Gadgetory

there's no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy s4 is a fine device but maybe you think it's a little too big maybe it does too much or maybe you just want something simpler well Samsung has taken its flagship phone and has changed it into a bunch of different versions and now we have got the tiniest one age Java car from Android thority what's going on everybody and this is the samsung galaxy s4 mini Samsung's flagship phone has been shrunken down but that isn't all that's changed I will say that the changes can be described in one key word proportional first we'll start with this a different form factor there's really no way around it you're looking at a very small device coming from the five inch screen size of the original s4 is a bit of a shock when you first pick this one up but that quickly fades away when you feel how easy the Mini is to handle it's obviously shorter narrower a little thinner and overall much lighter than the s4 making it super easy to throw around in one hand as far as the design goes you quite literally get everything you had in the original s4 the same button layout same plastic build and the same removable back with the same features underneath it Mini is seriously the operative word here I'm not saying that 5-inch screen phones aren't incredible because they are but they have become the norm because we've gotten used to them get a smaller phone in your hand however and you'll be surprised how much you missed having an easy time with a phone such as this everything is reachable without any straining or any hand gymnastics it really is an incredible feeling but of course you lose something in this transition we start with the display which was unsurprisingly made smaller all around to accommodate the change instead of the 5-inch 1080p display of the s4 you get a 4.3 inch screen capable of 960 by 540 resolution and 256 PPI it's completely understandable how much lower inspect that many had to go but on some level I couldn't help but think that an extra mile moment with a 720 resolution screen would have been really awesome nonetheless you get good production from this Super AMOLED screen in the saturated colors and contrast viewing angles remain very good lowered resolution obviously means the pixel density gets a little bit of a drop and it's noticeable with smaller tech and a lack of smoothness and higher quality games if you game or view media on your phone obviously it would be easier on the eyes to have a bigger display but the s4 mini doesn't do a bad job packing it all into this 4.3 inch screen people often see smaller devices and immediately think they would perform horribly that is the case at times but at the very least Samsung tried to make the simplification of the galaxy s4 proportional and makes sense you get the snapdragon 400 here the dual-core variation of the powerful 600 that powers the original instead of the Adreno 320 you get the 305 and finally you get one and a half gigabytes of memory the scores in antutu remain around the 15,000 mark consistently while Epic Citadel had ultra-high quality was able to stay afloat at around 47 frames per second in practice I felt like the phone performed quite well I was able to do tasks quickly and smoothly I installed apps while browsing the web and multitasking consistently with few problems when playing the beautiful game the room lag did occur but it happened pretty rarely it didn't hinder from the experience when you know how well the Snapdragon and Adreno names fit in with good performance you can rest assured that despite them being toned down they still do a great job on this small little performer hardware is where the changes are a little more drastic many of the extras that were included in the s4 at least as far as sensors are concerned don't return in the mini so you won't be able to do hand gestures to scroll through web pages or gallery items or use air view to zoom into them no I scrolling either pretty much all of that has been stripped away and the only real addition that returns is the IR blaster for controlling your TV or related device after that you get 8 gigabytes of on-board storage but there is a micro SD card slot available under that back cover voice calls worked well on my t-mobile connection with calls coming in clear and with no drops and incall equalizer is available for enhancing your call volume too I actually have a special version of the s4 mini the duos version capable of handling two SIM cards it is worth mentioning that like the original s4 there are a slew of different versions having dual sims is nice for you constant travellers though a LTE version of the menu will be available but no further information has yet been released on it obviously you can't put a huge battery into a small phone body so you get a 1,900 million barrel unit in the s4 mini that is removable and replaceable with the smaller screen less intensive processing package and even a lack of super high-speed Internet I expected battery life to still be quite good and for the most part it was 2 hours of playing video sucked down about 25% of the battery life so a full rundown in this test would likely lasts up to 7 hours general usage during the day should be no problem for this battery though especially with the power saving options available the camera on the Mini has been proportionally brought down from the 13 megapixel shooter in the s4 to 8 megapixels a nice way of putting it in a nutshell however is that this camera works about as well as the ones found in last year's flagship phones the app has the same interface as before with modes and settings available as overlays on top of a full-screen view finder you don't get as many modes this time around however there's no drama shot eraser shot or dual recording best photo and best face do return as does HDR and panorama picture quality is still very good with high detail and good colour reproduction all of which translate well into the full 1080p video recording capabilities low-light shots obviously take a hit but getting a decent shot in less than ideal situations is still possible shutter to file speeds are pretty good so having no lag between shots will help you quickly get that photo you need the s4 mini does it's big sibling proud with a more than capable camera despite its overall simpler and smaller outlook TouchWiz gets smaller than the s4 mini but gets many of the same inclusions that were available in the original as we touched on before the missing sensors mean that navigation is largely classical when it comes to apps you get essentially the same packages watchon is therefore the IR blaster and group play is available if you have friends with s4 phones and of course you get Google's own edition of Google now as an alternative to Samsung's S voice if you prefer otherwise this is TouchWiz through-and-through veterans of Samsung's phone UI will feel right at home with the Oubre colourful motif despite the smaller screen this newer version does do a better job of scaling everything down from the mini to ensure it isn't too bloated or feels too crowded and on a smaller screen it is definitely easier to handle and was actually a little refreshing if not a little too miliar the s4 mini is currently on pre-order on multiple carriers in Europe but as yet to see any real release information in the United States judging on the price of the s4 mini across the pond it is likely to be priced around the $500 mark unlocked and so there you have it the s4 just smaller simpler and overall a proportionally less performing smartphone almost everything has been brought down to size and thus when you see the smaller form factor you can expect a fitting experience underneath but what you lose in performance and hardware is made up for in its handling power users will probably want more out of their OS but pretty much everyone else will still have a good time speedily getting things done easily in one hand let's just face it we can get spoiled sometimes our uber performing 5 inch 5.5 inch 6.4 inch screens with faster performance than some laptops well it can really all make us forget what used to be the norm I absolutely love it when I get a smaller phone and realize I still have a great time with it just like the s3 menu before it the s4 mini really is a phone for the every man and every woman a phone that despite its nature can still go the distance is refreshingly easy to handle and most of all it works for all of the great news and coverage on Android make sure you stay tuned to our YouTube channel don't forget to drop us a like down below and subscribe and once you're done with all of that you can head on over to android authority comm because we're your source for all things Android