Samsung to launch Galaxy Note 5 in August to pre-empt iPhone 6S

[HEXUS]

The WSJ says that a major US city will host the Note 5 launch event weeks before IFA.

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[3dcandy]

Hopes for a removable battery and MicroSD slot

[EvZ_2]

Hopes for a removable battery and MicroSD slot

Indeed - I bought the Note 4 for thees reasons and the larger screen of course Hopefully Samsung can see that's what consumers want - surely S6 sales prove this - customers don't want to pay more for less - unless you're an apple fanboy.

[kellyharding]

Hopes for a removable battery and MicroSD slot

Likewise. Lack of either is a dealbreaker for me and I suspect by the S6 sales a lot of other people.

[wingtit]

I don't mind not having a removable battery, but no SD card slot no deal.

[LSG501]

it might be more useful to actually have stock available on release too.... there have been stock issues (supposedly) with the s6/s6edge

[MrFawlty]

What's the obsession with SD card slots? Android has had limited support for them for ages (lollipop improved things slightly with improved app permissions, but it is still awkward to use)? What bothers me most is the fact that Android flagship phone prices have slowly but surely crept up to iPhone prices. An iPhone is now not the most expensive phone to own, and we all know Apple's profiteering in that regard, so it must mean that Samsung, LG et al are doing the exact same thing now, and no one seems to mind. Grrrr.

[this_is_gav]

What's the obsession with SD card slots? Android has had limited support for them for ages (lollipop improved things slightly with improved app permissions, but it is still awkward to use)? What bothers me most is the fact that Android flagship phone prices have slowly but surely crept up to iPhone prices. An iPhone is now not the most expensive phone to own, and we all know Apple's profiteering in that regard, so it must mean that Samsung, LG et al are doing the exact same thing now, and no one seems to mind. Grrrr.

Agreed. Android SD card support beyond media storage has always been clunky. Android M apparently increases support for SD card support further.

Still, I severely doubt Samsung's sales were barely dented by the lack of an SD card slot. Sure us techies are drawn to such specs, but the Galaxy range has always been the one joe public are drawn to, and I can't name anyone non-techie who uses the SD card slot.

The lack of a swappable battery probably had slightly more impact, but I still doubt it was the main reason. By the sounds of it they just underestimated how many would opt for the S6 Edge over the regular version, and the ensuing stock issues were the real issue.

[pinkpound]

The Note series is aimed at the more techie... The use of new memory for samsung phones means an sd card is a no go. all well and good but 64gb or 128 gb note 5 will be very over priced compared to me buying a 128gb sd card.
If true that's me gone from samsung..and I've had a lot of sammys

[crossy]

What's the obsession with SD card slots? Android has had limited support for them for ages (lollipop improved things slightly with improved app permissions, but it is still awkward to use)? What bothers me most is the fact that Android flagship phone prices have slowly but surely crept up to iPhone prices. An iPhone is now not the most expensive phone to own, and we all know Apple's profiteering in that regard, so it must mean that Samsung, LG et al are doing the exact same thing now, and no one seems to mind. Grrrr.

I think "obsession" is a bit strong, probably more accurate to say that it figures high on the list of most-buyers "must haves". And why ... that's easy to explain. The price differential between a 32GB Samsung S6 and the 64GB model is just over £75. Yet, the same retailer sells a 32GB Sandisk Micro SD card for less than a third of that. And that's assuming that the larger storaged models were even available - which hasn't been the case in the past, so if you couldn't fit your apps, photos and music collection in 16GB then you were, well, "X out of luck" as Dirty Harry said.

You're correct that pricing has crept upwards, and while this'll win me no kudos with the iPhone fans (like peterb) the cause of that is Apple. I've read a couple of articles that have agreed that Apple's "premium" pricing has now influenced the market to such an extent that a £300 smartphone is now firmly pidgeon-holed as "midrange" despite whatever specs it may have. And where Apple have lead, Samsung have followed, and with those two upping their pricing, others have been forced to follow. If you're going to say that this is moronic then I'll agree, but with a fashion-lead item like a high-end smartphone, common sense doesn't seem to apply...

By the way, as an LG owner I'm not convinced that LG is as guilty - since the G4 is £60 cheaper than the S6, although I'll note that HTC have also priced their M9 around the same £500ish price point as Samsung. So honourable mention for LG (in my books at least) for not necessarily following the herd up the price mountain.

[TooNice]

Agreed. Android SD card support beyond media storage has always been clunky.

And media storage is exactly why I want SD cards.

