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Most helpful customer reviews
760 of 790 people found the following review helpful.
Affordable GS3 in a smaller form factor!
By Encrypted11
New colors are currently available! Titan Grey, red and black
version of the Galaxy S III Mini i8190 is also available with some of
the very same Amazon sellers!
BEWARE: Before buying this phone,
CHECK YOUR MOBILE CARRIER'S NETWORK BROADCASTING FREQUENCY BEFORE BUYING
THIS PHONE, THIS IS A POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY IF YOU HAVEN'T CHECKED.
THIS IS A GSM PHONE. GSM GSM GSM!
1. UPDATE Dec '13
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If
your screen/digitizer is slightly unresponsive in registering your
finger movements or that it gets stuck i.e. with the lock screen at
times, this is caused by:
1. Dated out-of-the-box firmware
2. A poor quality screen protector
3. All of the above
Updating
to the latest firmware via (Settings->About Device-> Software
Update) will address this issue. The latest December releases are
bundled with the I8190XXAMJ1 or I8190XXAMJ3 base bands.
==========
Contents
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1. Latest Updates
2. Main Review
3. The power users & geeks - Rooting the i8190
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2. Main Review
===========
So
I bought this phone to replace an iPhone 4. Been having it for 2 years
and the antennagate issue's been getting worse especially this year...
So I thought I'd make a small phone upgrade and I got the S3 Mini.
Personally,
my unit was from Wireless Everything. The phone arrived promptly in its
original packaging with an untampered security seal. As an icing on top
of the cake, the seller included a free Europlug to US 2 Pin adapter so
the S III Mini charger would fit into a US wall socket.
My thoughts on this phone after using it for 3 months,
Pros
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-Very light for its size, isn't too big
-3.5G is pretty fast (Btw the power saver feature can throttle your bandwidth aka internet "speed" apart from the processor)
-Android 4.1 preloaded
-Very smooth UI
-Still has the good multitasking feature on GS3
-(Call
Quality) So I tested its battery life with voice calls. On one
occasion, I had a 1 hour long call and it battery was down from 100% to
90%. So that equates to probably a 10 hr continuous talktime with a full
charge. Very clear speaker
-Touching/Pointing is accurate
-Sensitive screen
Neutral
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-Battery Life (expected it to be better, still pretty decent though)
-Rendering lag on certain websites that contain a lot of images
-Screen
resolution (Though the resolution isn't high, pixelation isn't obvious
from viewing distance. Its not grainy and still very clear
-Direct
Call isn't always responsive. I think the camera doesn't see your ear
always while you're messaging or in the contact list. It might take 1-2
more tries.
-Screen contrast & brightness - Excellent indoors,
good outdoors (without direct sun). Could have done better under direct
sunlight ("By design" of AMOLED).
Cons
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-"Actual" Free internal memory is about 4.5GB/8GB
-Contains some bloatware that autostarts and clogs the system by Samsung & Other parties I'll list them below.
-Minijack is a little soft with the volume.
-MAJOR CONS: You can't put your apps on the SD card without rooting it.. Firmware limitation on Samsung's side most probably :(
-There
is no LED notification blinker light like on the big brother Galaxy S3
(on the left of the front speaker). You have to wake up the screen to
check if you've received messages (Pointed out by Nelson Wong).
Bloatware
in my opinion (These apps can autostart and they "revive" when you
attempt to kill them) clog RAM, have a toll on the battery life as they
attempt to communicate with the internet or use the processor mainly.
To
disable these services/apps -> Application Manager -> All ->
Locate them -> Uninstall updates/Disable -> Disable -> Restart
your phone
1.SNS (Facebook integration stuff)
2.Samsung Kies
3.Samsung Account
4.Samsung Chat On
5.S Voice (If you don't need a voice assistant)
6.Help
7.GTalk (You gotta be in the right context menu to sign out of GTalk/Gmail Chat)
8.Google Search app (there's already a Chrome)
9.Google Plus
10.Flip Board (If you don't need this)
11. All Share
12.Polaris
viewer 4.1 (It keeps popping up the dialogue asking you to purchase the
pro version.. I disabled it and got adobe reader and a free office app)
13.
