14 DAY TRIAL // Major carrier AT&T has just announced that it will add the Samsung Galaxy S III mini to its portfolio beginning September 19.
Customers will be able to pre-order the Galaxy S III mini starting tomorrow for only $0.99 with a two-year agreement. The carrier has also confirmed that the smartphone will go on sale beginning September 27, but those who pre-purchase the handset may receive it a bit earlier.
“Our Galaxy family continues to grow and we’re excited to offer the Galaxy S III mini as an option for customers seeking a premium smartphone experience at an outstanding value, all on the nation’s fastest, most reliable 4G LTE network,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president – devices, AT&T.
Although it’s given away by AT&T, the Galaxy S III mini may have quite a large audience. The smartphone ships with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box, which is an important upgrade, since the Galaxy S III mini was initially launched with Android 4.1 onboard.
Furthermore, it sports a 4-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display that supports 480 x 800 pixels resolution and 233 ppi (pixel density).
AT&T’s variant will pack a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor inside, whereas the original model features a NovaThor U8420 chipset that accommodates a dual-core CPU clocked at 1 GHz. AT&T also states that the handset comes with 1 GB of RAM, but has yet to reveal the amount of storage.
We expect that it will offer 16GB of internal memory, as well as microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB). There’s also a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus, LED flash and HD (720p) video recording, as well as a secondary VGA camera for video calls.
Connectivity-wise, the Galaxy S III mini supports HSDPA and HSUPA, along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC (Near Field Communication). The handset drains energy from a decent 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery, which should provide up to 450 hours of standby time or up to 14 hours of talk time.