Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note 5: Reviews

Samsung’s new handsets are designed to enjoy cellular download speeds faster than those available on the NBN.

Samsung have announced local availability of its new powerhouse Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ handsets which are designed to enjoy cellular download speeds faster than those available on the NBN.

Pre-orders begin at 4pm today and the handsets are expected to go on sale on September 4. They will cost more than $1000 each.

The Note 5 with 32 GB of storage in black sapphire and gold platinum will sell for $1099. The S6 edge+ plus with 32 GB of storage in black sapphire and white pearl will cost $1199. The same phone with 64 GB of storage will sell for $1299.

The Galaxy S6 edge+. Picture: Getty

In terms of technology innovation, the most exciting feature is an ability to broadcast directly from each handset to YouTube Live, a feature that promises great quality on Australia’s new aggregated cellular networks with claimed speeds of up to 450 megabits per second.

To begin a broadcast is easy. You head to the camera app, and click a button just as you would to take a photo.

Last week, Telstra confirmed that both Samsung phones would be compatible with its 4GX (cat 9) network, which will operate in selected 4GX areas.

“This is all possible because back in May 2015, we activated the world’s first mobile network infrastructure bringing together 700 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz spectrum,” said Telstra networks group managing director Mike Wright.

“This 4G super-highway on our 4GX service is capable of network speeds of up to 450 Mbps,” he said.

Mr Wright said Telstra planned to offer both Samsung phones along with the world’s first Cat 9 mobile broadband Wi-Fi device produced by Netgear. The Netgear device would go on sale in the “next couple of months”, he said.

The Galaxy S6 edge+ features a revised fingerprint recognition system.

Optus also has experimented with 4G carrier aggregation claiming download speeds up to 480 Mbps.

These speeds are well over the 100 Mbps provided through the NBN, however cellular speeds can easily fall short of expectations and can rapidly drop as the number of network users increases. We’ll have to wait and see.

Both Samsung phones sport some attractive new features.

Samsung has minimised the width of both phones despite their large 5.7-inch display. On the Note 5, you can write on the screen with the S Pen stylus even when the display is off and the phone is in standby mode. What you scribble is saved in S Memo.

And you can annotate PDFs on the fly. So if you are sent a PDF-based document to sign, you can add your signature and send it back while on the go.

Both have Samsung’s revised fingerprint recognition system and Samsung claims a 30 per cent improvement in the speed of wireless charging, compare to the S6.

Neither have slots for a microSD card, and you can’t swap batteries as they are non-removable.

Samsung argues that users are storing more information in the cloud, including their music collections, and have less need of vast amounts of in-phone storage. And better power management means there’s no need to swap batteries in and out.

Samsung Pay could debut in Australia next year.

Still, if you are travelling around remote parts of Australia, being able to swap in a charged battery is an advantage.

Both phones feature a powerful 8-core 64-bit Samsung processor, 4 GB of RAM, a large 16 megapixel rear facing camera with optical image stabilisation, and a 5 megapixel front facing snapper.

Both have large 3000 mAh fast charging batteries, Near Field Communication — the protocol used with mobile payments, and use Google’s Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system.