The Samsung Galaxy Note5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ Review
by Joshua Ho on October 2, 2015 8:00 AM ESTSystem Performance
While subjective judgments of performance may be possible to make when the delta is significant, when the gap gets increasingly close within the range of perceivable performance differences it becomes important to rely on more precise and accurate methods of measuring the overall performance of the mobile device. For the most part, when we’re discussing system performance the single biggest factor is often the SoC, which makes sense given that an SoC contains the CPU, GPU, video encode and decode blocks, memory bus, and DSPs. There are other aspects of the device that determine the overall perception of performance and things that can have a meaningful effect on performance, but the SoC is often the gating factor.
In order to test this we run mobile devices through our standard suite of benchmarks. In the case of the Galaxy Note5 and Galaxy S6 edge+, there shouldn’t be too many surprises given the commonality in components with the Galaxy S6.
If you guessed that performance in these benchmarks would be similar to the Galaxy S6, you'd be right. Given the shared SoC and general commonality in components performance remains as high as it is with the Galaxy S6. In some cases we see improvements, likely a combination of changes to Chrome and changes to areas like the frequency governor to respond faster to changes in load. It's probably fair to say that the Exynos 7420 will continue to be the best SoC for Android mobile devices in 2015, although it's likely that we'll see significantly increased competition for 2016.
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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..."