The Samsung Galaxy Note5 and Apple iPhone 6 Plus

Galaxy Note 5 is the latest handset by Samsung, it is also following the latest premium design trends but the only real enemy of Note 5 is the market is iPhone 6 plus. What will happen when their specifications are put against each other? Which will win? Read the full review to find out.

Build

The design of Galaxy Note 5 is extremely exquisite and elegant. It is definitely a head turning design.
The physical material of the handset is glass and metal.
On the other hand iPhone 6 plus is pure aluminium metal, the design is not as elegant but it is till impressive in its simplicity.
On the front and rear of Note five there is a Gorilla Glass covering, the backplate is shiny. The back plate on 6 plus has a matte finish.
Both the handsets do not have a very good grip.
Note 5 is a fingerprint magnet, but the apple logo on the back of 6 plus cannot stay smudge proof either.
The screen to body ratio of Note 5 is 75.9%.
The screen to body ratio of 6 plus 68.7%.
Note 5 weighs 171g while 6 plus weighs 172g so they are pretty much equal in this field.
Note 5 is 7.5mm in thickness while 6 plus is at 7.1mm in thickness.
The edge button positions are very similar, power button on both handsets is on right edge.
Volume rocker button is on the left edge.
Micro USB port, headphone jack and speaker placement on both handsets is on the bottom edge.
On the left edge of 6 plus there is a mute button.
While on the left edge of Note 5 there is a slot for stylus pen that has the cool new push to eject feature.
Both the phones have a physical Home button below the screen.
Camera placement on Note 5 is on the top right corner on the back while for 6 plus it is placed in the centre.
6 plus comes in three colours of gray, gold and silver.
Note 5 comes in Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Silver Titan and White Pearl colours.

Display

Note 5 has Super AMOLED display of 5.7 inches. The screen has Quad HD display resolution.
The pixel density of the device is 518ppi.
6 Plus has LED-backlit IPS LCD, capacitive 5.5 inch touch screen.
The display resolution is at 1080 x 1920 pixels.
The pixel density is very less as compared to Note 5 which is 401ppi.
As it is clear from the rift between the pixel density, the sharpness on Note 5 is a little more than iPhone 6 plus.
Maximum brightness of 6 plus is 574nits and minimum brightness is at 4 nits.
Maximum brightness of Note 5 is 470nits and minimum brightness is at 2 nits.
The viewing angles for both the devices are good.
The colour calibration on Note 5 is also better than 6 plus.
The display for both handsets is perfect for web browsing and multimedia activities.

Camera

Galaxy is much ahead of iPhone in this field.
Galaxy has a 16 megapixel camera on the back while the front holds a 5 megapixel camera.
The iPhone has an 8 megapixel camera on the back while the selfie camera is of only 1.2 megapixels.
The camera app of note 5 has been tweaked very nicely.
There so many features and modes to choose from.
The iPhone camera app is very simple and there are not many features to boast of.
The images produced by Note 5 are more detailed as compared to the ones produced by iPhone.
Note 5 also aced in the images produced in lowlight conditions.
The color calibration of the images in by both handsets is very impressive.
The front camera of Note 5 wins from iPhone. The images are more detailed and clear on Note 5.
Note 5 is a clear winner in the camera app.

Processor

The chipset system on Note 5 is Exynos 7420.
Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57 is the processor.
The processor is accompanied by 4 GB RAM.
The graphic unit is Mali-T760 MP8.
The chipset system on iPhone is Apple A8.
Dual-core 1.4 GHz Typhoon (ARM v8-based) is the processor.
6 plus has 1 GB RAM.
The graphic unit on 6 plus is PowerVR GX6450 (quad-core graphics).
The performance of both handsets is very smooth and lag free. Not even a single lag was noticed but Note 5 has the upper hand in performance with 4 GB RAM.
Note 5 can handle heavy games pretty nicely.
The graphical unit on iPhone is a little better that Note 5.

Memory & Battery

iPhone comes in three versions of built in storage; 16, 64 and 128 GB.
Note 5 comes in two version 32 GB and 64 GB.
Both of them lack a micro SD card slot.
Note 5 has a 3000mAh non removable battery.
6 plus has a 2915mAh non removable battery.
The total screen on time for Note 5 is 9 hours and 11 minutes.
The constant screen on time for Apple is 6 hours and 32 minutes.
The charging time from 0 to 100% for Note 5 is 81minutes while for 6 plus it is 171minutes.
Also the Note 5 supports wireless charging.

Features

Note 5 runs Android OS, v5.1.1 (Lollipop) operating system.
6 plus runs iOS 8.4 which is upgradable to iOS 9.0.2.
Samsung has used its trademark TouchWiz interface.
The Android on Note 5 is very flexible and comes with tons of features which are loved by all.
The apple interface is very simple. There are not many features to boast of.
Fingerprint scanner is embedded in the home button on both devices.
Note 5 comes with a stylus pen, there are so many features you can explore with this pen.
The call quality on both devices is excellent.
All the communication features are present on both devices.

Verdict

Both of the devices produce excellent functionality. We can’t degrade any of the two devices, both of them are packed with features but the Note 5 performs a little better than iPhone in almost all the fields. At the end of the day you can choose either of the handsets and you won’t regret your decision.