Samsung was one of the first companies to really run with the idea of big-screen phones. Others had tried before and failed, but Samsung managed to turn its original Galaxy Note into a massive success. Big screens have since percolated down to the more budget-oriented phones, but these usually have lower resolutions and weaker processors, negating many of the advantages phones that size. Samsung’s own Galaxy Grand was meant to appeal to people who wanted a big screen just for the sake of having a big screen, without paying flagship-level prices.
The original Galaxy Note had a 5.3-inch 800x1280-pixel screen, which was pretty cutting-edge in 2011. Today, you can get full-HD 1080x1920-pixel screens in phones that cost a quarter of what Samsung’s late-2011 flagship did at the time of its launch. The company’s latest budget big-screen offering, the 5.25-inch Galaxy Grand 2, actually matches the original Note in terms of screen size and resolution. It’s only 0.05 inches smaller, and runs at the 16: 9 resolution of 720x1280 which is just as tall but a little bit narrower.
In fact, the Galaxy Grand 2 is the perfect example of how far technology has progressed in the past few years. You’re getting specifications that match or exceed a flagship that’s just a few years old at roughly half its price.
But that fact alone doesn’t make the Galaxy Grand 2 a winner. The competitive landscape is full of oversized phones from budget as well as premium multinational brands in the same price range. Some of them offer full-HD screens while others offer octa-core processors. Our detailed analysis of the Galaxy Grand 2’s features, specifications and performance will determine whether or not it’s good enough to beat them.
Look and Feel
At first glance, the Galaxy Grand 2 is rather striking. Its front face is totally consistent with the rest of Samsung’s lineup; a look that hasn’t changed much in years. Compared to its predecessor, the Grand 2 is a little more squared off, but is otherwise pretty much the same. There’s a shiny chrome-finished ring around its edges, with a similarly shiny earpiece and Samsung and Duos logos above the screen. There’s even a matching ring around the home button, just for good measure. The glass front panel is slightly sunken, which makes the metallic elements seem to rise through and around it. Beneath the glass is a white plastic layer with a very subtle honeycomb pattern for texture. It’s the sort of thing you only notice if you look at the phone very closely.
Flanking the slightly raised Home button are the usual Back and Menu buttons, but these are of the capacitive touch variety. Their icons light up when you’re using the phone, but are otherwise completely hidden. You can tap them whether or not they’re lit up, and at least they’re in their standard positions.
Around the back, we can see the faux-leather texture that has become a signature Samsung flourish, complete with fake stitching around the edges. This design was first seen in the Galaxy Note 3 and has recently popped up again on the Galaxy S4 and S4 Mini black editions. Apple might have moved away from mimicking real-world textures and materials, but Samsung seems to be jumping on this trend whole-heartedly. It does give the phone a good grip, but we personally don’t like it at all, and feel it makes the phone look a lot cheaper from the back than it does from the front.
Some of these things feel like contradictions in the Galaxy Grand 2’s design. The front and back look nothing alike, and the subtle textures and buttons are offset by the garish silver logos. Samsung clearly doesn’t believe that people who buy devices in this price range might appreciate understated elegance, and it seems as though this phone is trying a bit too hard to stand out from the crowd.
You’ll find the standard power and volume buttons on the right and left edges of the phone, but no dedicated camera button. There’s a headset jack on the top and a Micro-USB port for chargin