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Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini officially revealed

4-inch version of the flagship phone dials down the specs as well as the size

Samsung has officially unveiled the Galaxy S3 Mini, a 4-inch Android 4.1 Jelly Bean smartphone that sports a similar design to its bigger, flashier brother while dialling down the features and specs – and no doubt the price tag.

The S3 Mini’s 4-inch Super AMOLED screen is 800 x 480 rather than HD, its camera is 5MP rather than 8MP and there’s a 1GHz dual-core processor rather than the full-fat S3’s quad-core 1.4GHz CPU. It comes with 8GB or 16GB of storage plus a microSD supporting up to 32GB extra, which the S3 senior offers 16GB, 32GB and soon 64GB of built-in space with the option to add an extra 64GB via a card. There’s the same amount of RAM though: 1GB!

On the design front, it’s a little thicker than the S3 at 9.9mm deep, although it weighs a little less at 111.5g. The battery is 1,500mAh rather than 2,100mAh.

No doubt this drop in power will disappoint some potential customers, but the S3 Mini looks like a solid phone in its own right. There’s no word on the price or release date as yet, but we’d bet big that it’ll be in the shops before Christmas – and at a significantly cheaper price than the non-Mini Galaxy S3.

Interested in one of these dinky devils? Feeling a bit let down by its specs? Let us know in the comments box below.

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Profile image of Dan Grabham Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home