Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo Review

The Galaxy Grand lineup of Samsung is all about two things: screen size and dual SIM support at a shoestring budget. Samsung Galaxy Grand lineup targets fans of bigger screens. But are on a limited budget, so the company decided to make big screen cheaper for them. The most recent installment in this lineup is the Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo that brings the Galaxy Grand lineup to an even more competitive price range, although clearly, that definitely calls for some sacrifices.

The new sibling was introduced without much fanfare or even if you noticed, the company launched it without even a proper announcement. But when you look at the specs, you will come to know why company has done this. The phone surely has weaker points not only compared to the newer Grand 2 but also to the Galaxy Grand. The Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo comes with a 5” screen with relatively low pixel density, however, remaining specs are pretty much acceptable. You will be offered with 5 MP rear camera with LED flash, a quad-core processor and 21 Mbps HSPA+ connectivity. Though, if you compare it with the original Galaxy Grand that still sells all over the world, you can see that it offers higher resolution camera and video recording.

Let’s see what Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo is capable of and what it has to offer us.

Design wise, the Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo has nothing new to offer us. It has the traditional design with matte plastic back. The handset measures 143.7 x 77.1 x 9.6 mm which is identical to the original Galaxy Grand. Weight-wise, it is also just about identical to the original Grand as it comes in at 163g, which is neither compact nor light as compared to other 5 incher devices out there. All the design elements are so much identical – the rounded corners and the physical home key clearly scream that it is a Samsung device. However, on the contrary the back of the Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo is made of matte white plastic rather than the usual glossy finish. This matte surface is a good addition as it gives you better grip and also does not attract fingerprints.

Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo boasts a simply detachable back cover that allows you access to the mini SIM and memory card slots, in addition to the swappable 2100 mAh battery. The side keys are easy to locate and press even without looking, thanks to the chrome rim imitation around the phone that the side keys blend well with. You can easily feel and press the keys, they provide you good tactile feedback. The same is true for the Samsung traditional physical home key.

The display of the Galaxy Grand Neo is a pure disappointment. With too low pixel density of the screen, it is the phone major downside. The LCD screen has 480 x 800 pixels of resolutions which results in a 186 pixels per inch (ppi) count, not worthy of an eye roll. This results in everything being appeared as toothed and pixelated that for sure is very annoying for most of us. This is because today most of the mid-ranger phones offers at least 220ppi that somehow made us screen purist.

A big screen regularly outdoes pixel density particularly for watching videos and for web browsing, therefore, if these are your main purposes then the Grand Neo will be a nice budget choice for you. Despite having said that the display has disappointed us, it can be a nice choice for you because there are no glaring issues with the display’s color representation and not with viewing angles. Moreover, its peak brightness and surface reflectance are also quite satisfactory for outdoor usage. The 5-inch display also brings about some excellent usability as compared to smaller 4-inch offerings, because on-screen keyboards and buttons feel distinctly less poky.

The Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.2 that is loaded with Samsung’s TouchWiz Nature UX, though we do not know when KitKat will hit the phone. Since, it is an entry level phone so you will not have all the bells and whistles of the latest Galaxy flagship, but nevertheless the quad-core processor and WVGA screen resolution are able enough to run Android quickly without any glitches and without requiring much horsepower.

With the Galaxy Grand Neo, we also get most staple features of Samsung’s homemade interface overlay, for instance Smart stay to keep the screen on when you’re looking at it Multi-Window Mode for running two different apps on a split screen. However, some others features such as the Air View and Air Gestures Modes which are present on more upscale handsets are not available in Grand Neo.

You can easily customize lockscreen widgets for a quick access to emails, calendar, and other selected apps. There are multiple panes in the lockscreen each containing one widget. Swipe left or right to move between multiple panes. The home screen is very much similar to what you get on most Samsung devices ever since the Jelly Bean is released.

As you would expect, majority of the flagship features are gone astray in the Galaxy Grand Neo but that should not be a huge deal breaker. On the whole, the Jelly Bean reiteration of TouchWiz is extremely customizable and offers rich functionality.

Typing on the Grand Neo is also a fun but it gets dicey when you are typing with one hand and need to reach for the upper right or left corner of the keyboard, because you have to stretch your hand to reach the corner, and chances are that you might drop the phone. However, enabling Swype-like functionality gives you better control on typing even with one hand. It traces your finger from a letter to a letter, and inputs the word for you. In this way, you do not have to peck at each individual key. Furthermore, Samsung, like many of other big screen phone, has added to way in Grand Neo to crouch the keyboard, dialer or calculator to the left or to the right to avoid the risk of dropping the handset while typing with one hand.

Samsung more often than not has turned to Broadcom for many of its recent entry level as well as midrange phones, and the new Grand Neo is no exception. The company, for the first time, has incorporated a Broadcom chip in a quad-core configuration. The device is powered by a quad-core 1.2 GHz Broadcom BCM23550 chip, which is relatively weak and results in some interface and app stammer.

The Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo comes with a 1.2 GHz Broadcom processor that is equipped with four Cortex-A7 cores. The original Grand was released with a dual-core Cortex-A9 of the same frequency. Though, this is one of the main differences between the two phones, but it does not translates into any benchmark or performance superiority for the Grand Neo.

