Great choice staying away from iPhone, haha!
To be honest it all comes down to personal preference and requirement I think when it comes to choosing between a Note or an S series.
I myself have a Note 4 which I find VERY useful as a student as it allows me to freely multi-task, with an S Pen, and do my work on the go. As well as this, the feature of action memo & S note is also something that I find very useful when it comes to jotting things down quickly - albeit in the class or when I'm out. In the beginning the Note 4 felt slightly big but it's something you can quickly adapt to.
Now in terms of getting an S6 o S7, I would definitely go for the S6! I personally think that it's a waste of money paying for the S7 as in my eyes all I see is that they've added an SD card slot in to the S7 which the S6 lacked. But then again I don't know much details about the S series to judge - that's just my personal opinion.
All in all, I would go for the Note 5 if I were you as it is a very practical phone crammed with very useful, excellent features!