Though it's the Korean firm's flagship devices that tend to grab the headlines, Samsung also makes a fairly compelling line of mid-low end devices. The latest of these was revealed today in the form of the Galaxy S4 Mini. Like the S3 Mini before it, the mid-range handset presents a scaled-down version of its big brother, in both size and performance.
The handset shares its aesthetics with the full-size Galaxy S4, available in the same White Frost and Black Mist colors, while under the hood it packs an unspecified 1.7 GHz dual-core processor, 1.5 GB RAM and 8 GB of expandable internal storage. The handset runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, complete with a suite of Samsung apps such as S Voice and S Translator.
The Mini is fitted with a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display with a 960 x 540 resolution. Though the display won't rival higher-end devices, it's a step up from the S3 Mini's WVGA 800 x 480 screen.
The cameras on the device are fairly impressive, coming in at 8 MP on the front and 1.9 MP on the back, which is a significant improvement over its predecessor’s 5 MP and VGA offerings. The S4 Mini weighs 107 g (0.24 lb) and measures 8.94 mm thick.
In terms of connectivity, the S4 Mini will ship in both LTE and 3G HSPA+ variants, presumably determined by location. The device comes with a/b/g/n WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth 4.0, as well as light, proximity, gyro and magnetic sensors and an accelerometer. There's also an IR remote feature that lets users control TVs, set-top boxes and DVD/Blu Ray players through the device.
The Galaxy S4 Mini is a reasonable bump-up from last year's S3 Mini, with more RAM, a faster chipset, better cameras, LTE connectivity and a slimmer frame. It's obvious that the S4 Mini isn't designed to compete with flagship devices like the full Galaxy S4 or HTC's compelling One handset, but its price point is certain to be much lower than those devices, making it a solid option, on the spec sheet at least.
There's no news yet on pricing or a release date for the device, though UK retailer Phones4U claims that it will be stocking the device in July. More information on the S4 Mini will be available following the company's Galaxy and Ativ event in London on June 20th.
Head to the gallery for the more images of the device.
