{"id":24116,"date":"2012-10-12T08:31:18","date_gmt":"2012-10-12T06:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=24116"},"modified":"2012-10-12T14:04:43","modified_gmt":"2012-10-12T12:04:43","slug":"samsung-unveils-galaxy-s3-mini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/24116\/samsung-unveils-galaxy-s3-mini\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung unveils Galaxy S3 Mini"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samsung Electronics<\/a> on Friday unveiled a compact version of its flagship Galaxy S III smartphone, with a touch screen sized to match that of arch-rival Apple<\/a>‘s new iPhone 5.<\/p>\n

The Galaxy S III Mini has a four inch high-definition touch screen, compared to the 4.8 inch version on it’s larger Samsung sibling, but the size reduction is offered at a technical price.<\/p>\n

The display has a lower resolution of 800×480 pixels compared to 1,280×720 pixels, the camera is five rather than eight megapixels and the S III’s dual-core 1.5GHz processor has been downgraded to 1GHz.<\/p>\n

“It can be an optimal choice for consumers who are looking for more practical smartphones,” Samsung said in statement.<\/p>\n

The company gave no details on pricing or an eventual sales date.<\/p>\n

The Mini’s screen is the same size as the iPhone 5 launched last month by Apple, but its reduced feature set makes it more of a corner man in the heavyweight clash between the iPhone 5 and the S III.<\/p>\n

Samsung and Apple are currently embroiled in a bitter legal battle spread over 10 countries over alleged patent infringements.<\/p>\n

Initial reactions to the new Samsung product were underwhelming.<\/p>\n

“The only iPhone it may be capable of beating is the 3GS from 2009,” said a review in the Los Angeles Times, which said the Mini’s inability to connect with 4G networks was “unacceptable for any phone trying to be a major player”.<\/p>\n

Wired magazine bemoaned the lower resolution on the touch screen and said the final product was a “big compromise in a small package”.<\/p>\n

But some industry analysts said comparisons with the features boasted by top-end smartphones were missing the point.<\/p>\n

“This is a lower-end product and it is not really a competitor for iPhone 5,” said James Song, a tech analyst at Daewoo Securities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Mini does boast many of the same software features as the S III.<\/p>\n

It is powered by the latest Android<\/a> 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system, packed with S Voice, a language recognition software, and Smart Stay which keeps the screen lit as long as you are looking at it.<\/p>\n

Other features include direct call, which enables you to automatically dial a call simply by lifting the phone to your ear when reading a text message from your friend.<\/p>\n

S Beam allows the user to share music files between Galaxy S III series and Galaxy Note II devices simply by tapping the phones together.<\/p>\n

Shin Jong-Kyun, who leads Samsung’s IT and Mobile Communications Division, told reporters earlier this week that the Mini was aimed at meeting strong demand in Europe for smartphones with four inch screens.<\/p>\n

“Some people call the new model a lower-end version of the Galaxy S III but we prefer the mini tag,” Shin said.<\/p>\n

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Samsung vs LG tablet-phone face-off<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 MTN contract pricing<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 plans from Cell C and 8ta<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samsung Electronics on Friday unveiled a compact version of its flagship Galaxy S III smartphone, with a touch screen sized to match that of arch-rival Apple’s new iPhone 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":24117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[25,51,4353,209,52],"class_list":["post-24116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-active","tag-apple","tag-galaxy-s3-mini","tag-iphone","tag-samsung"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24116"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24167,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24116\/revisions\/24167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}