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Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £363
inc VAT

A cheaper, more compact Galaxy S4 with amazing battery life, but the S4 Mini doesn’t stand out compared to the competition

Specifications

Processor: Dual-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, Screen size: 4.3in, Screen resolution: 960×540, Rear camera: 8-megapixel , Storage: 8GB, Wireless data: 4G, 3G, Size: 125x61x8.9mm, Weight: 107g, Operating system: Android 4.2.2

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However, in normal use we felt the HTC One Mini had the edge for smoothness when scrolling through the app tray, and especially when browsing web pages. Despite its impressive JavaScript benchmark result, when browsing complicated web pages such as the Guardian news website with comments turned on, the S4 Mini’s default browser would often stutter when scrolling. Things improved when we switched to Chrome, but the HTC One Mini still seemed to have the edge for web browsing slickness.

This could be down to HTC’s custom Android software simply performing better than Samsung’s, but here is where the S4 Mini has an advantage; its operating system is much closer to Android stock. For many people, HTC’s Sense customisations are just too much, especially now the default HTC homescreen is a news feed rather than full of apps and widgets. Samsung’s colourful skin sticks reasonably closely to the standard Android format, with five homescreens for widgets and favourite apps, and an app tray for the rest, again divided into apps and widgets. We’re particular fans of Samsung’s keyboard, whose clearly-spaced keys make it easy to type quickly, and the fact there’s a brightness control on the notification bar.

Unfortunately, the S4 Mini’s camera app loses some of the features from the full-size S4. There’s now no Dual Shot mode, for example, which on the Galaxy S4 lets you superimpose a picture from the front camera on a shot taken with the rear camera, so showing the facial expression of the photographer at the point the shot was taken. Considering this is just done in software, we think taking it out is a bit mean.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini A bit of overexposure, but not so much as from the HTC One Mini’s camera

In terms of image quality, the S4 Mini’s camera is reasonable. Our daylight test shots showed a fair level of detail and reasonable colour accuracy, but shots in bright light were overexposed, leading to the sky bleaching out on a brightly-lit day. The overexposure was nowhere near as bad as that we saw from the HTC One Mini’s shots, though. The S4 Mini couldn’t match the One Mini for low-light image quality, as it struggled to focus and produced shots swimming with noise.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini But the sensor struggles in low light

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini is currently updated to Android 4.4.2 KitKat. An update to Android 5.0 Lollipop looks to be beyond it unfortunately with a planned update being cancelled. Reported by YouMobile.org, UK mobile network 3 had announced an update before it was withdrawn, apparently due to memory limitations on the handset

You can now pick up a SIM free handset for £150, which well under half what we reviewed it for originally. That puts it in the same area as the current Motorola Moto G 2nd Gen. That handset has a bigger screen, with a higher-resolution, 1,280×720 display and a similar Snapdragon chipset. That handset has already got an update to Android 5.0 Lollipop and so is a better all-round choice than the ageing S4 Mini. That said, the Moto G itself may well be about to get a replacement, so it’s worth holding off a while if you can.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini was a perfectly competent mid-range smartphone, and its excellent battery life is still impressive . However, even at a new, much lower price, it’s still outgunned by newer budget handsets.

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Hardware

Main display size4.3in
Native resolution960×540
CCD effective megapixels8-megapixel
GPSyes
Internal memory8192MB
Memory card supportmicroSD
Memory card included0MB
Operating frequenciesGSM 850/900/1800/1900, 3G 850/900/1900/2100, 4G 800/850/900/1800/2100/2600
Wireless data4G
Size125x61x9mm
Weight107g

Features

Operating systemAndroid 4.2.2
Microsoft Office compatibilityWord, Excel, PowerPoint
FM Radioyes
Accessoriesheadphones, data cable, charger

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