Samsung to Unveil 4-Inch ‘Mini’ Galaxy S III

Amar Toor, reporting for The Verge:

JK Shin, head of Samsung Mobile Communications, confirmed today that his company will be releasing a four-inch version of the Galaxy S III on October 11th in Germany. Shin announced the news during a meeting with Korean press on Wednesday.

Shin didn’t reveal many details about the device, though he said it was spurred by increasing demand for 4-inch devices in Europe.

This is Samsung’s strength. With Apple, you get one size display to choose from (each model year). With Samsung, it looks like you’re going to get to choose. Also, my long-standing theory has been that Android phones went to 4.5-inch (and greater) super-size displays because it was too hard engineering-wise to fit LTE chipsets and batteries strong enough to power them into smaller form factors. Every iPhone sold is proof that there is demand for 4-inch and smaller display sizes. It was only a matter of time until we started seeing high-end Android (and Windows Phone) handsets with similar size displays to the iPhone. And so here we are.

Update: Leaked specs suggest the 4-inch Galaxy is rather lame: slower processor and a mere 800 × 480 pixel display.

Wednesday, 10 October 2012