Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Review

To mention the Samsung Galaxy range of Smartphone’s without mentioning the sheer range of devices that it will be covers, from the highest end powerhouses such as the Samsung Galaxy S4, all the way through to the wallet-friendly Samsung Galaxy Fame.


Galaxy S4 may not be proving as good as the Korean firm had hoped, yet that hasn't stopped it extending the S4 range, equipping it with the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, Samsung Galaxy S4 Active and the baby Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini being reviewed here.


(Being the baby of the S4 range, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini manages to slide in at a relatively reasonable price point, depending on where you look. SIM-free offerings have been seen as low as £360 (around US$545, AU$595) )

Samsung Galaxy S4 vs S4 Mini - which should you buy?

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini wants to offer a mid-size, affordable phone for those who think the full-size Samsung Galaxy S4 is a bit too big, a bit too pricey.

But does it really offer the same level of quality in a smaller body? Let’s take a closer look.

Hardware:

The “Galaxy S 4″ moniker does not reflect in the hardware and specifications department of the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini. The “mini” family of products is a completely different animal and it is aimed at a different market and audience: those who want a solid mid-ranger. And solid it is!

The usual suspects, in the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini’s case, are WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, IR blaster, and, on this particular GT-I9195 unit, LTE capabilities for the radio.

Camera:

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini has a camera that’s roughly a generation behind the Galaxy S4, with an 8-megapixel sensor rather than a 13-megapixel one – seen in most top-end Android phones of 2013. 

They are similarly constrained by the tiny size of sensors of this type. We’ll be back with a full look at the S4 Mini’s photo capabilities when we get the chance to take the phone out for a camera test drive. 

Both phones also has high-quality front cameras - the S4's uses a 2MP sensor, the S4 Mini's a 1.9MP sensor.

Design:

Galaxy S4 - Plastic battery cover, 130g, 7.9mm

Galaxy S4 Mini - Plastic battery cover, 107g, 8.9mm

The Galaxy S4 Mini is the spitting image of the Galaxy S4. It’s smaller and lighter, but its curves are almost identical. 

However, the mobile is actually a bit chunkier than the S4 – by a full millimeters. This ensures that it doesn’t feel quite as slender as its big brother.

That smaller phones tend to be that bit chunkier makes sense, though, as they have to fit roughly the same internal components into a smaller area. The Galaxy S4 Mini only comes in black and white finishes, and has the same faux-metallic (i.e. plastic) finish as the full-size S4.

Screen And Portability:

Galaxy S4 - 5-inch Super AMOLED, 1080p  of the larger phone is much higher, both in plain numbers and relative to its screen inches.

The S4 Mini as 255 pixels in every inch of screen, the S4 has a mammoth 440. As a result, the full-size Galaxy S4 display is much, much sharper.  

In an IPS-based LCD display, 256dpi would give a pretty sharp image, but as the S4 Mini uses a PenTile display (PenTile is a kind of sub-pixel arrangement) its images won't be as sharp. In other words, the S4 Mini screen isn’t just a step down in size, it’s a step down in quality too.

Storage: 

Galaxy S4 - 16GB, with microSD slot 

Galaxy S4 Mini - 8GB, with microSD slot 

The Galaxy S4 Mini has 8GB of internal memory while the Galaxy S4 has 16GB. Samsung also produces 32GB and 64GB editions of the 5-inch phone, but they’re not widely available in the UK.

Both phones have a microSD memory card slot, which minimizes the negative impact of this cut in storage. It doesn’t get rid of it altogether, though.

The issue is that most apps can only be installed to the internal memory, not memory cards. However, the 5GB or so that will be accessible in the S4 Mini will be more than enough for most people. 

MicroSD memory cards are dirt cheap these days, and 32GB ones can be had for well under £20. It’s a great solution if you want to use your Galaxy phone as a music or media player, and these files can happily live on a memory card. 

Power:

Galaxy S4 - Qualcomm APQ8064T Snapdragon 600 Quad-core 1.9GHz, 2GB RAM

Galaxy S4 Mini - Qualcomm MSM8930 Snapdragon 400, 1.7GHz dual-core, 1.5GB RAM

The processor of the Galaxy S4 Mini is a lot less powerful than the Galaxy S4’s – more proof that this really isn’t just a shrunk-down S4. It uses a Snapdragon 400 dual-core chip running at 1.7GHz. 

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a quad-core Snapdragon 600 chip running at 1.9GHz. Both are based on the Krait architecture. 

There is a little less RAM in the S4 Mini too, although not a great deal. The 3G version uses 1.5GB of RAM, which is actually more than features in the Galaxy S3, while the S4 has a full 2GB. 

It’s less powerful, sure, but the Galaxy Mini’s specs make it a mid-range mobile rather than a low-end one. 

Software:

Galaxy S4 - Android 4.2 with Touch Wiz

Galaxy S4 Mini - Android 4.2 with Touch Wiz

Touch Wiz is the interface Samsung has used in its phones for years. It has come a long way in those years, but its present focus is in adding reams of features you don’t get in Android, some of which are little more than filler fluff

The interfaces of the Galaxy S4 and S4 Mini are almost identical, both based on a recent version of Android with the Samsung custom UI Touch Wiz splattered on top. 

Extra features include an exercise tracker, language translator, a custom speech recognition app and more. Most feature in both phones, including WatchON, which uses the IR transmitter to let you control your TV (and other equipment) with the phone. This is missing in the Galaxy S3 because the phone does not have an IR transmitter – it’s a neat extra for a lower-cost phone like the Galaxy S4 Mini. 

Both phones also have Touch Wiz’s more annoying features – such as Smart Scroll, which lets you tilt the phone or nod your head to scroll through articles.

Pros:

+ great performance

+ good battery life

+ solid camera

+ small(er) form factor

+ microSD expansion

Cons:

- no LED notification light

- qHD resolution

- Loud, noisy, vibration

- 8GB internal storage (only 5GB accessible)

Conclusion:

We were happy to spend time with the Galaxy S4 mini. When we got the chance to first meet it, on June 20, in London, we didn’t know, form our brief hands-on, that there’s so much more to this miniature Galaxy S 4 than meets the eye.

Who is it for? Anyone, really, but especially for those who consider a five-inch phone to be too big, or too expensive. Some will argue that last year’s flagship, the Galaxy S III, might be a better option, and they might be right, if we consider specs on paper. But a 4.8-inch screen might just as well be too big, like the five-inch screen on this year’s flagship.