Will the Note 5 have removable battery and storage?

[deparson]

IAlso, many people buy these phones on a contract. 299 on a 2 year plan make it less of a pill to swallow then 900.

$299 + $20 (extra each month vs. Edge) x 24 = $799.

 

[rushmore]

True, but even so, the first look of the phone without a case is usually appealing to a lot of people, even if they would put a case. I know me personally, because I love the way the S6 looks, I get a clear case instead of one covering the beauty of the phone.

Plus, its Gorilla Glass, so it is durable to some extent

Very true the initial appeal. Gorilla glass though makes spider web cracks when dropped. It is very scratch resistant, but not very crack resistant. Quite a few iPhone and S6 owners know this by reluctant experience.

 

[rushmore]

What if the Note 5 has no removable battery and microSD slot, but Samsung releases a Note 5 Edge to coincide with it WITH both features (just to push their Edge product line)??

Samsung did say they would focus marketing on the Edge... That would be a head scratcher.

 

[rushmore]

I think many people here are overestimating how passionate the masses are about these issues. The lionshare of people who use these devices aren't as rabid as we are.

There are more people that will buy the device then gripe on these forums. I'm not convinced that removable storage and batteries are big enough issues to sway sales one way or another.


I'm a power user. Removable storage isn't much of a starter for me. As long as battery life is sufficient which it should be with the 7420, lollipop and 4100mah I don't care about a replaceable battery.

Also, many people buy these phones on a contract. 299 on a 2 year plan make it less of a pill to swallow then 900.

Not with Verizon they won't. One big nasty pill, or many miserable tiny ones now.

 

[jlost]

well with Verizon not doing the 2 year contracts anymore, that pill will be ok as you have no choice.

 

[bigbuc]

I, and others here, got excited about the acknowledged rumors (we acknowledged that they were just rumors). then everything seemed to vaporize.
I came to Samsung with the Note 1 for the big screen. A year later I bought the note 2, then the note 3 (I wasn't willing to pay for the note 4, same size screen just a few upgrades, effectively a note 3 with a little better resolution and faster processor)
now, possibly, many features are going away in the note 5. it's not just a note 4 with a better (hoped for bigger) screen and faster processor. it's losing features we are accustomed to.
All this for close to a $ grand $.
then, in my case, I see the Motorola X pure edition/style.
faster than the note 4, better screen... sealed battery, but SD card, at about half the price.
looks? it is going to be in a protective case and a tempered glass screen protector. they're all going to look the same. ok, some will be zebra striped silly, but rarely does someone go naked.
The choice is not between Samsung and apple.
Most of us who are possibly passing on a stripped down note will stay with android.
since my alternative (the X pure) is half price, I can see what happens with the note 6 next year. heck, let's see what happens with windows 10 phones, if it's got a file mangler I'm going to take a look.
In a couple of days we'll know for sure what the note 5 will have for us. I'm not as excited as I was when the 5.9" rumors were flying, but I'm going to see.

 

[Sammuel1973]

I have changed my mind. I will get the Note 5 or the S6E+ because of the premium look, design, and specs. If after 14 days I don't like either, I can always revert to my current Note 4, which is a still a great phone; I have 2 spare batteries that I actively use with it on a daily basis.

 

[anon8380037]

I like the look of the Moto X Style, the top and bottom curves especially, in the right colour and materials.
The Note 5 is minutely improved in those particular edged areas, but the front is same 'ol.

If I have the money to buy outright, I would pay the equivalent of say $100 - 150 extra to get the Super Amoled screen of the Note 5, as I am perhaps over worried about the Moto X led brightness.
Though if the battery were only 3000 I would adapt to the X Style screen (or the 1080p Play available here), as I have tried to with a Moto G.


If the Note 5 has the worst spec we all feared, and nothing special only short - term gimmicky on the software front - I will be curious to see how the launch people and later some reviewers will try to gloss over these and make it seem the greatest thing.
They will be preaching to the 90% who don't know or care about such things I guess.

 

[rushmore]

Whatever the case, all points have been conveyed and regardless, the posts are not going to get either feature on the Note 5. We are close to the point it seems to just let folks that buy the device post their experience and rubes like me to just fade away. About a 99% chance both features are gone and 100% the battery feature is.

