Samsung Galaxy Grand I9082 review: GrandisSIMo

Synthetic benchmarks

The Samsung Galaxy Grand is powered by a Broadcom chipset with two Cortex-A9 processor cores clocked at 1.2 GHz, the VideoCore IV HW GPU and 1 GB of RAM. Although nowhere near the best configurations you can get these days, it is more than adequate to run Android Jelly Bean without a hassle. The relatively modest 480 x 800 screen resolution isn't all that testing on the GPU either.

The Galaxy Grand failed to impress at BenchmarkPi, which tests the per-core calculative performance of the CPU. It's closely behind the Galaxy S II Plus but far from the Krait-powered Galaxy Express and the Xperia V.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• Sony Xperia V
  279
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  346
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  409
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
  443
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  499
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  552
• HTC Desire X
  639

AnTuTu is a compound benchmark that tests the GPU and CPU alike. Here the Galaxy Grand was handsomely outperformed and scored just short of the Galaxy Xcover 2. Of course, the rest of the competition here is clearly out of the Galaxy Grand's league, but you would still expect it to be a little closer to the flagship than it turned out.

AnTuTu

Higher is better

• HTC One
  22678
• Sony Xperia Z
  20794
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  15547
• Oppo Find 5
  15167
• HTC Butterfly
  12631
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  6650
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
  6053

Quadrant was another test where the Galaxy Grand failed to make a great impression.

Quadrant

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia V
  5816
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  4998
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
  3931
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  3542
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  3045
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  2316

Moving on to Epic Citadel and GLBenchmark, which evaluate GPU perfromance.

It's important to note that Epic Citadel renders graphics at the device's native resolution. So when comparing the Grand's 51.8 frames per second and the Xperia Z's 55.6 fps, keep in mind that the Xperia pushes 55 fps on a 1080p playing field whereas the Grand does so on a much less impressive WVGA.

Still the score here is indicative of the smoothness you'll get when you're playing different games on different phones and it is, basically, the same. What's different is the quality of the graphics.

As for GLBenchmark - it tests the graphic chip's raw performance - offscreen. The Galaxy Grand didn't shine here, but it didn't do too bad either compared to phones with similar specs.

Epic Citadel

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z
  55.6
• Nexus 4
  53.9
• LG Optimus G
  52.6
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
  51.7
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  41.3
• Oppo Find 5
  38.6
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  36.4

GLBenchmark 2.1 Egypt (720p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG Optimus G
  113
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
  32
• Sony Xperia U
  19.6
• Samsung Galaxy Ace 2
  16.3
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  16

GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 5
  27
• Nexus 4
  26
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  13
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  12
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
  11
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  11
• HTC One X
  9
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  6.2

We now come to JavaScript and HTML5 performance. This is important for your browsing needs and tells you how well the device can handle different web standards. The Galaxy Grand held its own in both SunSpider and BrowserMark 2.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Sony Xperia V
  1189
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
  1470
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  1460
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  1654
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  1863
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  1901
• HTC Desire X
  2259

BrowserMark 2

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia V
  1957
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
  1252
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  1154
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  1079
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  1036
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  714

There's no grand prize here - the Galaxy Grand is just about average. But judging by its day-to-day performance, we'd safely recommend it to a friend. It goes about its business smoothly and there are no major hiccups to speak of.