Samsung Galaxy S5 mini review: Big enough

17 August 2014
With two Galaxy S minis under its belt, Samsung has set off on a quest for a third, hopefully more successful version of its current flagship. But the rules have changed and Samsung has finally stopped ignoring this fact. While Sony flipped...

Sort by:

  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • nmN
  • 20 Aug 2014

Samsung should chance their head designer. The phones design is ugly. Year after year. This is only my opinion thou..but hey.. 4,5 inch dimension is very good choice. I hope phone manufactories will make more between 4 and 4,5 inch phones.

    • D
    • AnonD-225840
    • mbS
    • 19 Aug 2014

    piyal , 19 Aug 2014If you really want a phone just to text or call there are l... moreamoled hd screen. more then enough ram. 16 gb onboard memory. ultra power efficient soc. very well tuned to achieve 72 H battery time , wich is a breaktrough for smaller phones. Durable case. Fine Camera. Scratch resistant gorilla glass 3. And lots of other things. Why not just buy it 6 months from now for 270 euro or 8 months and 50 euro cashback. Simply a very good deal. Why not leave the page and get back to your cyanogen modded flagship phone.

      • p
      • piyal
      • K6m
      • 19 Aug 2014

      If you really want a phone just to text or call there are lots of better and cheaper options. We only want to pay more in the hope to get better performance. the S5 mini clearly is under powered for the asking price. This is just a clear knockoff of GS5, but only this time done by the same company to fool you more.

        • C
        • C3PO
        • pk2
        • 19 Aug 2014

        You forgot the Galaxy S4 Active as competitor, it has the same IP67, same thickness, bigger screen, higher resolution, more ram, better processors, SD card and bigger battery. Please add it to your review.

          • E
          • Enema
          • niH
          • 19 Aug 2014

          lacp, 18 Aug 2014I rarely play games in a phone but it's important that a ph... moreI agree S5 minis performance isnt' much of an evolution, but S4 mini is the past. Today S5 mini is just a product of Samsungs marketing Department. The same story was with iPhone 5C. It was just a tool to boost 5S sales. S5 mini is in perfect size, but in terms of specs it's just not good enough. Well, for many geeks. So it doesn't compete with 5S or even Alpha.

            • l
            • lacp
            • Tqc
            • 18 Aug 2014

            Enema, 18 Aug 2014jeesus... performace geek, get a life, man. It's good enoug... moreI rarely play games in a phone but it's important that a phone be fast in the age of today but sincerely this S5 Mini it's a retrocess in terms of performance and evolution of the hardware, regarding to S4 Mini. You don't see? The things must evolve. It is not seek archaic and obsolete technologies that the things evolve. This phone should be the evolution of ths S4 Mini and with superior hardware.

              • D
              • AnonD-105679
              • ix}
              • 18 Aug 2014

              Just some feedback.

              Which Quality setting do you run on Basemark X? I miss detailed walkthroughs of each of your syntethic testings. No information what settings you use for one and each benchmark. I have no idea how to compare my results with yours.

                • A
                • Andrew
                • 9JE
                • 18 Aug 2014

                Why no Z1 Compact in the performance charts..? With this S5 mini at a higher price I hope that not too many people are fooled solely by the "it looks exactly like an S5"-angle.. man that's Apple-like thinking there.

                  • E
                  • Enema
                  • niH
                  • 18 Aug 2014

                  lacp, 18 Aug 2014Oh yeah? Then read the Geekbench 3 results and you will see... morejeesus... performace geek, get a life, man. It's good enough for texts, calls, browsing and etc. Some people don't play games on the phone, you know. i guess you do, so go to the S5 comment section. Typical android fanatic.

                    • B
                    • Bla
                    • 0Uu
                    • 18 Aug 2014

                    Awesome "little" phone. Waiting to change my nexus 4 when price reaches 300 $ some time next year.

