The Galaxy Grand has been launched in India today, making it the first affordable phablet to be launched by a major manufacturer in a market flooded with phablet devices made by local manufacturers such as Micromax.

The Galaxy Grand sports a 5-inch LCD display with a paltry resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, resulting in a pixel density of 226 ppi, which is not going to win it any awards and will result in a noticeably pixellated viewing experience. Since this is not a member of the Galaxy Note series by name, there’s naturally no S Pen included, so navigation will be entirely finger-operated.

Other specs of this not-so-grand device include a 1.2GHz dual-core processor (type not mentioned, but a NovaThor processor is a good bet), 1GB RAM, 8 megapixel rear camera with zero shutter-lag, 2 megapixel front camera, 8GB internal storage (4GB user accessible), microSD slot supporting 64GB cards, a 2,100 mAh battery, and Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean out of the box. Samsung has also included the usual TouchWiz features such as Direct Call, SmartStay, Popup Play and more.

As an introductory offer, the Galaxy Grand comes with a Flip Cover in the box, 50GB Dropbox space and free music and movies worth Rs. 8000 through “My Services”, and 2GB of data free for two months for Vodafone customers.

Price

The Galaxy Grand has been officially priced at Rs. 21,500 (~$400), though street prices should be a bit lower. It’s a respectable price for a device with similarly respectable specs (not counting the display of course), and with a few price drops in the coming months it should become an even better deal.

Release Date

The Galaxy Grand has been launched in India on January 22nd, but isn’t available for purchase yet on Samsung’s official website. However, we can expect it to become available both online and in local stores by tomorrow or at least in the next few days. A release in other markets should be happening soon as well.

The Galaxy Grand is no doubt a good affordable device for those looking for a large screen phone from a major manufacturer, though it will still have some stiff competition from the much more attractively priced local manufacturer phablet devices such as the Micromax Canvas 2 HD or the Wammy Titan.

But again, the Samsung name has to account for something so we might just see another bestseller on the Korean manufacturer’s hands, though only time will tell what happens.

Samsung Galaxy Grand Specifications

  • 5-inch TFT LCD, WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) resolution
  • 1.2GHz dual-core processor
  • 1GB RAM
  • 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording, zero shutter-lag
  • 2 megapixel front camera
  • 8GB storage (4GB user-accessible), microSD support up to 64GB
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, HSPA 21mbps, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0, Stereo FM Radio
  • 2,100 mAh Li-Ion battery
  • Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, TouchWiz UI, Popup Play, S Voice, Direct Call, SmartStay

Via: MouthShut