When a Samsung Galaxy S III's Mini version first created buzz , people hoped to see a smaller device sporting impressive flagship-like hardware , for those who found the S III to large for their hands or prefer to operate their phone with single hand .
On Thursday when Samsung let the cat out of the bag , it ended up in a disappointment to most people . The Galaxy S III Mini carries the same "nature-inspired" design of its bigger brother , in a smaller shell packing 4 inch display . It has same curved frame and 3 buttons below the screen . It has same TouchWiz UI on top of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean .
But , what about the hardware inside ?
The Galaxy S III Mini didn't have the most powerful hardware as one might guess from its name and carries only mediocre specifications - a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM and 8/16GB storage. The display is 4 inch AMOLED with 800x480 resolution.
So how does it fare against its bigger brother and the competition ? Lets have a look .
Size And Design
The smaller size of Galaxy S III Mini fits more easily in hands and pockets . However , the Mini is about 1.2mm thicker than the bigger S III at 9.85mm vs 8.6mm .
The Display
To make the Galaxy S III smaller, which had huge 4.8 inch display, Samsung has reduced that display size to 4 inches in the Mini. That is of same size which original Galaxy S had.
The resolution of Mini's screen is only 800 x 480 pixels , which gives it just 223 ppi pixel density compared to the Galaxy S III's screen with 1280x720 resolution which has impressive 306 ppi density.
Apart from the low resolution, the display is based on PenTile matrix which is considered inferior. This is the same reason why HTC One X's display carrying RGB matrix based display is praised over Galaxy S III which had PenTile based display.
Camera
The Galaxy S III Mini comes with a 5 Megapixel rear shooter with LED flash, while the Galaxy S III and even the older Galaxy S II had 8 MP cameras. The camera does only 720p video at 30 fps which is quite basic these days and even front camera of theS IIIcould do. The Mini's front camera is offers VGA quality. At least an 8MP rear camera and 1.3MP front camera should have been present.
Processor & Memory
The Galaxy S III has powerful 1.5GHz quad-core Exynos processor with quad-core Mali-400 GPU . But , the S III Mini only gets a NovaThor U8420 SoC which has 1GHz dual-core CPU with Mali-400 GPU . This makes the Mini much slower than even the Galaxy S II which had 1.2GHz processor . The RAM is 1GB which same as theS III.
The S III Mini will come in 8GB and 16GB expandable via microSD card up to 32GB which is good enough , but still less than S III which comes in up to 64GB versions.
Connectivity and Battery
The connectivity department has decent features and not much behind its bigger brother . Features include 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, GPS, GLONASS, FM radio, Bluetooth 4.0 , NFC .
Both Galaxy S III and Mini have micro-USB port .
But the Mini lacks support for USB host and MHL which is present on the S III, which means one cannot connect USB devices it it (using adapter) or connect phone to TVs for playing movies .
The battery capability of Mini is 1500mAh compared to 2100mAh on the S III. But the bigger display and quad-core processor consume much more battery so practically both should perform similar in terms of battery life .
OS and Software
This is the only department in which the Mini is ahead of its bigger bro . The S III Mini comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with same TouchWiz UI on top . It will come with new features introduced in Jelly Bean like Google Now and Project Butter .
It also offers Samsung S Voice ( voice recognition based assistant ) , Smart Stay ( tracks eye movement to maintain display brightness ) , Direct call ( call sender by lifting phone to ear while reading SMS ) , S Beam ( Send files to other devices with S Beam quickly ) , Smart Alert etc
Price, Availability and Conclusion
So after reading the specs and details you must have realized that its not a flagship device with cutting-edge features in compact size as the Galaxy S III Mini tag suggests . It is definitely not worthy of the "S III" tag going by the specs .
Will it be worth buying or not will depend on the price it is launched at . Samsung has not yet revealed actual price , but it is being speculated to cost around $500 , which translates to above Rs 25k in India. If one is not much concerned about the hardware or just likes the Galaxy S III design and finds it too big , then he should consider the Mini , else consider other options .
The older Galaxy S II which is far ahead than the Mini is available below Rs 26k . HTC One S has also seen a price drop recently and now costs Rs 25900 , it is better than S III Mini in terms of specs . Sony Xperia P which also carries a better 4 inch display and ahead of the Mini in terms of hardware costs around Rs 23000 .
