Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini. Get the original SIII feel for lesser pay and smaller design. ( UPDATE : SIII Mini gets NFC )

This year on the 12th of October, Samsung unveiled the S3 mini to compete with other middle range phones like Xperia X, and HTC One S. The S3 mini isn’t just smaller than its elder brother, it has compromised with the power and features that the original S3 offers. But it still is a nice deal for the price, read ahead to know what it ]features keep up the S3 standard.

Design and Display.

The S3 Mini shares the same design like the more powerful Galaxy S3, just that it has been made much smaller, the S3 poses a 4.8 inch screen whereas the S3 Mini has a smaller 4-inch AMOLED WVGA resolution display. The S3 has 1280×720 pixel resolution and the S3 Mini has a much lesser 800×480 pixel resolution. The original SIII sported 306.96 ppi, and the SIII Mini sports 233 pixels per inch. Although the pixel density is much lesser than the original, it is still decent for a 4-inch piece, and you won’t notice much of a change. As far as the outer design is concerned, the SIII mini mirrors the original SIII, but looks like it has been shrunken a bit, but even then the Mini gives the feel of the real SIII. It has the same curved chassis, and a similar home button. The phone is just 0.39 inches thick and weighs 3.9 ounces, so you won’t feel that extra weight like you did while carrying around original S3.

Performance.

The S3 Mini poses a smaller 1GHz dual core processor, whereas the S3 featured a quad-core processor. Good news for the Android lovers is that the phone will be shipped with the latest Android Jelly Bean, unlike the S3 which comes by default with the older Icecream Sandwich. The 1GHz processor should be able to easily handle the Jelly Bean without much of trouble with speed and performance, credits to Android innovations like the Project Butter. The Mini also has 1GB of RAM to help things along. What seems disappointing is that the S3 Mini lacks 4G LTE capability that most of Samsung’s latest high end smartphones provide. So the phone would suite only 3G networks. Where the original S3 posed a 2,100mAh battery, the S3 Mini has a much smaller 1,500mAh battery so the phone is likely to get discharged quickly and you’d have to recharge it everyday if you are a vibrant user.

Camera.

The original S3 had an excellent 8MP rear facing camera, the S3 Mini poses a 5MP camera, even though the sensor size isn’t everything for a good camera, the photos aren’t going to be of the standard of those taken with the original S3. We’d have to wait for the phone to come to us so that we could tell you about it briefly.

Other Features.

The phone includes connectivity options like Bluetooth, Wifi, and even NFC wherein you can bump 2 phones together to share files and the sharing speed is quite remarkable. Samsung’s TouchWiz interface also enhances our experience. The S-voice too performes well on the S3 Mini but it still is no competition to Apple’s Siri. Other features include SmartStay where the phone lights up its display when you glance at it. And DLNA sharing that helps you transfer content like photos and videos between compatible devices, like to your TV. All in all the S3 Mini is a good deal at its price tag of around $300, although there are no confirmed reports on its actual price and availability.

UPDATE 23/01/13 : Another variant of the SIII Mini i.e. the NFC variant is set to hit shelves this month. But , frankly , it’s hardly a reboot or a radical enhancement of any sort. The phone’s exactly the same , it’s just got some NFC to back you up when you need it. It should’ve had the NFC features in the first place considering its underwhelming specs for the inflated price tag. Well , it should be priced the same , so if you were still in a dilemma to buy the phone , your wait was worth it.