Samsung Galaxy S4 Mega Samsung Galaxy S4 MegaSamsung

Samsung has so far unveiled a total of five handsets based on its S4 high-ender. The Mega, unsurprisingly, is physically the largest, with an almost tablet-sized screen, but does the rest of the spec match up to its larger than life size?

It's on sale now for around £500.

Design
Style-wise, the Mega looks like an S4 seen through a zoom lens, with its slim, plastic-backed casing and hard home button flanked by touch sensitive back and menu buttons beneath the screen.

At 6.3 inches the screen is an inch bigger than the S4's and a full two inches bigger than the S4 Mini's, but unlike either of those, it's not Amoled, it's "Super Clear" LCD. Its resolution isn't as high as the full HD S4's, though it does manage a resolution of 1,080x720 pixels. On paper, it may not be quite as sharp, the colours may not be quite as vibrant, but the extra size goes a long way to impress, and it's still extremely bright and clear -- a joy to watch movies or play games on.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Mega Samsung Galaxy S4 MegaSamsung

Nice to see that the extra screen acreage means you get a more complete onscreen keyboard, with all the numbers and more symbols available without having to click onto an alternative keyboard layout.

Android, software and performance
The Mega has the same 1.7GHz processor backed by 1.5GB RAM as the S4 Mini, but with the larger, higher-res screen that engine has a lot more to do. It's not slow exactly, but despite a perfectly respectable AnTutu benchmark rating of 14,083 it operates at a noticeably more relaxed pace than any of the other phones in the S4 family that we've seen. Apps hesitate for a fraction before opening and busy web pages take a fraction longer to load, though HD games don't appear to suffer any gameplay issues.


The Mega is running the very latest 4.2.2 Jelly Bean version of Android, so it feels bang up to date. It also has Samsung's TouchWiz interface, a movable feast depending on which handset you're using, but which always offers a distinctive appearance and unique set of widgets.

It's shed some of the smart screen gimmicks from the S4, like Smart Scroll, which uses the front-facing camera to monitor your peepers and automatically scroll through a page of text without having to swipe. It's retained Smart stay though, which uses the same technology to check if you're still looking at the screen and allow it to stay on even if you've set an automatic time-out. It also has Palm motion, which offers a few extra hand gesture controls, such as taking a screen shot by swiping your hand across the display.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Mega test photo Samsung Galaxy S4 Mega test photoDave Oliver


The rear camera is the same as the one on the S4 mini -- eight megapixels and a good range of Samsung photo features, plus pretty good photo quality overall.

It's a truth universally acknowledged that a big screen needs a big battery and fortunately the Mega comes with a hefty 3,200mAh model that managed to keep it running for a little over a day of heavy use.

Conclusion
It's bigger than the S4, and comes with a lower spec. It's also a little bigger but not as versatile as the Galaxy Note 2 and doesn't have that capable phone's stylus, so the Mega is a device that's too big to be a standard phone and not quite big enough to pass muster as a tablet. It's a solution in search of a problem and while it does everything it's supposed to passably well, it remains to be seen just who would want it.