Review of Samsung Ultimate Test Drive

[Tig Bitties]

Reading all these iPhone users, popping their cherries on their first Android device 🙂 But so sad that their first experience is with Touchjizz. It's like getting banged for the first time, by the creepy big guy.

I bet if these same iPhone users had their first shot at a stock vanilla GPE Note 5, it would be a radically different story. Stock Android is beautiful, stock Android is super fast and fluid, stock Android is good looking, and artistic.

Touchwizz, ugh 🙁

I will say HTC's Sense UI is the 2nd best out there after stock Android. Sense is actually super fast and very smooth, doesn't take up a crap load of space, and a million times nicer than Touchwiz. Too bad HTC is shooting themselves, with the lackluster One M9, hopeful they can get a out nice product again this Winter / Spring.

 

[Cam Johnson]

I find it sad that I feel this phone stutter with all the power under the hood. I wish I could root it and put on pure android. I think my thoughts would be way better.

 

[mclld]

yeah TW is meh but stock isnt cutting it either, I have to install Nova to get some basic functionality that stock android will not provide

 

[Cam Johnson]

yeah TW is meh but stock isnt cutting it either, I have to install Nova to get some basic functionality that stock android will not provide

One thing that sucks is texting a picture. It is downsized and sent in crappy pixelated form. This is 2015, and the stock messaging app doesn't allow even semi-decent pics to come through. Maybe I'm unlucky, and others have better luck, but every picture I send and receive is compressed to 30 kb. what the heck? I don't want to download a 3rd party app to do the work of a simple messaging app... (especially cause all of the big ones have crappy reviews as of late of a lot of crashing).

 

[mclld]

I use textra and it is great, it has never crashed on me, I think app crashing and lagging is a boogeyman most ios only users think is right under beds everywhere. Not saying it doesnt happen to some but hyperbole imo

 

[gotluck]

One thing that sucks is texting a picture. It is downsized and sent in crappy pixelated form. This is 2015, and the stock messaging app doesn't allow even semi-decent pics to come through. Maybe I'm unlucky, and others have better luck, but every picture I send and receive is compressed to 30 kb. what the heck? I don't want to download a 3rd party app to do the work of a simple messaging app... (especially cause all of the big ones have crappy reviews as of late of a lot of crashing).

You're going to have to get over the aversion to third party apps if you're going to use android, just the way it is. There's an app for that

 

[Cam Johnson]

You're going to have to get over the aversion to third party apps if you're going to use android, just the way it is. There's an app for that

That sucks. Is this normal for the messaging app then or am I just SOL? I'll download an app if needed, just think it's kinda sad.

 

[mclld]

Download the Google Rewards app, I have gotten 15-20 bucks in Google Play credit from it

 

[gotluck]

That sucks. Is this normal for the messaging app then or am I just SOL? I'll download an app if needed, just think it's kinda sad.

I think whatsapp is among the best for images just something that uses raw data not mms, or you could use something like pushbullet.

Mms with Google messenger has been good enough for me, but it definitely compresses.

 

[grkm3]

One thing that sucks is texting a picture. It is downsized and sent in crappy pixelated form. This is 2015, and the stock messaging app doesn't allow even semi-decent pics to come through. Maybe I'm unlucky, and others have better luck, but every picture I send and receive is compressed to 30 kb. what the heck? I don't want to download a 3rd party app to do the work of a simple messaging app... (especially cause all of the big ones have crappy reviews as of late of a lot of crashing).

I have no issues with mms or pics on stock Samsung app.

They look sharp and uncompressed.

PS the searching for service is the phone getting a new prl from the nearest towers to get you the best signal.

#twins!

 

[runtohell121]

Cameras- the note has an amazing front facing camera and great software to go along with it. The back is good too and has vibrant colors, but I feel that they are too extreme and not realistic. The iPhone stays truer to life, but is lower quality. I'd say the iPhone wins for the back camera but overall I'd say the note wins.

Bloatware-. I also felt there was too much bloatware from both my carrier and samsung. I couldn't get all of them off without rooting the device. They could be hidden on the last page but it's still annoying. IOS does the same thing but it's not as bad. Less apps and they are easier to hide. To me iPhone wins here.

Battery life- the note battery compared to a 6+ is honestly quite pathetic. Even with power mode on the note seemed to drop much faster doing the same things I did on the iphone. Texting, playing a few games, facebook, and playing around. I could do all that and finish my day at 60%+ in normal battery mode on thee 6+. I get to the end of the day and have to plug in the note. iOS with its optimized software and hardware wins here.

Camera, the color is vibrant, but if you transfer the photo to your iPhone (via text, email, etc.), it is not actually that vibrant. It's the screen that is making it look too saturated/vibrant.

Bloatware, you can actually disable most of the app and it won't show up in the app drawer or anything, which is a much better feature than the iPhone that you just stuff it into an "useless" folder.

Battery, you might have to give it a few days before saying which one is better as the phone is still fairly new and need to adjust to your using.

On the other hand, quick charge is amazing... Charge your phone pretty fast when compared to an iPhone.

 

[Robsan3]

Its going to be a long time before we see a battery as good as the 6 plus on another phone, its suppose to increase 1 hour too with IOS9.
Wasn't that long ago everyone was complaining about iPhone battery and rightly so, now its the king.

 

[pappy53]

Same here. I got the confirmation but not the shipping. I also placed the order on Friday. I am looking for ways to contact Samsung for status but I haven't found anything yet.

1-800-578-4452 From 12:00 noon until 9:00 PM Eastern time.

