The 5″ smartphone meant for the mid-end of the market, that has 2 SIM’s is launching in India today. The dual-sim option has been increasingly more popular lately, especially in countries like India, but also in Europe, and I’m glad to see Samsung be one of the biggest proponents of dual-sim phones.
The dual-sim phones started appearing a long time ago, but carriers have fought hard against them, which is why most of them are not accepting them even today, although you can buy the phones unlocked, and then use their SIM’s in these phones anyway.
Having a dual-sim phone is very convenient. A lot of people like to be able to talk with friends in 2 networks or more, and in most countries you get a lot more Voice minutes in the same network, than you do across networks, which is why people prefer having either 2 phones or dual-sim phones. Obviously having to buy just one phone, but with 2 SIM’s is a lot more convenient than having 2 phones.
There are some disadvantages, too, though for active dual-sim smartphones, because you’re basically accessing 2 networks at the same time, and we already know one 3G network alone can be quite heavy on the battery life of a phone. So 2 of them will be that much heavier. That doesn’t mean your battery life will be cut in half, though, but it does mean you’ll have less battery life than you would with a single SIM phone. But that’s the price you’ll have to pay for the convenience of being able to talk in 2 networks with the same phone.
The Galaxy Grand DUOS is another big entrance from Samsung into the dual-sim market, after the Galaxy Y DUOS and Galaxy S DUOS. The Grand is meant for people who really like large screens, but will compromise of having a super-high resolution or the best processor on the market, for a more affordable price.
The full list of specs includes:
- 5 inch WVGA (800×480) TFT Touch Screen
- Android OS 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
- 1.2 GHz Dual Core processor
- 8MP rear camera
- 2MP front camera
- Wi-Fi, 2G, 3G and GPS
- Internal Memory 8GB, Expand Up to 64 GB
- 2100 mAh Li-ion Standard Battery
It’s also certainly nice to see that most phones being launched this year are using Jelly Bean (even though not the very latest version, but that’s okay, since the 4.2 improvements are not that many or important). Jelly Bean should make any phone with decent specs runs very well, and buyers of such devices shouldn’t feel like they made a major compromise between a high-end device and a mid-end one when it comes to performance. So if you want a large screen phone with dual-sim for an affordable price, you can’t go wrong with the Galaxy Grand DUOS, which is up for pre-order today at Infibeam for about ~$268.