 Every year for the past five years Samsung has released a Galaxy Note and every year I think that I want one. But then I realized that the software is annoying, the hardware is kind of bulky, and the S Pen stylus just isn't as useful as I'd hoped. But now the Note 5 is here and it's happening again. I really like this phone. But can this love really last? If you somehow never heard of the Note, here's the basics. Samsung makes a huge, powerful, big screen phone. It throws in a stylus with a bunch of software features to support it. But most important of all is the specs. They've always been just off the charts powerful. The Note is big, it's bulky, and it's beastly. It's always been a phone that gives you everything and the only compromise is that it's huge. But with the Note 5 things are a little different because Samsung has taught itself a new trick. Really good design. The new Note is flat out beautiful. It has a glass front and back and metal edges and every corner and edge has been softened and curved to create a device that feels incredibly well considered. One thing Samsung apparently decided not to worry about? Fingerprints. The phone doesn't take long at all to look a little bit scummy, but luckily it's easy to wipe down. The left and right edge of the back of the phone curve in and the bezels are tiny too. So the result is a phone with a 5.7 inch screen that feels way smaller than it actually is. There's a decently loud speaker on the bottom and sensors all over the place, including a heart rate monitor on the back. The 16 megapixel camera is great. Actually, it's stupendous. It launches quickly with a double click of the home button and it takes pictures super fast too. It handles low light really well and can even broadcast live on YouTube. It's the exact same camera and software that you'll find on the Galaxy S6 and that means there's very little to complain about. Actually, in a lot of ways, the Note 5 is basically a blown up Galaxy S6 and that's mostly a good thing. But the trade off for this design is that the Note isn't quite the power user wonderland it used to be. You get a powerful processor and a massive 4 gigabytes of RAM, but you can't upgrade the storage with a micro SD card. And you can't remove the battery either. More troubling than that is that it's not a gigantic one at only 3000 milliamps, so it's smaller than it was before. So I was a little worried. But I've been using the Note 5 for a little less than a week and so far my experience is that it's good enough to get you through a day, but it's a little too inconsistent to really trust it to go for two days. Samsung is touting the multiple wired and wireless fast charging options it's crammed in here, which helps if you only have a few minutes to top off. The real reason to get a Note instead of some other big phone, even another Samsung phone, is the S Pen. It's been upgraded here with a little clicker on the top you use to extricate it from the phone and you also use it to fiddle with when you're bored. You can write on the screen right away even when the phone is off and you can grab entire web pages in a screenshot to mark up. Another new trick, the phone will alert you if you've walked away and left the pen at your desk. I really like this stylus and after years of thinking it was a cheap gimmick without enough software support, the Note 5 has kind of turned me around. The more I use it, the more convinced I am that Samsung has figured out the software side of things for the pen. Handwriting recognition in particular is really impressive. I can't read my own handwriting, but Samsung can. Speaking of turning the software around, Samsung has finally found the right balance of adding features without confusing the hell out of its users. The bloops and water sounds are gone, the extra weird motion features are helpful without being intrusive. Best of all, the basic look of Samsung software is more refined and elegant and there's a theme store that's finally getting some options that feel a lot more like good old Android. The unit we tested was the international version, so it's possible that US carriers will spoil this software, but I'm hopeful it won't be too overbearing. At least Samsung has learned the meaning of restraint and mostly learned how to teach people how to use its wild features like multitasking. I did have to dig through some S Pen settings to understand how it all works, but for the most part everything here is intuitive. The story of the Note 5 is the story of what Samsung can do when it holds itself back. Instead of tacking on endless features and juicing up every spec to the max, Samsung is refining the ones that it's already created. That all works to make a really good device, but it's just a little bit less Note-like than it was before. The Note used to be something like a computer mainframe in your pocket, but now it's just a really great phone.
 Every year for the past five years Samsung has released a Galaxy Note and every year I think that I want one.
