Review: Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3

Samsung's smartphones keep getting bigger and the Mega is a 6.3-inch wonder. While it's troublesome to put into your pocket and text, it makes up for it with higher resolution video capabilities and a good-enough phone, but may prove too big to be your camera.

The Samsung Galaxy Mega measures in at 6.3 inches and is good for viewing videos, but isn’t as successful at being a camera.

Just when you thought the smartphone couldn't get any bigger, here comes the Samsung Galaxy Mega.

Meet one of the largest smartphones of them all, a 6.3-inch beast of a device. Smartphones have been growing in recent years, starting with Samsung's S line and a string of HTC devices, and culminating in the Samsung Galaxy Note line, a series of phones that hit the extra-large-phone sweet spot.

But with the Mega, Samsung experiments a little bigger one more time. The resulting smartphone isn't for everyone, thanks to some storage limitations and a hefty price tag ($499 from MetroPCS), but it will have appeal for anyone who loves watching films or streaming Netflix content.

Overall, the Mega looks like a typical Samsung smartphone. It's all plastic body and incredibly slim, with buttons where you'd expect them. Overall, it seems like an extra-large Samsung S4.

But it's different. The Mega is 0.6 inches larger than the Note 3 and the extra size definitely changes how you tote it. It can still fit in the back pocket of an average pair of jeans, which is nice. However, it's too large to slide into sweatpants pockets without being conspicuous or fit in the chest pocket of a standard button-down shirt. Buyer beware: have a clear plan for how to carry this thing first.

You'll have to get used to some other things, too. With devices such as the Note 3 and Apple's iPhones, you can type with just one hand, but the Mega's extra real estate makes it challenging to get your thumb from end to end.

All of that is a trade-off for the extra-large 1,280 x 720 resolution screen. In order to keep costs somewhat down and make battery life friendly, it's an LCD display instead of the AMOLED screens you've seen elsewhere.

The difference shows, too. Held alongside a Note 3, the Mega screen is less bright and less vibrant. The red in the Netflix logo just doesn't pop quite as much on the Mega and, measured against the iPhone, it's simply not quite as impressive.

Despite that, the screen has serious advantages in the right user's hands. Size makes a massive difference in the right situations and the Mega is proof. Videos are large and clear, so much so that a handful of people can crowd around a Mega and watch an episode of "Arrow" with some level of comfort in a van.

Other things work well, too. The screen size makes Web browsing a joy; in portrait mode, you can actually enjoy some desktop websites without zooming or scrolling. The Web browsing experience is excellent and Amazon's Kindle app is a joy to use, too. It feels like reading a paperback book.

It's a shame, then, that the Mega doesn't include the Note 3's excellent stylus, because some features, such as S Note, would have played well here. This could have easily been a nice productivity machine. Then again, that would have pushed the cost to stratospheric heights.

Call quality is solid, too. MetroPCS isn't as well-known as many other providers, but I had no trouble fielding calls — or dealing with dropped calls — in Manhattan. Voice clarity was good as well, although, like most Samsung devices, the speakerphone was slightly tinny.

Battery life is solid, too. With normal usage, I never had to charge my Mega more than once a day.

This is already an expensive device, even after Samsung took extensive measures to hold costs down. It cleverly gets away with an average 1.7 gHz dual-core processor in a quad-core age; despite the horsepower limitations, the Mega never once exhibited signs of slowdown for me.

There are other little limits, too. You get an 8-megapixel camera, nothing that approaches the heights of such devices as Nokia's Lumia 1020. Metro's Mega upgrades the 720p video capture limitation to 1080p, bringing the device in line with what you'd expect, too. The Mega's a little bit big to be used as a camera in general, though, and it's slightly ungainly overall, so don't expect to use this device as a camera, anyway.

It all adds up to a solid niche entry from Samsung, the company that just keeps trying new things. The Mega definitely isn't a phone for everyone, but the S4 Zoom camera phone wasn't for everyone, either.

But if you're going to spend oodles of time watching movies, and that's your smartphone focus, the Mega is for you.