Samsung announcement Oct. 11. - Galaxy S III mini

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

And what's this new STE SoC? Is this a Samsung SoC? I would've thought some flavor of Exynos would've been used, maybe like the old 4210 like the S2. I find this fishy if STE is something else because HTC at least leveraged their Qualcomm relationship and slapped two craptastic cores together. Not sure why Samsung would use some other SoC all of a sudden.

Edit: Well interesting. NovaThor is already being used on Galaxy Ace and lower end products.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Wow if this was intended to make people snooze it succeeded.

 

[AkumaX]

So there's always a group that chastises Apple when it doesn't release a cheaper lower end model and uses old phones, but at the same time that strategy isn't too bad overall.

Look what happened with the Canon 6D vs 5D MkII. I would pick a 5D2 over the new 6D lower end model. And HTC did it with the Desire X and now Samsung's doing it with this crap phone.

They should've pushed the GS2 for a lower price. That phone would be a great mid/upper end phone.

BTW 800x480 isn't the worst thing in the world. The GS2 certainly doesn't look that nice against the GS3, but it's not a bad screen. And if you give it to me at 4" without pentile, I think it'd look pretty sharp.

Why would you pick the 5D2 over the 6D?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Why would you pick the 5D2 over the 6D?

- SD Card (wtf)
- 6D has slower shutter speed
- No back button joystick?
- Slightly worse VF on 6D
- 5D2 cheaper

There's pros/cons for both but i don't think the 6D was really the killer product people wanted. The D600 on the other hand...

I think Canon should've looked into 5D2 vs 6D analysis before releasing this. Previous gen products still do very well especially for cameras, and if they're gonna release a "new midrange" it can't suck that bad.

Graphics cards makers deal with this too, and you have to launch your next midrange well enough so that it doesn't get owned by your last high end card. Thank fully most new midrange cards use much less power (look at 7850 vs 6950) that there's an advantage in moving to the new one. This "new" mini SGS3 better have advantages over the SGS2 in order for it to be a worthy product. They should've used the SGS2 as a baseline and then found a point in between the GS2 and GS3. Or they could've simply shrunk the GS3.

 

[Eug]

I have the 7D, but if I were to choose between the 5D3 and the 6D, it'd be a hard choice. The 5D3 does offer more features, including much improved autofocus, but the 6D is a heluvalot cheaper and smaller/lighter, which is important in a portable device... like a phone.

Between the 5D2 and the 6D, I might choose the 6D, even though the 5D2 is closer in price. It's the 5D3 that has the big advantage for features.

 

[Raghu]

And what's this new STE SoC? Is this a Samsung SoC? I would've thought some flavor of Exynos would've been used, maybe like the old 4210 like the S2. I find this fishy if STE is something else because HTC at least leveraged their Qualcomm relationship and slapped two craptastic cores together. Not sure why Samsung would use some other SoC all of a sudden.

Edit: Well interesting. NovaThor is already being used on Galaxy Ace and lower end products.

Its used in Sony Xperia Sola too. Quite good SoC technically - the radio and SoC are on the same silicon. Saves power and makes the phone design much cheaper/simpler. With dual-A9 it should be comparable to Tegra2/dual core Exynos as far as processor perf goes.

 

[kpkp]

Its used in Sony Xperia Sola too...

Sony uses U8500 SoC on some of their lower end devices, never seen the U8420 in a device, nor i know what are the differences. STE doesn't even mention the U8400 series on their site.

 

[shortylickens]

Sony uses U8500 SoC on some of their lower end devices, never seen the U8420 in a device, nor i know what are the differences. STE doesn't even mention the U8400 series on their site.

I like this newb.

 

[MrX8503]

Why didn't Samsung keep the hardware of the gs3 but make the screen smaller? The 800x480 screen seems dated by today's standards.

 

[Infrnl]

Because they wanted a sm mid level phone for the $99 market. Would have been better to make a true mini s3 with same specs though. I'm sure it will still sell. Most people don't even care what's inside. They just want phones that appeal to them

 

[grkM3]

now that I think about it,this is the perfect cell for my mom.I hope it comes to the us

 

[kpkp]

It's official.
GALAXY S III mini Product Specifications

Network
HSPA 14.4/5.76 900/1900/2100
EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900
Display 4.0” WVGA Super AMOLED
Chipset Dual Core 1GHz
OS Android™ 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
Camera 5MP AF ＋ LED Flash / VGA Front
Video
H.264, MPEG-4, H.263, VC-1,
SorensonSpark, WMV7, WMV8
Recording/ Playback : 720p
Audio
MP3, AMR-NB, AAC/AAC＋/eAAC＋,
WMA, OGG(Vorbis), FLAC

Additional
Features
Game/Video/ Readers/Music Hub
Kies, KiesAir
FM Radio (RDS)
TouchWiz
Google™ Mobile
Services
Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Latitude
Google Play Store, Google Play Books, Google Play Movies
Google Plus, YouTube, Google Talk,
Google Places, Google Navigation, Google Downloads
Connectivity
WiFi a/b/g/n, WiFi HT40
GPS/GLONASS
NFC
Bluetooth® 4.0(LE)
Sensor Accelerometer, Digital compass, Proximity, Gyro
Memory
8/16GB ROM＋ 8Gb RAM,
microSDup to 32GB
Dimension 121.55 x 63 x 9.85 mm, 111.5 g
Battery 1,500 mAh

 

[Eug]

It's official.
GALAXY S III mini Product Specifications

Display 4.0” WVGA Super AMOLED

TouchWiz

Not too excited about that. Esp. the TouchWiz part. I would have considered it if it was a Nexus though, even with that 800*480 resolution, if the price was right.