[semo]

If there's an obsession about anything, it is about thinness and ever larger screens. Removable battery and SD slots are practical features despite Google's attempts convince all its customers otherwise. Samsung is notorious for having a plethora of smartphone models and they should have used that to their advantage. They started off that way with the Alpha series but then decided to nerf their S flagships... what was the point of that? They should have given the A series all the eyecandy and left the S range a polycarbonate powerhouse

I have nothing against the anti-SD crowd, but I see no reason why there should be no choice. The S6 has very fast internal flash storage. Great for apps, wasted on media.

[mikerr]

The Note series is aimed at the more techie... The use of new memory for samsung phones means an sd card is a no go. all well and good but 64gb or 128 gb note 5 will be very over priced compared to me buying a 128gb sd card.

Got a link to more about "new memory" and why it makes SD card a no go ?

[crossy]

If there's an obsession about anything, it is about thinness and ever larger screens. Removable battery and SD slots are practical features despite Google's attempts convince all its customers otherwise. ... I have nothing against the anti-SD crowd, but I see no reason why there should be no choice. The S6 has very fast internal flash storage. Great for apps, wasted on media.

Some cynics have argued that Google's complete farce with Kitkat & SD cards was a deliberate (i.e. with malice aforethought) attempt to convince buyers that external memory was bad. Personally I don't believe that they (Google) are that Machiavellian, nor that organized to be honest.

Remember reading an article by Jerry Hildenbrand over at Android Central. Jerry is firmly in the "SD is bad" camp and some of his arguments were:
1. Putting in SD slots etc means extra engineering - so the phone is thicker, takes longer to come out, and is more expensive;
2. SD support in Android is clunky - you've basically got two distinct areas to deal with, phone memory and external;
3. SD data access is slower than internal storage;
4. Data stored on SD is less secure, because it has to use vfat/exfat filesystems which don't support proper per-app access control;
5. It's unnecessary since everyone streams videos & music and uses cloud storage;
6. It's pointless because everyone just buys a card when they get the phone and the only time that gets removed is when they sell the phone.

My personal opinion on these points is:
1. Seriously? The only people who'll even notice that extra mm or two are the marketing folks;
2. Yes, it's clunky. But folks have deal with C, D, E, etc drives on their PC's, so why should a smartphone be any different?
3. True, but is it slow enough to make a difference? I'd argue that - with modern flash cards - the throughput of a card is good enough for anything you're likely to want to store on it;
4. True, but then again if #6 is true then why couldn't ext4 (or similar) be used instead? If the phone's presenting it's storage as a simulated flash drive to a PC the where's the issue? Heck, ext4 and it's ilk are open source, so it'd be surely possible to do some kind of ext4 utility for Windows (I'm guessing that OS X already supports ext4);
5. Yes you can stream your content, if you've got a streaming music service AND a good data allowance (preferably AYCE) AND you're in an area of data coverage. On the other hand I just load up my S3/G3 with an SD card full of AAC's, switch it to flight mode and just use the on-board utils. A decent SD card capacity costs less than a years Spotify Premium or Play Music subscription;
6. Also true to an extent, but there's always the ABILITY to upgrade, or even transfer the card between devices, moving your photos, videos, music simply and easily when you upgrade your phone.

There's also the incidental advantages. That SD card can have a backup saved to it and removed if you're doing something "tech" to your phone. Or - heaven forbid - supposing you drop your phone. The photos etc stored in internal memory are unavailable until, or rather "if", your phones fixed. On the other hand, there's a good chance that a tiny Micro SD card would survive a fall/dunking/etc.

And I'm sure that there's other good arguments for it too.

[pinkpound]

Got a link to more about "new memory" and why it makes SD card a no go ?[/QUOTE]

Have a read @ the update @ bottom of page

http://www.sammobile.com/2015/07/07/expecting-the-galaxy-note-5-to-have-a-microsd-slot-dont/


does shed some doubt on a sd card been included .If no sdcard I'm out

[big_hairy_rob]

5. Yes you can stream your content, if you've got a streaming music service AND a good data allowance (preferably AYCE) AND you're in an area of data coverage. On the other hand I just load up my S3/G3 with an SD card full of AAC's, switch it to flight mode and just use the on-board utils. A decent SD card capacity costs less than a years Spotify Premium or Play Music subscription;

Totally with you here. I don't have a massive data allowance, nor do I want to pay a premium for going over, or increasing it. I take a lot of photos, so streaming them all would be too data heavy, not to mention battery heavy. I'd much rather have increased storage availability of an SD Card, especially as the cards can be swapped for totally different situations (one full of music, one full of videos, one empty for photos).

Also don't knock the battery drain that constrant streaming creates....