The Samsung Galaxy S3 mini has been unveiled, and not all is as I thought it would be.
Some people are slightly taken aback when they first hold the SGS 3, as was I. The phone is a lot bigger than anything I have ever had previously, but this soon becomes the norm, and anything smaller seems weird to look at, as I found when I picked up my old SGS from my desk the other day. It only takes a couple of days to get used to it, and Apple argued that with anything bigger than a 4 inch screen, you can't really hand hold the device easily and reach the top of the screen with one hand. I can…
Samsung has took the criticism to heart, and with the recent release of the iPhone 5 which has a 4 inch screen, as opposed to the S3 which has a 4.8 inch, the Samsung Galaxy S3 mini follows suit with a 4 inch screen also.
In my opinion, they really shouldn't have even bothered with the Galaxy S3 mini, and if they are hoping to steal Apple's throne from under them, they really should have thought about something, which i will get into now.
Yes, the Galaxy S3 mini is smaller and has the same smooth curved design as its bigger brother, but all similarities end there.
So we already know the screen size is now 4 inches, as oposed to 4.8, but what else has changed in the Samsung Galaxy S3 mini, especially inside the device? A lot…
All that remains of the SGS 3 name, is the looks. The actual insides have been stripped, revealing tech that isn't half what I thought it could have. I fully expected a smaller phone, with the same specs, to keep true to what the SGS 3 offers.
First of all, the display has been stripped of pixels. The Galaxy S3 has a resolution of 1280×720, yet its smaller brother, the Galaxy S3 mini has a resolution of 800 x 400, far below the 720P spec.
The pixel density for this reason has also been reduced to 233ppi, (pixels per inch) down from 306, so the display is less sharp. The display is still an AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) one so it should still remain pretty crisp and vibrant to look at.
The iPhone 5 as a comparison has a resolution of 1136×640 and has a ppi of 326. The iPhone wins hands down. I use the iPhone 5 as a comparison, because it is no longer a comparison to its bigger brother, but has been purposely set to be a rival for the iPhone 5. I seriously don't think Samsung even needed to do this.
So what has happened to the actual internals you ask?
Well, the CPU has been knocked back to a dual core variant for all versions (The US version of the SGS 3 has a dual core) from the quad offered in Europe, and clocked at 1GHZ, down from the 1.5GHZ in the dual core versions of the SGS 3.
RAM however remains the same in Europe, at 1GB, but for the US, this is a drop down from the 2GB offered in the dual core version.
The camera has also took a beating, offering a sensor capable of capturing 5MP, down from 8.
The battery of course also comes with less juice, giving out 1500mAh of power, given the size, but this is far below the 2100mAh in its bigger brother. How much will this affect battery life?
The iPhone 5 has a dual core chip (A6) also, running at 1.2GHZ, 1GB RAM, and an 8MP camera. The battery rating comes in at 1440 mAh which in non-removable.
iOS though could be argued to be much less taxing on CPU/RAM and battery compared with Android, so it would be very interesting to see what people get out of each device.
The Galaxy S3 mini does come standard with Android 4.1 Jellybean, which a lot of SGS 3 devices do not even have yet, as we are all still waiting for carriers to release their seperate versions. This phone could spark this to happen faster, as mobile networks quickly add their touches to the operating system and so roll them out to the bigger device (here is hoping).
The actual fact is though, even with its smaller size, if they released this at launch as the SGS 3, it wouldn't have won so many tech hearts. The Samsung Galaxy S3 mini is far too stripped down to offer any competition to Apples flagship iPhone 5, and falls far short of its bigger brother, diminishing its image.
Still, with the Samsung Galaxy S3 mini you still get a removable battery should you need to change it mid-way through the day, and it still offers external storage via the micro SD card slot.
But the actual device is no longer something to shout home about, and surely will not turn tech heads.
If you give time to get used to the size of the bigger SGS 3, it still holds the crown as the best mobile (in my opinion) to date, and should not be looked down upon.
