As if having two variants of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and an Active variant wasn’t enough, it seems that Samsung is going to also announce a mini version of the Samsung Galaxy S8 that is smaller than its current flagship siblings, but will be a little under-powered compared to them in specification.
The new S8 Mini by Samsung will not be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, but will instead feature the Snapdragon 821, which is still not a bad choice and with regard to performance, the chipset comes second only to the Snapdragon 835 anyway. This will make the handset more suitable to match the likes of the LG G6, which also features the same processor. The S8 Mini is also said to feature 4GB of RAM and the internal storage for the handset will be cut down to just 32GB. The screen of the phone is only 5.3-inches in diagonal length and will also keep the Infinity Display design. The camera, however, is said to remain the same as its elder siblings.
Few notable advantages of the Galaxy S8 Mini, despite the internal storage being less, will be that it will still have room to add a microSD card. The portable size will also make it easier for users to handle the phone and moreover, make it easier to reach the fingerprint sensor on the back of the device. The drawback however, may lie in features such as the screen resolution and the battery capacity.
S8 Mini might retain the same design as the main Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ models. The Mini series of the Galaxy S-line has never really fared well, mostly because the Mini moniker also catered towards the specifications of the phone and not just the size. For comparison, Sony’s flagships Xperia phones also came with Mini versions as well, with the only difference between the phones being the size, while the internal specifications were the same. Hence buyers would be getting the same flagships quality that they were hoping to buy after all. Samsung using the outdated Snapdragon 821 seems like a lazy effort, since they could have just as easily fitted the newer Snapdragon 835 instead. Having said that, for those who up until now were unable to afford the latest Galaxy S8 flagships, the new S8 Mini would not cost as much as its older siblings, making it a more accessible phone to afford.
So far, there has not been any official word on the phone by Samsung, nor have there been any details divulged about the pricing and the availability. Most probably, the new phone will release by the end of this year, or even as soon as the coming month.