Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini - Samsung Software Update

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini is an Android smartphone developed by the Korean manufacturer Samsung Electronics. Announced on May 31, 2013 and released in July 2013, the S4 Mini is a mid-range model of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone and a successor to the Galaxy S III Mini. It has a similar hardware design and software features to its high-end counterpart.

Specifications

The S4 Mini uses an almost identical variant of the Galaxy S4's polycarbonate hardware design. Internally, it features a dual-core 1.7 GHz Snapdragon 400 processor with 1.5 GB of RAM, 8 GB of expandable storage, and a 4.27 inch qHD (540 x 960 pixel) Super AMOLED screen. The S4 Mini also includes a 1.9-megapixel (MP) front-facing camera, and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera.

Software & updates

Similarly to the S4, the S4 Mini comes with Android 4.2 and Samsung's TouchWiz software, although certain features present on the S4 are not available (such as Air Gestures, Air View, Multi-window, Smart Pause, Smart Rotation, and Smart Scroll).

The S4 mini got the android 4.4.2 'KitKat' update on June 2014 (though not in all regions), bringing some minor UI changes as seen on the Galaxy S4 and S4 Active.

When asked about whether the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini would get the Lollipop update on the 24 April 2015, the UK branch of the telecommunications operator 'Three' stated that it would not get the lollipop update, blaming on 'memory limitations'. However the Irish branch of 'Three' stated later on the very same day that the S4 Mini would indeed get the lollipop update and that it should start rolling out in the coming weeks. Even though the Samsung UK and US carrier Sprint confirming that the S4 Mini will get the Lollipop update, several retweets from Samsung itself suggests that this was misinformation stating that it had failed the initial test for the update.

International variants

The S4 mini version for most of Europe, Latin America, South Africa and few Asian countries contains a 1900 mAh, NFC-enabled battery, besides NFC is still standard on regular Galaxy S4 (both Exynos and Snapdragon variants).

The Galaxy S4 Mini is made available in:

• GSM & HSDPA (GT-I9190);
• LTE (GT-I9195), with NFC;
  • GT-I9195L, exclusively for Latin America
  • GT-I9195T, exclusively for Australia
• Dual SIM (GT-I9192), with 16 GB of internal memory in some regions;
• LTE (GT-I9197), without NFC;
• TD-SCDMA (GT-I9198)
• Canadian AWS LTE (SGH-I257M)
• Verizon LTE (SCH-I435)

Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Plus

On 3 August 2015, Samsung released an updated version of the S4 Mini called the S4 Mini Plus (also known as S4 Mini Value Edition). It features a new 1.2 GHz Quad core processor, an Adreno 306 GPU, and comes with Android KitKat 4.4.4. The rest of the specs remain the same. The Galaxy S4 Mini Plus is available in two variants:

• LTE (GT-I9195I), with NFC;
• Dual SIM (GT-I9192I).

Successor

The successor to the Galaxy S4 Mini is the Galaxy S5 Mini. It was announced on May 30, 2014, and was subsequently released in July 2014.