Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 review: Medium extra large
Medium extra large
Synthetic benchmarks
The Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 uses a dual-core Broadcom SoC clocked in at 1.4 GHz alongside a VideoCore IV GPU. While we have seen the Broadcom chipset before in a Samsung device (most notably in the Samsung Galaxy S II Plus), we haven't seen it clocked at 1.4 GHz. It's curious why Samsung chose the generally low-end Broadcom chipset for the Galaxy Mega 5.8 while sticking to a far more capable Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC for the Galaxy Mega 6.3, but we assume price is a factor.
With the notable exception of web browsing, it's been our experience that the Broadcom SoC generally performs worse than its Qualcomm equivalents - even those with lower clock speeds - so we're not expecting anything spectacular in terms of performance.
BenchmarkPi tests single-core CPU performance, and the 1.4 GHz processor scores towards the bottom of the pack in this benchmark, right around the previous generation Samsung flagship, the Galaxy S III.
Benchmark Pi
Lower is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S4
132 -
LG Optimus G Pro
147 -
HTC One
151 -
Sony Xperia SP
184 -
Sony Xperia ZL
264 -
Sony Xperia Z
264 -
HTC Butterfly
266 -
Oppo Find 5
267 -
HTC One X+
280 -
LG Optimus G
285 -
Samsung Galaxy Note II
305 -
HTC One X (Tegra 3)
330 -
LG Optimus 4X HD
350 -
Samsung Galaxy S III
359 -
Meizu MX 4-core
362 -
Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8
364 -
Nexus 4
431
The AnTuTu CPU benchmark is where the Mega 5.8 really struggles. Granted, it's pitted against mostly quad-core competition, but the device is far behind the pack by a large margin.
AnTuTu
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S4
24716 -
HTC One
22678 -
Sony Xperia Z
20794 -
Sony Xperia ZL
20743 -
LG Optimus G Pro
20056 -
HTC Butterfly
19513 -
Sony Xperia SP
15874 -
Samsung Galaxy S III
15547 -
Oppo Find 5
15167 -
Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8
7338
We ran GLBenchmark off-screen, which means we're testing at a fixed resolution, which lets us test the raw GPU power. The VideoCore IV is one of the less popular mobile GPU's around, and the one found in the Galaxy Mega 5.8 did not impress.
GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p off-screen)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S4
41 -
HTC One
37 -
Oppo Find 5
32 -
Google Nexus 4
32 -
Sony Xperia Z
31 -
Sony Xperia ZL
31 -
Sony Xperia SP
31 -
Apple iPhone 5
30 -
LG Optimus G Pro
30 -
LG Optimus G
21 -
Samsung Galaxy Note II
17 -
Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8
12 -
HTC One X
11
But most games are rendered at native resolution, so we're including Epic Citadel, which uses Unreal Engine 3 - a popular game engine for mobile developers. Here, the Galaxy Mega 5.8 matched the performance of the other devices and just as them often ran into the 60fps limitation of its screen, so you can count on pretty great gaming performance.
Epic Citadel
Higher is better
-
Sony Xperia SP
58.0 -
Samsung Galaxy S4
57.1 -
Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8
56.8 -
HTC One
56.4 -
Sony Xperia Z
55.6 -
Sony Xperia ZL
55.4 -
LG Optimus G Pro
54.2 -
Nexus 4
53.9 -
Asus Padfone 2
53.4 -
LG Optimus G
52.6 -
Samsung Galaxy S III
41.3 -
Oppo Find 5
38.6
Broadcom chips usually punch above their weight when it comes to web browsing performance, and the one inside the Galaxy Mega 5.8 is no exception. In both the Sunspider and Browsermark 2 web benchmarks, the phablet scored towards the top of the charts - a notable improvement over the previous benchmarks.
SunSpider
Lower is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S4
810 -
Samsung Ativ S
891 -
Apple iPhone 5
915 -
Nokia Lumia 920
910 -
Samsung Galaxy Note II
972 -
HTC One X+
1001 -
LG Optimus G Pro
1011 -
Motorola RAZR i XT890
1059 -
Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8
1062 -
Sony Xperia SP
1116 -
HTC One
1124 -
Samsung Galaxy S III
1192 -
Sony Xperia ZL
1290 -
Meizu MX 4-core
1312 -
Sony Xperia Z
1336 -
LG Optimus G
1353 -
HTC Butterfly
1433 -
Nexus 4
1971 -
Oppo Find 5
2045
BrowserMark 2
Higher is better
-
LG Optimus G
2555 -
Samsung Galaxy S4
2438 -
Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8
2285 -
Sony Xperia SP
2263 -
HTC One
2262 -
Sony Xperia ZL
2107 -
Sony Xperia Z
2093 -
LG Optimus G Pro
1801 -
Oppo Find 5
1797 -
Nexus 4
1794 -
Nokia Lumia 920
1774 -
Nokia Lumia 820
1760 -
Samsung Omnia W
1632 -
HTC Butterfly
1475 -
Samsung Galaxy S III
1247
With the exception of web browsing, we were generally the Galaxy Mega 5.8 chipset is hardly anything worth writing home about. Whether it's due to getting better dual-SIM performance or simply cutting down on costs, the Broadcom chipset used by Samsung in the Galaxy Mega 5.8 is not up to par when compared to the Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile SoC's we find in most recent Samsung smartphones.
However, the difference isn't huge when talking real-life scenarios as Jelly Bean's Project Butter delivers smooth UI navigation even here. App loading times, on the other hand, could be much better.
Reader comments
- Anonymous
- 27 Apr 2024
- ki$
These were better times. Big, wide phones fit for content consumption instead doom scrolling. So many unique and interesting devices were made in these years.
- rizwan
- 22 Jun 2016
- XPj
can i connect otg from samsung mega 5.8
- Yeoja
- 02 Jan 2016
- t7X
The only problem I had with this phone is that the side button,the metallic silver colors are starting to fade and upto now their's no news whether they will update this phone or not, samsung is not even responding, I guest I have to pay for my phone...