First off, I went back and forth over whether or not I wanted the Note 5 vs the Edge+ for quite some time. I finally settled on the Edge simply for the "wow" factor, for which this phone has LOADS. The gold edition is just wicked cool. The build quality equals anything iPhones have ever manufactured. I'll stipulate that iPhones have always done a great job of build quality. But I don't dislike plastics on a phone either. What I want more than a super sleek device which "looks" nice is one that will actually do what I want it to do. While working for AT&T, almost daily we had iPhone 4 and 4S phones come in with cracked screens. It seemed to be the most prone to those types of issues of any device ever manufactured at that point (the Nexus 4 wasn't far behind for ease of breaking, too). I'm sure the Edge is better manufactured than either of those, but still, it isn't impervious to accidents, so a case is absolutely critical no matter WHICH smart phone you buy. I went with the Tech 21 case that is a dirty, almost see-thru, which covers up the majority of the gold, but you gotta sacrifice a little if you want to protect your new product from the eventual spills it will take at some point no matter how careful you may be.
No phone is perfect, and the Edge+ is no different. Picking it up with the super slim bezels on the side can be tricky, but you get used to it. Those who have a major issue with this need to get over it. You bought a phone that has a pretty nifty feature that allows for just this kind of thing, deal with it. Coming from the LG G3 this phone is about the same width, but noticeably taller. I became rather adept at learning to use it one-handed after some initial period of figuring it out, so it isn't that big of a deal for me, after all, I knew what I was getting into. However, if you are coming from a phone with a screen smaller than 5" you're going to want to go into a store and handle one in person FIRST, because if you have tiny hands, this is going to be akin to operate a 7" tablet for many. Be aware of what you are getting first so you don't have any surprises after you get home and become frustrated that your new purchase is too damn big.
The screen is magnificent. That's all there is to it. I've heard and watched all the YouTube videos touting this or that and how the iPhone 6+ has a higher brightness scale or whatnot, but in the end, what matters is what you SEE with your own eyes. This screen is amazing, pure and simple. Over 100 pixels per inch MORE than the iPhone 6+, and you can tell. That isn't to say that the iPhone screen isn't great as well, it just doesn't have the "wow" factor that this one does I don't care WHAT anyone says.
Let me say I have been disappointed in the battery life right up front. The G3 had impressive battery consumption, especially compared to my older Nexus 4 which had abysmal battery life from the get-go. With all of Samsung's claims about optimization and whatnot with its newer and faster processor, I expected the battery life to be at the very least as good as the older G3. I'm sorry to say it does not. I'd say that the Edge+ is a good 10-15% worse (that isn't scientific mind you, just a guess, but it IS worse I can assure you). On the flip side the quick charging and ability to use wireless charging IS a nice way to side step this issue, but clearly Samsung focused on form over function when it came to this particular model of phone. I keep hearing that Samsung is "possibly" going with a 4K screen within the next year...please, PLEASE don't! You honestly don't NEED a screen with any more than the QHD displays we already have...especially with the battery life we currently have. I haven't spoken with ANYONE who'd sacrifice battery life for screen quality, and I sure hope Samsung is listening. Unless and until they can dramatically increase battery life, going with anything above and beyond QHD is utterly a waste of time IMO.
With Samsung's newest chips, I expected the Edge+ to be screamingly fast. In most ways, it is. However when I checked the RAM usage, I was shocked to see that 81% of the RAM--which is 4 freakin' gigs by the way--was being taxed. This is Androids BIGGEST problem in my opinion. How can they NOT make a phone that doesn't automatically turn on apps without you asking it to after all these years? When I close off the apps, I would dearly love them to not use up precious RAM from that point forward til I want to use that app again. I know some apps run in the background for obvious reasons like G-Mail, but I don't need my game of Solitaire to be open and ready at a moments notice now do I? If Android could figure this problem out, no iPhone could ever catch it. But unfortunately that isn't today.
In most ways I love the phone. The speaker phone on the bottom is a noticeable improvement over the one on the back of my old G3, and not that it wasn't good, but the placement left a lot to be desired. Front facing is almost ideal, except for the times you have your phone set down face first. On the bottom is about as perfect as you can get without it being covered accidentally because of how you place it down. They copied apple in this, and I agree it was a copy worth making.
I'm not a huge fan of TouchWhiz, and I seriously considered not going with this phone specifically for this reason. Yes, I know that since the introduction of the GS6 and the GS6 Edge that its been toned way down, but in my opinion, not nearly enough. Samsung, for all its cool and nifty things that their phones can do that others cannot (and lets be honest, NO phone comes with as many bells and whistles as Samsung crams into theirs, but unfortunately, the vast majority of which are entirely gimmicky at best) still hasn't figured out how to optimize their own OS so their incredible processors have to be so much more powerful than apple's simply to make up for all the glitches it tends to foster. Come ON guys, figure it out. If you optimized your devices even HALF as well as apple does, your phones would slaughter theirs on every conceivable scale known to man. With that said, I'm much happier with this version of TouchWhiz than what I experienced when I had the original Note. Some things are great and intuitive, some are buried so deep in the settings menu's that you almost have to Google How To video's in order to discover what your phone is capable of.