On Thursday when Samsung let the cat out of the bag , it ended up in a disappointment to most people . The Galaxy S III Mini carries the same "nature-inspired" design of its bigger brother , in a smaller shell packing 4 inch display . It has same curved frame and 3 buttons below the screen . It has same TouchWiz UI on top of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean .
But , what about the hardware inside ?
The Galaxy S III Mini didn't have the most powerful hardware as one might guess from its name and carries only mediocre specifications - a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM and 8/16GB storage. The display is 4 inch AMOLED with 800x480 resolution.
So how does it fare against its bigger brother and the competition ? Lets have a look .
Size And Design
The smaller size of Galaxy S III Mini fits more easily in hands and pockets . However , the Mini is about 1.2mm thicker than the bigger S III at 9.85mm vs 8.6mm .
The Display
To make the Galaxy S III smaller, which had huge 4.8 inch display, Samsung has reduced that display size to 4 inches in the Mini. That is of same size which original Galaxy S had.
The resolution of Mini's screen is only 800 x 480 pixels , which gives it just 223 ppi pixel density compared to the Galaxy S III's screen with 1280x720 resolution which has impressive 306 ppi density.
Apart from the low resolution, the display is based on PenTile matrix which is considered inferior. This is the same reason why HTC One X's display carrying RGB matrix based display is praised over Galaxy S III which had PenTile based display.
Camera
The Galaxy S III Mini comes with a 5 Megapixel rear shooter with LED flash, while the Galaxy S III and even the older Galaxy S II had 8 MP cameras. The camera does only 720p video at 30 fps which is quite basic these days and even front camera of theS IIIcould do. The Mini's front camera is offers VGA quality. At least an 8MP rear camera and 1.3MP front camera should have been present.
Processor & Memory
The Galaxy S III has powerful 1.5GHz quad-core Exynos processor with quad-core Mali-400 GPU . But , the S III Mini only gets a NovaThor U8420 SoC which has 1GHz dual-core CPU with Mali-400 GPU . This makes the Mini much slower than even the Galaxy S II which had 1.2GHz processor . The RAM is 1GB which same as theS III.
The S III Mini will come in 8GB and 16GB expandable via microSD card up to 32GB which is good enough , but still less than S III which comes in up to 64GB versions.
Connectivity and Battery
The connectivity department has decent features and not much behind its bigger brother . Features include 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, GPS, GLONASS, FM radio, Bluetooth 4.0 , NFC .
Both Galaxy S III and Mini have micro-USB port .
But the Mini lacks support for USB host and MHL which is present on the S III, which means one cannot connect USB devices it it (using adapter) or connect phone to TVs for playing movies .
The battery capability of Mini is 1500mAh compared to 2100mAh on the S III. But the bigger display and quad-core processor consume much more battery so practically both should perform similar in terms of battery life .
OS and Software
This is the only department in which the Mini is ahead of its bigger bro . The S III Mini comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with same TouchWiz UI on top . It will come with new features introduced in Jelly Bean like Google Now and Project Butter .
It also offers Samsung S Voice ( voice recognition based assistant ) , Smart Stay ( tracks eye movement to maintain display brightness ) , Direct call ( call sender by lifting phone to ear while reading SMS ) , S Beam ( Send files to other devices with S Beam quickly ) , Smart Alert etc
Price, Availability and Conclusion
So after reading the specs and details you must have realized that its not a flagship device with cutting-edge features in compact size as the Galaxy S III Mini tag suggests . It is definitely not worthy of the "S III" tag going by the specs .
Will it be worth buying or not will depend on the price it is launched at . Samsung has not yet revealed actual price , but it is being speculated to cost around $500 , which translates to above Rs 25k in India. If one is not much concerned about the hardware or just likes the Galaxy S III design and finds it too big , then he should consider the Mini , else consider other options .
The older Galaxy S II which is far ahead than the Mini is available below Rs 26k . HTC One S has also seen a price drop recently and now costs Rs 25900 , it is better than S III Mini in terms of specs . Sony Xperia P which also carries a better 4 inch display and ahead of the Mini in terms of hardware costs around Rs 23000 .