Gadgetory

the Samsung Galaxy s3 is the company's best-selling phone and it's a constant thorn in the iPhone side so what do you do when you're on that kind of roll well apparently you experiment a little and you think a little bit smaller a Joshua Vergara from Android authority what's going on everybody and this is the Samsung Galaxy s3 mini the Galaxy s3 mini is the trunk and down version of one of the best-selling Android phones ever when you first get a hold of this device you might say the same thing I did why well Samsung has a device for pretty much any size you can imagine so maybe the question at that point would be why not but don't be fooled by the s3 in its name the Mini is definitely a device full of compromises compared to its Big Brother to start out let's get the obvious out of the way this phone is small coming in at just under five inches long this phone basically takes up the size of the original s3 screen it might be a stretch to say that it fits in the hand when we've already been used to such larger smartphones these days and that's an important point there was once a time when phones of this size were the norm now were programmed to work with much larger screens and the way we handle our phones is a little bit different now at first usage I certainly found that this phone came with a little bit of a learning curve or as you would need to do some hand gymnastics with the larger smartphones everything on the s3 mini is accessible from a neutral grip this phone retains the general look that the original s3 had with a plastic body and a rounded look all the buttons are in the same places and the home button on the bottom front of the device has been kept flanked by two soft keys for back and menu around the back the cover is removable and allows access to the battery mini sim and micro SIM slots the screen is small at four inches at least by current standards capable of 480 by 800 resolution the Super AMOLED screen also has a pixel density of 233 PPI it isn't the sharpest display out there but it is impressive how bright and vibrant it is the colorful look of Samsung's TouchWiz pops out quite well and viewing angles are all very good even in broad daylight it's not the best screen out there but you'll definitely raise an eyebrow when it fires up behind that screen is a 1 gigahertz dual-core cortex a9 processor an obvious downgrade from the powerful package found in the galaxy s3 there is also only one gigabyte of ram within scores and benchmark tests are definitely nothing to get excited about but we probably expected that anyway that being said the performance in practice on the mini is actually quite impressive most of the lag that you will experience comes from the actual loading of apps even if from the recent apps screen once everything is loaded however the phone continues on quite smoothly even this 3d game had little to no problems during the actual missions what lies underneath the back cover however is important as well by recent reviews of top-tier phones often have one or two problems that many users are critical on expandable memory and replaceable batteries these features return in the s3 mini these are at least for some people major selling points speaking of the battery it might be smaller but it does its job very well coupled with the downgraded processor and smaller screen the battery life in the s3 mini is actually very good I got the real whole day without getting below 25% life and this didn't even involve the power saving options available in the settings longevity should be expected from a device that doesn't have to power intensive graphics through a massive screen but now we're back to the theme of shrinking things down however as the camera on the Mini has been brought down from the original well received 8 megapixel performer of the s3 at 5 megapixels you aren't getting the standard large pictures and unfortunately the same goes for the quality while definitely not a slouch this camera unsurprisingly produces pictures with a fair amount of grain and it only gets worse when you remove more lighting the app itself performs quite well though so having a phone as pocketable and portable as this will help you get your shot down in time and finally we have the software TouchWiz is not my favorite looking interface as it's uber colorful motif and theme are usually a little over the top for my tastes however its functionality is not in question and even once scaled down for the mini size it performs quite well even if the screen is a little cramped Samsung ensured that you should be able to see everything that is needed no matter what I liked how even at the tiniest text size everything is still legible and easy to read power widgets are available in the notification drop-down and the inclusion of Samsung develop software is here too like s voice all inclusions work quite well in this TouchWiz out jellybean 4.1.1 for the most part you're going to be getting the same functionality in this little phone as you did in Antep bigger brother so since this is a little bit like a comparison between the mini and the original s3 I'll end this on usage now this is a very important part because after having this phone for the holiday season I found myself coming back to it over and over why because it is just that intriguing remember when phones used to be colourful bar flip and slider devices remember when every phone was about this size technology changes so quickly that sometimes it is nice to get a reminder of what used to be a couple years ago this phone would have probably been in the top tier 4-inch market and now its size just automatically dubs it mid tier but there is definitely a market of people out there who want a smaller phone something that is so easy to take with them and just works great we get so spoiled sometimes looking at the latest and greatest devices that we sometimes look for features we don't need and that's where the Galaxy s3 mini comes in long battery life easy handling once you get used to it and more-than-capable performance make this a phone for the every man and every woman the Samsung Galaxy s3 mini sits squarely in the middle in a time and place where we didn't need the highest pixel density or the fastest processor or even the biggest screen we just needed a phone that was different fun and most of all worked it is for the user in all of us who remembers a time when what we wanted from phones and Technology used to be a little bit smaller and a little bit simpler for my full written review head on over to Android authority comm your source for all things Android