Samsung Galaxy S4 mini launched: All you need to know

Lets face it, the only surprising thing about the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini is that they announced it today and not on 20 June as previously thought .

The device was plagued with leaks and frankly Samsung didn’t seem to be trying to hard to keep anything a secret. Pictures of the S4 mini were even leaked on the company’s own website and the specs were also an open secret.

[caption id=“attachment_828385” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Official image of the S4 mini[/caption]

The Galaxy S4-mini was removed from the listing but not before a screenshot of the smartphone was doing rounds all over the Internet.

Anyway for those still in the dark, here are the key details about the phone.

* In terms of screen size, the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini has a 4.3 inch screen which is significantly smaller than the 5 inch Samsung Galaxy S4. However it is still larger than Apple’s flagship iPhone 5 device which has a 4 inch screen. It measures 124.6 x 61.3 x 8.94mm.

* The phone is powered by a1.7 GHz dual-core processor, has 1.5 GB of RAM, and 8GB internal storage which can be expanded to 64 GB via microSD card. It will run on Android 4.2 or Jelly Bean.

* The S4 mini is equipped with many of the same features that are already present in the S4, including Samsung’s TouchWiz Nature UX. It also has many pre-installed apps including S Travel, Group Play and ChatOn - we still don’t know how much space the OS and these features will take. Remember, a significant grouse with the Samsung S4 is the fact that its ‘features’ take up half its storage space.

* The camera specifications of the S4 mini are quite impressive. It has an 8 MP rear camera and 1.9 MP front camera for video calling

* Samsung says it will be offering a 4G version of the device, as well as a 3G and dual-SIM version - based on what makes sense for each market.

* The device will be available in two colours, black and white. No price has been announced as yet.