Samsung's "Music Player" (Not a bloatware but its quite clunky).
"Apollo", Videolan's Opensourced media player from the play store's a
lot more easier to use and integrates better to the notification screen.
For the video player, MX Player is an good one that plays lots of media
compression formats (MX player codec packs are also available on Google
Play). With hardware acceleration enabled, this provides smooth video
playback.
Conclusion
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This phone's great for my
use. As an ex-iOS user, I found the Android OS to be a lot less
restrictive and apps were better integrated. Good call quality, good
reception.
Out-of-the-box experience was 3/5 imo largely due to
high amounts of bloatware that are turned on by default, if you tweaked
these stuff by disabling them you should be able to optimise RAM usage
and increase your battery life by a noticeable margin.
I bought a
16GB Micro SD for this phone because I thought apps would run on it but
unfortunately, no. I do hope this feature will be enabled via a
software update some time in the future.. because 4.5GB/8GB of unused
NAND on the GS3 Mini's abit too low if you're a smartphone gamer
(fortunately I'm not).
The biggest plus? Price. Absolutely great value and I am keeping this phone.
Overall, 4/5. :)
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If
this info's helpful, mark it as a helpful post to allow others to get
the message. Honestly, I like Samsung hardware (look at my profile) but
these are the pros & cons I've identified. I do like this phone but
it isn't perfect, certain limitations listed above may be hated by some
(SD card doesn't store apps using original Samsung firmware), a
non-issue to others. If you could live with those limitations, I'm
pretty sure you'll love this phone.
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Just an additional note to anyone interested in this phone FOR the SERIOUS buyers...
The
Galaxy S3 Mini is NOT an officially sold product in the US, Samsung's
probably tired of the Apple litigation and they're not wanting to create
any circumstance that would create more accusations against them. To
me, this is a loss for fellow US consumers.
On the product
itself... most likely the seller(s) would have acquired the phone
directly from Europe (probably the UK or Germany). This is a parallel
imported product.
- Don't expect your manual or GS3Mini's "setup language" to be english. You should've seen this coming.
- No US warranty.
-
As I've said in the review, network compatibility - your carrier's
frequency - don't complain if your phone does not call if you haven't
made this check.
- IMPORTANT: Since the product is a parallel import,
YOUR TRUST to YOUR SELLER is KEY in this types of purchase. Consider
the seller's:
1.Reputation and seller review. Poor delivery, opened/used product etc in reviews
2.The
reputation and track record is a good indicator if the seller's handled
the GS3 and its packaging properly (Lower chances of DOA)
-Assuming
these 2 "factors" are considered, find out if the seller's item is
"FULFILLED BY AMAZON" or the seller. You know what I'm talking about :)
Amazon's extremely efficient shipment ETA.
-If prices are
*almost* the same between a "Fufilled by Amazon" vs a complete 3rd
party, go for the Amazon. If the 3rd party's giving you a better deal in
pricing, you probably should give the 3rd party a try. :) I bought mine
from a third party seller on Amazon personally.
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Just made this extra section dedicated to:
==================================
3.The power users & geeks - Rooting the i8190
==================================
WARNING:
I do not recommend rooting your phone if you have a weak heart or
you're unaware of what you're doing. It may/may not be risky depending
on your level of proficiency; this is a $220 phone. If you're wanting to
root your phone, keep backups of your files. Make sure you back up
(your personal files) anything you don't want to lose.
Additionally,
if you're on a custom ROM, make sure you back up your IMEI/EFS
partition in case of a bad flash that bricks your device of it's
cellular functionalities.
I decided to open up this section of
the review since I've rooted my S3 mini after a couple of months from
purchase in an attempt to unlock the capability of installing apps on my
SD card. Thankfully, this capability does work on the rooted S3 mini!
To
do this, you'll have to install an app like "Link2SD" on the Play Store
which is capable of moving files to your SD card using the "link
method".
What the link method does is actually similar to the
"rmdir" command on Windows. It creates a "shortcut" which points to your
SD card, where your app files will be stored at instead of the internal
storage. This tricks the OS to think that apps on the SD card are
actually stored on the internal memory.
