Samsung has announced the Galaxy Grand, a smartphone/tablet hybrid with a 5-inch screen, which fits in-between the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note in the company's ever-expanding range.

Samsung loves to make sure its range contains as many different screen sizes as possible, and it has continued its quest today with the announcement of the Galaxy Grand, a smartphone/tablet hybrid for those folk who consider the Galaxy S3 a bit small and the Note 2 a little too large.

As you may have guessed, the Galaxy Grand has a 5-inch touchscreen, a size all set to rise in popularity in 2013. Unfortunately the resolution isn’t quite as stunning as the Note 2 or Galaxy S3’s, coming in at 480 x 800, which is below both these two and the original Galaxy Note. Samsung hasn’t stated whether the screen is an AMOLED panel.

Inside the Galaxy Grand is a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, which although not as powerful as other big-screen phones, will still be plenty for normal use. The 8GB of internal storage memory may sound a little small, but Samsung has had the sense to add a microSD card slot to the Galaxy Grand, and it’ll accept cards up to 64GB in size.

Looks familiar

You may be looking at the image of the Galaxy Grand and thinking, “My, that looks familiar.” That’s because Samsung has played it very safe with the Grand’s design, and in the images it has so far provided, there’s little to differentiate it from the Galaxy S3 or even the smaller Galaxy Premier without seeing them alongside. Samsung has made sure the Galaxy Grand’s dimensions fit neatly in-between its two flagship devices too, as it measures 143 x 76 x 9.6mm, while the S3 is 136 x 70 x 8.6 and the Note 2 is 151 x 80 x 9.4.

An 8-megapixel camera is mounted centrally on the Galaxy Grand’s rear panel, while a 2-megapixel video call lens can be found above the screen. Other features include GPS, Bluetooth 4.0 and a 2100mAh battery, which given the average resolution screen and dual-core chip, should provide the handset with plenty of energy. Google Android is its operating system and Samsung has made the welcome decision to use the very latest version, 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.

Samsung hasn’t provided any information on the Galaxy Grand’s release or its projected cost, although it has announced a dual-SIM version will be launched alongside the standard version, so we can expect it to see a wide international release. Samsung is all set to have a strong showing at CES 2013, so we may learn about its Grand plan during the early January event.

US District Court judge Lucy Koh has rejected Apple's request for a sales ban on a number of Samsung mobile devices deemed by a jury in August to have infringed Apple patents. Meanwhile, Samsung has failed in its bid for a retrial based on claims of jury misconduct during the August hearing.

Samsung will be breathing a huge sigh relief today as US District Court judge Lucy Koh on Monday rejected Apple’s request for a permanent sales ban on 26 of its mobile devices. This comes despite a California jury finding in Apple’s favor on a number of patent infringements at a trial in August.

However, it wasn’t all good news for the Korean tech giant, as its request for a retrial based on claims of jury misconduct during the August hearing was thrown out by Judge Koh, which means Samsung will still have to pay $1.05 billion in damages to Apple.

Monday’s post-trial orders are the latest chapter in the long-running patent-related battle between the two companies as they vie for supremacy in the cut-throat mobile device market.

Koh said in the ruling that the iPhone maker’s argument that it had suffered revenue loss because of Samsung’s violation of a number of utility and design patents was not strong enough to justify the imposition of a sales ban.

“The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple’s patents,” Koh wrote in her ruling, adding, “Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple, it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad features, a few narrow protected functions.”

Patent expert Florian Mueller of Foss Patents was surprised by Koh’s sweeping decision considering the large number of infringement findings, describing it as a possible first for the US legal system.

“It may be unprecedented in the legal history of the United States for an injunction motion to be denied across the board despite such a large number of infringement findings (roughly half a dozen) by a jury and, especially, in light of the competitive situation between the two as well as the jury’s findings of willful infringement,” Mueller wrote on his blog.

He added that Apple is almost certain to appeal Monday’s ruling, meaning both companies will return to court some time next year. Judge Koh has repeatedly asked the two tech giants to try to resolve their patent-infringement issues out of court, but as long as each company believes it can win in the courts over the long term, this is highly unlikely to happen.