Thursday, October 11, 2012

Samsung launches Galaxy S III mini with 4.0-inch display, Android 4.1

Samsung Thursday unveiled the Galaxy S III mini, a compact version of the flagship smartphone Galaxy S III. The Galaxy S III mini features a 4-inch screen and runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

The Samsung Galaxy S III mini is powered by a dual-core 1GHz processor and features a 5-megapixel camera. It has a 1500 mAh battery and 8/16GB internal storage options.

"The Galaxy S III introduced a new concept of smartphone that has proven hugely popular around the world. We're now delighted to bring its revolutionary design, intuitive usability and intelligence to the Galaxy S III mini in a more compact form," said JK Shin, President and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics. "We continue to make every effort to provide extraordinary mobile experiences to meet a wide variety of user needs."

The Galaxy S III mini inherits Galaxy S III's features like S Voice, Smart Stay, Direct Call and S Beam. S Voice, Samsung's natural language recognition software, lets you use your voice to unlock the phone with simple customised commands, or to play your favourite songs, turn the volume up or down, organise your schedule, or automatically launch the camera and start taking photos.

The Galaxy S III mini also comes with Smart Stay, wherein the phone's camera tracks your eyes and keeps the screen lit as long as you are looking at it. When reading a text message from a friend, Direct Call enables you to automatically dial a call simply by lifting the phone to your ear; and Smart Alert alerts you to missed calls or messages as soon as you pick up your phone.


The S Beam feature lets you share a 10MB music file in just two seconds by simply tapping on another S Beam-enabled device including Galaxy S III or Galaxy Note II, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal. The 'Buddy photo share' function also allows photos to be simultaneously shared with all your friends pictured in an image directly from the camera or the photo gallery.

There's no official word on price or availability yet.

Samsung Galaxy S III mini specifications

  • 4.0-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display
  • 1 GHz dual-core processor
  • Android 4.1
  • 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash
  • VGA front-camera
  • WiFi a/b/g/n, WiFi HT40
  • GPS/GLONASS
  • NFC
  • Bluetooth 4.0
  • 121.55 x 63 x 9.85 mm, 111.5 g
  • 1,500 mAh battery