Capable processor, decent camera, latest version of Android
Screen less than HD, not cheap
Samsung threw just about everything it had into the Galaxy S4, but not everyone needs the very latest tech, the top spec, or indeed the high price. Enter the S4 Mini, a scaled-down version that aims to deliver much of that S4 experience, for a little less.
It's on sale now for around £370.
Design
It's noticeably smaller than its big brother -- the five-inch Super Amoled screen has shrunk to 4.3 inches. That's still a decent size (and bigger than the iPhone), and easily large enough for showing movies. They won't be in full HD though, since the resolution has also shrunk to 960x540 pixels. It's less sharp on smaller details, but makes up for it a little with its brightness and the vibrancy of its colours.
Features and performance
The dual-core processor is a couple of steps down from the S4's quad-core monster but it doesn't feel sluggish in general use, and held up well when displaying busy web pages and playing HD games.
Our AnTutu performance benchmark test gave it a score of 14,664, which puts it a little bit behind some higher-end dual-core devices like the Sony Xperia SP but well ahead of others like the Huawei Ascend W1.
It's running the latest 4.2.2 Jelly Bean version of Android, so it'll be a while before it starts to feel out of date. It also has Samsung's TouchWiz interface running on top, which includes a few of the S4's Smart screen tricks, such as Smart Stay, which uses the 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera to monitor your eye movements and keep the screen on while you're looking at it, though it's lost the Smart Scroll and Smart Pause. It has Group Play though, which lets you share music with other Samsung devices and host multiplayer games, as well as the S Memo and S Translator apps.
The infrared blaster is here too, so you can use your phone as a universal remote, but we couldn't get the Palm motion feature, which is supposed to enable some extra gesture controls, to work on our test device.
Cameras and photography
The camera has eight megapixels rather than the S4's 13, but it's still capable of delivering some decent pics. It has autofocus and an LED flash, plus a host of other features to play with, including face detection, anti-shake, HDR, Best photo and Panorama. Picture quality is quite impressive, with sharp edges, naturalistic colours and a good level of detail. With 8GB of memory onboard you'll be able to save quite a few pics and vids but if you need more you can add a microSD card up to 64GB.
The 1,900mAh battery won't break any records, but you should expect to get a day's steady use out of it.
Conclusion
As you might expect, the Galaxy S4 Mini delivers a stripped-down version of the original S4 experience. But the stripping may have gone a little far with the smaller, lower resolution screen, less powerful processor and reduced quality camera to really justify the S4 name. Still, it's a solid, well-specced midrange handset, even if its main S4 legacy is a price that's a little on the high side.
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Software: Google Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
Processor: Dual-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm MSM8930 Snapdragon 400
Memory slot: Yes
Display: 4.3in qHD sAMOLED, 960x540 pixels
Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports: microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera: 8 megapixel, autofocus, LED flash; 1.9 megapixel front-facing camera
Video playback: MPEG4, H.264, MP43, VC-1, WMV 7/8, Sorenson Spark, H.263, VP8
Audio playback: MP3, AMR-NB / WB, AAC / AAC+ / eAAC+, WMA, Vorbis (OGG), FLAC
Radio: Yes
Battery: 1,900mAh
Size: 125x61x9mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