The device offers 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage out of which 5 GB is available for users, and it is expandable via microSD card slot.

With its squarish interface element, the browser looks slightly out dated but it is extremely functional especially considering an 186ppi of screen. The browser, on the contrary, proven to be the fastest rendered means you do not have to wait much for a page to load. Moreover, it also supports Adobe Flash out of the box.

In terms of connectivity, the phone nothing but the basics that include quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dual-band 3G. The device also uses Bluetooth 4.0 alongside Wi-Fi support which includes b/g/n with both 2.4GHz and 5GHz band compatibility. However, there is no USB on-the-go functionality.

The Galaxy Grand Neo comes with a 5 megapixels camera which is not bad despite the fact that it is marked downgrade from the Galaxy Grand predecessor. There is also a front facing camera of 0.3 megapixel worthy of video chatting along with an LED flash present next to the main 5MP camera. There are few shooting modes that Samsung has added in the Grand Neo such as Best Shot or Panorama however, the more intensive regimens such as Rich Tone (HDR) are absent here.

Talking about the image quality, the camera is capable of producing just what you can expect from a 5MP shooter. The amount of details is just precisely correct for this kind of resolution. The image shows largely accurate color representation and therefore the overall scene exposure also comes out pretty well. However, the amount of noise is terrible even on a bright sunny day. On the other hand, the indoor shots creeps up even further. The low light photos contain less noise and come out a tad soft, however, if camera is kept still the images will not blur.

Video recording unlike the original Galaxy Grand is limited to 720p HD resolution at 30fps. You can capture 720p still images during recording, and the samples come out with the same quality as the video. The video fulfills the promised frame rate, however, lack considerable amount of details and comes out a tad soft. Videos appear pixelated and have a very poor visual effect.

Although, the camera in the Grand Neo is nothing to impress with but it doesn't have any serious flaws and it's actually quite usable in good light.

Multimedia in the new Galaxy Grand Neo is a standard fare without DivX video codec licensing and offers functional media apps. Except the Air View feature, the gallery app in the Grand Neo is identical to what you get on the Galaxy S4 flagship devices. It offers split screen view with a thin strip that lists your folders on the left and shows their content on the right side of the pane. This helps in navigation as you do not have to open each and every folder to see what is inside rather can get a preview of its content. Plenty of editing options are also available that are built-in into the interface. The photo editor gives you options like crop, rotate, color and effects, and even lets you write a note over the picture. Overall, the gallery app is rich in features.

The music player is also feature rich and supports variety of file format that includes FLAC, WAV, etc. the design of music player user interface is similar to many other Samsung devices. Design wise, the interface may be unimpressive but functionality wise, it offers all the basics. The loudspeaker also works pretty well both in terms of strength as well as in sound quality. Music control while listening a song can be found in the notification area and the lockscreen.

The video player comes in the Grand Neo is quite decent as well despite the fact that it does not support DivX or AC3. However, it runs most of the popular formats such as MKV and Xvid without any snag.

In this department, the Grand Neo outdoes as the call quality is above the average and very clear both in the earpiece as well as via the single microphone. The earpiece that comes with the Galaxy Grand Neo is extremely good in terms of strength. You may have to tone it down a few notches. We did not hear any annoying hissing or distortion during our testing and found the clarity of the voice above the par.

However, as there is no second mic for the purpose of active noise cancellation, the party at the other hand should be prepped for some background noise in louder environment.

The Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo comes with a 2100 mAh battery that the company quoted to be very good and long lasting. According to Samsung, the battery is capable of giving up to 11 hours of talk time in 3G mode, 10 hours of web browsing via Wi-Fi and 8 hours of video playback. The numbers sound pretty good and we believe that the battery turns out be an endurance champion considering the low resolution screen and basic processor.

The Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo features an appealingly large screen, which is a sure usability enhancement regardless of its relatively low resolution. Best of all, despite the big screen, its gives excellent battery life. In terms of design element, Samsung added a matte back panel which is a good addition and a nice break from the shiny fingerprint magnets. The only benefit we see the Grand Neo deems before the Grand is the quad-core versus dual-core processor, if that would have to be called an advantage at all. On the other hand, the Grand Neo appears a trifle of an odd bird because many other better options are available today with same specs and at low rate.

To be honest, the Galaxy Grand Neo offers nothing but the pretty basic specs. Moreover, the pixel density is very low which by no means can appeal to big screen fans. In order to attract masses towards the Grand Neo, its price should be kept very enticing. The market is full of variety of options that are far better than the Grand Neo and offers reasonable price as well, such as the 5” Alcatel OneTouch Idol X and the LG L9 II.

To cut a long story short, the recently launched Galaxy Grand 2 appears to be a much more worthy successor to the Galaxy Grand than the Grand Neo. It offers a 5.25" 720p display and 1.5GB of RAM and is thinner while retaining the Grand’s 8 megapixels 1080p capable camera along with the 1.9 megapixels front facing camera. In addition to this, Grand 2 also offers LTE support, 2600 mAh battery and of course up to date Android 4.3 build.