 But then I realized that the software is annoying, the hardware is kind of bulky, and the S Pen stylus just isn't as useful as I'd hoped.
 But now the Note 5 is here and it's happening again. I really like this phone. But can this love really last?
 If you somehow never heard of the Note, here's the basics.
 Samsung makes a huge, powerful, big screen phone. It throws in a stylus with a bunch of software features to support it.
 But most important of all is the specs. They've always been just off the charts powerful.
 The Note is big, it's bulky, and it's beastly. It's always been a phone that gives you everything and the only compromise is that it's huge.
 But with the Note 5 things are a little different because Samsung has taught itself a new trick. Really good design.
 The new Note is flat out beautiful. It has a glass front and back and metal edges and every corner and edge has been softened and curved to create a device that feels incredibly well considered.
 One thing Samsung apparently decided not to worry about? Fingerprints.
 The phone doesn't take long at all to look a little bit scummy, but luckily it's easy to wipe down.
 The left and right edge of the back of the phone curve in and the bezels are tiny too.
 So the result is a phone with a 5.7 inch screen that feels way smaller than it actually is.
 There's a decently loud speaker on the bottom and sensors all over the place, including a heart rate monitor on the back.
 The 16 megapixel camera is great. Actually, it's stupendous.
 It launches quickly with a double click of the home button and it takes pictures super fast too.
 It handles low light really well and can even broadcast live on YouTube.
 It's the exact same camera and software that you'll find on the Galaxy S6 and that means there's very little to complain about.
 Actually, in a lot of ways, the Note 5 is basically a blown up Galaxy S6 and that's mostly a good thing.
 But the trade off for this design is that the Note isn't quite the power user wonderland it used to be.
 You get a powerful processor and a massive 4 gigabytes of RAM, but you can't upgrade the storage with a micro SD card.
 And you can't remove the battery either. More troubling than that is that it's not a gigantic one at only 3000 milliamps, so it's smaller than it was before.
 So I was a little worried. But I've been using the Note 5 for a little less than a week and so far my experience is that it's good enough to get you through a day,
 but it's a little too inconsistent to really trust it to go for two days.
 Samsung is touting the multiple wired and wireless fast charging options it's crammed in here, which helps if you only have a few minutes to top off.
 The real reason to get a Note instead of some other big phone, even another Samsung phone, is the S Pen.
 It's been upgraded here with a little clicker on the top you use to extricate it from the phone and you also use it to fiddle with when you're bored.
 You can write on the screen right away even when the phone is off and you can grab entire web pages in a screenshot to mark up.
 Another new trick, the phone will alert you if you've walked away and left the pen at your desk.
 I really like this stylus and after years of thinking it was a cheap gimmick without enough software support, the Note 5 has kind of turned me around.
 The more I use it, the more convinced I am that Samsung has figured out the software side of things for the pen.
 Handwriting recognition in particular is really impressive. I can't read my own handwriting, but Samsung can.
 Speaking of turning the software around, Samsung has finally found the right balance of adding features without confusing the hell out of its users.
 The bloops and water sounds are gone, the extra weird motion features are helpful without being intrusive.
 Best of all, the basic look of Samsung software is more refined and elegant and there's a theme store that's finally getting some options that feel a lot more like good old Android.
 The unit we tested was the international version, so it's possible that US carriers will spoil this software, but I'm hopeful it won't be too overbearing.
 At least Samsung has learned the meaning of restraint and mostly learned how to teach people how to use its wild features like multitasking.
 I did have to dig through some S Pen settings to understand how it all works, but for the most part everything here is intuitive.
 The story of the Note 5 is the story of what Samsung can do when it holds itself back.
 Instead of tacking on endless features and juicing up every spec to the max, Samsung is refining the ones that it's already created.
 That all works to make a really good device, but it's just a little bit less Note-like than it was before.
 The Note used to be something like a computer mainframe in your pocket, but now it's just a really great phone.