Samsung Galaxy S III mini spotted on retail listing

With the Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone breaking various records, and the Galaxy Note II announced, all eyes are set on what else Samsung has in store this year. Over the past few weeks, rumours have indicated that Samsung will unveil a smaller version of the Galaxy S III, believed to be named Galaxy S III mini. A report by Engadget now states that a Nordic retailer has put up a listing of a Galaxy S III mini in two versions, with Near Field Communication (NFC) capability and without.

Available with or without NFC

As per the Engadget report, “While it's not as complex as one of the region's twisty crime dramas, the story surrounding the Galaxy S III Mini has taken another turn. Retailers in Europe's northernmost countries are now listing such a device with the codename GT-I8190 in blue and white, with or without an NFC chip, for $540 and $560, respectively. Given that the company is planning an announcement about a "little sensation" on Thursday, it's certainly less likely that we'll see the Galaxy Ace III turn up.”

According to an earlier report, invites are being sent for a Samsung Mobile press event in Germany where a smaller-sized Samsung phone will be released. The invites sent out today contain the line "So big can be small. And so small can be big".

For a couple of years now, rumours have indicated that Apple would introduce a miniature version of its flagship smartphone, the iPhone. This handset had been referred to as the iPhone mini or the iPhone nano. Somehow, the idea of this handset did not come to fruition. We still see an iPhone featuring a display size of 3.5-inches. Since Apple has not yet done it,  the brand’s biggest competitor, Samsung may be preparing a smaller-sized version of the Galaxy S III, which will be known as the Galaxy S III mini.

SamMobile had earlier stated in a report that it knew of a rumour that Samsung will release the Galaxy S III mini by the end of the year. The Samsung Galaxy S III Mini will try to fight the Apple iPhone 4S with a 5-megapixel camera, dual-core processor and 4-inch Super AMOLED screen with WVGA resolution. The Samsung Galaxy S III Mini is expected to cost around 250 euro compared to the iPhone 5 that costs around 650 euro with the latter featuring the same screen size.

Another handset expected to compete with the iPhone 5 is a variant of the Galaxy S II, and is believed to hit shelves under the Galaxy S II Plus branding. A leaked benchmark has revealed what to expect from this device once it is launched. From the GLBenchmark, the device will feature a display equipped with a resolution of 960 x 540. However, there is no information available on the dimensions of this unannounced handset yet. It is likely to be powered by a 1.4GHz CPU, and the exact frequency has been shown in the leaked benchmark, listed at 1456MHz. The GPU that will come loaded in the Galaxy S II Plus will be a PowerVR SGX 544MP and this information can be viewed under GL Environment tab of the benchmark.