Samsung announces the Galaxy S3 Mini

KOREAN PHONE GIANT Samsung announced the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini today as expected, which will be coming to the UK soon.

Sadly, the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini isn't quite what fans had hoped for, sporting a 1GHz dual-core processor despite expectations for a quad-core chip. Still, the phone does feature a decent 4in 480x800 Super AMOLED touchscreen display and runs the latest version of Google's mobile operating system, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Offering a pint-sized alternative to Samsung's flagship Galaxy S3 smartphone, the Galaxy S3 Mini also features a 5MP rear-facing camera with flash, a VGA front-facing camera, either 8GB or 16GB of internal storage, a 1500mAh battery and support for 4G connectivity, hinting that it might be made available through EE.

Like the 4.8in Samsung Galaxy S3 it also features Samsung's Touchwiz overlay with features such as S Voice, Pop up Play and S Beam NFC smarts.

Simon Stanford, Samsung VP for the UK and Ireland said, "The award winning Galaxy S III has been extremely well received globally since it launched earlier this year so we are thrilled to be able to offer our customers the same revolutionary design, intuitive usability and intelligence in a mini version."

"We will continue to develop smartphones to cater for a variety of customer needs and this latest release demonstrates our on-going commitment to offering our customers more choice at every price point."

Samsung has yet to announce the handset's pricing or release date, but we're expecting the Galaxy S3 Mini to be relatively inexpensive. µ