Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 review: Medium extra large

Medium extra large

GSMArena team, 07 June 2013.

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...