Five-inch smartphones may seem like the sole domain of more affluent, powerful consumers, but not if Samsung has a say in things. The South Korean manufacturer of the Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2 and other high-end smartphones officially confirmed the Galaxy Grand, a 5-inch handset that will come with the same size screen as most top handsets may have next year, but with lower-end specifications.

Photo credit: Samsung

One can think of the Galaxy Grand as the closest thing to a 5-inch smartphone for the masses. That’s because the display’s resolution is only 800 x 480, which is even lower than the resolution of many older handsets with much smaller screens. With 186 pixels per inch, its pixel density is about 40 percent that of the HTC Droid DNA, a 5-inch handset that comes with 1080p “full-HD” display.

The midrange trend continues under the hood, as the Galaxy Grand will be powered by a dual-core processor clocked at only 1.2 GHz with 1 GB RAM.

Other important specifications include an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 2,100 mAh battery, 8 GB internal storage expandable via microSD and 3G HSPA+ support. On the plus side, the Galaxy Grand will ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and come with features such as Multi Window View that are found on the Galaxy S3 and Note 2.

Samsung didn’t announce any pricing or release information. However, judging by the specs and the dual-SIM functionality of the first version to be released, the Galaxy Grand could be mainly marketed in Southeast Asia and/or emerging markets.