Samsung makes Galaxy S III mini official

The Samsung Galaxy S III mini is now official. The 4.0-inch handset that some hoped would be Samsung’s answer to the iPhone 5, turned out to be a rather mediocre device, but it is affordable and it comes with the latest of Android, 4.1 Jelly Bean.

The interesting thing about the Galaxy S III mini is that it has all the unique features that came in the original S III: TouchWiz with the S Voice assistant, SmartStay that shuts off the screen when you’re not looking at it and S Beam with tap to share for songs and files as big as 10MB. We don’t know whether that’s a good thing or not, though - we definitely prefer Google’s Voice Search with its accuracy and quickness over the sluggish S Beam.

Hardware-wise, the Samsung Galaxy S III mini is a mid-range device. Here is a quick rundown of its spec highlights:

- 4.0-inch Super AMOLED WVGA (480 x 800-pixel) screen
- 1GHz dual-core processor
- 1GB of RAM
- 5-megapixel rear camera, VGA on the front
- 8/16GB of internal storage
- microSD card slot
- 1,500mAh battery
- HSPA 900/1900/2100 (no LTE)
- NFC

The S III mini is 0.39 inches (9.9mm) thick, a hair larger than the original. It’s coming in white and blue, the same colors, and the same design with rounded edges as the Galaxy S III. It will definitely sell for the Holidays in Europe which is one of its main target markets (no word on U.S. availability, though) for a price of around 400 euro (around $515). How do you like it?

Samsung Galaxy S III mini

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