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Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Review
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May 30, 2025
Dave Taylor of http://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ gets some hands on time with the new Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and finds it a great device that offers all the capabilities of an Android smartphone with the addition of a gorgeous 5.7" screen and the surprisingly fun and useful s-pen stylus. But, there are some things that Samsung changed from the Note 4 that are worth discussing too...
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hi Dave Taylor here again and this time
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I want to talk about a Samsung device
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this is the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and
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it's a beauty it has a nice bright 5.7
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in screen that you can see here and
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that's running at 2560 by 1440 so that's
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actually better resolution than a lot of
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the laptops we look at nowadays and it's
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just this little thing that fits in your
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pocket the coolest thing about the note
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though is the whole note series is
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differentiated by having ready for this
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a stylus now you think okay a stylus
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whatever turns out it's really fun let
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me show you let me bring up a memo here
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and so here I am and I can just write
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directly on the screen so I can take
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notes really efficiently and I realize
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you probably can't see that very well
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sorry um I can take notes really
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efficiently but it's also fun for
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sketches and doodles if you're an
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architect I suppose you could do
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architectural drawings on it but more
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importantly it just makes another way to
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interact with your device which I find
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really fun um oops let's get that in the
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right way and it's other than that the
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Note 5 is really an amazing piece of
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technology so it has the S Pen has 2,000
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plus different sensitivity levels and it
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actually reacts to the angle you hold it
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at too a assuming the software is
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written to do that um has a 16 megapixel
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rear-facing camera so that's this guy
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and a 5 megapixel front-facing camera
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both of those very nice and it has this
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and I I want to get this right it has a
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Samsung exos
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7420 octacore 64-bit processor so this
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is an 8 core processor inside this
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little device again that's better than a
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lot of the notebooks that get come
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through here now it also has a couple of
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other neat things which other Samsung
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users are already aware of including
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something called Sid sync which lets you
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basically mirror your phone on your
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computer get notifications Etc right now
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that's Windows only but Samsung said the
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Macintosh version's coming soon we'll
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keep our fingers crossed for that it
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also supports Samsung pay with
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fingerprint security and just in the
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interest of showing you the resolution
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again let's just moments there are very
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crazy moments and there's a don't want
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to play too much of this l i get into
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issues with copyright so that was from
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The Walking Dead on AMC but I mean
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really really this is perfect for like
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on an airplane or something cuz it's
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just a nice compact little unit and it's
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a phone I mean I really really like this
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now for people that have the Note 4 or
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previous generations of the note it's
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worth observing that there's a couple of
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things that Samsung did here on the Note
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5 there are a little surprising the
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first one is the Design's definitely
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different I like it better it's more of
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a square solid design the older one had
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sort of a curved back with a leather
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this is more of a um metal or glass back
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um they say it's glass I'm not sure I
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believe that but hey whatever um much
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more importantly is that you can't take
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the back off on the Note 4 you could pop
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off the back and get to the battery on
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this one it is solid you do not actually
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have the opportunity to do that so
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really it's kind of like Samsung getting
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in with everyone else in the industry um
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the other thing is that the previous
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generations also had the ability to have
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you put in a Micro SD card as external
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or additional storage this one that
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feature's gone so there are definitely
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some users that are complaining about
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that but I have to say I wonder how many
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of those users that are complaining
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about it actually used it and how many
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people are complaining about it cuz it's
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just fun to complain about things so
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nonetheless you know if this is
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something that's an issue to you it's
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definitely worth knowing um what else
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let's see so even though we're now
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entering the world of 4K video the Note
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5 records 1080p HD video not 4K video
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again I don't think that's an issue but
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some people have said that that's
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something they're concerned about and
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then the other thing that's a little
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surprising since there's actually more
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interior space because of the design
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changes is this now has a 3,000 milliamp
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hour battery whereas the Note 4 had a
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3200 milliamp hour battery now Samsung
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says oh well we've redesigned all the
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circuits lower power longer battery life
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um try it out your experiences may vary
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again online people are sort of unsure
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some people say that they have less
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battery life than the Note 4 other
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people say that it works great for them
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and has long battery life um the thing
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is it has a really nice feel and the
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stylus and stuff make it really cool the
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screen blows me away this is just this
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just beautiful beautiful screen and I
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love their use of these strong colors
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the purples and the blues so how much is
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it so on AT&T this 32 gig Sapphire black
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which I guess refers to the back color
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um Note 5 runs 249 with a 2-year
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contract or if you don't want a contract
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ready this is I mean sit down for this
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one it's 739 bucks without a contract
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that's a lot of money for a cell phone
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so you can understand why people are
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still doing the contract thing either
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way this is really one of the most
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beautiful one of the most capable and
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one of the nicest smartphones that I've
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seen in a long time looking at different
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devices and this is one of the first
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devices where I could really see myself
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switching away from my iPhone 6 and
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using this instead so Samsung well done
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and if you're looking for a large screen
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smartphone that has this additional
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feature of the the stylus then you might
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be surprised go and check out the Note 5
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from Samsung it might just be your next
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cell phone this is Dave Taylor and I'll
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see you in my next video
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