Samsung Galaxy Mega review

Size isn't everything

Samsung Galaxy Mega review
Have we mentioned this is a pretty big phone?

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Sensor wise, the Samsung Galaxy Mega may leave you feeling a little underwhelmed, if only for the size of the device. In reality, the sensors fit in with the other mid range specs that are popped behind the massive screen.

Adorning the back of the Galaxy Mega is an 8MP camera, with single flash, whilst the front face houses a 1.9MP sensor for posting one of those million selfies to Facebook or Snapchat.

Samsung Galaxy Mega

8MP on the back, 1.9MP on the front

Thankfully, Samsung has pulled the cat out of the bag again, with the Galaxy Mega having the same ability to take some decent photos that the Galaxy S4 Mini came with, as well as matching it in almost every single way.

Photographic options come in the form of Auto, Beauty Face, Best Photo, Continuous Shot, Best Face, Sound & Shot, Rich Tone (HDR), Panorama, Sports and Night, all of which are pretty self explanatory.

Samsung Galaxy Mega

Camera modes

If you take a look in the camera settings menu, you'll find all the usual tools to change the exposure levels, the white balance levels and or geotag a picture. These, we have always felt, are more the preserve of the more serious photographer, and given the plethora of options we mentioned earlier, Samsung caters to just about every demand placed upon a smartphone camera.

The Samsung Galaxy Mega's camera does also come with a single LED flash. It is bright enough in lower light conditions, but you would be wrong to expect it to be a match for more powerful flashes on even the most compact of cameras.

Like on the aforementioned Galaxy S4 Mini, we were a little disappointed to see that Samsung's Drama mode, and Animated photo mode didn't make the cut. These are features that we liked on the Galaxy S4, and given the matching price tag, we thought we might get them. Oh, and picture in picture is also unavailable, but that isn't really a massive loss.

Samsung Galaxy Mega

Lots of detail captured in the foreground stone work, with blurring appearing when out of focus.

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Samsung Galaxy Mega

Panormamic photography works very well on the Galaxy Mega, with one continuous sweep providing a well stitched together image.

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Samsung Galaxy Mega

HDR photography works well on the Galaxy Mega, with the colour reproduction seeming more natural, and the image seeming smoother.

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Samsung Galaxy Mega

The 4x Optical Zoom present on the Galaxy Mega does a more than reasonable job with zooming, with text still legible from a long way off

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Samsung Galaxy Mega

Colour is reproduced well, with there still being high levels of detail captured, except in the brighter areas such as the sky.

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Samsung Galaxy Mega

Shutter speeds are noticeably lower in low light situations, and the Night mode doesn't really help things. Colours of the leaves is reproduced well, but brighter areas such as the petals loses a lot of detail.

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Samsung Galaxy Mega

The front facing camera is noticeably poorer than the rear sensor, and bright lighting causes the image to lose a lot of detail

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Video

It seems a long time since people were pulling out massive video cameras on their holidays, with smartphones now being a lot pocketable. Whilst not entirely pocketable, the Galaxy Mega's video camera is a rather impressive affair.

With recording done at 30fps, with a 1080p HD resolution, there is a lot to be said about the Galaxy Mega. Video recording is also no longer done through a separate app, nor through the same app but using a toggle switch. Samsung devices, such as the Galaxy Mega now just have one app, with two different buttons.

Samsung Galaxy Mega review

This makes a lot of sense, and we wonder why this hasn't been in place a lot longer. It also means that whilst you are recording your video, you can snap away still photos like we first saw on the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S3.

Overall, we were really impressed with the app's offerings. Samsung has clearly given it a lot of thought, and come up with a more than decent end user experience.