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It’s official. Samsung has today announced the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini, a downsized variant of the flagship model launched by the Korean mobile maker earlier this year. The Galaxy S3 Mini shrinks things down to a 4-inch, WVGA display and is powered by a dual-core 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM. The GS3 Mini will be available in 8GB and 16GB options (with up to 32GB via microSD).
The Android 4.1, TouchWiz handset isn’t being positioned as a mid-range device, bur rather as an option for those customers (especially in Europe) that prefer a less bulky phone. It still manages to pack a full list of features, including a 5MP camera and NFC capabilities among others. Check out the press release below for all the details.
Samsung Introduces GALAXY S III mini, a compact yet powerful smartphone
GALAXY S III’s nature-inspired design and intuitive ease-of-use in one stylish, compact smartphone
SEOUL, Korea – October 12, 2012 –
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, today unveiled the GALAXY S III mini,
a compact version of the flagship smartphone GALAXY S III.
The GALAXY S III mini brings the high performance, intuitive ease-of-use and nature-inspired design of the GALAXY S III to an elegant,
compact smartphone with a 4.0-inch screen. It can be an optimal choice for consumers who are looking for more practical smartphones.“The GALAXY S III introduced a new concept of smartphone that has proven hugely popular around the world.
We’re now delighted to bring its revolutionary design, intuitive usability and intelligence to the GALAXY S III mini in a more compact form,” said JK Shin, President and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics. “We continue to make every effort to provide extraordinary mobile experiences to meet a wide variety of user needs.”The GALAXY S III mini is powered by Android™ 4.1 (Jelly Bean), the latest version of the world’s most popular smartphone operating system.
Jelly Bean has fast, fluid and smooth graphics along with a new Google Search™ experience featuring Google Now™, which brings you just the right information, before you even ask.Stylish and compact, the GALAXY S III mini shares the GALAXY S III’s breakthrough design and simple elegance.
Its ultra-minimal curved frame delivers a rich natural feel, which is also reflected on its nature-inspired home screen, wallpapers and ringtones.
Its beautiful 4.0-inch Super AMOLED display offers a generous viewing experience that lets you view multimedia and Web content in brilliant color and clarity.
Its compact size gives users a comfortable grip and allows a convenient one-hand operation.The GALAXY S III mini is packed with intelligent technology designed to make interacting with the phone incredibly natural and intuitive.
S Voice, Samsung’s advanced natural language recognition software, lets you use your voice to unlock the phone with
simple customized commands, or to play your favorite songs, turn the volume up or down, organize your schedule, or automatically launch the camera and start taking photos.The GALAXY S III mini also understands your gestures to make using your phone easier and more natural: With Smart Stay,
the phone’s camera tracks your eyes and keeps the screen lit as long as you are looking at it. When reading a text message from a friend,
Direct Call enables you to automatically dial a call simply by lifting the phone to your ear; and Smart Alert conveniently alerts you to missed calls or messages as soon as you pick up your phone.Content sharing is easy and fast on the GALAXY S III mini: Its S Beam feature lets you share a 10MB music file in just two seconds
by simply tapping on another S Beam-enabled device including GALAXY S III or GALAXY Note II, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal.
The ‘Buddy photo share’ function also allows photos to be easily and simultaneously shared with all your friends pictured in an image directly from the camera or the photo gallery.
It better be a Super AMOLED Plus. There’s no excuse for PenTile when the Plus variant already exists for that screen size.
It is not PenTile
Like I said last time, my year + old Atrix 4G is as good, or better than this. laaaame.
Motorola wait samsung, STOP with all the phones!
I just can’t wrap my head around as to why drop the specs,since it is obviously going to be compared to the i5 this would be a perfect opportunity to one up apple in its in screen size
It better be half the cost of the S3 otherwise I don’t understand the drop in specs…
Yeah. Like, the Galaxy S3 can even be bought for cheap these days with some of the deals I see out there. Having trouble understanding why they could not just shrink the GS3 down with the same specs.
MediaTek is coming out with an inexpensive quad-core processor that supports dual-SIM. If Samsung had waited a couple months, they could have released a Galaxy S III Mini Duos.
isnt the s2 better than this?
Sounds like an SGS2 to me….
Sounds like an SGS to me…. with slightly better specs of course.
my htc one s smashes this thing
go one s if u want a smaller superphone
Ha Ha…. 4″ is mini ….. poor iPhone.
yEp! Brillaint move, caters to those wanting a smaller phone and mocks the 1phone in the process! love it!
I hope this sells billions… OEMs can’t forget about the 4″ fan group…
This is just cheapening the Galaxy S brand, specs just to basic. Samsung just rushing a 4″ phone to compeat with the iphone 5. It should have Better specs
Why call it a Galaxy S 3 with Galaxy S 2 specs.
Mini… Mini phone, Mini specs.
This phone really makes no sense. You can get a better specd galaxy s2 for $99 or less on contract, which I’m sure is where this will be priced if it even comes stateside
Everybody here – you should be checking this out now – its about android 4.2 – http://esponential.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/top-5-features-we-want-in-android-4-2-key-lime-pie-or-whatever-itll-be-called/
spammer, some one ban this guy
Well , I’m sorry. It wasn’t meant to be spam. I just wanted to share that article with you guys :( Won’t happen again :)
This is going to be interesting, can’t wait to try this one out.
I’m a fan of the larger screened phones myself, but understand many aren’t and because of this it is unfortunate that manufacturers feel that the smaller phones must have smaller specs. I truly feel bad for those wanting a high end device in a more traditional size. These devices seam to have fallen to become the new breed of mid level/budget devices while only the larger handset gain the top specs. Its a shame.
This years mid level/budget devices should be last years batch of super phones. Stop making mid level/budget phones.
so im guessing their were a significant number of people who complained about the S3’s screen size?
nah, it just makes sense, the beauty of Android is one size does NOT fit all… Apple as The Woz just came out and stated, is arrogant to think that 1Phone can be right for everyone. Sure if everyone is young girls if you ask me.
The beauty of this is Samsung puts out the mini that mocks the 1Phone so I say it is a brilliant move. It caters to those wanting a smaller phone and mocks the iPhone size in the process. Sammy! Sammy!
yeah but why can’t there be a smaller phone with the same specs as the sgs3. Why can’t there be physical keyboard phones with the same specs instead of mid range models? I still don’t think android has reached its potential when it comes to choices.
Got to admit it’s beating the hell out of Apple’s business model when it comes to choice…
this looks cheap, tacky and has terrible performance. I would much rather go with the razr i or razr m! this thing looks like a toy!!!!i reccomend one s, razr m or even the iphone over this
Samsung keeps pumping out these under-performing “flagships” (e.g. Galaxy Tab 2). These can’t compete with the iPhone 5 or even normal Galaxy S3/S2. I wonder how long this can last…
I’d like to think this setup would run ok on a 1Ghz processor. My Nexus has a 1.2 Ghz processor and runs Jelly Bean flawlessly, but it doesn’t have 300 megabytes worth of Touchwiz on it either. Hoping for the best, but I’m thinking they might have kept the RAM at 2 GB to keep the fluid experience of Jelly Bean, well, fluid with Touchwiz added to it.