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Specs for Samsung’s upcoming goliath smart phones, the Galaxy Mega 5.8 and 6.3, have been dished out by SamMobile, unofficially revealing lower-quality screens than expected and unimpressive innards to boot.
The Galaxy Mega 5.8’s 5.8-inch display will have an embarassingly low resolution of 960×540 pixels, clocking in at just 190 pixels per inch — only a marginal increase on the original 2007 iPhone.
With this blocky screen on board and only a dual-core chip, the only foreseeable advantage of the Mega will be a low price. Other specs revealed include an 8-megapixel back shooter and a 2-megapixel camera up front, and two SIM-card slots. It will apparently ship with Android 4.1.2 or 4.2.2 under Samsung’s latest TouchWiz interface. That uncertainty may be due to regional differences, or simply a bit of bet-hedging.
Also upcoming is the Galaxy Mega 6.3 — an even larger handset with an even larger 6.3-inch ‘HD’ display, although there’s no mention of a specific resolution. The Mega 6.3 will pack the same cameras and innards, other than a small jump in processing power to 1.7GHz to run the larger display.
No word yet on whether the Megas are an embarrassingly late April Fools’ joke, but releasing swimming pool-sized phones with poor specs doesn’t exactly seem out of character for Samsung. There’s no word on whether they will come to the UK.
In spite of numerous attempts from Samsung and others, giant half-phone, half-tablet ‘phablets’ seemingly remain a fad.
Despite a big and beautiful screen (though not in the case of the Mega)
being suited to Web browsing and video consumption, the data shows they haven’t taken off. Flurry Analytics suggested
just last week phablets consume just 2 per cent of mobile data, whereas
smart phones under 5 inches account for over two thirds of Internet use
on the go.
Would you be interested in Samsung’s new enormo-blower, or do you think it’s another passing fad? Let me know down below in the comments or just shout it out on our Facebook page.
Additional reporting by Ben Buffone.
