Samsung Galaxy Mega Breakdown

By Alex Angove

Last updated 17 April 2013

About a week ago Samsung officially announced its rumored Samsung Galaxy Mega phablets, one weighing in with a 5.8 inch display and the other with a whopping 6.3. We were initially very sceptical as to the validity of these rumours, as whether or not the market for such devices actually exists is as yet uncertain. However, that’s exactly what everybody said about the original Galaxy Note and now we could hardly imagine the mobile market without it.

What’s particularly peculiar about the Galaxy Megas is that, unlike the Note and Note II, there’s no S-Pen. Furthering the gap, although not in a negative way, is that the Megas boast all of the new Samsung “S” features of the recently announced Galaxy S4, as well as Android Jelly Bean 4.2 out of the box.

Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 Specs

The Galaxy Mega 6.3 sports a dual-core 1.7GHz CPU, 1.5GB of RAM, an 8MP rear camera and a 1.9MP front camera. The 6.3 inch display is “HD”, which probably means 720p or 768x1280, rather than 1080p. This is important because the difference between 720p and 1080p on a 6.3 inch display is going to be much more obvious than on the smaller 5 inch Galaxy S4, where the difference is already quite noticeable, by the way.

There’s also 4G LTE support and a massive 3200mAh battery, which should hopefully be enough to power a 4G device with this big a display.

Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 Specs

The Galaxy Mega 5.8 isn’t just a smaller version of the 6.3; it’s more of a budget option. The CPU is a quad-core 1.4GHz but RAM is still 1.5GB and the display is a mere 960x540 (qHD) that is definitely going to offer a noticeably less-crisp viewing experience than a Note or the GS4. Cameras are still 8MP for the rear and 1.9MP for the front.

3G HSPA+ single-channel appears to be the best network connection on offer, allowing for a smaller 2600mAh battery when the lower-res screen is also taken in to account.

Availability

So far it looks like the Mega series will go on sale in Europe and Russia starting in May, no word on US or global availability as yet.

We’re still not entirely sure what the benefits behind ditching the incredibly popular S Pen are for Samsung here. Samsung essentially created the phablet market with the Note and Note II based almost entirely on how well the S Pen was integrated in to the UI. The Note 10.1 tablet, too, has been seeing great success. So why suddenly switch to a phablet-style device, but get rid of a popular and iconic piece of functionality?

It’s possible that the Mega series will turn out to be very competitively priced, which would certainly explain the lack of S Pen and trimmed-down specs, especially in the case of the Mega 5.8.

If these two devices are aimed to be competitive with the lower end of the market then it’s very possible that they’ll be successful. A Samsung-made, small tablet with the features of a GS4 could be very popular, so long as the price is right.

Then again, a mid-to-high end price tag could make things very different. Once again it’s still in the cards that such a handset could be successful, but without the S-Pen Samsung might find it a more difficult sell.