Samsung Confuses Market With New 'Galaxy S4 Mini Plus' Device

News
By Lucian Armasu
published

Even though the Galaxy S6 is Samsung's latest flagship smartphone, Samsung has just launched another Galaxy S4-branded device called the Galaxy S4 Mini Plus, two years after the original Galaxy S4 Mini launched.

The Galaxy S4 Mini Plus seems to be some kind of successor to the two year old Galaxy S4 Mini, yet Samsung didn't believe it deserved a completely new name, so instead it added a "Plus" at the end.

Samsung seems to want to keep separate mid-range lines of devices that look different from each other. There's the S4 Mini line-up, then there's the S5 Mini, and there will likely be an S6 Mini, too.

However, all of this could end up confusing consumers, as they won't know what to expect from all of these "Mini" devices other than the fact that they look like their bigger brothers.

From its specs and its ~200 euro price, we expect this Galaxy S4 Mini Plus to compete against the new Moto G 2015. However, some of its specs don't seem nearly as strong.

Samsung's phone comes with an ARMv8 quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU, an Adreno 306 GPU, 1.5 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage, LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, an 8MP rear camera with 1080p video recording, 1.9MP front-camera, and a 1,900 mAh battery.

The display is quite small by today's standards, even for people who may want smaller screens. It only has a 4.3" display with a qHD (960 x 540) resolution.

The Galaxy S4 Mini Plus seems to be for all intents and purposes a rehashed Galaxy S4 Mini that has a new processor with LTE integration (Snapdragon 410 over Snapdragon 400) and of course a new version of Android, which is also quite far from the latest, being only Android 4.4 Kit Kat.

The original S4 Mini cost significantly more than the S4 Mini Plus does now, so this seems to be Samsung's way of relaunching the same device at a much lower price point, but with some upgraded components that support a newer version of Android.

The Galaxy S4 Mini Plus, which will also be called the Galaxy S4 Mini "Value Edition," will be sold mainly in Europe, and it's already available in countries such as Germany, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria and Czech Republic for between 190 euro and 239 euro.

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Lucian Armasu
Lucian Armasu
Lucian Armasu is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers software news and the issues surrounding privacy and security.
8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Sakkura
    If you want a small phone, the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact is much more appealing. It sucks that most of the other manufacturers think small phone should automatically mean weak hardware.
    Reply
  • ohim
    Tough i am an Android user .. i think the market only needs products like Lumia / iphone ... less models, fast updates over time.. not like in the android market 1231312 phone variants with most of them not being to the latest OS.

    My next phone will be an Windows Phone.
    Reply
  • thundervore
    This is why the Android market is becoming a trash bin. Too many devices that are only supported for 18 months that only see 1 OS upgrade from the OEM and Carrier. Then time to buy a new phone rinse and repeat the 18 month cycle.
    Reply
  • dstarr3
    Tough i am an Android user .. i think the market only needs products like Lumia / iphone ... less models, fast updates over time.. not like in the android market 1231312 phone variants with most of them not being to the latest OS.

    I've got an S4 and I'm still using the Android v4.3 it shipped with. Whereas my girlfriend's got a Nexus tablet that stays up to date. And honestly, comparing the two, I don't think I'm missing anything by not having updated my phone's OS. Phone worked fine when it shipped, the phone works fine now. I think people just exaggerate the importance updating. Especially considering updates are just as likely to break something as they are to fix something.
    Reply
  • hst101rox
    Who would upgrade from a TI-84 to a TI-84 Plus...
    Reply
  • nikolajj
    Especially considering updates are just as likely to break something as they are to fix something.

    With Android, yes. Windows Phone and iOS, not so much.
    Reply
  • dstarr3
    16402347 said:
    Especially considering updates are just as likely to break something as they are to fix something.

    With Android, yes. Windows Phone and iOS, not so much.

    Actually, I was thinking specifically about iOS when I made that comment.
    Reply
  • ohim
    16398542 said:
    Tough i am an Android user .. i think the market only needs products like Lumia / iphone ... less models, fast updates over time.. not like in the android market 1231312 phone variants with most of them not being to the latest OS.

    I've got an S4 and I'm still using the Android v4.3 it shipped with. Whereas my girlfriend's got a Nexus tablet that stays up to date. And honestly, comparing the two, I don't think I'm missing anything by not having updated my phone's OS. Phone worked fine when it shipped, the phone works fine now. I think people just exaggerate the importance updating. Especially considering updates are just as likely to break something as they are to fix something.
    I`m running now a Samsung Galaxy S3 1 GB ram(i know old but gold) on the original OS 4.1.2 you can`t install some new apps 4.3 had few issues with my phone and was also slow, now i run a rooted 5.1.1 Android and everything seems better but i must avoid any Facebook apps since they are taking way too much resources, i use Facebook from Opera browser, lot faster and i don`t have to deal with notifications that i`ve already seen on my PC, like the Facebook app does.

    Samsung said that the S3 1GB has too low memory for the new Lolipop ... well it runs quite fine and has memory to spare. And since they have so many variants don`t expect too much support for some of the phones or if they get it they are at least 1 year late.

    Atm i`m waiting for my Lumia 930 to arrive.
    Reply