With the iPhone 6s being the latest flagship smartphone from Apple and the Galaxy Note 5 being the latest flagship smartphone from Samsung, we decided to compare the two head to head to see which one might be the better device for you. In this video, we’re going to give you 14 reasons why the iPhone 6s Plus is better than the Samsung Galaxy Note 5. Stay tuned for the follow up video where we will give you several reasons why the Galaxy Note 5 is better than the iPhone 6s Plus here on PhoneDog.com.
Since the iPhone 6s Plus is an s model iPhone, it features a very similar design as its predecessor, the iPhone 6 Plus. A lot of the improvements or enhancements are subtle and aren’t terribly visible when you look at the device. for example, it now features a new glass on the front of the device made using a special dual ion exchanged process making it stronger than the Note 5 Gorilla Glass 4 glass cover (at least on paper).
It is also made with 7000-series aluminum, which is the strongest alloy Apple has ever used in an iPhone. Since the Note 5 was constructed with a Gorilla Glass 4 front and back cover, the 7000 aluminum is going to be more durable. And for what it’s worth, the iPhone 6s Plus is thicker than its predecessor coming in at 7.3mm thick but it’s still thinner than the 7.6mm thick Note 5.
Powering on the displays on each device and you will probably be wowed by the Note 5 display and not so much the iPhone 6s Plus’s display. But the iPhone 6s Plus display does have some special perks. Since it is an LCD panel, it is going to be better for outdoor visibility. It’s a smidge brighter. It features dual domain pixels for wide viewing angles and a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating. In addition to all of that, it does feature a full sRGB color standard for accurate colors.
It does also feature a Reachability mode which is ultimately built into the software, that being iOS 9. If you’re trying to use the device one handed, all you have to do is just double tap on the Home button and the display will drop down so you can reach all areas of the display, all areas of content with your thumb.
One feature that the 6s Plus does features that no other smartphone features other than the 6s (of course), is 3D Touch. 3D Touch allows you to peek into content, access additional settings by forcibly pressing on the display. It features a special sensor built under the display to measure exactly how hard you press the display and it works really well and seriously does speed up the way you navigate the device—that is after you learn which app features 3D Touch and whether or not you can take advantage of the 3D Touch options that are presented to you. It is unique to the iPhone so the Note 5 most definitely does not feature any sort of Force Touch functionality. You can long press on stuff but you can’t forcefully touch stuff and trigger a special function unfortunately.
As for the processor and speed, the iPhone 6s Plus features the new Apple A9 chip with an embedded motion co-processor. And on paper and in benchmarks, it is faster than the Note 5 and its impressive Exynos 7420 octa-core processor and 4GB of RAM. In Geekbench 3, it received a single-core score near 2500 and a multi-core score past 4000, nearing 4400. The Note 5 received a single-core score near 1500 but it did receive an impressive multi-core score around 5000.
Both devices feature among the best camera sensors on the market for smartphones. The iPhone 6s Plus, a 12MP camera sensor and the Note 5, a 16MP camera sensor both with Optical Image Stabilization. One neat feature of the iPhone 6s Plus that is unique to the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus is Live Photos. With the use of 3D Touch, you can force touch a picture and it will be animated and give you a 1-second glimpse into the moment the picture was taken. It does take up a bunch of space but it is a pretty neat feature. In addition to that, the 5MP front-facing camera sensor on the iPhone 6s Plus is accompanied with a flash. But the flash is actually just the display which Apple has tuned to go through three times brighter than normal to illuminate your face. It even looks at the color temperature of the scene, similar to how the dual tone flash on the back of the iPhone works. The Galaxy Note 5 does feature a 5MP camera sensor but it doesn’t feature any sort of flash for your selfies and it doesn’t feature Live Photos.
One thing I found surprising between both the iPhone 6s Plus and the Note 5 is that both devices feature smaller batteries than their predecessors. The iPhone 6s Plus features a 2750mAh battery while the Note 5 features a 3000mAh battery. what’s even more surprising is that in my testing, I found the iPhone 6s Plus battery to last me over 6 hours of screen on-time while the Note 5 battery would get me only around 4 hours of screen on-time give or take. As someone who is traditionally more Android-friendly, have had more experience with Android software, I find it impressive to see just how well optimized the software is with the hardware on the iPhone.
And if you’re a worldwide traveler, you might also attracted to the fact that the iPhone 6s Plus features 23 LTE bands, which is the most in any smartphone; more than the Note 5. Whether you go overseas or switch carriers, chances are you’ll be able to connect to an LTE network with very little issues.
So those are 14 reasons why the iPhone 6s Plus is better than the Samsung Galaxy Note 5. If you’re curious as to what makes the Note 5 a better device than the iPhone 6s Plus, stay tuned for part two—the follow up video which should be coming to your sub-boxes here very shortly.
