Samsung Galaxy Note 5 was released last year August to represent the company’s phablet flagship for 2015. In 2016, Samsung Galaxy Note 6 is expected to come following last month’s official release of Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.
With the phone’s release date still months away, a lot has been going on in the rumor mill with respect to the expected specs, features and possible new additions to the phablet. With Samsung known for its tradition of upgrading each phone that succeeds another with what can be termed as incremental updates, this year’s Galaxy Note 6 is expected to be better than last year’s Galaxy Note 5 in almost every aspect. But what will be their exact differences?
Here’s a look at Samsung Galaxy Note 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy Note 6.
As noted earlier, the Note 6 is expected to be released in August or better still, in July. This will mean that the Note 5 has been around for at least a year. As usual, the South Korean tech giant is tight-lipped as far as the specs and features of the Galaxy Note 6 are concerned, but expectations, leaks, and rumors have something for us. What is for sure is that you can expect some significant changes to be rung to the Note series when this year’s model comes out.
A new feature for Galaxy Note 6 enthusiasts
As mentioned earlier, Samsung usually comes in with incremental updates to its hardware, but it seems Samsung Galaxy Note 6 will try to avoid this path, but just partially. Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ were almost identical with the Galaxy Note 5 and other than the curved edges of the S6 Edge+ and S Pen stylus of the Note 5, there is really nothing much to tell these two apart.
Samsung wants to get better at differentiating the Note series with other flagships and coming in with something new rather than just upgrades to last year’s specs would be a huge win. Reports are rife that an iris scanner might be in the works for Samsung Galaxy Note 6; however, Samsung has yet to confirm anything. This is not available on any of Samsung’s flagships and as such, it would be a “big thing” for the Note series, especially with the S7 Edge almost the same size as the current Galaxy Note series devices.
With the microSD card as well as water and dust resistance missing from last year’s Galaxy Note 5, Samsung Galaxy Note 6 will definitely come along with these features. This is especially because Samsung has already included an IP68 rating on Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.
Even though the S7 and S7 Edge have been identified to have great cameras after shaving off some megapixels as compared to last year’s S6 and S6 Edge, rumors have been pointing towards a similar direction for the Note 6. However, there are reports that claim Samsung will enter the dual-camera world and ship the Galaxy Note 6 with a dual-camera setup like the one on the LG G5. Last year’s Note 5 came with a 16MP sensor on the rear and 5MP selfie cam. On the other hand, if Samsung chooses to go with the setup on this year’s flagship, the Note 6 will feature a 12MP sensor on the rear and a 5MP selfie camera. Both sensors have an aperture of f/1.7 as compared to last year’s f/1.9 available on the Note 5.
With Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge already poised to grab some of the market share of the Note series, Samsung Galaxy Note 6 is expected to take things a little higher with respect to the screen size. The phone will reportedly feature a 5.8-inch screen, but with a similar QHD resolution as its predecessor. Under the hood, there will be other changes. While last year’s Galaxy Note 5 came with only one chipset, this year might see Samsung Galaxy Note 6 come back with two chipsets – a Qualcomm model and an Exynos model.
As for now, it is expected that Samsung will stick with Snapdragon 820 SoC used in the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. However, there are other reports claiming that a Snapdragon 823 SoC is in the making as far as the Note 6 is concerned. On matters of RAM, there is a new report that points towards a 6GB RAM for this phablet, which is what has been doing rounds in the rumor mills.
I have a Verizon Note4 and did not upgrade to Note5 because of the missing xd slot. What I really want is the return of the xd slot, bigger screen (dont care how big, but bigger than Note4) and a faster processor. I know Samsung has nothing to do with the Android O/S, but if they can convince Google to speed up the apps, that would be nice. Oh, forgot, reduce the price.
I have an international model note 4, i also skipped the note 5 due to the deleted features we note users have come to expect, speed wise I’m pretty happy with the current flagship models, but , i look forward to seeing the note become a power user device once again, big battery, better on board storage options,.
I certainly wouldn’t mind a slightly bigger screen .