Bonnie Cha

Recent Posts by Bonnie Cha

You’re Going to Need a Bigger Holster: Ginormous Samsung Galaxy Mega Headed to U.S.

Looking like something out of The Onion or a “Saturday Night Live” skit, the gargantuan Galaxy Mega smartphone was announced today by Samsung, which is bringing the jumbo device to the U.S. via AT&T, Sprint and U.S. Cellular.

The Frankendevice features a 6.3-inch HD touchscreen and measures 6.6 inches tall by 3.5 inches wide by 0.3 inch thick, making it one of the largest phones on the market. (Asus also offers this monstrosity.)

Samsung said the Galaxy Mega is the ideal device for those who want the benefits of a tablet-size screen for watching videos, reading books and playing games, while still offering the portability of a smartphone — though I think Samsung has a different definition of portable than the rest of us.

Despite its grandiose screen, the rest of the device’s features are pretty much midrange. It offers a dual-core processor, an eight-megapixel camera and 1.5 gigabytes of internal memory with a microSD expansion slot. It also includes some of the software found on the Galaxy S4, including multi-window support so you can view two apps at once.

Phablets certainly aren’t new for Samsung. One could even argue that it was the first company to put the category on the map with its Galaxy Note series. The current model, the Galaxy Note II, has a 5.5-inch screen, and has done well for the company. But 6.3 inches might be pushing the limits. As my colleague Lauren Goode said, “That’s a huuuuuge phone.”

But if you have ridiculously large hands or are an NBA player, the Galaxy Mega will be available from several U.S. carriers.

The Galaxy Mega will go on sale at AT&T on Aug. 23 for $149.99 with a two-year contract. Sprint said the phone will be available later this year, with details about release date and pricing coming closer to launch. Meanwhile, no word yet about availability or pricing from U.S. Cellular.

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