 

[JaySoul]

One thing that sucks is texting a picture. It is downsized and sent in crappy pixelated form. This is 2015, and the stock messaging app doesn't allow even semi-decent pics to come through. Maybe I'm unlucky, and others have better luck, but every picture I send and receive is compressed to 30 kb. what the heck? I don't want to download a 3rd party app to do the work of a simple messaging app... (especially cause all of the big ones have crappy reviews as of late of a lot of crashing).

Google Messenger works fine for texts.

And WhatsApp, which the majority of the entire planet uses is the best messaging platfrom bar none.

 

[Cam Johnson]

I have no issues with mms or pics on stock Samsung app.

They look sharp and uncompressed.

PS the searching for service is the phone getting a new prl from the nearest towers to get you the best signal.

#twins!

View attachment 577478

The pics look fine at that point if I receive them. I like to tap them and open them. At that point they look absolutely horrid.

 

[Cam Johnson]

Camera, the color is vibrant, but if you transfer the photo to your iPhone (via text, email, etc.), it is not actually that vibrant. It's the screen that is making it look too saturated/vibrant.

Bloatware, you can actually disable most of the app and it won't show up in the app drawer or anything, which is a much better feature than the iPhone that you just stuff it into an "useless" folder.

Battery, you might have to give it a few days before saying which one is better as the phone is still fairly new and need to adjust to your using.

On the other hand, quick charge is amazing... Charge your phone pretty fast when compared to an iPhone.

Good point with the camera. It looks amazing on the phone. ;-)

I understand what you mean about the battery and waiting, but it's dramatic the difference. Still yesterday I worked 12 hours. Usually those shifts I can get home with at least 50% (and that's a longer shift for me) on the iPhone. I spent about 2 hours plugged in to the computer tower next to me. I know that's not charging it quickly, but I turned on ultra power saver while plugged in to give it a bit more juice. I had to quick charge when I got home because the battery was about 15% at the end of the day.

Quick charge is awesome. It's needed though with how crappy the battery is. I do love being able to plug it in and be at 50% in like 30 minutes or however long. I wish iPhone could do that.

Bloatware- I went to disable it. I did a factory reset and still have a ton from Google, Verizon, and a few from Samsung. I disabled as much as I could and still have like 15 apps after removing 15 or so. You're right about it being better than iPhone where you can't remove it at all, but it's still a ton of crap.

 

[grkm3]

The pics look fine at that point if I receive them. I like to tap them and open them. At that point they look absolutely horrid.

That's got to be an issue with the sender.when I tap mine they are razor sharp when blown up and these were sent to me by an iPhone so not sure what the issue is.

 

[Cam Johnson]

That's got to be an issue with the sender.when I tap mine they are razor sharp when blown up and these were sent to me by an iPhone so not sure what the issue is.

I thought it was carrier, so I had a friend send me a pic from an iPhone on different carrier. Same issue. I tried another friend with different carrier and a Galaxy S4. Same issue. Tried from my wife with an iPhone on same carrier, same issue.
I did a factory reset on my phone last night. Issue still persists. I wish I could find an answer or fix.

This is my biggest gripe because I do share a lot of pics and have a lot shared with me. :-/

 

[TechnicallyTee]

I cant take this thread seriously because Idk if people are in trolling or what. The phone studders and lags? You must have a bad device because I have experience and most have as well that there is very very very little to no lag.

 

[Cam Johnson]

I cant take this thread seriously because Idk if people are in trolling or what. The phone studders and lags? You must have a bad device because I have experience and most have as well that there is very very very little to no lag.

My stutters when I am texting. The keys don't show up and then all of the sudden they flash quickly as it "catches up". I just did a factory reset and it still does that. I may have a bad device.
I am not trolling, I swear. I've been looking at switching to an android phone for a while as I would like to have more control over the device. This experience (the 2 days) has been pretty sad honestly. Maybe it will get better, but if not I will stick with iPhone for at least another year... :-/

 

[TechnicallyTee]

My stutters when I am texting. The keys don't show up and then all of the sudden they flash quickly as it "catches up". I just did a factory reset and it still does that. I may have a bad device.
I am not trolling, I swear. I've been looking at switching to an android phone for a while as I would like to have more control over the device. This experience (the 2 days) has been pretty sad honestly. Maybe it will get better, but if not I will stick with iPhone for at least another year... :-/

I understand, I just know some people come in here and do that lol. Are you using the stock Samsung keyboard? I know the stock keyboard has some lag here and there. I use Swiftkey and have no lag when typing because typing lag is extremely frustrating. The first thing I do is install Swiftkey and Nova Launcher.

 

[mclld]

Have you tried the google keyboard?

 

[Cam Johnson]

I understand, I just know some people come in here and do that lol. Are you using the stock Samsung keyboard? I know the stock keyboard has some lag here and there. I use Swiftkey and have no lag when typing because typing lag is extremely frustrating. The first thing I do is install Swiftkey and Nova Launcher.

Stock keyboard. I will switch to Swiftkey. And I will for sure check out Nova launcher. I've seen a lot of people mention it! Thanks in advance.

 

[TechnicallyTee]

Stock keyboard. I will switch to Swiftkey. And I will for sure check out Nova launcher. I've seen a lot of people mention it! Thanks in advance.

Yeah, to be honest, this is the first device that I actually didnt need to change to Nova because the stock launcher for once was actually pretty good. But Swiftkey is a must.

 

[Jeremy81]

I cant take this thread seriously because Idk if people are in trolling or what. The phone studders and lags? You must have a bad device because I have experience and most have as well that there is very very very little to no lag.

I haven't had any lag at all. It's literally been the smoothest smartphone I've used. It's worked great for me so far and I've just placed an order for a 64 GB Black Sapphire. I've always found my 6 Plus to be a laggy device and it's been worse for me with the latest public beta. The Note 5 feels like a treat to use coming from that.