                      • l
                      • lacp
                      • Tqc
                      • 18 Aug 2014

                      Enema, 18 Aug 2014Oh really? Go to the performance page and read again...Oh yeah? Then read the Geekbench 3 results and you will see if it isn't true what i wrote. It is almost twice, the performance of the Galaxy S4 Mini compared with the S5 Mini performance. You have to admit that the S4 Mini it has a far better cpu. Don't compare a quad-core Arm Cortex A7 cpu with a Snapdragon Krait 300 cpu, even it being dual-core. Krait 300 it is almost an Arm A15 cpu. And in the graphics department the performance it is similar but the S4 mini it has a more advanced gpu with the OpenGL ES 3.0 Api, thing that the Mali 400 gpu doesn't has.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • Tkx
                        • 18 Aug 2014

                        Why was there no comparison to its predecessor, the S4 mini? I think that the S4 mini may be faster even though it has a major issue with constantly rebooting.

                          • E
                          • Enema
                          • niH
                          • 18 Aug 2014

                          lacp, 18 Aug 2014the galaxy s4 mini has far better performance, better proce... moreOh really? Go to the performance page and read again...

                            • l
                            • lacp
                            • Tqc
                            • 18 Aug 2014

                            the galaxy s4 mini has far better performance, better processor, better chipset. While the galaxy s5 mini has a quad-core Arm Cortex A7 cpu and obsolete graphics the s4 mini has a dual-core krait 300 processor at 1.7ghz equivalent in architechture to the Snapdragon 600 and even to the Snapdragon 800. The S5 mini have no chances to compete directly in terms of cpu and chipset with the s4 mini. In the graphics area the S5 mini has a more archaic gpu without the Open GL ES 3.0 Api, thing that the Adreno 305 has.

                              • C
                              • Christian
                              • 0UZ
                              • 17 Aug 2014

                              Why the reviewer gave so much importance on the IR blaster cant stop but wondering only?!?

                              "The heart rate monitor won't be a deciding factor for most people but the IR blaster may just tip the scaled in its favor."

                              "the IR blaster is here as well - we only wish HTC had provided one for their mini smartphone."

                              IR blaster is gimmicky feature as much as heart rate monitor is.Only extremely lazy(or dumb) people will use it for switching the channel while watching TV or similar :/

                              Next,the conclusion was pointless.Competition is wiping the floor with this Mini even if it wasn't so expensive.How could the reviewer didn't saw that?

                                • e
                                • erg
                                • PSv
                                • 17 Aug 2014

                                Why is GSMArena sticking with that "infinity" contrast ratio claim for the super amoled? that's grossly inaccurate. they ought to realize that while the individual OLED pixels/subpixels are light sources themselves that can completely turn off to show black visuals, ambient lighting can still reflect on those turned off pixels and light coming from the adjacent lit pixels can also bleed. hence, the infinity contrast ratio is illogical. did they do a laboratory test to come up with that silly contrast ratio?

                                  • d
                                  • der
                                  • Ycp
                                  • 17 Aug 2014

                                  Great specs from a flagship-like device. Love the reviews GSMArena team!

                                    • D
                                    • AnonD-225840
                                    • mbS
                                    • 17 Aug 2014

                                    AnonD-293752, 17 Aug 2014camera is not good.but excellent batteryWhat you mean by 'Camera is not good'? You mean 8 megapixels not good ? Did you look at the comparison tool? Man it really beats a lot of phones there. Seems to have good resolution and corner to corner sharpness, good colors, not over processed stuff like g2 mini.

                                    But needs more reviews n tests

                                      • D
                                      • AnonD-293752
                                      • atF
                                      • 17 Aug 2014

                                      camera is not good.but excellent battery

                                        • D
                                        • AnonD-225840
                                        • mbS
                                        • 17 Aug 2014

                                        I guess this one is more rugged then the s4 or s4 mini.
                                        Let alone the S3. Perhaps its even on the level of the S2.
                                        And anyway still far better then the glass sculpture iphones. That crack when you look at it. Bye $800.

                                        The S5 mini seems to have fatter sides, and there is a grey strip under the glass next to the chrome side. Some say that is a rubber shock prevention thingy. My 2 cents are that it prevents water from coming in And prevents shocks as well.

                                        Sooner or later the phone will fall from your hand!
                                        Gsm Arena does not test that really though..
                                        Very Complex to test, but still would be nice to see some standardization in this.