SII or an SIII mini?

silk186

silk186

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 26, 2008
Messages
1,628
I have the chance to buy an Samsung galaxy SII or an SIII mini. Which one would you recommend? I can get them for the same price.
 
i donno of the 2 i would go with the s2 but getting the s3 regular would be better than the mini and the mini would get key lime pie s2 wont it is close to 2 years old at this point the s3 mini is 2 months old so it will get key lime and 2 more after that most likely.

But the phone on a whole seems watered down.
 
In terms of hardware, they are very similar, with the S2 being slightly faster and having a slightly larger screen. The S2 will be receiving Android 4.1.2 shortly, which is likely to be its final update. Samsung has stated that they would evaluate a 4.2 update, but I don't see it happening.

The S3 mini may or may not get updates. It's on older hardware and not a flagship device. Samsung's history on software updates outside of flagship devices is dubious at best.

In either case, the phone you buy is likely the phone that you are stuck with. Due to slightly faster hardware, slightly larger screen, and much better build quality, I would take the S2.
 
I would wait till January when the Nexus 4 is freely available. As it's the same price (for 16GB model) there's no real contest as the Nexus 4 blows the both of them out in terms of software and hardware. Aside from lack of removable battery and microsd slot, it is superior in every way.
 
In contrast my brother just bought a full sized galaxy s3 for 300 i bought one for 370 im sure you can find them for that much as well

would be better than both the mini and s2 and unlike the nexus 4 removable battery and sd card.
 
Lunas said:
i donno of the 2 i would go with the s2 but getting the s3 regular would be better than the mini and the mini would get key lime pie s2 wont it is close to 2 years old at this point the s3 mini is 2 months old so it will get key lime and 2 more after that most likely.

But the phone on a whole seems watered down.
Click to expand...

This made my brain hurt.
 
TheReproducer said:
I would wait till January when the Nexus 4 is freely available. As it's the same price (for 16GB model) there's no real contest as the Nexus 4 blows the both of them out in terms of software and hardware. Aside from lack of removable battery and microsd slot, it is superior in every way.
Click to expand...

Oh...and Nexus 4 having no LTE. Funny you left out the massive design omission that most people would actually care about.
 
I would go with the S3 mini unless you think the extra .3" of screen and better camera is worth it. Just because the S3 mini is newer and will be supported longer, probably has considerably better battery life and is just as fast in all practicality.

Skripka said:
Oh...and Nexus 4 having no LTE. Funny you left out the massive design omission that most people would actually care about.
Click to expand...

Eh, true, but I don't think you can complain too much when they're offering the phone at $300-$350 off contract and it has the fastest internals (S4 Pro) a phone can have nowadays. Also, if the OP is already considering the S3 Mini, then LTE can't be much of a concern for him.
 
T4rd said:
I would go with the S3 mini unless you think the extra .3" of screen and better camera is worth it. Just because the S3 mini is newer and will be supported longer, probably has considerably better battery life and is just as fast in all practicality.



Eh, true, but I don't think you can complain too much when they're offering the phone at $300-$350 off contract and it has the fastest internals (S4 Pro) a phone can have nowadays. Also, if the OP is already considering the S3 Mini, then LTE can't be much of a concern for him.
Click to expand...

S2 has better battery life. The S2 is faster and has some better feature support, such as 1080p video recording. Also, the S2 supports 21mbps HSPA+ whereas the S3 mini is limited to 14mbps. The S2 is the physically and technologically superior device. The S3 mini MIGHT get updates. Samsung traditionally does not support their budget devices. So it's hardware vs potential software updates.

I second the Nexus 4 recommendation.
 
Medion said:
S2 has better battery life. The S2 is faster and has some better feature support, such as 1080p video recording. Also, the S2 supports 21mbps HSPA+ whereas the S3 mini is limited to 14mbps. The S2 is the physically and technologically superior device. The S3 mini MIGHT get updates. Samsung traditionally does not support their budget devices. So it's hardware vs potential software updates.

I second the Nexus 4 recommendation.
Click to expand...

As I said, unless you want the better camera, get the S3 Mini. The other differences you mention as being "superior" are negligible in real world performance (hence my "in all practicality statement) and the battery life is better on the S3 Mini despite it having a smaller battery (I'm sure due to the newer and lower clocked SoC) in the few reviews I've read, some of which compared it directly to the S2.

Updates may be up in the air for the S3 Mini, but they're definitely not for the S2; no way it will get another major update after being 2 years old and 2 generations behind by the time Android 5/KLP is out. Not that it prolly matters for OP anyways, it was just worth mentioning, IMO.
 
T4rd said:
I would go with the S3 mini unless you think the extra .3" of screen and better camera is worth it. Just because the S3 mini is newer and will be supported longer, probably has considerably better battery life and is just as fast in all practicality.



Eh, true, but I don't think you can complain too much when they're offering the phone at $300-$350 off contract and it has the fastest internals (S4 Pro) a phone can have nowadays. Also, if the OP is already considering the S3 Mini, then LTE can't be much of a concern for him.
Click to expand...

The mini does not have the s4 pro chip it has a NovaThor U8420 1ghz dual core with a mali400 gpu. I would go with the s2 if those two phones were the only choice since the s2 is faster. But if I wanted first party update potential then I would have to do the mini. I still think if the op has a price range of about 350 he should just get the regular s3 and be done with it you can turn off 4g and even with 4g on I am getting 2 days of life on my stock battery with 3 hours of screen time.
 