Enjoy your Note 5

Follow-up in a few-ish months to see how things are panning out with sales. Real consumer sales and not retail inventory load-in like Sam did with the S6

 

[Adawg1203]

Whatever the case, all points have been conveyed and regardless, the posts are not going to get either feature on the Note 5. We are close to the point it seems to just let folks that buy the device post their experience and rubes like me to just fade away. About a 99% chance both features are gone and 100% the battery feature is.

Enjoy your Note 5

Follow-up in a few-ish months to see how things are panning out with sales. Real consumer sales and not retail inventory load-in like Sam did with the S6

What are sales going to prove or show? Does the Note 5 have to outsell previous models to prove its a good device? Aren't there great devices that have never been top selling?

My apologies if I'm missing the point.

 

[monsieurms]

What are sales going to prove or show?

It will show whether Samsung made a big mistake in ignoring consumer desires by eliminating valued features, which marketing issue is the subject of much of this thread and similar ongoing ones. That in turn may dictate whether Samsung does an about face or we begin looking for another vendor.

 

[bigjunior45]

I honestly don't see the big problem about the Note losing the SD function and removable battery. Before I went to the iPhone 4, I had the Motorola Droid X and the Samsung Fascinate and I always lost or misplaced my SD cards. I have the iPhone 6+ now with the 128GB feature. I have over 3,700+ photos, 140+ videos, 4 movies and 350+ songs and I'm like 30%-35% from reaching the maximum capacity.

Also with the in closed battery not only is Samsung going in this direction but other companies are too such as HTC, Motorola, Apple, and Windows. LG will soon follow suit and I think a lot of people should just accept that.

 

[rushmore]

What are sales going to prove or show? Does the Note 5 have to outsell previous models to prove its a good device? Aren't there great devices that have never been top selling?

My apologies if I'm missing the point.

That their feature omissions impact sales.

 

[mclarryjr]

I'm sure Samsung has and always will closely monitor their sales numbers. Even if sales slip a bit there's no way of telling at least in our eyes if that's directly related to removing those features. Samsung will have a better idea of why those numbers are slipping if they do. However if they add these features back next year after slow sales I'd completely agree that's the reason for their soft sales.

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

 

[bizguru]

I'm another for whom this is a deal breaker. My S4 is plenty sleek, durable and functional. Had no reason to go to the S5, and refused to go to the S6 because of its iPhone-ization. Now I am interested in a Note, and it will be a Note 4 if the 5 has no removable battery or storage. I suppose that I'll save a bit of money that way, but come on, Samsung. Keep these valuable features of previous versions and MAKE me spend the extra bucks on a Note 5!

 

[anon8380037]

If the sales figures match or exceed the Note 4, or their expectations for the Note 5 -

Samsung will not know or be bothered that virtually none of those sales come from previous Note devotees.

Likewise if the sales figures do not reach anywhere near their minimum targets, they will look at failures of aesthetic design, Notes losing their appeal with so many 5.5" plus screens available for less money, their pricing policy, failure rates, - countless things.

At this stage :
they - are - not - bringing - back - sd cards - or removable - batteries - next - year! {except on cheap end devices}

Boeing have not reintroduced propellers on transatlantic jets. (well they did long ago kind of with HBP/UHBP engines)

 

[BarryH_GEG]

What a strange thread. Rarely do you see so many experts in consumer behavior, mobile industry dynamics, and predictive analysis in one place.

Some food for thought...

• High end (non-Apple) devices are in trouble no matter who makes them because, in Android's case, the mid-tier h/w has gotten so acceptable that the value proposition of buying a "flagship" becomes questionable. Especially when the s/w does the same thing across the board.
  
  
• A bunch of armchair quarterbacks here have declared the S6 a failure because it undersold the S5. Many attribute that proclaimed failure to the non-removable battery and lack of expandable storage. With high-end devices tanking regardless of manufacturer who's to say with certainty whether S6 sales would have tanked further if not for the radical h/w revisions Samsung introduced? Meaning, the glass/metal construction and omission of external storage and a removable battery may have left Samsung in a better place than a more traditional revamp would have.
  
  
• The Note 5 won't sell as well as the Note 4. As the highest of the high-end, one wouldn't expect it to based on the way the smartphone market is striating. When the Note(s) first came out they owned the phablet category. That category is now 15% of the market and saturated with choices across a wide range of price points. There's even a quite good Apple phablet. That said, whatever Note 5 sales end up being, that number just needs to meet Samsung's adjusted for reality expectations. And no one here can without doubt assign a certain amount of lost sales specifically to the absence of expandable storage and a non-removable battery.

