No, it’s not your imagination. Phablets are getting bigger every day. Both Samsung and Asus launched 7-inch smartphones on the same day. The Asus Fonepad 7 and the Samsung Galaxy W completely redefine what it means to be a phablet. If you thought the Galaxy Mega was big, you haven’t seen anything yet.
The Galaxy W is the exact same size as most small tablets. It has a 7-inch diagonal display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and a 16:9 aspect ratio. Just like Samsung’s Galaxy Note lineup, the W has lots of multitasking features, including multi-window and split screen options, so that you can really take advantage of all that screen real estate.
Even though the Galaxy W’s display is just as big as that of the Asus Fonepad 7, it is slightly more slender. The W is just 9.96 centimeters wide, as opposed to the Fonepad 7, which is a full centimeter wider. That may not seem like much, but when you’re talking about a 7-inch phablet, every millimeter counts. The Galaxy W is also lighter at 245 grams. Overall, these minor differences in dimension should make the Galaxy W easier to handle.
The Galaxy W is powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz processor and 1.5GB of RAM. Samsung gave the phablet 16GB of storage and an 8-megapixel back camera. To keep the Galaxy W’s big display going, Samsung popped a 3,200mAh battery under the hood. The W features LTE-A, ensuring that calls and data use will go lightening fast. Unfortunately, the Galaxy W is only running Android 4.3, instead of 4.4 KitKat or even Tizen.
Samsung will launch the Galaxy W in South Korea for 499,400 won or $490. It will have the same faux leather back as the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and come in red, white, and black color options. It’s unlikely that the Galaxy W will head to the U.S. any time soon, but phablet fans in Korea will certainly enjoy the novelty.
