Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo Preview

Introduction

Samsung outed the Galaxy Grand Neo without much fanfare or even a proper announcement recently, and if you look at the specs it might be easier to understand why, as the Grand Neo has weaker points there not only compared to the new Grand 2, but even to last year's Galaxy Grand.

The handset sports a 5” screen with very low pixel density, but the rest of the specs are decent, as the Grand Neo offers you 21 Mbps HSPA+ connectivity, 5 MP rear camera with LED flash, and a quad-core processor. However, the original Galaxy Grand still sells worldwide, and actually offers a higher-res camera and video recording, which raises some eyebrows, so let's preview what can we expect from the Grand Neo...

Design

A budget 5-incher with traditional design

The handset spreads in 5.66 x 3.04 x 0.38” (143.7 x 77.1 x 9.6 mm) dimensions, and weighs the serious 5.75 oz (163g), so it's neither compact nor light in comparison with other 5-inchers out there. The rounded corners and physical home key scream of Samsung Design, as well as the white plastic used for the chassis. Grand Neo sports a removable back cover, which grants you access to the microSIM and memory card slots, as well as to the swappable 2100 mAh battery.

Display

Too low pixel density is the phone's biggest drawback

Grand Neo comes equipped with a 5” panel, but that's where the fun stops. This basic LCD screen has 480x800 pixels of resolution, resulting in a 186 pixels per inch count, worthy of an eye roll. As a consequence, most everything appears jagged and pixelated, which can be rather annoying not only if you are a screen purist, but simply if you have toyed with today's midrangers, most of which come with at least 220ppi.

Still, for watching videos and occasionally for browsing, a big screen often trumps pixel density, so if these are your main purposes, the Neo might be a fine budget choice, depending on the price.