Future-Proofed: Note5’s Evolution, Progress & Development
It's been 4 months since the Galaxy Note5 came out, and since then, developers have taken to provide custom kernels, and Samsung has provided updates to better the experience.
But most importantly, we've grown used to the device, and new devices came out too, meaning we have more comparison points. With the inevitable release of the Galaxy S7 and the rest of early 2016 flagships, especially those with the new array of chipsets, can the Galaxy Note 5 still be a good purchase?
Performance
When I reviewed the Note5, I noted a few good and bad things regarding performance. The first and most controversial issue is the memory management deficiency of the device (and most Samsung Lollipop devices, for that matter). Despite numerous updates, this has not been fixed yet. Luckily, and as I noted a while back, you can do simple build.prop edits to fix the issue and get the Note5's 4GB of RAM to work as they should. It's also likely that if you pick a custom ROM or kernel, the fix will be baked in; so if you are a flashaholic, chances are you won't have to worry about it at all. With the RAM fixed, the Note5 has some of the best app-holding capabilities out there.
The second bad part about performance had to do with slight stutters and various bloatware background processes sucking up CPU cycles. While Samsung has not been able to correct this in recent updates (and likely never will, because money), it's very easy to debloat the Note5, and you don't even need root to disable the packages associated with bloat. If you do get root, you can go the extra mile with Titanium Backup and many other solutions. But even then, flashaholics will find that there are plenty of custom ROMs with just the essentials, making it easier to find a build that isn't filled with trash apps. When debloated, the Note5 is the fastest phone on the market in terms of raw speed — that is, the speed of actual operations like opening applications. It's not necessarily the smoothest in its transitions, but it competes with the best of the pack if you know how get (and keep) it trimmed.
Battery
What about battery life? The Note5's 3,000mAh trooper sounds disappointing at first, but as we noted in the in-depth battery section of our review, the sheer efficiency of Samsung's own components made the Note5 able to compete with its predecessors, and the rest of the market. Since then, things have actually gotten a lot better for both casual users and power users too. A recent Samsung update introduced an "app optimization" feature, a Greenify of sorts, something similar to what was already found hidden in the ROM, but automatic.
Moreover, that build brought much better standby to nearly all users; every report and testimony from XDA friends seems to confirm it, and my own stats don't lie either. This build (COJ5 on the T-mobile Note5) made the device last much longer on standby, and the savings trickle down allowing for up to an hour of extra screen-on-time. On COJ5, hitting 6 hours of SOT is not rare for me.
Development
Given this is an Exynos device, one shouldn't expect to buy this and be on equal ROM diversity as say, a Nexus. Captain Obvious aside, the development community of the Note5 is not as bad as many had expected. As we had noted, root and custom recoveries came super early into the device's lifespan, and Xposed is available on the Note5 as well. Moreover, and surprisingly, CyanogenMod 13 is being developed for the Galaxy S6, and given the tremendous hardware similarities between these two phones, it's safe to say that once it becomes stable, Note5 users will be able to enjoy it too. Beware, however, that it may never reach perfect stability — my Exynos Note 3 is currently running CyanogenMod 12, and after a year it's nowhere near as good as a traditional and official build.
There is also a lot more that the Note5 has going for it in terms of development, such as multi-ROM with a nearly-identical method to that used for the Note 4. This would allow you to keep a safe daily driver and still be able to try out CyanogenMod builds in the future to track their progress (something I personally love about multi-ROM). And while TouchWiz doesn't allow for the same level of flexibility and variety in terms of ROMs, there are still some options worth checking out.
"While TouchWiz doesn't allow for much flexibility and variety, there are many options worth checking out"
Note-line Rockstar-developer Dr. Ketan has a build for the Note5 as well, and I've tried foreverloco's ROM as well. All of them were nice, and with the arter97 kernel (amazing!) and Space X among others, you are bound to get more out of the Note5's already good package.
Hardware Proofing
The Note5 came out with the most advanced hardware at the time, and in most ways it will remain some of the best after the first round of 2016 phones. In terms of CPU and GPU horsepower, the Exynos 7420 is able to run any current game to the maximum possible on a phone, only beaten in the Android world by tablet SoCs like the K1 and X1. On that front, the Note5 is covered, even when the Snapdragon 820 and others will bring massive GPU improvements.
Fast storage speeds makes a huge difference for flashaholics and power users
The fact that this phone comes with 4GB of DDR4 RAM is also nice — keep in mind that many 2015 phones haven't upgraded to DDR4 RAM, especially those with the Snapdragon 808 as it can't support it. And finally, the storage of the Note5 is one of the fastest on Android, and truly a pleasure to use — it makes backing up your ROM and flashing a new one, or reflashing your old one, fast and smooth. This is something that's often overlooked, but to us at XDA it makes a huge difference. I do expect 2016 phones to improve on this front (especially to catch up to the iPhone 6S storage speeds), but for now, the UFS solution in the Note5 is plenty fast.
Software Proofing
Typically, "Samsung phone", "Exynos chipset" and "latest Android software" are not phrases you'll find in a single sentence for too long (say, 18 months). That being said, Samsung's Lollipop rollout was actually not the worst, and while the Note 4 did take ages to see Lollipop (and many still haven't seen 5.1.1!), others Samsung phones saw Lollipop as early as December 2014, and the Note5 already saw some of Marshmallow in the form of a leaked test build.
I got to try out the test build and found that Samsung had improved upon various Note features in subtle yet highly convenient ways. That alone is worth mentioning — Marshmallow on the Note5 looks to refine the small details the Note5 missed, including a legitimate fix for the memory-management issues, as well as faster performance.
Other than that, we can expect the Note5 to get Android N, but likely not as fast as the Note 6. I say "likely" because history has shown that predecessors sometimes get updates faster, as the Note 3 received Lollipop (including previews) before the Note 4, so one never really knows. What I've seen of Marshmallow looks promising enough, though, and that alone should ease the minds of those wondering whether the device will be up to date throughout most of 2016.
Thoughts and Conclusion
Despite missing some obvious power-user features, the Note5 packs quite a package, and it's a very future-proof one at that. Given it has, as is the tradition with Note phones, the best hardware of 2015, you can expect it to go through 2016 and beyond with few issues. The Note 3 is still a super viable phone, and I personally believe that the Note 4 is a better value than the Note5, especially given it beats most 2015 phones in various metrics (from battery life to performance). While the hardware is good, it's a little sad to see the Note5 abandon some power user features that many of us here are always glad to have, such as removable batteries and microSD slot. However, rumors have it that the S7 might re-introduce expandable storage in Samsung flagships, and the next Note might bring it back as well to rekindle the tradition.
The Note5's development potential is certainly not as strong as a Nexus', but Note phones have had decent development from what I've seen and flashed. While it's usually the Snapdragon phones that get all the attention, the latest round of flagships had Galaxy fans settle with Exynos phones and all the consequences that come with them. But considering the sheer volume of Galaxy S6 and Note5 sales, it's likely that they still hold many power users. Upcoming developments on the Note5 might surprise us, but even what we have now is good enough — root, TWRP, Xposed, and multi-booting. Hopefully ASOP-based ROMs will become a reality, yet even without them, the Note5 is a fine, future-proof phone for power users that can live with TouchWiz (which I reckon, is not a huge set). And while it might not be the "power user phone" that its forefathers were, it still packs enough to satisfy power users that want amazing hardware and useful features.
Are you enjoying your Galaxy Note5? Tell us your thoughts below!
source: xdadevelopers
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