Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Review and Price in Kenya

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini is the latest entrant to the Galaxy Smartphones lineup. It follows the long tradition of the South Korean Tech giant of introducing ‘mini’ versions of hot selling flagship handsets.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini performance is quite impressive despite it being a scaled down version of its big brother the Samsung Galaxy S4.Onto the subject matter, here is a comprehensive technical strip down of the Samsung Galaxy S4 handset.

The phone comes with a 4.3 Inches (Bigger than iPhone 5) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen which delivers a 256 ppi pixel density resolution.Samsung was a bit generous on the Samsung Galaxy S4, as the phone comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection.

This is a first considering that none of the previous ‘mini’ version had screen protection.The overall brightness of the screen is quite good with satisfactory viewing angles.However, users experience an occasional blurriness while rendering web pages.

Viewing images and videos on the device is great mainly due to the Super AMOLED technology that powers the display

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini measures at just 124.6 x 61.3 x 8.9 mm thus fitting perfectly in your palms. The miniature size makes one-handed operations on the handset a complete delight.The metallic bezel that surrounds the display, gives the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini a premium feel and look.

There is a large home button at the base with the volume rockers sitting decently on the sides of the handset. The smaller dimensions give the phone more rounded edges and a strong grip when compared to the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Due to the Polycarbonate construction, the phone is incredibly feather weighted (weighing in at just 107g).

Related: Sony Xperia Z1 Compact Review and Pricing

The similarities between the handset and the Samsung Galaxy S4 end at the technical aspects of the phone. While the S4 Mini comes packed with a Dual-core 1.7 GHz Krait CPU, the S4 features a Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7.

The difference in performance between the two devices is therefore as clear as day and night.The S4 Mini comes with 8 GB of Internal memory and 1.5GB of RAM.

Despite the smaller processor, the performance of the S4 Mini is quite impressive. Transitions between running apps is quite fast and the dual core provides a lag free experience while on the phone.

The S4 comes shipped with Android OS, v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean). However, it is worth noting that the phone contains just a fraction of features natively packed in the Samsung Galaxy S4. Features such as Air View, Air Gestures and some Camera modes still remain exclusive features for the SG4.

On the upside, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini still contains the normal Samsung phones features such as the S Translator, Group Play, S Travel, S Voice and S Memo.

On the connectivity aspect, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini offers nothing new apart from the NFC feature that is supported by some variations of the phone.

Multimedia

The S4 Mini comes with 8 MP snapper, which is quite satisfactory for a handset in its price range. Additionally, the camera supports Auto Focus and has an LED flash for shooting in low light scenes.

The camera user interface is the generic Samsung camera user interface but comes bundled with an array of image tweaking features. The handset also has a 1.9MP front facing snapper for self-shots and video calling.

Video shooting on the device is smooth as it is striking (1080p HD quality). Music and Video playback is equally impressive as the device can smoothly play most of the audio and video formats thrown at it.