NEW DELHI: Samsung India has launched Galaxy Grand Duos with dual-sim functionality, bringing another phablet to the market just a day after Micromax announced its Canvas HD with 5-inch screen. The company said it will retail the device with a flip cover in the box and price it at Rs 21,500.
The all-new Galaxy Grand Duos has a 5-inch WVGA TFT screen and is powered by Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). This smartphone runs on a dual-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and has 1GB RAM. Samsung has continued with the design language it introduced in the Galaxy S III in this smartphone as well.
At the back, the smartphone has an 8MP camera with LED flash, while there is a 2MP snapper on the front. Available only in an 8GB variant, the device's memory capacity can be raised up to 64GB via microSD card. Running on a 2,100mAh battery, the Galaxy Grand Duos has connectivity features like 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, S Voice and microUSB. Other features of the device include Direct Call, Smart Alert, Popup Video and AllShare Play. Galaxy Grand will also have multi-app functionality, allowing users to access two apps simultaneously.
A Samsung India executive said that if a user is taking a call on one sim, Galaxy Grand Duos' auto-forwarding feature will automatically redirect an incoming call on the other sim to the first connection.
Micromax recently claimed that it has shipped more phablets than Samsung in the country. At the unveiling of Canvas HD, the indigenous manufacturer said it shipped 1.98 lakh phablets, while Samsung imported 1.89 lakh units of its Galaxy Note and Note II tablets.
Samsung today launched the Galaxy Grand in India which basically sits between its mid-range Galaxy Ace and premium Galaxy S III line of products. At the same time it tries to fill a void in the phablet market and bring a product that's similar in form-factor to the popular Galaxy Note products but at a lower price of Rs 21,500. We went hands on with the product, read on to find out more
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Powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU, the Galaxy Grand matches the erstwhile Galaxy S II shot for shot. It even has a WVGA display resolution, but in the case of the Grand we are talking about a much larger 5-inch display. The display surprisingly was pretty crisp and one could not discern individual pixels on the display easily. And for an LCD panel, the amount of contrast was also quite impressive at first glance.
Additionally, it packs in the same 8-megapixel camera as the Galaxy S III and the Note II, so in the imaging department the device is pretty much sorted. Internally, it has 8GB of memory and 1GB of RAM, which is ample for daily use and because it was running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which Samsung's TouchWiz Nature UX, navigating the UI was swimmingly smooth.
Design wise, it seems like a hybrid of sorts between the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II. Of course, it is not as large as the Note II, but still rather big, but nonetheless pretty comfortable to hold, considering its svelte form-factor. Samsung maintains the use of glossy plastics in the build of the Galaxy Grand. It definitely, looks much cheaper than smartphones built, by HTC, Nokia or even Apple, but the good news is that it does not get damaged very easily.
The back plate is removable which reveals a 2,100-mAh battery, and dual-SIM slots. Unfortunately, the Galaxy Grand does not utilize active dual-SIM technology. It basically forwards a call from one SIM to another. This means that whenever a call is forwarded carrier charges are incurred by the user.
On the whole it seems like an interesting device, especially for those who aspired for the Galaxy Note II but could not afford it. Samsung is definitely facing a lot of competition in this phablet space, only yesterday Micromax launched the Canvas HD which flaunts a 720p 5-inch display and an ARM Cortex A7 quad-core CPU made by MediaTek for less than Rs 15,000. It kills the Galaxy Grand for screen resolution and price, so it will be interesting to see how this market develops.
Watch this space for more on the Galaxy Grand when we return with a full detailed review.
