Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini vs Galaxy S3: Not Only Smaller Size

Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S3 Mini

As what we said ever before, Samsung unveiled a smaller version of its Galaxy S3 smartphone yesterday. The handset, Galaxy S3 Mini, also equipped with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS but has a 4.0'' display, smaller than normal Galaxy S3's 4.8''.

Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini

Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini back view

Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini side view

Here we have a specification list of the Galaxy S3 Mini and its big brother. Let's find out their differences.

Name	Galaxy S3 Mini	Galaxy S3
Display size	4.0 inches (~233 ppi pixel density)	4.8 inches  (~306 ppi pixel density)
Resolution	480*800	720*1280
Dimensions	121.6 x 63 x 9.9 mm	136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm
Weight	111.5 g	131 g
Protection	None	Corning Gorilla Glass 2
Colors	White, others	Pebble blue, Marble white, Amber brown, Garnet red, Sapphire black, Titanium grey
CPU	Dual-core 1 GHz	Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9
Chipset	NovaThor U8420	Exynos 4412 Quad
Internal memory	8/16 GB, 1 GB RAM	16/32/64 GB storage, 1 GB RAM
Card slot	microSD, up to 32 GB	microSD, up to 64 GB
Operation system	Android OS, v4.1 (Jelly Bean)	Android OS, v4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), upgradeable to 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
Battery	Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh	Standard battery, Li-Ion 2100 mAh
Rear-facing camera	5 MP, 2592x1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash	8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash. Supports HD video and image recording
Front-facing camera	VGA	1.9 MP, 720p@30fps
Networking	Wi-Fi. 2G, 3G	Wi-Fi. 2G, 3G, 4G LTE
Status	Coming soon. Exp. release Q4, 2012	Available since May, 2012

Dimensions & weight
From the list above, we can see that the Galaxy S3 Mini is shorter,narrower but thicker than Galaxy S3. Along with the reducement of the size, S3 Mini is nearly 15% lighter than S3. It should be more comfortable to use S3 Mini with single hand.

Display

Smaller dimensions always mean smaller display. Galaxy S3 Mini comes up with a 4.0'' display with only 480*800 resolution. And the display configuration of Galaxy S3, is a 4.8'' display with 720*1280 resolution. Besides, S3's screen has special protection called "Corning Gorilla Glass 2", which is effectively protect the screen from scratch.

CPU & memory

Compared with a Quad-core 1.4 GHz processor from S3, the S3 Mini is powered by a Dual-core 1 GHz processor. As to memory, both devices have 1GB RAM while S3 Mini has two versions in different internal storage: 8G/16G. For S3, it has 16G/32G and 64G versions for your choice. Both of them also supports microSD card (Up to 32GB for S3 Mini, up to 64GB for S3).

OS

There's no doubt that both handsets runs Android OS. The Galaxy S3 runs v4.04 because it is released earlier. It is upgradeable to run newest v4.1, just like the S3 Mini.

Cameras
The Galaxy S3 comes up with two cameras: a rear-facing camera with 8.0 MP, supports HD video and image recording and a front-facing camera with 1.3 MP. How about the Galaxy S3 Mini? The configuration of back camera is downgraded to a 5.0 MP one, the front one is a VGA one.

Battery
Smaller size, smaller display and smaller battery. The Galaxy S3 Mini has a 1500 mAh battery, smaller than the 21 mAh of the original S3.It's believed that S3 Mini need to recharge daily.