Samsung Galaxy Grand was a huge success in India. It had everything an average consumer would have wanted, a big screen, a gigabyte of RAM, dual core processor and latest version of Android. Carrying on from this popularity, Samsung has revamped this device by essentially stacking up almost all the specs a notch higher. Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 is in simple terms a better version of Galaxy Grand. In this article we’ll be seeing how well does Galaxy Grand 2 and the extra spice it provides over it’s predecessor. Read Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 review.
Design
Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 weighs 165 grams (including battery), with dimensions of 9.05 mm x 75.03 mm x 146.49 mm. At the front, we have the usual triplet of home, menu and back keys at the bottom and a front camera present at the top. The sidelines have a silvery finish with power button on the right, volume rockers on left, 3.5 mm audio jack on the top and a micro USB port at the bottom.
For those who will be buying Galaxy Grand 2 the first time, it is like all other Samsung devices, the same design language has been followed. Nothing new, nothing out of the world. As far as existing users are concerned, the Galaxy Grand 2 sports a bigger size, slimmer thickness and faux leather at the back when compared to Galaxy Grand.
Carrying a display of 5.25″ inch does mean larger overall dimensions however the phone doesn’t feel too large to hold. This has been possible since Samsung has intelligently shrinked the bezel around the display to accommodate for bigger screen. Another noticeable change is the faux leather with threading (effect) around the borders like the one seen in Galaxy Note 3. Though a subtle change but this does give the Grand 2 a premium look and easily distinguishes from other devices. Overall, even though plastic, the build quality and finishing is top notch.
Display
Galaxy Grand 2 has 5.25″ inch TFT screen with 1280×720 pixels resolution. This computes to approximately 280 ppi pixel density, which is way better than what Galaxy Grand had to offer (~187 ppi). Even though the screen has been increase by just 0.25″ inch but betterment of the resolution means that the screen is now crisper than ever. This does add a zing to the display with colors poping out.
When talking about the viewing angles, you won’t be complaining about the visibility from different angles, it’s pretty good. Likewise the outdoor visibility too doesn’t disappoint, the auto-brightness kicks in at the right moment and cranks up the brightness. However under direct sunlight the colors appear flushed.
Memory And Storage
Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 comes with 1.5 GB RAM, 8 GB internal storage with option to extend it by adding external microSD card of up-to 64 GB. Out of the 8 GB storage, 2.83 GB is reserved for system memory and the rest of it i.e 4.8 GB is at the users disposal. You also get free 50 GB of online DropBox storage for 2 years as a promotional offer.
One thing I wanted to discuss is the 1.5 GB RAM, a figure I fail to understand. There’s no doubt the more RAM the better and that its a certain improvement over Galaxy Grand which had 1 GB RAM but had Samsung included 2 GB RAM it would have been an attraction for end-user.
Camera
Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 comes with a 8 MP rear camera with auto focus and LED flash and 1.9 MP secondary camera. The image shooting in daytime is appreciable, good enough for sharing on social media and for storing whereas night time photography with LED flash doesn’t disappoint either.
With respect to video capture, Galaxy Grand 2 is capable of recording full HD 1080p videos at 30 fps using the primary camera and in 720p resolution using the 1.9 MP secondary camera. The camera application is loaded with software tweaks from Samsung, way more than what a casual shooter would ever want barring one feature that I found myself using the most i.e the ability to capture image while recording video.
Performance
Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 houses a Qualcomm MSM8226 quad core chipset clocked at 1.19 GHz along-with Adreno 305 GPU. Pre-installed Android 4.3 Jelly Bean manages the device with 1.5 GB RAM. And with the presence of GPS (with GLONASS/A-GPS), 2G, 3G, 4G (available in SM-G7105 not SM-G7102), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth ver. 4.0, FM Radio and dual sim support, the device is well connected.
The combination of a quad core processor and 1.5 GB RAM implies that the device is meant to buttery smooth and Galaxy Grand 2 does operate that way. I faced no lags of any sort while using my regular suite of application which included but is not limited to WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Viber, Yahoo Messenger, Hangouts, 6 gmail a/c’s and a yahoo a/c in background sync, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter and TeamViewer. The application switching was fast as well. Speaking strictly from a user point of view, Grand 2 runs like a beauty. Period. Performing resource intensive operations like playing games (Temple Run, Flappy Bird, GTA) isn’t glitchy or laggy or watching full HD videos is smooth (I used MXplayer). As a matter of fact using MXplayer I was even able to play a 4k video too which for the most part ran quite well!
For the more involved and geeky (if I may) users, using Galaxy Grand 2 would be even better performer with after market firmware especially with CyanogenMod 11 (or upwards). The pre-installed Samsung apps and touchwiz do push it down but with a CyanogenMod running that won’t be an issue!
Battery
This is one area I felt like Samsung could have done better with Galaxy Grand, its older iteration. Instead of the previous 2100 mAh battery the Grand 2 comes with juicier 2600 mAh battery pack. Now before I comment on the battery, let me warn you that battery longevity depends largely on usage pattern. So be wary of that, it might last 7 hours of a heavy user and a full day for intermittent user.
For me, using the apps I mentioned earlier, on a 3G network, listening to some 30 minutes of music via bluetooth streaming, couple of minutes of full HD streaming from youtube and half an hour of voice calling, the Galaxy Grand 2 lasted for roughly 14 hours. On the other hand, running at full capacity, you can expect the battery to deliver 6 hours of usage.
Summarizing
Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 is an obvious upgrade over Galaxy Grand and is definitely better than it. There’s no doubt about it. It has got bigger display, sleeker design, far better processor, greater RAM. This being said, does it justify the price of Rs. 21,200 (as seen on Flipkart) is a difficult question to answer. Considering the fact that Moto G has been launched in India, it would be a tough decision to choose between these two.
Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 In Pictures
