How big does a smartphone screen have to be before one could say it’s enough? Well, there isn’t any consensus about it (yet) but Samsung is trying to push the boundary a little further with the launch of Galaxy Mega series. The series is aimed at offering consumers larger-sized display at prices that won’t require much investment compared to a Galaxy Note II or a Galaxy S4.
Today, we take a look at Galaxy Mega 5.8, the first handset in the Galaxy Mega series.
Samsung follows a simple design strategy – any devices that are launched after a flagship device should boast a similar design. Samsung did the same with most devices launched after Galaxy S III and they’re doing the same with devices launching Galaxy S4. We wouldn’t be surprised if you mistook the cheaper Galaxy Mega 5.8 to the premium Galaxy S4. The one we have a white version and it features the same textured design found on the Galaxy S4.
The Galaxy Mega 5.8 has a plastic chassis and an identical Samsung design with a large 5.8-inch display on the front with sensors and a front-facing camera above the screen along with a physical home button and touch sensitive menu and back buttons below the screen. The left side of the phone features the volume buttons while the right side has the power/lock button. The top side sports the 3.5mm headphone port and bottom has the microUSB port. Back features the loudspeaker, 8MP camera and LED flash.
Overall, the design is nothing new if you’ve used or seen other Samsung devices.
Galaxy Mega 5.8 is targeted at the mid-range segment and true to its range, you don’t expect high-end hardware. For instance, the display. Although the display is a huge 5.8-inch, the resolution supported by it is qHD, which is 960×540 pixels. The screen density is 190 ppi, making it more or less similar to Galaxy Grand’s 187ppi.
Despite the low resolution, screen is decent with good viewing angles, brightness etc.
The Galaxy Mega 5.8 is powered by Broadcom’s BCM28155 dual-core processor clocked at 1.4GHz and 1.5GB RAM. GPU listed by CPU-Z is VideoCore IV HW. We found the performance satisfactory given the CPU, RAM combo it possesses. You would find the occassional lag but its unnoticeable if you haven’t loaded the device with lots of apps and content.
Here are some of the synthetic benchmark tests.
Galaxy Mega 5.8 is the new breed of smartphone of Samsung, which means it runs Android 4.2.2 out of the box. The phone features the latest TouchWiz user interface that you would find in the Galaxy S4 but with some stripped out features.
The smartphone gives users multiple lockscreen widgets for quick access to some of the phone’s features. Users can set up widgets like Email/Gmail, News, Stocks, Camera, Apps etc.
The notification panel also brings horizontal scroll-able items or two finger swipe gives quick look at all the features of what can be controlled from the notification bar.
The device also comes with Smart Stay that tracks user’s eyes and keeps the screen on as long as one is looking at it and features motion features like Smart Alert that gives a small nudge when you pick up your phone, in case of a miss call or a message and Direct Call that calls the contact displayed on the screen.
Some of the pre-loaded Samsung apps include S Translator, S Voice, S Memo, Story Album, Samsung Link, Group Play and TripAdvisor and Flipboard.
Galaxy Mega 5.8 has an 8MP main camera with front-facing 1.9MP. The camera quality is pretty good. It offers good detailing with decent colour reproduction. Sprucing up the camera features are the modes which includes Sound & Shot, Continuous shot, Best Photo etc.
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| Galaxy Mega 5.8 Sample Shots |
Galaxy Mega 5.8 features a 2600mAh battery and easily gives a day and a half to two on a single charge with single SIM. The Galaxy Mega 5.8 also supports dual-SIM that understandably decreases the battery life to a certain extent.
Big screens are very much in demand now. If you look at the market, you’ll get sub-10,000-15000 INR phones with screen sizes of 4-inch and upwards. Samsung created Galaxy Grand with the same purpose and Galaxy Mega 5.8 enhances that notion further. If you’re looking for a mid-range priced phone and handling a 5.8-inch phone isn’t a big issue, Galaxy Mega 5.8 will suffice your need.
Galaxy Mega 5.8 retails for Rs. 23,000 in India.
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