So you say a phone's too big to live with? Challenge accepted. In this week's issue, Jon takes the Galaxy Mega 6.3 for a spin to see if it's prohibitively large, or just stupidly so.
Filed under: Cellphones, Samsung, AT&T, LG
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought convincing signs that BlackBerry users are moving away from physical keyboards, along with a new budget Android smartphone for MetroPCS and a stumbling block that's holding up AT&T's acquisition of Alltel. These stories and more await. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of August 26th, 2013.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Duck and cover -- Samsung announced this morning that its latest monster handset, the Galaxy Mega, will be arriving on our shores this month. The 6.3-inch monolith will be coming to AT&T, Sprint and US Cellular. Beyond that, availability information is one thing about this phone that's still on the small side -- as the company explains in a press release this morning (which you can find in all of its PRy glory below), "each carrier will announce their specific availability, colors and timing." We do know that it'll have Android 4.2.2 and a 1.7GHz dual core processor. Expect more info on the only smartphone visible from space to follow soon from each of the aforementioned carriers.
Update: As expected, the carrier announcements have begun trickling in. You can find Sprint's below. It adds...a little information to what we already knew, namely the fact that the Now Network will be offering up unlimited data with the handset.
Update 2: More info now from the AT&T camp, and this time out, it's stuff we can really use -- namely price and date. The carrier's got the massive handset arriving the 23rd, priced at $150 (with, you guessed it, a two-year contract). The rest of that release is after the break -- beneath all the other releases, naturally.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Courtesy of the ever-reliable @evleaks, it appears the Galaxy Mega 6.3 is indeed coming to AT&T. A purported press render shows the device colored in a navy blue plaid with the carrier's globe logo below the rear-facing camera. Of the few versions that passed through the FCC, you may recall that this one (SGH-I527 Melius) features Ma Bell-compatible LTE connectivity. There are currently no other details aside from all that, but it seems this behemoth of smartphone should hit the States soon.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Source: @evleaks
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Godzilla, Frankenstein's monster and Bigfoot are mythical creatures that don't exist (although you might dispute the latter). But now, an equally beastly smartphone -- one seemingly designed specifically for them -- is available to buy. The Samsung Galaxy Mega is a 6.3-inch woolly mammoth of a handset, and it reigns as the largest of its kind, even if only for a brief period of time; the title will soon be taken over by the Sony Xperia ZU once it hits the market. We were curious to see how a phone of its size would hold out during regular use, so our friends at Negri Electronics -- an online retailer which currently sells the Mega for $570 or $600 (8GB and 16GB, respectively) -- were kind enough to let us take one for a test drive for a few days. Is the phone's magnitude a benefit or hindrance to the user experience? Is it even worth considering if you don't need the largest possible screen? Find out as we dissect it after the break.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, Google
Call the United Kingdom home? Have a thing for overly large, unorthodox smartphones? Well then, today's a good day to be a Three customer -- or plan on being one soon. The carrier has announced that the Samsung Galaxy Mega will be up for grabs on its website starting today, while brick-and-mortar stores are expected to have it on shelves as soon as tomorrow. The enormous 6.3-inch handset is being offered in conjunction with a variety of monthly tariffs, and there's also an option that takes advantage of Three's new pay-as-you-go scheme. Better yet, the company says the Galaxy Mega is future-proof, as it'll be able to support its upcoming LTE network once it goes live. Just remember, though... Three UK is in absolutely no rush to flip that switch.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Source: Three UK
Yes, we've seen Samsung's Galaxy Mega 6.3 at the FCC before. With its second visit, however, there's something special. The extra-large phone is back as the SGH-i527, and it's carrying AT&T-native LTE that hints at a probable US carrier deal. There aren't any other visible changes in the filing, although we weren't expecting any. The real question is when this behemoth will ship to the States, assuming it ships at all -- for now, any possible AT&T launch remains shrouded in mystery.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, AT&T
Source: FCC
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week, a new addition to the LG L-Series surfaced in Russia, a Lumia 920 was sighted that'd make Oscar the Grouch flip, and TalkTalk added three new devices from Huawei to its roster. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of May 27th, 2013.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Software, Mobile
Better start working on those powerball exercises. If Samsung's Galaxy Mega was the thing you thought your life was missing, it's just landed at the FCC. Yeah, we know this isn't the first time, but this second go-round it's the LTE-sporting GT-i9205 model. The usual lab tests show little that we didn't know already -- unless you didn't know it had LTE Band 5, dual band WiFi, NFC or GSM 850 / 1900. As the 5.8-inch isn't 4G-enabled, this means we're looking at the bigger 6.3-inch version, but still no word on if, when or how a version might land on US shores. Still no harm in limbering up, though, is there?
Update: Upon further inspection, this variant only uses LTE band 5 (850MHz), which no US carrier currently uses. It's very unlikely this I9205 variant will hit the US.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Source: FCC
