Samsung’s Galaxy S3 (or S III, as the company prefers to use Roman numerals) has been doing pretty well around the world, and while many love the massive 4.8 inch screen, not everyone wants a big display, which is why there’s a 4 inch version coming. Sort of.
Announced overseas, the I8190 Galaxy S3 Mini is a new handset that borrows the soft curved plastic design of the Galaxy S3, drops the screen down to a smaller size, keeps Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean” from the recent updated 4G model, but changes most of the insides.
Gone is the quad-core processor, 8 megapixel rear camera, 1.9 megapixel front camera, a 720p HD screen, replaced on the smaller handset with a dual-core chip, 5 megapixel rear camera, VGA front camera, and less impressive 800×480 4 inch Super AMOLED screen.
Much of the connectivity is the same, with WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, Near-Field Communication, and microUSB, though it’s not yet known if this last part will support video through the connector with an MHL cable.
The battery is also very different, dropping in capacity significantly from the 2100mAh on the full-size Galaxy S3 to a 1500mAh on the Mini, though you do also shave off roughly 20 grams from the weight.
It might sound like the S3 Mini is more of a downgrade from what the Galaxy S3 is, and from the sound of specs, it’s easy to read it like that. That said, until a review unit comes in, we have no way of determining whether this handset could be as good as its big brother, and dual-core phones have certainly surprised us with performance this year.
Regardless, there are currently no plans for Australians to buy this phone, though, with a local representative for Samsung telling us “Samsung Electronics Australia is pleased there is interest about the GALAXY S III mini in Australia, but we are unable to make any announcements at this time.”
