This is the first Note that isn’t all about specs. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Android

After kicking off the “phablet” trend in 2011, the Galaxy Note series has become the bigger and better smartphone in Samsung’s lineup every year — and usually the best phablet on the market. But with this year’s Note 5, a lot has changed.

Samsung has snubbed a number of popular features to take a gamble on the new design language it first introduced with the Galaxy S6 earlier this year. It makes the Note 5 far prettier than its predecessors, but does it make for a better handset overall?

You bet your S Pen it does!

The iPhone 6s’ 12MP camera is a great performer. Photo: SuperSaf TV

Sony’s new Xperia Z5 has the best smartphone camera available, according to the experts at DxOMark — but that could be about to change.

In a number of real-world tests, the Xperia Z5’s 23-megapixel shooter is outperformed by the 12-megapixel camera inside the iPhone 6s Plus.

Marshmallow has something up its sleeve? Photo: Google

Android 6.0 Marshmallow is packed full of new features and big improvements to performance and efficiency — but there’s one new addition you probably knew nothing about.

It’s called “System UI Tuner,” and it’s a secret menu that provides access to a whole host of customization options that were previously unavailable on Android without root access.

Google Drive backup is on its way. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

WhatsApp for Android is getting the ability to backup conversations to Google Drive, ensuring you don’t lose important or sentimental messages when you switch devices.

Prepare for better browsing on mobile. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Google wants to make your mobile browsing experience better than ever with its new Accelerated Pages Project. The company hopes to dramatically improve the performance of the mobile web so that pages, videos, animations, and graphics load “instantaneously.”