Samsung unveils 4-inch Galaxy S3 Mini

Samsung unveils new Galaxy S3 Mini with 4-inch screen

Samsung has today announced a new "Mini" version of its popular Galaxy S3 flagship smartphone, featuring a smaller screen and less powerful processor. 

At a launch event today in Germany, the South Korean firm unveiled the Galaxy S3 Mini, built with a WVGA Super AMOLED screen (800×480 resolution) measuring 4-inches on the diagonal, compared with the 4.8-inch display in its bigger brother.

  

However, the Mini features exactly the same screen size as Apple's new iPhone 5 handset, which has sold millions of units since its launch last month.
Samsung's latest smartphone comes with Android Jelly Bean out of the box, bringing various improvements to the operating system including faster browsing and the Google Now feature in Google Search.
The Mini offers many of the Samsung-developed features of the Galaxy S3, including the S Voice voice controlled assistant, and the Smart Stay system that tracks the user's eye and keeps the screen lit as long as they are looking at it.
As the phone is fitted with Near Field Communications, users can access S Beam for sharing 10MB of data in just two seconds by tapping another S-Beam enabled devices, such as the Galaxy S3 or Galaxy Note 2.

 

Under the hood, the Galaxy S3 Mini has a Dual Core 1GHz processor, rather than the quad-core EXYNOS chip in the Galaxy S3.
The handset also has 1GB of RAM, a 5-megapixel camera on the rear, and a VGA front-facing camera for video chat.
Samsung has not yet announced pricing for the handset but it is thought likely that this will be a mid-range option compared to the Galaxy S3.
The firm is presumably aiming the new phone at people who like the S3 but have been put off by the larger screen, or high price. 

 

Simon Stanford, the vice president of telecommunications & networks division at Samsung UK and Ireland, said: "The award winning Galaxy S3 has been extremely well received globally since it launched earlier this year so we are thrilled to be able to offer our customers the same revolutionary design, intuitive usability and intelligence in a mini version.
"We will continue to develop smartphones to cater for a variety of customer needs and this latest release demonstrates our ongoing commitment to offering our customers more choice at every price point."
Alongside price, Samsung has also not yet announced availability for the Galaxy S3 Mini, although it is expected that the phone will launch before the end of the year.