Samsung announces upcoming UK availability of NFC-equipped Galaxy S3 Mini
The original Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini was supposed to launch with NFC support, but Samsung seems to have disabled that for some reason. We’re not sure of the Korean manufacturer’s reasoning, but the company has opted to refresh the smallish device with operational NFC capabilities. You can expect the same package as before, except now you can setup WiFi Direct connections to other supported devices as well as use the full extent of Samsung’s S Beam.
Being that the original S3 Mini is only a few months old it’s not hard to guess that there are a few folks out there not happy to hear this news. While Samsung isn’t obligated to accommodate those who were duped into buying the NFC-less option, we’d be very happy to see the company do something to help folks upgrade to the new version.
Despite its name, the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini doesn’t match-up too closely to the original Samsung Galaxy S3. Other than the screen size being smaller, users also get a 1GHz dual-core processor and just 1GB of RAM. Compare this to the international version of the S3 which comes with a quad-core Exynos chipset ad 2GB of RAM.
Perhaps the idea was to get the price lower, but it would be more accurate to call this a Galaxy S2 Mini than anything else. The phone isn’t bad, of course — it’s just that we’re left wanting a little bit more from something bearing the S3 moniker.
Nevertheless, this new NFC-equipped version of the S3 Mini will give UK users another decent option that should be paired with some rather inexpensive tariffs starting later this month. As far as PAYG options go the original S3 Mini was about 270 pounds, and while Samsung hasn’t confirmed a price for the refresh just yet we imagine it won’t be much more or less than that.