Samsung's Galaxy Note phones make for terrific travel companions. With their big screens, long battery life, and easy note-taking capabilities, they're uniquely positioned to capture thoughts and deliver directions during long days on the road. The Galaxy Note 5 adds some new features for travelers that are really worth looking at, some of which aren't available on the top competing platforms.
This isn't a sponsored post or an ad, by the way. I'm not being paid by Samsung to write this. I just like phones, and the Note 5 is cool. Here are the five features I'd most like to use when I'm on a trip.
1. Roam, if you want to. While the four U.S. carriers all have different Galaxy Note models, they all have LTE bands 3, 4, and 7, the most common 4G frequencies in foreign countries. (They also have global 3G.) That means the phone will get great speeds when abroad. Your carrier may be the barrier, though. AT&T and Verizon have pretty broad LTE roaming agreements. T-Mobile and Sprint do not. If you can get your phone unlocked, you can swap in a local SIM card instead. Verizon phones always come unlocked; for other carriers, call your carrier and say you'd like your phone unlocked for international travel.
2. Cache pages with super-long screenshots. The Note 5 has a "long screenshot" mode, which lets you cache long pages as graphics. You can use this for lists of restaurants, lists of attractions, lists of directions, or any other kind of list. That way, you can have access to your lists when you have slow or no data service, such as the slow data on T-Mobile's and Sprint's free international roaming plans. To use this feature, pop out your S Pen. Choose Screen Write, then tap Scroll Capture. Use the S Pen to scroll the screen down. Tap Capture More. Repeat until done. Then tap Save in Scrapbook or Save in Gallery. This even works in Google Maps, although you can only scroll up/down and not left/right.
3. Narrate your videos. Some of Samsung's camera modes are a lot of fun on the road. Video Collage combines four short videos on one screen, like a car crash of Vines. That can give people a real picture of busy areas like Times Square. I really like to send videos to my family using Dual Camera, which gives me picture-in-picture with my head in a little window. It isn't enabled as one of the camera modes by default. To get it, go into the camera and tap Mode > Download > Dual Camera.
4. Clip and save ideas. Create a notebook in S Note or Evernote for places you want to go. When you find details about them on Web pages, pull out the S Pen, pick Smart Select, draw a box over what you want to remember, and tap Share. Then pick S Note or Evernote to drop it into your notebook.
5. Take notes and photos as you go. One of the things I like best about the Note 5 is that you can launch the camera or take notes straight from screen-off mode. To launch the camera, double-tap the home button. To enable quick memo writing, go into Settings, S Pen, and turn Screen Off Memo on. Now, when you see something cool on the street, you can snap or scribble it without unlocking your phone.