Thursday, January 30, 2014

Samsung Galaxy Grand 2

Dual-SIM phones have been extremely popular in India. At the same time, the smartphone revolution has resulted in most people owning one. The only people missing out were the dual-SIM crowd. Samsung has released some models that aim to correct that, but they’re reserved the best for now. We finally got our hands on the Galaxy Grand 2 – the latest offering that caters to two SIM cards from Samsung and boy, we’re pleased with what we’ve seen. 

Design:
The phone’s dimensions are 146.8 mm x 75.3 mm x 8.9 mm. The screen is 5.2 inches and the bezels around it are quite slim. What this translates to is a phone that’s comfortable to hold in the hand. The faux leather covering adds a touch of class not seen in a phone in this segment.
 Display:
The first thing to notice about the display is that it’s great in every way. The 5.2 inch screen offers great clarity and viewing angles. The resolution of 1280 x 720 pixel means that Samsung has taken care to ensure that the display is compromised in no way. The colours are vivid and the images sharp. 

Camera:
The 8MP camera takes high resolution photos and videos at 720p. We found the camera to be superb for a mid-range device and the responsiveness and focus of the lens to be nothing short of stunning. It does a great job of capturing the colours and lighting. Also, the noise levels were low and distortion was the least of the phones we’ve found in phones in this range.

The front camera is 1.9MP and does an effective job in fulfilling its functions as a front facing camera. It takes decent photos and shoots some good quality video.

The Technical Stuff:
The device has 1.5GB of RAM running the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean operating system straight out of the box, and this version of the smartphone offers dual SIM support. There is 8GB of onboard storage that is expandable up to 64GB via microSD card. Connectivity comes in the form of Wi-Fi, GPS/A-GPS, 3G, micro USB, and Bluetooth. 

Performance:
Like all Samsung devices these days, the phone seems to have everything well in place. The architecture of the interface and the usability of the phone is nothing to complain about. For people who’d use two SIM cards, Samsung has made sure that you can receive data on both simultaneously. The ease of use is great and we found no problem multitasking and running all of our favorite apps.