As for me, I used to be one of the biggest advocates for expandable storage and removable batteries. I'm still pro-SD card but I'll be fine with a 64GB Note 4 and the speed of the inbuilt NAND is a huge get compared to r/w's off an external card. I could care less about the removable battery. The speed at which my Note 4 charges renders the issue mute. I'll get a wireless charging pad for my office and home and without a jumble of USB cables always keep my Note 5 "topped up." I'll miss the IR blaster but Samsung killed off their remote app for it anyway. Outside of those three things you get Exynos 7422 which should be truly impressive both performance and battery usage wise, a great new sleek and premium design, updated Samsung apps (EG: S Note), and the "instant start" 16MP camera from the S6. I'll be more than happy with the trade-offs. For those that aren't, there are plenty of other choices out there that may better hit your feature/value hot buttons. Buy what makes you happy but know your individual happiness doesn't represent the masses for which many here feel they speak.

 

[atakin77]

I think the lack of a battery and SD card might have had some impact to the S6 sales, but I think a bigger driver to that was the larger screens on the iPhone 6 and 6 plus. I think Samsung underestimated the number of users who preferred an iPhone but were using an android device mainly due to screen size.

For me personally, the battery is a big issue.

 

[anon8380037]

What a strange thread. Rarely do you see so many experts in consumer behavior, mobile industry dynamics, and predictive analysis in one place.

Some food for thought...

• High end (non-Apple) devices are in trouble no matter who makes them because, in Android's case, the mid-tier h/w has gotten so acceptable that the value proposition of buying a "flagship" becomes questionable. Especially when the s/w does the same thing across the board.
  
  
• A bunch of armchair quarterbacks here have declared the S6 a failure because it undersold the S5. Many attribute that proclaimed failure to the non-removable battery and lack of expandable storage. With high-end devices tanking regardless of manufacturer who's to say with certainty whether S6 sales would have tanked further if not for the radical h/w revisions Samsung introduced? Meaning, the glass/metal construction and omission of external storage and a removable battery may have left Samsung in a better place than a more traditional revamp would have.
  
  
• The Note 5 won't sell as well as the Note 4. As the highest of the high-end, one wouldn't expect it to based on the way the smartphone market is striating. When the Note(s) first came out they owned the phablet category. That category is now 15% of the market and saturated with choices across a wide range of price points. There's even a quite good Apple phablet. That said, whatever Note 5 sales end up being, that number just needs to meet Samsung's adjusted for reality expectations. And no one here can without doubt assign a certain amount of lost sales specifically to the absence of expandable storage and a non-removable battery.

As for me, I used to be one of the biggest advocates for expandable storage and removable batteries. I'm still pro-SD card but I'll be fine with a 64GB Note 4 and the speed of the inbuilt NAND is a huge get compared to r/w's off an external card. I could care less about the removable battery. The speed at which my Note 4 charges renders the issue mute. I'll get a wireless charging pad for my office and home and without a jumble of USB cables always keep my Note 5 "topped up." I'll miss the IR blaster but Samsung killed off their remote app for it anyway. Outside of those three things you get Exynos 7422 which should be truly impressive both performance and battery usage wise, a great new sleek and premium design, updated Samsung apps (EG: S Note), and the "instant start" 16MP camera from the S6. I'll be more than happy with the trade-offs. For those that aren't, there are plenty of other choices out there that may better hit your feature/value hot buttons. Buy what makes you happy but know your individual happiness doesn't represent the masses for which many here feel they speak.

I'm glad you recognised I'm the only true expert and genius here, but let's keep it to ourselves as the rest here have delusional issues.

 

[Junior_good_grief]

The note 5 doesnt have a removable back or battery the back of the device is glass and it actually looks like a s6 edge flipped upside down. The back of the device has a slight curve inward to the hand. Also the stlyus is not "self ejecting" as rumored it actually clicks in and clicks out with pressure. Also the S6 edge+ is very much the same phone with added software features where the people edge is if you slide your finger over it once more you will be able to add 5 frequently used apps. the has some new tweaks also like live broadcast and minor changes. I work for a cell phone provider and the device was shown off by a samsung rep kept very quiet.