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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Sailor23M - Saturday, October 3, 2015 - link
Well said.just4U - Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - link
While not a fanboy.. (it's a phone for (censored) sake..) I do use Samsung phones pretty much exclusively these days simply because I am familiar with them and I've yet to see a company make one I like better.. That being said.. I am a long reader and commenter here as well.. and I certainly don't see any hate-on for any company or love-in for that matter.Occasionally some reviewers may know they have a certain amount of bias for some companies and may go overboard in trying to be fair ..coming across as to critical.. but that's pretty rare.
Tech_guy - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
Apple is designing extremely fast chips these days with amazing performance combined with iOS 9, it's hard to deny that iPhone 6s is the leader right now, by a LONG shot.nerd1 - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
Only thing 6s is better is better singlethread performance and GPU. 7420 still has better multithread performance (which android does use, says anandtech article!) and comes with better and larger display, smaller and lighter device, and true wacom pen and better camera.I just don't get it how 6s is "the leader" as it lacks in many division compared to now old GS6.
Tech_guy - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
It's not about the quanity of your cores but their quality. Just look at how Intel obliterates AMD because of their stronger IPC in each core. It's not of the same Apple has set the single core benchmark so high that others will HAVE to focus on single core performance. What some real world comparisons of iPhone 6s vs Note 5, anytime it's a larger app like a game or something the iPhone 6s just destroys those weak cores in the Exynos 7422.thedons1983 - Sunday, October 18, 2015 - link
What a moronic comment! If your assertion were actually true, then literally everyone would buy an iPhone. They don't, however, because not everyone wants to suck on apples tainted teat. Their software is utter garbage, and the only reason they close it down so much, is because they know that it would simply break otherwise. IOS is woeful, as is OS-x, hence why user rates are so incredibly low. Even windows 8, which lots of people hated, has user numbers that OS-X could only dream of. Primarily, it's because windows is just better. Android beats IOS in almost every respect, and the only people that can't comprehend that, are idiot fanboys like you. You are actually, and truly, pathetic.Sailor23M - Saturday, October 3, 2015 - link
I have been a regular reader since 2003/04 time period - so a good 10+ years. Although I am an Apple user I do feel the site has progressively increased their bias/tilt towards Apple. If its true that "Galaxy Phones are pushing 4 times more pixels" then this should have been mentioned in the review.Kuzi - Saturday, October 3, 2015 - link
Galaxy S6/Edge/Note 5 resolution:2560x1440= 3686400 pixels
IPhone 6/6S resolution:
1334x750= 100500 pixels
The Galaxy phones are pushing 3.68 times more pixels than iPhone 6 & 6S.
Peichen - Monday, October 5, 2015 - link
Note 5 should be compared with iPhone 6s PLUS, not the regular size one. QHD on the regular S6 is just stupid but consider Samsung cheats with the sub-pixels counts on AMOLED the smaller screen does need QHD to not show pixels.Kuzi - Tuesday, October 6, 2015 - link
Even though the Galaxy S6 uses a non standard pixel arrangment, it's 575 PPI screen is much sharper than the comparatively low res (by today's standards) 325 PPI screen of the iPhone 6S.