The Samsung Galaxy Note5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ Review
by Joshua Ho on October 2, 2015 8:00 AM ESTDisplay
With the rise of smartphones and tablets, the display has become one of the most important aspects of a mobile device as it’s the primary mode of interaction. However, throughout computing the display has generally had relatively little attention. People might have talked about resolution, size, and latency, but the discourse was vague at best. In order to really understand displays, it’s important to discuss a number of factors that affect display quality and the underlying design of the display. These factors range from subpixel arrangement to TFT structure and various emitter materials. With traditional reviewing methods, it’s often difficult to say one way or another whether one display is “better” than another. While simple metrics like maximum brightness can be compared in a relative manner, it’s hard to say whether one has better colors or higher static contrast. In order to test these metrics, we turn to objective measurements from devices like X-Rite’s i1Pro2 spectrophotometer and i1Display Pro colorimeter. In order to acquire the data from these devices and present it in a usable manner, we use SpectraCal’s CalMAN 5 with a custom workflow.
Under the microscope and based upon some quick viewing angle tests, subjectively the Galaxy Note5 display looks and feels like a bigger version of the Galaxy S6 display. Viewing angles for some angles feels like the display is almost painted on to the glass below, but some odd interference effects with viewing angle changes breaks the illusion to some extent. In the case of the S6 edge+, the curved edges of the display cause a noticeable shift in luminance when looking at the edge compared to the center of the display, which also causes an odd green shift which is probably due to the RGBG subpixel layout. I suspect the best LCDs will still be better at the “painted to the glass” illusion for the near future. This isn’t a huge deal, but it is a noticeable difference.
Moving on to our brightness testing, we can see that the Galaxy Note5 delivers a healthy improvement over the Galaxy Note 4 generation of AMOLED, but it isn’t quite at the same level as the Galaxy S6. It isn’t clear why this is the case, but I suspect this is related to longevity and other concerns outside of brightness. Meanwhile the use of OLED means that black levels are perfect and contrast remains solely determined by the lighting of the room and the reflectance of the display, which is similar to most other smartphones.
In our standard grayscale testing, the Note5 delivers acceptable color accuracy but it seems that the Basic screen mode tends towards a warm color balance. I suspect this helps with power efficiency, as blue in general requires more power to achieve the same level of luminance. Other than this slightly warm white balance, the grayscale accuracy doesn’t have any significant errors. This means accuracy ends up very good - certainly below our threshold for noticable errors - especially in comparison to the Galaxy Note 4 which had some noticeable problems with green tint on some units.
In our saturation test, Samsung does well enough that there’s really nothing to talk about because there's so little wrong here. You could argue that magenta is a bit warm on our review unit, but the difference is too small to be worth talking about. Error on average is going to be hard to spot unless you have a flawless reference monitor to compare against.
In the GMB ColorChecker test, Samsung continues to show a strong performance when looking at various hues that are commonly found in consumer content such as movies and camera photos. There’s a slight red shift on some of the tested hues, but the error is so minor I don’t notice that any problems here.
Overall, the Galaxy Note5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ both have an incredible display. The Galaxy S6 edge+ does have some problems with viewing angle shifts by virtue of the curved display, but this is effectively unavoidable given the subpixel layout and the radius of curvature. With this generation of AMOLED, Samsung has definitely equaled the best LCDs on the market. I suspect within the next year or two it will be inevitable that Samsung AMOLED will be clearly superior to even the best LCDs. However, without other OLED suppliers that can provide similar quality and cost I suspect OEM adoption will continue to be limited.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
225 Comments
View All Comments
Bragabondio - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
he-he, I was about to say that Anand (the former site owner) was much into Apple (he joined it and sold the site to the owners of Tom's hardware) but he was trying to be as objective as possible until the last few years when it was clear he was becoming increasingly seduced by the dark side" :)I got Iphone 6 free from work and like it despite its limitations but if it comes to buying my own Samsung note or Nexus 6p would be on the top of my list. There are many intangibles like having to call Apple to switch my country store and then of course not being able to purchase apps outside the particular country store etc. that remind we why Apple products are not my thing.
makemineamac - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
Um, you don't need to call Apple to change your country store, and there are a myriad of ways to purchase content from other stores. I have accounts in the US, Canada, and the UK and I use them interchangeably to purchase Apps, Programmes (UK) and more all the time....Kuzi - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
I find this article more balanced and unbiased:http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_6s-review-131...
ws3 - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
It was a good review. I agree.nerd1 - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
A good article? are you serious?beggerking@yahoo.com - Sunday, October 4, 2015 - link
John's review has always been biased.Kuzi - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
Agreed with every word you said zimmybz, and I feel exactly the same as you.I've been an Anandtech reader since 1998, and it was usually the first site that I came to for informative and unbiased tech reviews. But those days are over, especially since Anandtech became iAnandtech a few years ago. Most people can't tell or read between the lines, but I am sure old-time readers did. To me the Apple worship is obvious.
After noticing the bias few years ago, we found out some Anandtech guys joined Apple, including Anand himself. I guess Ryan, Joshua and the rest at iAnandtech are hoping to join Apple too, but it seems to me they arevalready under Apple's payroll.
Notice in this review the over use of the word decent, decent design, decent color accuracy, acceptable blah blah. And when testing the display and battery, there's no mention that the Galaxy phones are pushing almost 4 times the pixels as iPhone 6. Even a blind person can tell that the Amoled display on the Galaxy phones is better and noticeably sharper. Yet iJoshua insists that Amoled just finally reached Lcd quality (hinting at iPhone) and in a year or two-mile surpass it, what a joke... Actually Note 4 display from last year already surpassed the LCD display on iPhones.
The Garden Variety - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
By *far* the best part of Anandtech these days is reading the comments from angry, butt hurt nerds upset that their favorite brand got slighted, pretending it's all about "facts" and "figures." Dude, you're as bad as an Apple fanboi. Worse, actually, because you channel your irrational brand attachment into fist-shaking. So certain you have it figured out, you're going to post over and over again about how *wrong* the writer got it, as if you're correcting some great universal injustice.Spare us.
ws3 - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
How true. Even better is the fact that they don't really have a favorite brand. They just have a most-hated brand, for some unknowable reason. I say: just because *that* girl, who won't give you the time of day, has an iPhone, it doesn't mean that Apple sucks. It just means that you need to exercise and shave a bit more often.zimmybz - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
See - you misunderstood, and I don't blame you, because 9 out of 10 times, you'd be correct.But, in this case - I don't have a favorite brand. I used to be an iPhone guy. I got bored of iOS and have been playing with Android for a few years. I'm sure I'll go back at some point, but that point is not right now.
What I was really looking for is a review where the author put (AS MUCH) time and effort and energy into the Note 5 work as he/she did their Apple reviews.
This is clearly not the place for that anymore - which is sad, because it used to be.
Whichever tech you prefer, good on you brother, I mean that sincerely, I hope you enjoy it and it treats you well, and I'm not being sarcastic. In fact, you will see in my original comment that I am well aware the 6S is probably going to drop the hammer on the Note 5.
That is, however, irrelevant considering that I will not be buying one, and would still (shocking, I know, right?) like a review written without the eye-rolling tone of "this is not an iPhone but..." "this is not an iPhone but...." "this is not an iPhone but..."