-inch QHD (2560×1440, 518 ppi) Super AMOLED
Processor	Exynos 7420 octa-core (2.1GHz quad + 1.5GHz quad) 64bit, 14nm
Storage	32 or 64GB, UFS 2.0 Non-expandable
RAM	4GB (LPDDR4)
Rear Camera	16MP, f/1.9, OIS, phase detection auto focus 4K video, slow motion video
Front Camera	5MP, f/1.9
Network	LTE cat.9 (network bands vary by market)
Connectivity	802.11ac Wifi, 2.4/5GHz, MIMO (2×2), 620Mbps Bluetooth v4.2 LE, ANT+ NFC, Location (GPS, Glonass, Beidou)
Sensors	Accelerometer, Proximity, RGB Light, Geo-magnetic, Gyro, Fingerprint, Barometer, Hall, HRM
Charging	Micro USB 2.0, Adaptive Fast Charging Qi wireless, Powermat wireless, fast wireless charging
Battery	3000 mAh Non-removable
Dimensions	153.2 x 76.1 x 7.6mm
Weight	171g
Colors	black sapphire, white pearl, gold platinum (colors will vary by market)

Source Link: Samsung Press Release
Specs Source Link: Android Central