Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 and Galaxy Mega 5.8

Available now
11th April 2013

Two new entrants in the growing "phablet" market, the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 and Mega 5.8 are even larger than the popular Galaxy Note II, sporting 6.3" and 5.8" displays respectively.

More conventionally like an overgrown smartphone than the stylus-based Galaxy Note Range, these Galaxy Mega devices look they might be a little bit cheaper too. Bur despite the similar names, the Mega 6.3 and 5.8 have quite a few differences.

The pick of the pair is the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3, featuring a 720 x 1280 pixel panel on the front, and 8 megapixel primary and 1.9 megapixel secondary camera and a 1.7GHz dual-core processor with 1.5GB of RAM and 8 or 16GB of onboard flash plus a microSD slot.

It's a big device at 168 x 88 x 8.0mm and 199 grams and it packs a hefty 3200 mAh battery. This is a 3G device with optional 4G LTE support.. and yes, you can make phone calls on it. The Mega 6.3 is also NFC capable, and as this is an Android 4.2 smartphone then it comes with all the usual Android features too.

The slightly smaller and cheaper of the pair is the Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8, with a 540 x 960 pixel display, a 1.4 GHz dual-core processor, no 4G or NFC support and just 8GB of internal memory plus a 2600 mAh battery. All the other features are pretty much the same as the Mega 6.3.

The Mega 5.8 in particular looks like it might be good value with the relatively modest pixel count on the screen. Consider though that the Galaxy S4 has over two million pixels on its display panel, but the Mega 5.8 has one quarter of that and the Mega 6.3 just half, and you can easily see how much sharper the display on the S4 is.

Samsung say that the Galaxy Mega range should start to ship in Europe and Russia from May onwards. No guidance was given on price, but is perhaps worth saying that the rival ASUS Fonepad is slated to cost just €210 or so when it goes on sale later this month.