Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini


The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini is an Android smartphone developed by the Korean manufacturer Samsung Electronics. Announced on May 31, 2013 and released in July 2013, the S4 Mini is a mid-range model of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone and a successor to the Galaxy S III Mini. It has a similar hardware design and software features to its high-end counterpart.

Specifications

The S4 Mini uses an almost identical variant of the Galaxy S4's polycarbonate hardware design. Internally, it features a dual-core 1.7 GHz Snapdragon 400 processor with 1.5 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal storage that can be expanded using a MicroSD card, and a 4.27 inch qHD Super AMOLED screen. The S4 Mini also includes a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera, and an improved 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p video recording at 30 frames per second, compared to the 720p of the Galaxy S3 Mini.

Software & updates

Similarly to the S4, the S4 Mini comes with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and Samsung's TouchWiz software, although certain features present on the S4 are not available.
The S4 Mini received the Android 4.4.2 "KitKat" update in June 2014, bringing some minor UI changes as seen on the Galaxy S4 and S4 Active.
When asked about whether the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini would receive the Android 5.0 Lollipop update on the April 24, 2015, Three UK stated that it would not get the Lollipop update, blaming "memory limitations". However, Three Ireland stated later on the very same day that the S4 Mini would indeed get the Lollipop update and that it would start rolling out in the coming weeks. Though Samsung UK and US carrier Sprint had earlier stated that the S4 Mini would get the Lollipop update, several later retweets from Samsung itself suggest that this was misinformation, stating that it had failed the initial test for the update. The Galaxy S4 Mini ultimately did not receive an official Lollipop update in any region.

International variants

The S4 Mini version released in most of Europe, Latin America, South Africa and few Asian countries contains NFC connectivity, which came standard on all versions of the Galaxy S4.
The Galaxy S4 Mini is made available in:
  • GSM & HSDPA ;
  • LTE, with NFC;
  • * GT-I9195L, exclusively for Latin America
  • * GT-I9195T, exclusively for Australia
  • Dual SIM, with 16 GB of internal storage in some regions;
  • LTE, without NFC;
  • TD-SCDMA
  • Canadian AWS LTE
  • Verizon LTE

    Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Plus

On August 3, 2015, Samsung released an updated version of the S4 Mini called the S4 Mini Plus. It features a new 1.2 GHz Quad core processor, an Adreno 306 GPU, and comes with Android 4.4.4 KitKat. The rest of the specs remain the same. The Galaxy S4 Mini Plus is available in two variants:
  • LTE, with NFC;
  • Dual SIM.
It is the final phone that uses a model number in the "GT-XXXXX" format, and Samsung's last phone in the Galaxy S "mini" series, before replaced by the Galaxy A series.

Successor

The successor to the Galaxy S4 Mini is the Galaxy S5 Mini. It was announced on May 30, 2014, and was subsequently released in July 2014.