One thing I saw before I bought my phone was that the Edge+ had an Auto Restart feature (FINALLY!). Something my 9 year old Blackberry used to have and I used regularly. Unfortunately, the version I have didn't come with it (T-Mobile) and I'm wondering why? Its a feature that Android really ought to put in as standard as it helps to make your device run smoother when you restart your phone on at least a semi regular basis. I gotta say I'm a bit disappointed it was left out of the software on my phone.
The Camera is nothing short of stellar. Before I bought my phone I did a ton of research, and it was down to the LG G4 and the Note 5/Edge+ for best Camera on a mobile device...until I saw a quick look at the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, and they bumped their Camera's up to 13MP and without even TESTING them, the horribly biased reviewer automatically claimed them to be the best new Camera's on the market today. Now I'm not going to say they are or not, but I just find it interesting that without even getting to test one this reviewer online chose the iPhone as the new champ. Sheesh. How stupid. Let's get some hands on experience and THEN make your claims, okay? Until then, the Camera on this phone is wicked fast, takes unbelievable pictures as well as video. I just wish the OIS feature was also there for 4K recording. Since I don't have anything to watch the video on in 4K, I don't even use that feature. I'm big on taking lots of photos, so this was another HUGE selling point for me. Love the new features, too. I'm interested to really try out the Pro and Raw photo abilities to see how it stacks up. VERY excited to see my photos from here on out take a noticeable bump in quality.
The fingerprint scanner works--at least so far--flawlessly. I was worried that it would have the glitches of the S5, but I'm happy to say it works, and does so reliably so. I must say it takes a bit to scan your finger into the phone--at first. But TRUST me, the reason why is so you can hold your finger even at odd angles or as I've discovered, even sideways and it will still work. Unlike the S5 where you had to slide your finger across, this one you simply hold it in place and it very quickly unlocks the phone. I have seen it open faster, and sometimes slower than the iPhone--but I have also seen this same reaction from the iPhone. But the truth is it always unlocks pretty quickly.
One of my few gripes with my old G3 was that you would unlock the phone, but couldn't do a single thing until the Android on-screen keys appeared FIRST. It didn't bother me--at first--but it just slowly ate at me until the last several months it bugged me horribly. I have since tested the G4 and noticed that the keys appeared much quicker, almost immediately, compared with the G3, which sometimes took as long as 3 seconds. Yes, I know 3 seconds isn't long, but it seemed like an eternity on occasion trust me. The Edge+ has NONE of that lag, though if I'm being honest, I imagine it will show up eventually as I fill up the memory more and more. However, so far I am also happy to report that its as snappy as the first moment I turned it on.
Some have made a big deal out of the phone missing the ability to add memory or include a removable battery, and this is either going to be a deal-breaker for some or it won't. While I'm still a bit surprised at the amount of battery consumption for what Samsung claimed was especially optimized to give users as good if not better battery performance as the Note 4--that simply hasn't turned out to be the case. My original Note 1 I personally believe had seriously better battery life. Say what you want, but after nearly 4 years, I expect MORE life, not less out of a flagship device such as this. But with that all aside, iPhones have proven that you don't need a removable battery in order to get through the day. If you're going to go to the trouble of buying a separate battery for some devices, why not just get a couple of decent portable charger/batteries (which cost much less, btw). This way you won't have to power down your device to swap out, and you'll have all the power you need. With the cloud based services available these days, some argue the need for additional memory is moot--but I submit that no matter how convenient that might be, it certainly isn't faster to have to link up to a cloud-based storage location to find a photo, or song then it is when you have it ON your phone already. Plus, what happens if you are in an area with spotty to no service, what then? Too many variables. I just don't see why they couldn't add another drawer on the side or top similarly to where you place the SIM card where you could also add an expansion card. That's my .02. I really think that if Samsung wants to lure a lot of those who stayed away from these new devices simply for those reasons to consider some kind of workaround on the next model if they want to get back to being the market leader like they were a couple years back. Come on, nobody can tell me it can't be done rather simply given what they did to redesign these phones in the first place.
Oh yeah, if you so desire, you can actually use your phone as an actual PHONE, which is tremendously convenient to be honest. The ear speaker works great, sounds great and the call quality I found to be good to excellent. The loud speaker was fantastic, but at higher volume sounded a bit scratchy--but that's to be expected from such a smaller speaker no matter what anyone says. Sure, the iPhone's might be clearer at higher volume, which IS a strong selling point if I'm being honest, but I don't use my speaker for anything other than phone conversations, so if you plan on using yours to listen to music, I would strongly reconsider. These phones really shouldn't replace an actual stereo speaker to listen to music on. Your experience may vary however.
I think that basically covers it all. I'm sure over the next few weeks I'll come up with a few additional things that will pop into my mind to share, and if they are worthy of note, I'll come and add them on an as needed basis. Otherwise, my summary is this: is the phone perfect? No. Is it great? Absolutely. I love it MUCH more than the G3, which I also loved. If you happen to be an apple fan, stick with what you know and love. Just because I prefer Android doesn't mean iPhone's don't perform admirably. I just prefer Android--issues and all--to what apple does...and their phones are by no means trouble free either. Both have strong points, both have weaknesses. It'll be a long time before a perfect phone comes along, so until then, I personally believe you cannot go wrong if you do your research and buy accordingly. Happy computing!
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