Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 vs Galaxy Note II

Introduction

Samsung's love affair with big screens may have started with the Note line of phones, but the Mega portfolio is really something else. “Mega” apparently stands for the largest screen you can put in a phone and still call it that, while the Note handsets bet on added functionality like a built-in stylus and unique apps that are making the best use out of it.

We now have the best current representatives of those two big-screen phone families of Samsung – the Galaxy Note II and the Galaxy Mega 6.3 – and are staging a cagematch to determine who's boss...

Design

Note II is not a small handset by any means, but it feels rather compact to handle compared to the giant Mega 6.3. Granted, it is chubbier, and Samsung has done great things with the slim waistline of its largest phone to date, but still when it comes to portability, the Note II wins hands down, and we aren't talking about the negligible weight difference.

Thanks to its nice chassis pattern, that this time transitions to the front as well, and the much better metal-imitating rim around the sides, the Mega 6.3 takes the design category against the cruder plastic of the second Note edition. In terms of functionality, though, the Mega 6.3 has just one larger screen to show for it, whereas the Note II has a useful stylus tucked neatly in a silo on the right.

Other than that the outer appearance of both phones is pretty comparable with their rounded corners, physical home keys, and recognizable side buttons – a design that now screams Samsung Galaxy for whoever looks at the handsets, though it's getting a bit long in the tooth.


Display

Both the Note II and the Mega 6.3 come with displays in 720x1280 HD resolution, but the technologies and pixel densities are rather different. The Note II sports a Super AMOLED HD screen with 265ppi, which has flashy colors and great viewing angles, but is not as bright as the 233ppi LCD panel on the Mega 6.3, which on top of that shows much warmer and natural hues than the Note II.



Interface and functionality

As the more recent handset, the Mega 6.3 flaunts the latest Android 4.2 version, with Samsung's new TouchWiz Nature UX 2.0 on top, whereas the Note II takes it down a notch with Android 4.1.2.

Besides lockscreen widgets and the other goodies that come with the latest Android OS iteration, the Galaxy Mega 6.3 is also graced with some of the eye-tracking and gesture navigation novelties present in the flagship Galaxy S4, like AirView or Smart Stay.



The Note II strikes back with the excellent suite of apps for note-taking, drawing, handwriting and so on, which make a really good use of the stylus, and set it apart from anything that doesn't have one.

Both handsets feature the useful mitli-window mode that splits the screen in two so you can run two apps at once. One can argue that on the larger screen of the Mega 6.3 this mode is more functional, but in reality the stylus and the ability to hover the keyboard over the split screen make the multi-window mode great to manage on the Note II as well.




Processor and memory

The Note II is powered by a 1.6 GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos 4412, which is built with ARM's Cortex-A9 architecture that was all the rage last year. The Galaxy Mega 6.3 doesn't use the latest and greatest Qualcomm Sanpdragon 600 /800, but instead settles with a 1.7 GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 chip meant for midrangers.

This chip's instructions are closer to ARM's Cortex-A15 design, and it is built with the 28nm process, so the performance/power consumption ratio should be in its favor. Is it so in benchmarks? Well, the results show the two phones are actually in a similar boat when it comes to synthetic performance, and we also didn't notice any glaring lag or stuttering, so we can call it even here.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	GLBenchmark 2.5 (Egypt HD)	Vellamo (HTML5 / Metal)
Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3	6828	13392	2980 / 25 fps	2000 / 698
Samsung Galaxy Note II	7093	17047	1972 / 17fps	1866 / 619

The Note II sports 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage, while the Mega 6.3 has a gig and a half RAM, and 4/8/16GB of storage, depending on the model. Both, however, have microSD card slots for expansion.

Internet and connectivity

Samsung's own TouchWiz browser is what graces the two handsets, with its fast rendering capabilities, somewhat blocky interface, and the ability to run Adobe Flash content off the bat. Its performance is slightly choppier on the Mega 6.3, compared to the Note II, but the former has the advantage of a larger screen estate to make browsing a joy.


As for connectivity, both handsets support 21.1 Mbit/s HSPA+ download speeds, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS, NFC and DLNA streaming. The Wi-Fi radio of the Note 6.3 supports the latest and fast 802.11ac standard, that can hit 1Gbit downloads if you have the respective connection and router. Wired connectivity is carried out by the MHL port at the bottom of both devices.

Camera

The handsets sport 8MP cameras with LED flash, with the more advanced camera app UI going to the Mega 6.3. It has the stills and video shutter keys on one and the same screen, so you don't have to switch back and forth, and a dialer that picks different new modes like Sound&Shot, Best Face, Drama and so on.



The pictures themselves, however, are better from the Note II, looking sharper, and with a more accurate white balance measurement.

Video is captured with 1080p resolution and 30fps, and comes out fluid without artifacts or skipped frames from both handsets.

Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 Sample Video:



Samsung Galaxy Note II Sample Video:



Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 Indoor Sample Video:



Samsung Galaxy Note II Indoor Sample Video:



Multimedia

The galleries on both phones are split-view, letting you have the folders on the left and their content on the right. There are photo editing options built into the apps, though the Note II's stylus allows for much more precise input here, despite the larger screen on the Mega 6.3



The music players are also with the same interface, and sport a variety of sound modes and equalizer presets. The loudspeakers on both are of about average strength and clarity.



Both phones play popular video formats like DivX/Xvid/MKV without a hitch, and up to Full HD resolution at that.

Call quality

The Note II has a tad better sounding earpiece, and its noise-canceling mics relay your voice to the other end cleaner and with fuller range. The Mega 6.3 has a strong enough earpiece, but the voices sound a bit artificial and distorted towards the higher volumes.

Battery life

The phones have very close battery capacities – 3100 mAh for the Note II, and 3200 mAh for the Mega 6.3. While Samsung has official 3G talk times pegged at 16 hours for the Note II, which is pretty great, it hasn't yet posted the official numbers on the Galaxy Mega 6.3, though we suspect they'd be comparable.

Conclusion

Choosing the Note II before the newer Galaxy Mega 6.3 is a no-brainer. Its smaller screen diagonal makes it way more compact, it has the precise input option of a stylus, and sports more internal storage, plus it takes better pictures and video, all for a slightly lower price even.

Samsung's largest handset would be picked only if you are looking for the largest mobile phone screen out there in a slim package, and mainly for media consumption at that, rather than the good ol' talking or even the odd content creation, which the Note II would be better at because of the stylus.

Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 vs Samsung Galaxy Note II Video Comparison: