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Samsung officially unveils the Galaxy S4 Mini

Newest member of the family

Samsung officially unveils the Galaxy S4 Mini
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Watch out, Sony, for Samsung is about to unleash its own mid-range Android beast.

No sooner had Sony taken the wraps off its Xperia SP than bitter rival Samsung had confirmed the existence - once and for all - of the Galaxy S4 Mini.

The Galaxy S4 Mini sports a more humble 4.3-inch qHD display (540x960 pixels) display than its bigger brother, contains 8GB of internal storage space, and packs a dual-core processor clocked at 1.7GHz.

Samsung has also replaced the 13-megapixel camera from its flagship Galaxy S4 phone with an 8-megapixel snapper in this brand-new handset.

Sammy has dropped a few of the funky software features it included in its full-sized Galaxy S4 for the Galaxy S4 Mini (including Smart Stay and Air Gestures). S Translator, S Health, Group Play, Sound&Shot, and Story Album have survived the 'journey', though.

Furthermore, the Galaxy S4 Mini's infrared port enables you to take control of any TV. Smart TV owners, meanwhile, can benefit from Samsung Link by sharing content with compatible TVs via DLNA or Miracast.

The more compact design of the Galaxy S4 Mini means Samsung could only cram in a 1900mAh battery here, so we'll see how much of an impact that has on overall performance when we get a Galaxy S4 Mini handset to review.

Samsung hasn't confirmed the price and release date for the Galaxy S4 Mini quite yet, although Phones 4u is already letting you register for updates. Sammy will release both a 3G and 4G model of the Galaxy S4 Mini, but we expect the 4G model will be the one favoured by UK operators.

Jonathan Morris
Jonathan Morris
From starting out as a games tester for Mastertronic, Virgin and Sega in the late 1980s, it may seem odd to then ditch everything to write about mobile phones that, at the time, lasted 20 minutes between charges. He always had a hunch mobiles would become quite popular, but possibly didn't realise how powerful (and, ironically, returning to 20 minutes between charges). Jonathan's job is to continue advising on the best hardware to buy, in order to enjoy games that have advanced considerably since those long days and nights testing Double Dragon on the C64.