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Fear the Note5 will follow S6 trend

The_Chief said:
Samsung is confident that their battery technology is such that replacing the battery will be a thing of the past. They're not basing their design of the phone on the few of us out here who mod and may hit a bootloop that requires a battery pull... they're building to suit the millions of users out there who just want a phone that works.

I, too, will be very pained if it comes out without a microSD slot. Particularly if the 128GB option isn't available on the Developer Edition directly from Samsung. It would be a tremendous step backward.
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While it's true they want to sell to the millions and not to the few outsiders, I think this is oversimplifying a bit - particularly regarding storage. All the other compromises (removable battery, etc) I do believe most of the millions don't care about.

However, all of the millions DO take pictures and videos with their phones - all the time. With a 32gb version (that most carriers will stock), those millions will have just of 20Gb of local storage to use for all their apps along with all pictures and videos for the life of that phone. With no option to increase it. Some carriers only carry the 32 GB version as well. With 4K video, larger photo file sizes, and 30 selfies a day from so many folks now, the storage is in real danger of being filled fast. While I agree that most people (people not in these forums) probably may not care about SD cards just yet - I think they will once they get a storage warning on their next phone and are forced to delete their apps or photos to make room for others. In this case it will be a "phone that just works"... until it doesn't.

You seem to agree that it is a step backward. I think it is a dangerous one for Samsung.
 
YES. It has followed S6.
I put a lot of blame on journalists who kept BLEATING on about so called premium feel and bad plastic backs. It appears that sammo have listened to them with the S6 and now Note 5.
How many plastic backs have you heard about that have broken??
And how many glass backed S6 and iphones have you heard about that have cracked/smashed??
Much ado about exactly naff all.
 
That's the part that ticks me off. I can't remember a single review knocking the note 4's design...it was actually pretty universally praised from what I can recall. Who exactly was asking for a fragile glass back cover? It feels like they came up with a solution to a problem that didn't exist at the expense of features people actually liked
 
Having watched Samsung's 2015 Unpacked I felt underwhelmed at the end. (IMO) Nothing about it screamed this would be my next phone.

I'm not a cloud user. I prefer the local storage of my mSD cards & it seems the most the US gets is 32GB in a phone. Filling it up rather quickly would just piss me off!

Honesty I feel Samsung forgot what the core of the Note line was all about & I'm not talking software gimmicks.
 
Well, this pretty seals it - the second worse outcome for this came true for me (the first worst outcome was there being only a 32GB model), but this is really none better. How can I possibly go from my Note4 with it's 128GB microSD card to a Note5 with a 64GB shared memory with the OS? That likely means only about 54GB useable. The other features sound really nice, but now I'm compelled to stay away. Samsung is now the only company whose flagships are not capable of having 128GB of storage.

I also have the Galaxy S6edge and even THAT has 128GB. I guess not enough people bought it in order for them to justify making 128GB phones. Ah well - I don't care that they think they are appealing to the masses because it seems like I'm not one of them.

64GB..... is this 2012?
 
I'm sure the sales of the Note 4 will increase as many of us who waited for the 5 are disappointed!
I'll be looking at the 4 or another brand...
Sorry Samsung I do not want metal & glass. I wanted SD slot and a freash battery in 20 seconds (just change it out).

Lateck,
 
During the unpack it was said we are moving towards a wireless world (or something very close to that) yet Samsung's lack of removable battery means we'd have to carry around a charger.....that makes entirely no sense to me. The Note was about productivity. How is one being productive waiting for the phone to charge up? I don't care if it does have quick charge; one must still wait.
 
Lateck said:
I'm sure the sales of the Note 4 will increase as many of us who waited for the 5 are disappointed!
I'll be looking at the 4 or another brand...
Sorry Samsung I do not want metal & glass. I wanted SD slot and a freash battery in 20 seconds (just change it out).

Lateck,
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Funny how just this weekend, I was at a concert and was recording video with my Note4 which (after about 90 or so minutes) eventually the battery died out. I had a spare and changed it and was up and running again in about a minute or two. It reminded me just how valuable having that extra battery was. I know people will say "well if you're going to record that long, get a video camera" - but that's not the point. Sigh....
 
ScandaLeX said:
During the unpack it was said we are moving towards a wireless world (or something very close to that) yet Samsung's lack of removable battery means we'd have to carry around a charger.....that makes entirely no sense to me. The Note was about productivity. How is one being productive waiting for the phone to charge up? I don't care if it does have quick charge; one must still wait.
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I was watching that announcement video which said the same thing... It makes me wonder which people they did studies on to come up with this phone. Seems like folks that didn't really use a Note before.
 
I correct my estimate. After the massive negative feedback after the presentation, it seems this could be very bad for Samsung. This will likely be far worse than the S6 trend.

Samsung might have initiated the loss of a very large chunk of their current Note install base today. The negative view dwarfs the S6 after that presentation.
 
Samsung took away almost all of the features that made the Note line of phones the best phones for power-users. It is severely gimped, and likely to be locked down more than fort knox. Very little chance I stay with Samsung (I love my Note 3) once a viable alternative is made by another company to upgrade. That may be the Moto X pure (style). I don't use my Spen and the Moto X pure has almost everything that they took away in the Note 5. Bye Samsung.
 