Galaxy S III Mini?

http://www.unwiredview.com/2012/10/02/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-mini-could-be-introduced-on-october-11/

That would be a step in the right direction, although I'd much prefer if it was not one with the Samsung bloatware. A decent screen resolution would be desirable too.

The wait for a decent 4.0" - 4.3" Jelly Bean Nexus continues...

 

[grkM3]

NO 4g wtf is samsung doing

 

[shortylickens]

Why did they go out of their way to share every little detail EXCEPT resolution?

Oh wait, they did. WVGA. Now I gotta go look that up.

 

[bearxor]

The wait for a decent 4.0" - 4.3" Jelly Bean Nexus continues...

I'm not going to hold my breath...

 

[bearxor]

NO 4g wtf is samsung doing

It's hard right now to make a universal LTE device. Maybe in another year or two. I think most network operators in Europe have HSPA+ though and that's really not that bad.

 

[krumme]

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i8190_galaxy_s_iii_mini-review-829.php

What a let down. This have nothing to do with s3. This is just for dirt cheap market ripping of the good reputation.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

It's worth keeping in mind that even though the display is not Super AMOLED+ it could still have the new non pentile subpixel arrangement found in the Galaxy Note 2 rather than the old Pentile arrangement like the SGS1. It would still be nice to have qHD at least but non Pentile 800x480 wouldn't be quite so bad on a 4" screen.

 

[grkM3]

It's hard right now to make a universal LTE device. Maybe in another year or two. I think most network operators in Europe have HSPA+ though and that's really not that bad.

this phone is junk,its 2 year old tech spun off with gs3 marketing,say hello to a dual core droid x,not the x2 the first one with just another a9 core and same clock speed.

samsung would of sold 10 million easily if they actually put the guts of the gs3 into this device and gave it a 4.3 screen.Heck Im willing to bet they would out sell the gs3 if they respun it and went with a s4pro soc and actually hit the hype they were building with the prelaunch specs like saying something so powerfull yet so small bs.

now that I think of it im glad they got sued by apple,they are copying everything apple does and just made it 4in because of the iphone 5.


hey samsung,if you read this its not rocket science,throw a s4pro soc,2gb ram,clock it at 1.5ghz and give it a slim 2100 battery with a non pentile HD screen with LTE and you have the best cell phone ever for android.

it would sell like crazzy and I would dump my gs3 for one

 

[shortylickens]

OK, 800x480. Thats not too bad for a 4 inch screen. The Droid was better though. 3.7 inches at 854x480. And the RAZR M is 4.3 inches at 960x540. The EVO Design is 4 inches at 960x540, same as Droid Incredible 4g (which may be the same phone actually) and the same as the Droid 3 & Droid 4.

The iphone 5 is obviously much better but thats a different class of device. Then again, according to phone scoop Samsung does have a couple IPS phones.

I think they could have tried a little harder.

 

[Eug]

NO 4g wtf is samsung doing

WHAT?!?! I totally missed that. Yeah, that's a deal killer.

 

[grkM3]

WHAT?!?! I totally missed that. Yeah, that's a deal killer.

I cant believe how upset im getting over a cell but Im pissed,I really wanted a smaller gs3 phone.

this cell is retarded,its nothing but marketing and prolly runs like shit with its cpus

 

[MrX8503]

now that I think of it im glad they got sued by apple,they are copying everything apple does and just made it 4in because of the iphone 5.

From a competitive standpoint, it makes sense for Samsung to create a 4" device. Apple is their biggest rival and the iPhone 5 remains pretty much unchallenged in the 4" smartphone sector.

It's clear that the GS3 mini was created as a result of the 5 considering its specs probably didn't take Samsung long to throw together last minute.

The mini basically has no relation to its bigger brother other than looks and branding.

 

[grkM3]

From a competitive standpoint, it makes sense for Samsung to create a 4" device. Apple is their biggest rival and the iPhone 5 remains pretty much unchallenged in the 4" smartphone sector.

It's clear that the GS3 mini was created as a result of the 5 considering its specs probably didn't take Samsung long to throw together last minute.

The mini basically has no relation to its bigger brother other than looks and branding.

its not even funny on how outdated these specs are and the fact that samsung is not even using its own soc it unreal.