Lunas said:
The mini does not have the s4 pro chip it has a NovaThor U8420 1ghz dual core with a mali400 gpu. I would go with the s2 if those two phones were the only choice since the s2 is faster. But if I wanted first party update potential then I would have to do the mini. I still think if the op has a price range of about 350 he should just get the regular s3 and be done with it you can turn off 4g and even with 4g on I am getting 2 days of life on my stock battery with 3 hours of screen time.
Click to expand...

I was talking about the Nexus 4 having the S4 Pro chip, not the S3 Mini. Hence that part of my post responding to the Nexus 4 not having LTE ;).
 
Skripka said:
Oh...and Nexus 4 having no LTE. Funny you left out the massive design omission that most people would actually care about.
Click to expand...
First of all, it's £279 in UK, secondly, LTE is still in its fancy in rest of the world. In the UK it has just launched on one network but the auction for the rest of the spectrum isn't till end of this year till start of next year. Which means we probably won't see decent coverage till early 2014 if we're lucky. So no, LTE isn't that big of an issue for myself and millions, if not billions of others.
 
EDIT: See post below for better explanation.
 
Last edited:
My previous posts were made from a phone, so I wasn't able to provide sources. I'll correct that here.
Samsung Galaxy S II
Samsung Galaxy S III Mini

Differences between the S2 and the S3 Mini:

Build quality - The SGS2 has a more solid construction while the SGS3 Mini is based more on the SGS3, which has thinner and lighter plastic that is more prone to breaking (but still higher quality than it feels). Slight edge here to the SGS2

CPU - The SGS2 uses a dual-core Cortex A9 @ 1.2ghz, whereas the SGS3 Mini uses the same CPU at 1.0ghz. Both are on the 45nm process and will generate similar power draw under medium/light loads. Under heavy loads, the SGS2 will draw more power and stutter less. Pick your poison.

Radio - The SGS2 is capable of quad-band HSPA+ @ 21mbps, whereas the SGS3 Mini is tri-band HSPA+ @ 14mbps. Both will work on AT&T and T-Mobile's (refarmed) HSPA+ networks, but the SGS2 will be faster. However, the SGS2 supports Bluetooth 3.0, whereas the SGS3 Mini supports BT 4.0.

Display - Both use AMOLED displays at 800x480 resolution, but the SGS2 uses RGB whereas the SGS3 Mini uses PenTile. I've compared the SGS2 to the SGS3 and found text to be marginally sharper on the SGS2. Despite this, I've found burn in to be worse on RGB than on PenTile (Droid Incredible) OLED displays. That's a personal observation. So, I'm not going to say that the SGS2 is superior due to RGB vs. PenTile, only that if you have a preference, then you should take note of the screens used.

Camera - SGS2 is 8MP, 1080p @ 30fps, whereas the SGS3 Mini is 5MP, 720p @ 30fps.

Battery life - The SGS2 is rated by Samsung at the following; Standby 710h (2G), 610h (3G); Talk time of 18h 20m (2G), 8h 40m (3G). By comparison, the SGS3 Mini is rated at; Standby 450h (2G), 430h (3G); Talk time of 14h 10m (2G), 7h 10m (3G). Respectable edge in battery life to the SGS2.

Firmware updates - This is where many people have a huge issue with phones. As of today, the SGS2 is on Android 4.0.4 with an update to 4.1.2 slated for "soon." Samsung has officially stated that after the 4.1.2 rollout is complete, the SGS2 will be evaluated for Android 4.2.x with one of three potential outcomes; updated in full, updated with a "value pack" like the SGS1 was in lieu of ICS, or not updated. I'm betting on no update as 4.2 seems to add little if anything that TouchWiz doesn't already do. The SGS3 Mini, on the other hand, has 4.1.1 out of the box. We don't know if it will be upgraded beyond that, but we can look at its predecessor as a guessing point. The Galaxy S Advance (GT-i9070) was the "lite" version of the SGS2, consisting of a dual-core Cortex-A9 @ 1.0ghz, Mali-400MP, and 768MB of RAM. In fact, other than less RAM and BT 3.0, it's essentially the SGS3 Mini in an SGS2 shell. It shipped with Android 2.3. It currently has Android 2.3. Samsung announced that it will NOT be getting ICS but would go straight to JB, and then went silent.

Bottom line is that Samsung has a HORRID history of promising updates and not delivering them, or just not promising to update their Android devices outside of their flagship lineups (SGS1/2/3, Note series). The SGS2 is a better piece of hardware than the SGS3 Mini in all aspects except for Bluetooth (3.0 vs. 4.0). The SGS3 Mini has the potential for better software support, but if it were me buying today and those were my two options, I'd go SGS2 all the way and not regret it.

And to those who claim that the SGS3 Mini has better battery life than the SGS2, I humbly ask that you provide comparisons. All I have are Samsung's specs. I don't mind being wrong so long as I have the opportunity to learn from it.

EDIT: SGS3 Mini also features GLONASS and NFC, two features lacking from the SGS2.
 
Last edited:
NFC is over rated glonass is russian gps same features different network Overall im not seeing a good reason to go for the s3 mini if there was only 2 phones you could ever choose from of those 2.
The s2 unless you absolutely had to have 4.2 4.3 and maybe 4.4 ota. Even then likely they will get ported to the s2 by 3rd party support. But for 300-350 there are alot better phones than those 2
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top