Samsung Galaxy Grand Review

 Key features

• Quad-band GSM (SIM 1 & SIM 2) and 3G (SIM 1 only) support
• Dual SIM stand-by
• 21.1 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support (SIM 1 only)
• 5.0" 16M-color TFT capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution
• Android OS 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Nature UX
• 1.2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU, 1GB of RAM
• 8MP autofocus camera with LED flash, face and smile detection, image stabilization
• 2MP secondary camera
• 1080p HD video recording at 30fps with stereo sound
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n support; DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity and GLONASS; digital compass
• 8GB of inbuilt storage, microSD slot
• Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB v2.0 port with MHL
• Stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• FM radio with RDS

Main disadvantages

• The five-inch diagonal stretches the WVGA resolution really thin
• Middling screen contrast and overall quality
• Poor low-light video recording
• No dedicated camera key

Going by the sheer screen size of the Galaxy Grand, Samsung is obviously looking to cater to a crowd that wants the most recent trend in smartphones. The catch is that it's a certain set of users that would love the extra real estate but not pay a premium price. Now, throw a dual-SIM into the mix and you end up with a target audience that will be hard-pressed to find something better than the Grand.
But... Not paying a flagship price entails compromise. In the Galaxy Grand, it's the size of a ... well... five-inch screen. The image quality isn't bad, but is far from top notch either. The contrast is decent if unspectacular, but more importantly, the WVGA resolution gets stretched pretty thin on this kind of screen diagonal.
The Galaxy Grand also won't give you some of the extra goodies that are a part of a flagship's standard equipment, like NFC.
Samsung's first-gen phablet, the Galaxy Note, has everything the Grand has (besides the dual-SIM support obviously), and then some. It will gladly offer a larger, crisper Super AMOLED display of 800 x 1280 pixels resolution, which is covered with Gorilla Glass to boot. Keep in mind that the Note, even after all the price cuts, is still notably more expensive than the Galaxy Grand and has no dual-SIM version in case that's what you are after.

If a massive screen and dual-SIM support aren't absolute must-haves, but keeping within the budget is the Samsung Galaxy S II Plus is the straightforward alternative. It has almost identical specs as the Grand, and while the screen is smaller at 4.3 inches, it is of the Super AMOLED Plus variety.