I own (and love) the Samsung Galaxy S III, so I was very eager to review the S III Mini.
Here’s all you need to know: everything about it is scaled down. And I mean everything, from the size (obviously) to the Philippine retail price (P14,990) to, most unfortunately, all the specifications.
The S III Mini does still sport a Super AMOLED screen, albeit at a much lower resolution of 480×800 (223 ppi) instead of 720×1280 (306 ppi). And both phones do come equipped with the usual array of WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and DLNA specs, though even there the Mini can only manage a 3G connection while the big brother (depending on where you buy it) can do 4G.
But fortunately the Mini can accept MicroSD Cards (hello, Nexus 4 owners) though still, the MicroSD capacity is capped at 32GB instead of 64GB. And the Mini also has a removable battery (hello again, Nexus 4) but gaaah, the back cover is twice as hard to remove as the S III!
A photo of the SIII big brother, shot with the Mini camera. (click for hi-res)
And a photo of the Mini, shot with the S III camera. (click for hi-res)
Everywhere else, the Mini is not up to par with its S III sibling (or the Nexus 4 for that matter). Processor speed, camera resolution, operating system, battery capacity, you name it. Frankly, if it weren’t for the diminutive cosmetic resemblance, you could pretty much say this was a completely different phone hardly worthy of the S III designation.
That’s not to say this is a bad phone, mind you. A few years ago, this would have been a flagship device, and even right now in 2013, it’s much more than adequate. In normal use, I confess I even saw very little difference for simple, daily tasks except for the occasional slight slow down or lag where my personal S III wouldn’t have flinched. And I do really like the size as a refreshing change of pace from the monolithic S III.
Taken on its own merits, the Mini is definitely worth considering. But as a supposed variant of the S III, are you getting only half the phone at half the price?
