- Conclusion Get the lowdown
- Features How they compare
- Performance Real world benchmarks
- Differences Technical showdown
- Reviews Word on the street
- Competition Others to consider
- Discussion Answers and opinions
Compare with...
- LG Nexus 4
- Apple iPhone 5
- Samsung Galaxy S II
- Sony Xperia acro S
- Sony Xperia V
Rated 80% by by Len (Mar, 2013)Light weight, fun to use, and a perfect phone for someone like me who thinks the S3 original is too damn big!
- Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
- 4G
- 4.8"
- Dual core 1.5 GHz
Released June, 2012
by GSM Arena (Oct, 2012)The first chart shows better sharpness over the S II - it's especially noticeable in the small numbers below the color patches.
Conclusion Which is better for you?
Features Key features of the Samsung Galaxy S III mini compared to the Samsung Galaxy S III
GHz1
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean 3.5G
Rated 80% by by Len (Mar, 2013)Build (4/5): The phone is lightweight and thin, but has a good feel to it.
1.5 GHz
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean 4G
by GSM Arena (May, 2012)The videos themselves are impressively smooth and with plenty of detail.
screen size
4"
4.8"
Galaxy S III mini by iluv2workout8 (Dec, 2012)Love this phone super fast great screen does all the stuff it's big brother does in a smaller BUT prefect size for your hand.
Galaxy S III by GSM Arena (Oct, 2012)The pretty large, sharp display with great colors makes reading a joy.
screen resolution
Galaxy S III mini by Maybelle-Lugo (Feb, 2013)It is very useful, is a very good communication tool, recently I bought it and so far I have no details, only that it is very practical.
Galaxy S III by GSM Arena (Oct, 2012)After syncing, the phonebook will automatically merge contacts (you can do it manually too), so that the contact details are pulled from the social networks too.
memory
| 0 GB | 2 GB | 2 GB |
processor
Galaxy S III mini by J.-L.-Pang--JLP (Mar, 2013)It runs so fast that you may think it is a quad core phone.
Galaxy S III by c|net (Jun, 2012)From the outside in, it has a large, vibrant HD display; Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich; a sharp 8-megapixel camera; 4G LTE support; a zippy dual-core processor; and tons of internal memory and 2GB RAM.
camera resolution
| 0 MP | 8 MP | 8 MP |
Galaxy S III mini by Jesler-G.-Garcia-Rojas--jesler (Mar, 2013)It is 8MP but some of the settings and options make the camera brilliant, some of the photos I have taken are better than photos I have seen on professional cameras.
Galaxy S III by c|net (Jun, 2012)After all, the outdated assumption that the more megapixels you have the better simply isn't true (and here's why).
Performance Real world tests of Samsung Galaxy S III mini vs Samsung Galaxy S III
cpu speed
Galaxy S III mini by Encrypted11 (Jan, 2013)3.5G is pretty fast (Btw the power saver feature can throttle your bandwidth aka internet "speed" apart from the processor).
Galaxy S III by GSM Arena (May, 2012)Samsung seems to have done quite well here as the speed increase goes further than the 16% or so CPU frequency advantage that the Galaxy S III has over its predecessor.
