[Galaxy Note5 General] asrebel:
I took my Note 5 (64GB) back.

It's one of the better engineered devices Samsung has come out with and I loved it for about a week, but ultimately by day 10 I was starting to spend too much time trying to find constant alternatives to normal daily processes I performed on my Note 4. No, it wasn't an easy decision, and yes for awhile I was the guy defending my shiny new purchase. However, after about a week I started to realize it wasn't a productive device for me. In fact, I was spending so much time finding unique workarounds that it starting becoming a time-sucker.

Before you ask, no, I don't keep hundreds of movies or have a library of SD cards. I don't have a FLAC music collection, and I don't travel long distances very often, but I do like to travel a few times a year for leisure. I guess I'm a guy that does a lot of different things with my device, but to be honest I feel that most of these items (with the exception of my car display) are normal functions people perform.

These are some of the issues *I* ran across, but I understand your mileage may vary.

1. The battery life was about the same as my Note 4. For the record, I do have a new OEM battery on my Note 4 and I did a factory reset on it to produce an apples vs. apples comparison. This was ok, but there are a few rare days a month when I'm a power user (usually when I have lots of meetings). Needless to say, after my phone died once towards the end of the day, I ended up being a "wall-hugger / battery-pack junkie" and constantly charging at every opportunity (just to be safe) which just reduces the life of the battery even further (http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries).

I really feel like this situation makes the phone even more of a disposable commodity. To be honest, the one thing Apple does well is customer service and replacing batteries on devices, but I don't have a Samsung store nearby that could (or would) offer me the same customer service, so it's a huge deterrent (even more than an Apple device, which pains me to admit).

2. The storage was becoming a problem. No, I don't have a ton of movies, but yes I do utilize the "UltraViolet" or VUDU free digital copy that comes with most movies today. No, I don't even have 5 movies sync'd, but yes I like to have a couple on standby because I don't always have solid phone reception (like when there is a sporting event or concert and/or the network is stressed) and it can work out well with smaller family members (nieces, etc.)...

...Now I know what some people will say. Just use USB to go or something like that. I strongly considered it as a workaround, but it's far from an elegant solution (as opposed to a hidden sdcard). I also hook my phone directly to my car's navigation display (via MHL on the Note 4, but the Note 5 wasn't supported yet), but regardless I wouldn't have the ports available.

I also had part of my Spotify collection sync'd in their high quality format. Why? Well mostly for my car, but I also take it boating and I don't get reception on the reservoir (nor does anyone else). Needless to say some of what I feel are common functions such as navigation, music, a few movies was eating up space quick and I couldn't keep figuring out workarounds.

For the record: I also use Waze, Kindle, a work e-mail client, Fitbit, and a few other minor apps, but I don't feel I use anything unusual. However, I just kept having to make compromises. I don't need to have more than 1 movie, I can have less songs offline and my friends and family will just have to deal with the repeats, I don't need to have as large of cache on Spotify, I don't need as many books, etc. etc.

Was the Note 5 a better device? In a lot of ways yes, but at the end of the day it wasn't a huge functional improvement. The pen was great and it felt and looked elegant, but ultimately I needed a workhorse not a show pony. A device that I could take to work, home, the gym, family gatherings, etc. without spending time copying stuff down from the cloud , hooking up USB devices, or splitting up my activities into different devices.

The Note 4 is far from perfect, but the bottom line is today I have 1 device that meets my needs and the only "extra" thing I **occasionally** carry with me is a spare battery.

(General Samsung Commentary: I'll be honest, I'm a little disappointed. I feel like Samsung released two (or 3) versions of their Galaxy S6's, and one includes a pen. It's interesting to me that they talked about differentiating their product lines and their more similar than ever before. It's also ironic that Google added more support for SD-Cards in Lollipop and yet Samsung dumped it. What am I going to do? Well, I'm probably going to stand pat with the Note 4, and I'm considering stockpiling a couple. I'm also keeping an eye out for other manufacturers (LG, ASUS, etc.) in the hope that someone releases a true competitor).

#Sorryaboutthegrammar - Long week.