Samsung Galaxy Note5

I managed to buy a samsung note 5 refurbished for 280 pounds off eBay. When it arrived I was blown away by the design and display. I loved the haptic feedback on the keyboard and when I finished setting it up I got to work. Here are my thoughts. This phone is not waterproof and the design picks up fingerprints and cracks easily. I love the curvature of the backplate. It makes the phone feel smaller than its 5.7 inches. The software mine shipped with was 6.0.1 lollipop but there is a nougat update out now. The display was excellent at first but picked up fingerprints very easily. It got very bright and also very dim which was helpful in dark rooms. The colours were very bright and vivid. I would recommend getting a screen protector as the display picks up scratches very easily. The speaker is good but very easy to mate and the headphone jack is average. I loved the haptic feedback throughouut the phone and the fingerprint scanner was reasonable but quite inconsistent and sluggish at times. I also encountered a fair bit of lag when using this phone not only in the keyboard but also when opening apps. However that said it ran games very well. It did heat up at times, especially whilst quick charging and playing games. The signal was quite poor and WHY IS THERE NO TOGGLE TO TURN MOBILE DATA ON IN THE QUICK SETTINGS. It's just one of those things that any phone should have. Battery life was poor in all honesty. 3 hours of screen on time is scraping the barrel and it lost about 20% if I left it overnight (about 11 hours). However quick charging was great going from zero to full in about 90 mins. The camera was brilliant excellent performance and stunning results and the s pen was great but I didn't use it as much as I thought I would. It does make a great stress relief toy though. I have has numerous issues and gigs though like the sim not detected message and screen overlay. It was a good phone but sadly one month ago it stopped charging and nothing I did could save it. BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK!

There's no doubt that the Galaxy Note 5 is still a solid contender against the other flagships to date, especially with the design and everyday usage that I hardly notice any difference in processing speeds (until you start the benchmark tests). With the Quad HD display, web browsing and streaming on the web look nothing short of amazing! I've owned two Note 5's and neither of them have let me down one bit. From the camera quality to heavy multitasking I do on a daily basis (texting, HEAVY social media, emailing), it goes off without a hitch. 4 GB of RAM is plenty to get the job done, I just wish the microSD card option was available, as my media storage options are pretty limited. As for battery life, it's good, but not great, seeming as I get through around 8-10 hours max before my day ends. With using the phone function of this device, it performed just fine, especially with Wi-Fi calling in areas that necessarily have cell service. I'd simply recommend it to anyone who still wants a competitive smartphone for a modest price!

I bought my Note 5 two days after release, upgrading from a Note 3. I thought the Note 3 was a great phone, but this one was a huge improvement in the way of design and performance. I was hesitant on upgrading due to the fact that I had a 64GB SD card in my Note 3 that I couldn't transfer to the new phone. The non-removable battery wasn't an issue for me as I never had any battery related issues with my old phone. I'm coming up on the two year anniversary of owning this phone, after passing on the Note 7 due to the recall, and it is definitely still a relevant phone. On Verizon, we just got the Nougat update that further shows what this phone is really capable of. In the beginning, the software was buggy, but it primarily due to Verizon's own customization of the firmware. Specs aside, this phone still performs better than competing phones of the fruit variety that I have used and battery life is very comparable, though the octa-core processor can really suck down some juice under demanding conditions. The display is just beautiful with unmatched contrast ratio of most any phone on the market today. The camera takes the best photos I've ever experienced with a smart phone, even the new iPhone 7. The S-Pen durability with the clicking back is lacking. 9 times out of 10, I'll click the s-pen to remove it and it gets stuck requiring me to tap it to remove it. A few weeks ago, I discovered the back of the phone isn't the same Gorilla glass as the display. I dropped the phone, but my shoe broke most of the fall, but it hit the back corner near the S-pen and received a chip in it the size of a ballpoint pen tip and caused it to crack (not noticeable unless you look at it from an angle in the light). The phone has taken some abuse without a case and held up surprisingly well, with the chip and subsequent cracks to be it's only battle scars. Overall, I've not experienced too many issues with the phone in just under the two years owning it.Looking back, I would buy it again without hesitation despite not having expandable storage. I bought the 64GB model and with music, pictures, and HD video captures, still have 24GB of storage remaining. I will definitely be remaining in the Note family. I've had the 2, 3, 5, and will be getting the 8 when released.