Differences What are the advantages of each
Advantages compared to the Galaxy S III Dual core - 16GB - North American Edition
| Lighter | 111 g | vs | 133 g |
|---|---|---|---|
| Around 20% lighter | |||
| Smaller | 122 x 63 x 10 mm | vs | 137 x 71 x 9 mm |
| Around 10% smaller | |||
Advantages compared to the Galaxy S III mini
| Store much more stuff | 64 GB | vs | 16 GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4x more storage capacity; free yourself from memory cards | |||
| Is 4G | Yes | vs | No |
| Somewhat common; Supports the fastest, most reliable networks | |||
| Significantly faster processor | 1.5 GHz | vs | 1 GHz |
| 50% faster processor; run computation-intensive applications, such as photo editing, faster | |||
| Significantly higher resolution screen | 1280 x 720 | vs | 800 x 480 |
| Around 2.5x higher resolution screen | |||
| Significantly more battery capacity | 2,100 mA·h | vs | 1,500 mA·h |
| 40% more battery capacity | |||
| Significantly higher resolution front camera | 8 MP | vs | 5 MP |
| 60% higher resolution front camera; Video chat with other people | |||
| Bigger screen | 4.8" | vs | 4" |
| Around 20% bigger screen | |||
| Sharper screen | 305 ppi | vs | 233 ppi |
| More than 30% sharper PPI; enjoy photo-realistic, crisp images | |||
| Much better theoretical download speed | 84 Mb/s (HSPA+) | vs | 14 Mb/s (HSPA) |
| 6x better theoretical download speed; enjoy lightning fast downloads on modern networks | |||
| Records higher definition video | 1920 x 1080 @ 30 fps | vs | 1280 x 720 @ 30 fps |
| Around 2.5x higher definition video | |||
| Thinner | 9 mm | vs | 10 mm |
| More than 10% thinner | |||
Reviews Word on the street
Samsung Galaxy S III mini | Samsung Galaxy S III | ||
 |   Rated by 324 users at amazon.com Rated 100% by by KevinTheYank (Dec, 2012) Rated 100% by by Max (Jan, 2013) | Rated by 11 users at amazon.com Rated 20% by by ebusemih (Jul, 2012) Rated 100% by by John-Buford (Aug, 2012) | |
|---|---|---|---|
carrier
Samsung Galaxy S III mini | Rated 20% by by Devin (Aug, 2012)Verizon's second response, oh ok well we can offer to sell a developer edition phone with an unlocked bootloader at a marked up price!
Samsung Galaxy S III mini | Rated 20% by by K3$$$. And the funniest part is they said unlocking the bootloader can cause damage to their network yet now samsung is releasing a DEVELOPER EDITION with an unlockable bootloader on VERIZON WIRELESS...well VERIZON what happened to harming your network you obviously had to give that the OK to use on your network proving your feeding us nothing but lies...thanks again verizon for ruining something that could of been great.
Samsung Galaxy S III Dual core - 16GB - North American Edition | by GSM Arena (May, 2012)The internal storage will come in three capacities - 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.
type
Samsung Galaxy S III mini | Rated 80% by by Nick (Nov, 2012)It comes unlocked (which means you can take it to any carrier if you did not know), 16gb of storage, a 4 inch screen AND the best part it comes with the latest version of Android; which is 4.2.1 Jelly Bean.
Samsung Galaxy S III mini | by GSM Arena (Oct, 2012)Overall, the Nature UX dressing on top of Android 4.0.4 looks great and the Galaxy S III mini does pack a lot of the features of its flagship.
Samsung Galaxy S III mini | by GSM Arena (Oct, 2012)The Samsung Galaxy S III mini has the Jelly Bean version of the Android browser, which is one of the last iterations before Chrome takes over for good.
apps
Samsung Galaxy S III mini | by GSM Arena (Oct, 2012)The Galaxy S III mini utilizes the same TouchWiz-clad music player, as its bigger brother, the Galaxy S III.
Samsung Galaxy S III mini | by GSM Arena (Oct, 2012)The Galaxy S III mini player is DLNA-enabled, so you're not limited to tracks on your handset - songs on devices connected to your Wi-Fi network are as easy to get to as locally stored songs.
format
Samsung Galaxy S III mini | Rated 80% by by Encrypted11 (Jan, 2013)I bought a 16GB Micro SD for this phone because I thought apps would run on it but unfortunately, no..
screen
Samsung Galaxy S III mini | by GSM Arena (Oct, 2012)Sunlight legibility is also quite good, as testified by the Galaxy S III mini performance in our dedicated test.
Competition What else you should consider
 | 1 | LG Nexus 4 Rated the best by consumers |
 | 3 | Samsung Galaxy S II 4-way tie: Screen uses OLED technology |
 | 4 | Sony Xperia acro S 2-way tie: Sharpest screen |
 | 5 | Sony Xperia V Really high resolution front camera |
 | 6 | Apple iPhone 4S Middle-of-the-pack browser performance |
 | 7 | LG Optimus L9 Better than usual battery capacity |
 | 8 | Motorola RAZR i Longest battery life during active use |
