Samsung Electronics announced the Galaxy S4 mini smartphone, which has a larger screen and a better camera than its predecessor, the Galaxy S III mini.
The introduction of a pared down version of the Galaxy S4 is in line with Samsung's tradition of trying to take advantage of the hype its flagship products have received. The compact version of the Galaxy S4 comes less than a year after the company announced the Galaxy S III mini in October.
The Galaxy S4 mini has a 4.3-inch screen with 960 x 540 pixels and is powered by a 1.7GHz dual-core processor. There is also a an 8-megapixel camera, 8GB of integrated storage and 1.5GB of RAM.
The Galaxy S III mini, in comparison, has a 4-inch screen with 800 x 480 pixels and is powered by a dual-core 1GHz processor. The Galaxy S III mini takes pictures with a 5-megapixel camera and stores them on either 8 or 16GB of storage.
After the controversy in the U.K. over how much storage users have left on the Galaxy S4, Samsung has said about 5GB of the storage on the S4 mini can be accessed by users.
That Samsung skimps on storage should raise a few eyebrows among users since the company makes memory products. On the other hand, Sony recently released the Xperia ZR, and that too has only 8GB. Both smartphones have a microSD card slot for expanding the storage capacity.
The Galaxy S4 mini runs Android version 4.2.2 like its bigger sibling. Like the Galaxy S4, it can also use the S Health app, which allows users to keep track of steps and monitor sleeping patterns. The phone can also control TVs, set-top boxes, and DVD players with WatchON's IR remote.
Availability of the Galaxy S4 mini supporting either LTE, HSPA+ or 3G with two SIM cards, will be determined by market, according to Samsung. The company didn't reveal what the phone will cost.
