Now that Apple has made styluses, sorry, pens, cool again with the iPad Pro, I'd be interested to hear how many of you actually use one. That is, for general tasks, driving your mobile device, and not just for specialised things like graphics work?
I've had the new Samsung GalaxyGalaxy Note 5 for a couple of weeks now, and can totally see the value of the stubby little clickable S-Pen. The stylus makes it easy to select text for copying for instance, moving the cursor around on the screen, navigating the phone.
It does all that without leaving finger smudges as well, which I really, really like. I've even been practicing handwriting more neatly than I normally do to help the character recognition figure out what it is that I actually want to say when scribbling on the Galaxy Note 5 - it works pretty well, with a bit of patience.
Despite that, I hardly ever popped out the S-Pen from its hiding place at the bottom of the Galaxy Note 5, and instead used my fingers to poke at the Samsung phablet. (When I do use the S-Pen, I take great care not to put it back in "butt first" as Android Central wrote (http://tinyurl.com/opd5c9h) because it'll get stuck in its holder and ruin the Galaxy Note 5.)
Clicking on the S-Pen while reading boring work emails is great, but I have to remind myself that there's a stylus in the Galaxy Note 5 and actually use it. That makes me wonder if it is worth getting the Note 5 over the Galaxy S6 edge+ which has almost identical specifications, but which weighs 18 gram less - a quick look around in online shops reveal that the Galaxy Note 5 can be had for the same price as the S6 edge+ or even a little less, so the S-Pen doesn't add a premium at least.
Samsung's software notices when you pull out the S-Pen and starts up stylus-specific apps to write and draw with, and they generally work well.
Having said all the above, Galaxy Note 5 is a very nice device indeed: it's well-built and designed, and sits nicely in my hands with a 5.7-inch display. My review unit came in a beautiful blue metallic case which is apparently not available in all markets.
That display is Samsung's excellent AMOLED screen, 2560 by 1440 pixel resolution, and 518 pixels-per-inch density.
Samsung's thrown a lot high-end hardware into the Galaxy Note 5, including an eight-core (well, it's actually 4x4) processor, four gigabytes of memory and up to 64 gigabytes of storage.
Add to that fast Category 6 LTE 4G which is theoretically capable of 300 megabit/s downloads, and those in the Google Android camp have a very powerful little device to consider.
My favourite feature was the very good camera with a bright, f/1.9 aperture lens, 16 megapixel resolution, optical image stabilisation and 4K video capability.
I decided to leave the heavy and hefty DSLR camera with lenses at home on a recent Singapore trip, and use Galaxy Note 5 to take pictures with instead; it did not disappoint: images look fantastic, and the extra resolution means you can crop into objects far away.
Photo / Juha Saarinen (taken with a Samsung Galaxy Note 5).
The Galaxy Note 5 camera software comes with a Pro mode that gives you lots of control and RAW plus JPEG files, but the plethora of buttons are difficult to use while trying to compose a shot. Luckily, the auto mode works pretty well in most cases.
Photo / Supplied
The 4K video is a mixed bag though. Yes, the added resolution looks great but when you switch to 4K, you lose image stabilisation and tracking auto-focus. Those two features become unavailable in 1920 by 1080 HD at 60 frames per second, and are only available one at the time in HD 30fps, which is a shame.
Shooting in 4K also heats up the Galaxy Note 5, making it uncomfortable to hold. You can only shoot 4K for five minutes maximum, probably because of the heat. Overall, the Galaxy Note 5 is a slick device that's also fast performer - and it looks like you can buy it around the $1,200-$1,300 mark which while not cheap is a good bit less than the new Apple iPhones.
Do you need the S-Pen though? I'm not sure, and remain a stylus-sceptic for now. Maybe if I had the Galaxy Note 5 for longer I'd get more used to the S-Pen and use it more often but for now, I'm making side-eyes at its curved screen cousin the Galaxy S6 edge+ instead.
