Samsung finally unveils long-awaited Galaxy S5 Mini
As expected, Samsung has announced the launch of a smaller version of its flagship smartphone. The device, the Galaxy S5 Mini, will begin shipping early next month.
The Galaxy S5's smaller sibling has many of the same features as its bigger counterpart, and includes a few notable improvements on last year's S4 Mini, particularly with its screen.
With a 4.5-inch display, the S5 Mini is larger than the 4.3-inch S4 mini, and includes a Super AMOLED display with a 720x1280 resolution (the S4 Mini had a qHD display at 960x540 pixels).
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Apps are support by the S5 Mini's quad core 1.4GHz processor, while the device sports an eight-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, and 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera as well as Samsung's software camera features. As expected, the device will ship with Android 4.4 KitKat.
Like the S5, which Samsung launched this February, the LTE-enabled S5 Mini is IP67-rated water and dust resistant. Samsung has also brought across the S5's ultra power saving mode, which limits the screen to black and white and winds down background processes, letting the user eke out an 24 hours additional usage on 10 percent battery life.
The S5 Mini also carries across the look and feel of the S5, maintaining the golfball-like perforated backplate that will be available at launch in black, white, blue, and 'copper gold'.
At 120g, the S5 Mini is a tad heavier than its predecessor, however that's compensated by the doubling of onboard storage to 16GB and a slightly higher capacity battery at 2,100 mAh. The S5 Mini also has 1.5GB of RAM.
While the S4 Mini launched with Knox support, Samsung hasn't said whether the S5 Mini will do the same, but it's a fairly safe assumption that the security software will be compatible with the new device.
The S5 Mini will go on sale first in Russia, where it will be available from early July. It will then be rolled out globally, according to the company, but there's no word on when the device will arrive in other markets.
As it's done before, Samsung has unveiled the minature version of the flagship around five months after launching the bigger version of the device. The company claimed in May that the full-size S5 has been bought by 11 million consumers since launch. At the same time last year, it said it had sold 10 million Galaxy S4 devices.