Samsung Note 5: Stylish with a stylus
Samsung’s flagship phones are now on sale here as it tries to get a headstart on Apple’s launch of its latest iPhones next week.
The South Korean company is scrapping it out with other smartphone makers to try to sell new devices to people who already own a phone.
To get a sale you need something special. For Samsung’s Note 5, that’s a stylus, something other companies have largely avoided.
Why do you need a stylus when you have a finger? Well, the simple answer to that is if you need to draw something, or if you prefer writing to typing.
Writing a note for someone is easy. Push the top of the stylus and as it pops out a small menu comes up. Click on the app ‘‘S Note’’ and start writing or sketching. Tap share and you can send your note to anyone, and it can be sent as a photo or PDF so it can be opened with any app on any device.
The stylus can be used for anything and it’s actually easier and faster than your finger. The only problem is that you have to pull it out all the time.
Some people have reported problems when putting the stylus back, but I never had an issue with this.
Samsung markets the phone for ‘‘power users’’ and while this is accurate, it could also be handy for anyone who struggles using their fingers on a phone.
But since it is aimed at the top tier of the market, it carries an appropriate price – $1299.
With a premium price comes a very nice phone. It looks a lot more conservative looking than its curvy cousin, the Edge, with a very traditional design, though not as square as last year’s model.
Other than looks, the insides of both phones are the same and they are among the best-specified devices available.
The 16MP camera takes amazing photos and the screen makes anything look good. It’s fast, with ample processing power.
It comes with all the extra features too – wireless charging, a fingerprint scanner and the ability to use Semble, the New Zealand mobile payments service.
The operating system is based on Android’s Lollipop with a bit of Samsung thrown on top. It’s fine, but I prefer the stripped-down version of Google’s operating system.
However, price plays a large factor when buying a phone and $1299 is a lot of money, especially when there are so many other options available.
If you don’t value the bigger screen and stylus, maybe you should look at the Samsung Galaxy S5, which costs only $800. They both have the same operating system so the experience will be the same; the compromise is only in the design and extra features.
Figure out what you want in a phone before buying. If that includes a stylus, it might be worth taking a closer look at the Note 5.