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I may be able to cope with the 64GB version, especially with the new syncing technology. I can just move content to the PC wirelessly. I won't like it and I love the idea of the portability of a microSD card... but I think I can live without one. With the ability of the Note 5 to take down notes without turning it on and the scrolling screenshot, the Note 5 is barely - and I mean BARELY - worth the upgrade. I'll try the 64GB version: should be enough for a daily driver since I won't be rooting or ROMming it. The Verizon Note 5 will have a hopelessly encrypted bootloader, so that will save considerable SD space.
 
The_Chief said:
What a dog of a phone. I'll remove the silent "e" and just call it the Not 5.

:(
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It's just really upsetting. Most people use cases in their phones so I don't know why design was ever such a big deal. They let the brainwashed iSheep reviewers get to them. This is bullying and peer pressure gone terribly wrong.
 
Bluerang1 said:
It's just really upsetting. Most people use cases in their phones so I don't know why design was ever such a big deal. They let the brainwashed iSheep reviewers get to them. This is bullying and peer pressure gone terribly wrong.
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Given that our own news site for Android choose to compare the two new Samsungs to the Nexus 6 and the iPhone, rather than the new Motorola, I think that you're exactly right on the money.

"Interested in a large form factor Android? Let us show you our iPhone envy!"

I'm sick of it and I couldn't care less about an iPhone - but as you said, it looks like Samsung believed that mattered.
 
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I know what I said, Early. It's a real let down that the features we expected aren't there. However, there are enough features we didn't expect to maybe make it worth my while, productivity-speaking. I will give it a good 10 days and see if it's something I want to hang on to. If not, no love lost but maybe - just MAYBE - I'll actually like the Note 5 despite its shortcomings.
 
The_Chief said:
I know what I said, Early. It's a real let down that the features we expected aren't there. However, there are enough features we didn't expect to maybe make it worth my while, productivity-speaking. I will give it a good 10 days and see if it's something I want to hang on to. If not, no love lost but maybe - just MAYBE - I'll actually like the Note 5 despite its shortcomings.
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I get you changed your mind enough to try it.

I'm not knocking that.

I'm just eating popcorn because it's not the first time I've seen you go through this. :D

I'll drop my popcorn if you take it back.

You're free to do the same if I ever do that with an HTC. :) :D

Besides, you got press coverage for the Not 5 comment. :D
 
Speaking of HTC, what a great time for them to swoop in with a high-end phablet with replaceable battery and micro sd. I would love to give them another chance but the note series always trumped whatever they were offering. Your move Robert Downey Jr...
 
Something I haven't seen discussed is the steep price increase of the N5 over the N4. Like $300 if you want to get the 64gb version of the N5, which is thought to sell for $999. I might - a very small might - actually have given the N5 a chance had they offered it in 128gb, but I knew that phone would cost me around $1100 - which is freaking insane. I probably wouldn't have been able to justify $1100 for the N5 even at 128 gb. IF - which I doubt happens - but IF the N5 attains root, ends up offering a 128 gb option and shows that it really is a worthy upgrade, then I might have still bit the bullet at over a grand for the phone. But even then, probably not. That's crazy high prices for a gimped phone.
 
Hi, I only ask three things from my phones, 1) Removable Battery 2) Removable Battery 3) Removable Battery. It looks like LG are bringing out the Pro 3 around October, if it is anything like the speculation I will be seriously looking at it after more than 12 years with Samsung (providing of course it has a removable battery!) Phil
 
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Frankly, I think a lot of this can be chalked up to the oh so many sites, blogs, comments from people over the last 2-3 years that kept saying that the Samsung Galaxy phones did not feel "premium". I can't tell you how much I hated that damned phrase - that it didn't feel 'premium' but it was a favorite line that was used over and over again. Everyone kept making that point because of the fake leather back, the plastic back, the #^&%!@^ back - and that's not just from iPhone users, but a lot of Android users too. So at the end of the day, Samsung had to address it. All these people who kept saying these things prob didn't think that this meant you had to sacrifice something like a removable battery. So, now we have a glass back that most of us are not even going to notice because it will be in a case. I blame the fixed battery situation on those who kept lamenting about how it did not feel "premium".

The lack of a microSD card is something that I place solely on Samsung, though. They did not need a removable back for this as evidenced by the side loaded SIM card slot. They could have worked this in, but they chose not to. This part I really do not understand. I don't buy the faster memory crap and if that is the case - they STILL could have added the slot for external storage. 64gb with a slot? I could deal with that. So, it makes no sense to me to exclude this. It's not like they needed to have as few openings as possible to waterproof it.

Okay, sorry I just had to vent because I was really anticipating the Note5 - thinking they would keep it separate from the Galaxy S line to appear to power users... but I guess it's basically been morphed together.
 
Predictions! FWIW

1. Note 5 will not sell anywhere near what Samsung expects, but they will still use the inventory load-in numbers as "sales". Not sure the media will fall for it this time.

2. Note 4 will be hard to find new, much sooner than the Note 3.

3. Used market for Note 4 will be higher $ than usual.

4. G4 and especially the Moto X will increase their share.

5. Note 5 will likely see a 128gb model later- that, or the dual sim model will find its way as a mass refresh beyond Asian markets.

Moto X 64gb will be over $300 less, SD slot, front stereo speakers, non glass build, custom casing and straight Android with no carrier or Samsung's infamous bloat. Compelling stuff, but the battery life has to be answered due to fixed 3000mah battery.

6. I think Motorola will find a way to bork this up. They are not exactly supply chain champions and the place that will drive this just zapped 25% of their staff. This huge distraction and disruption on their eve of the best opportunity in years to gain substantial share. Seems a poor insular strategic move by Lenovo.
 
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