A little earlier than expected, Samsung has officially taken the wraps off the Galaxy S4 mini, offering a more pocketable variant of its popular flagship smartphone while dialing back on specs and price.
In line with a flurry of rumors surfacing over the past few days, the device will be powered by a 1.7 GHz dual-core processor, alongside 1.5GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory – of which only 5GB will actually be available to the user – in addition to a microSD slot for up to 64GB of additional storage.
As for the actual display, Samsung has bumped it from 4-inches and a 800x480 resolution on the S3 mini, to a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display at 960 x 540. That's certainly a welcome improvement but still falls short next to the comparably-sized Apple iPhone 5 and even the older 4/4S when it comes to pixels per inch – not to mention the 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0-inch display on the full fledged Samsung Galaxy S4.
Other notable features include 8MP and 1.9MP cameras, an infrared blaster for controlling your TV, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, LTE, a 1900 mAh battery, and options for single and dual SIM variants.
The mini will ship with Android 4.2.2 and TouchWiz layered on top, featuring many of the software extras found in the Galaxy S4 like Sound & Shot, Story Album, S Translator, S Health and more. No pricing or availability details were given but the company should offer a few more details at its Premiere 2013 event in June.