The Galaxy S3 mini, the smaller brother of the world’s best-selling Android smartphone, the Galaxy S3, has gone on sale in South Africa for a recommended retail price of R4 599 for an 8GB model.
A 16GB version of the mini will retail for R4 999. A 16GB of the bigger S3 starts at about R6 000 on many online stores.
The S3 mini, with a 4-inch Super Amoled screen is a compact version of Galaxy S3, which has sold more than 40m units worldwide since its launch in mid-2012. The bigger version of the product has a 4,8-inch display.
The mini, which is powered by Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, has the same design as its big brother. It also shares the same software features, like Samsung’s “Smart Stay” technology, which uses the phone’s camera to track a user’s eyes and keeps the screen lit as long as they are looking at it.
Internally, however, the mini is not nearly as powerful as the bigger S3. It uses a slower, dual-core 1GHz processor — reviewers have suggested it’s significantly inferior to the 1,4GHz quad-core unit used in the bigger S3 — and the camera is left wanting.
The screen resolution of the mini is 480×800 pixels against the 720p resolution of its bigger brother. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
- Look out for a review of the Samsung Galaxy S3 mini on TechCentral soon
