Samsung: This is the Note 5 we wanted

Dear Samsung,

I am tired of complaining about the choices you guys are making without offering a solution. The writers over at Sammobile are misguiding you by saying you guys know what you are doing in posts like this one. Very few commenters agree with the article, and those commenters are your true fans, like me. None of us are incentivized in anyway to only write positive things as we pay for our devices and have the right to speak up when we aren’t happy.

I have been groaning over your decisions because I know you are capable of so much more. Why you choose to take on Apple head to head blows my mind. You were always better than Apple, but now you are trying to be Apple, and it just isn’t working. Us Note fans will come back in flocks if you make this phone for us.

Note 5.1

Software – Allow true bloat removal and get us faster updates

Many of us love some of the features that come with TouchWiz, because we can have dual windows, S-Pen controls, one-handed mode, and customizable quick toggles. We love that stuff, so keep improving on that. But do better at getting us software upgrades. Many of us have been, or are still stuck on Lollipop 5.0.1 and we know the fault is on Google for releasing a terrible version of Android, but you aren’t providing us with the fixes that Google implemented. We are tired of not getting updates when we pay for the most expensive device. Usually the more you pay, the better service you get…usually.

Stop agreeing to allow carriers to install bloat. The last time I did a count of how much storage those apps consumed, I counted over 1.5GB! I know we can deactivate the bloat, but that causes other issues. Whenever I deactivate the 15 AT&T pre-installed applications, it causes my phone to act buggy. An example, my texting stopped working when I deactivated all of the AT&T apps. AT&T is adding a layer, on top of Touchwiz, and Touchwiz is on top of Android.

This leads to slower updates. First Google provides updates to Android. Then you have to update your customized Touchwiz software, and then AT&T has to do it too. It slows everything down and can ruin the Touchwiz experience.

Focus on making Touchwiz useful and stop letting carriers add bloat. I will live with your pre-installed apps that I don’t want like S Voice.

Battery – Continue to add battery size and allow it to be removable

Some people never swap their batteries, but many of us do. It is one of our favorite features. As some phone manufacturers went away from it a couple years ago, you continued to keep this feature which kept us loyal. For each Note iteration, you continued to increase the battery size even as processors became more power efficient. Give us a bigger battery – give us the 4100mAh that was once rumored to come in the Note 5, not a smaller 3000mAh battery.

We need a bigger battery because as you give us more features and improve hardware, we find more reasons to use our Notes. Better phones = more usage. We aren’t typical users where we mainly just care about texting, emailing, and web browsing. We use our Notes for EVERYTHING, from gaming to business and everything in between.

Build – Stick with the Note 4 language and add IP67 water and dust resistance

The Galaxy S5 had it, and it was great. Who wouldn’t want a little extra protection from the elements? Us Note users want IP67, because we pay a premium price, as in the image below, AT&T customers paid almost $900 dollars for the Note 4 after taxes. Don’t give us more glass on the phone that can break.

The Note 4 does have a premium build, feel, and comes in the perfect size. We love being able to pull the back panel off, to replace it with an S-View Flip Cover without adding much thickness.

If you wanted to make us even happier, although this isn’t necessary, make color options available like Moto does with their Moto maker. You don’t have to go as far as them, but how hard is it to make that back panel in other colors? You can even make money on the sales if you want, charge us 20-50 dollars per back cover. It allows us to customize our phones and makes us even more loyal because we will love our phones just that much more. If you want to get ambitious with it, offer carbon fiber, oak, bamboo, and leather like LG and OnePlus. We would much rather have that than a glass back.

Storage and Memory – 4GB RAM, and be the first to offer 64GB as standard with expandable memory via MicroSD

For many of us 32GB is enough.  But we want more. It doesn’t cost you a ton of money to standardize every device to 64GB. The Note is a premium device, so give us premium storage. And don’t take away the expandable memory, that was just mean. Expandable memory has worked well in every device you have made, and now you’re the only major Android manufacturer who doesn’t offer it in their flagship.

As for memory, 4GB is a great choice as Touchwiz adds more usable features, we need the RAM to keep up with our multitasking.

Speaker – Move it to the front, dual speakers would be great but not at the expense of our home button

Having the speaker on the bottom of the Note 3 was acceptable, but moving the speaker to the back of the Note 4 was moronic. It doesn’t make sense to point sounds away from ears unless it is sound we don’t want to hear like gunshots. So get with it, and turn our ear piece into a front facing speaker at a very minimum. Dual speakers would be even better, but you would have to find a way to sneak it in under the home button.

We love our home button, and you could follow the Nexus 9 design language and push the speakers to the very top and bottom edges of the front of the phone.

Display, Processor, and Camera – Stick with what has been working

The Note 4 has an incredible display and camera. To be honest I would be happy with the same QHD Super AMOLED display as well as the 16MP rear camera. But now that the Galaxy S6 showed superior images over all other devices, go ahead and give us that camera. Can’t really go wrong with either. Your Super AMOLED display is without a doubt the best display on the market.

Just stick with the highest end processor. We don’t necessarily need it, but we love having the fastest device. It has worked with the Note 3 and Note 4 so stick with what you’re doing with the processor and GPU.

Remove hardware features like the UV sensor and give us a clock

Okay I might be going a little overboard here, so let me know in the comments if you have something else to offer, readers.

I don’t use the O2 sensor, heart-rate monitor or UV sensor. They are all very cool concepts in theory, but I don’t use them and could do without them.

How cool would it be if you added a cool feature on the back of the phone like an always on clock? It doesn’t have to be digital, it could be analog. Premium cars come with analog clocks with actual number hands and that would make the Note even more distinct. And it would allow us to not have to turn our displays on just to see the time. Most of us use our phones as a clock now, so it would be really cool to have an analog watch on the back. Digital would be cool too.

Warranty – Add accidental damage protection

You would do good by us Note fans by giving us accidental damage insurance included in our warranty. I know this is more money out of your pocket, but it will give us just one more reason to stick with you. HTC does it with their UH-OH plan, and I know they sell a tiny fraction of phones compared to you, but you could make it work.

Summary

I know this is a bit of tough love Samsung, but it is only because I want you to succeed. You are the only company capable today of giving us this device and if you build it, we will come. Stop listening to people who don’t actually use the Note line, and listen to the customers who actually use your devices. We will be your marketing crowd as we will tell everyone how great our Note 5.1 is and what everyone else is missing out on. I may not be buying the next Note 5, but I will buy the Note next year if you actually make a Note for your loyal fan base again.

Sincerely,

Derrick Miyao

Readers, if you think I missed anything please add it in the comments section. I can add your comments to my post in an edit, and pass this article around to fellow Samsung fans if you agree with it. We need to help Samsung get back on track.

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