JK Shin of Samsung Mobile Communications recently confirmed that, per a recently released Samsung press release (that is available only in Korean), Samsung will release a four inch “Mini” version of its flagship Galaxy S III smartphone in Germany on October 11, 2012. As we write this morning the official announcement is still a few hours down the road in Germany – which should happen around 6 PM their time), but we can anticipate that what Samsung will actually announce will be in great part - if not completely – what we present here.
Shin has categorically noted that the new Galaxy Mini will have “full form factor,” by which he means that the smartphone will not be a low end device but a true high end smartphone like the big Galaxy S III, and that it will be full-featured and completely up to date from a software perspective relative to its larger sibling. Well, sort of in any case.
It is interesting to take note of how the Android market as evolved – inevitably, the high end Android phones all feature very large (some of us would say overly large) screen sizes. Screen size has become the key high end differentiator, and provides the measure of the beast - if you want a high end Android phone you can easily pick them out this way. Conversely, smaller screen sizes mean lower end Android phones. Bigger is always better with Android.
That said, when Shin notes that the Mini will provide “full form factor,” it’s a significant change of pace in the Android world. Below is an image of the likely size differential – it is a very substantial drop in size and the image certainly makes it appear to be effectively “full form factor.”
Before going any further, let’s present what are more than likely to be the actual Galaxy Mini specifications. We’ve snagged these from MobileGeeks in Germany (as translated from the German by Google):
Samsung Galaxy S III Mini GT-I8190
- Display: 4.0 inch Super AMOLED display with 800 × 480 pixels, 16.67 million colors, capacitive touchscreen, multi-touch
- Camera: five megapixel with auto focus and LED Flash, Resolution 2592 x 1944 pixels / VGA front
- CPU: STE U8420 dual-core 1.0 GHz
- RAM: 1 GB
- Wireless Standards: HSPA 14.4/5.76 900/1900/2100, EDGE / GPRS 850/900/1800/1900
- Wireless: Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n 2.4/5GHz, DLNA, NFC
- Flash Memory: 16 GB, MicroSD card slot (max 32 GB)
- Operating System: Google Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean"
- Connections: MicroUSB port, 3.5mm Headset Plug
- Battery: 1500 mAh
- Dimensions: 121.55 x 62.95 x 9.85 mm
- Housing Material: Plastic
- List Price: Likely more than 500 Euros
The iPhone 5 is 123.8 mm tall, 58.6 mm wide and all of 7.6 mm thick. So it is a scant 2.25 mm taller than the new Mini but remains a significant 4.25 mm less wide, and maintains an ideal 16:9 aspect ratio. Thickness is more a matter of boasting than real world impact, but at just over two mm thinner Apple never the less gets to boast – and for some of us the thinness and lack of weight is palpable.
The comparison ends there, however. The new Mini will have the same plastic body as the Galaxy S III (which we believe is entirely too flimsy), the screen pixel density is average at best, and doesn’t get to Apple’s retina (1136x640 resolution) display. We have yet to meet a screen that matches Apple’s displays, but we understand that perspective is subjective, and we haven’t really examined the Lumia 920 screen yet. The camera is a 5 MP affair that is hardly state of the art in this age and age.
Can it be a Winner?
Quite honestly, the Mini hardly strikes us as a device that we would recommend. It will be interesting to see what the street price of the Mini will come in at in Europe and elsewhere, but we believe it will have to find a fairly low price point before it will be considered competitive.
It is hard to escape the notion that Samsung believes it needs to more or less match the iPhone 5 in size in order to more equitably compete with it head to head – especially in a world where Android quality is measured by screen size. What Samsung demonstrates here is that they haven’t quite got it right in terms of being able to deliver a product with the substantial and complete feature set that would be necessary to really compete with the iPhone 5. “Full form factor” the Mini may have, but it doesn’t deliver nearly enough to compete with the iPhone 5.
Interestingly, depending on the price point the new Mini will likely end up competing head to head with other Android phones – the smaller, less interesting, less competitive Android phones that already have smaller screens. Now that would be an ironic mobile twist of sorts. This could conceivably force the other Android vendors to rethink their own strategies in terms of high end features and tying them to screen size. Perhaps we’ll (thankfully) see a return to a “smaller is better” world of Android smartphones.
We’ve noted elsewhere our belief that Samsung’s Galaxy S III will end up going head to head with the Lumia 920 in the United States, rather than competing with the iPhone 5 (we simply don’t believe the Galaxy S III can compete with the iPhone 5 head to head). We’ve further noted that it may turn out to be the case that the Lumia 920 (if it is priced right) may prove to be a Galaxy S III killer in the United States.
Now we can also add that the Galaxy Mini is more likely to end up going head to head with the Lumia 920 and 820 smartphones in Europe and elsewhere. The Lumia 920 is a far more refined smartphone than the Galaxy Mini – there is no real comparison here, any more than there is between the Mini and the iPhone 5.
So to answer the question, the Mini will turn out to be an interim smartphone that may deliver some benefits in guiding the Android device makers towards a return to smaller but still very high end smartphones. It may very well end up doing well going head to head with the lower end of the Android market.
Will it offer any sort of competition to the iPhone 5 or Lumia 920?
In a word…no.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman 
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