If you want to conserve
more battery life, consider using the "Greenify" app on the Play Store.
Allow Greenify to hibernate all your apps EXCEPT messaging apps! (Note:
Apps added to auto hibernate during idle will not be able to send you
notifications). Your idle time battery life can be increased noticeably
with this app!
That said, what rooted Android ROMs work well with the S3 mini (i8190)?
There are 2 on XDA developers I'd like to mention and I've used without stability issues
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-There
are lots of helpful tools from software-based bricks to other rooting
utilities available on XDA's Galaxy S3 Mini Android Development section
including the Samsung Odin utility.
-avicohh's I8190XXAMG1 [NOT
FOR NFC N, T or L model]. This rooted firmware is based on the official
Samsung firmware for the i8190 only WITH the addition of root
capabilities. That's the only difference.
-New Maclaw's
CyanogenMod 10.2 [JellyBean 4.3.1][Unofficial port]. This is a custom
ROM based on AOSP and Cyanogenmod sources. The only differences are that
Maclaw has incorporated various fixes for glitches that have arouse as a
result of the port. The reference Android interface seen on Google
Nexus phones are used here with small tweaks added through CM's
Trebuchet 1.0.
Note: New Maclaw's CyanogenMod 11 [JB 4.4.2] is
available BUT UNSUITABLE for daily use currently because it's a WIP.
However, users who'd like to help/ the developer accelerate/contribute
the development of CM11 by providing logs of their phones to the
Maclaw's team for debugging purposes.
Rooting Tools Required (for custom i8190 ROMs)
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-Look up "Samsung Mobile USB Driver XDA"
-Look up "Odin Version 3.04 xda"
-avicohh's
4.1.2 rooted [odin] (quick and dirty way to get root access before you
flash other ROMs over it with a factory reset, if your final custom ROM
to be installed can only be flashed via zip)
-CWM/TWRP
-Titanium Backup (Highly Recommended)
Note: This section is meant to be deliberately dense.
Amazon isn't the appropriate place for beginners to learn rooting, XDA is. :)
Battery life?
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They're very similar if you used a utility app like Titanium Backup Pro to freeze all Samsung bloatwares.
Messaging App
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One
word describes Samsung's touchwiz messaging app: laggy. The extent of
the lag is amplified if you attempt to underclock your CPU to reduce
power consumption. The reference Android messaging app on the other hand
is fast and responsive. You're also able to make replies to newly
received messages without closing the apps you were working on.
Performance?
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Favouring Maclaw's CM10.2
RAM Usage?
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Favours
avicohh's original Samsung firmware with root very noticeably if you
used Titanium backup pro to freeze all unwanted auto-reviving
bloatwares. Higher RAM usage levels are seen on CM10.2 and they could be
caused by the CM team's customisation.
Stability?
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Both
are very stable. On Maclaw's CM10.2, there are a couple of exceptions.
CM10.2's built in DSP Manager (CyanogenMod Sound manager) may crash
abruptly during music playback if you receive incoming messages and as
such, you'll probably want to disable this until it's fixed.
Which ROM's my daily driver?
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I've moved on to Maclaw's CM10.2 because of:
1. The excellent reference Android's messaging app, its very responsive.
2. The stock Android UI and its color schemes compared to Samsung Touchwiz.
3.
Noticeable performance improvements over Samsung's 4.1.2 without
compromising on battery life. (4.1.2 benchmarks at a score of 6000+ on
Samsung's 4.1.2, CM10.2 benchmarks at a straight 10000 here.
4. Enhanced privacy and security features of Android 4.3.1 that are present on CM10.2.
Other Optional Optimisations
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1. Install "Mother of all ad blocking" to limit in-app advertisements from loading.
Hope this helps.
As
you run apps with SU access, some of them may unintentionally mess with
some key files while you're trying to learn more about your rooted
phone. So do backups routinely!
Other good mentions are that
you'll probably want to install a firewall for added privacy and
security for your phone. Avast! has one for rooted Androids.
173 of 188 people found the following review helpful.
Samsung I8190 S3 Mini Unlocked White Android - A Detailed Review
By Daisy S
This superb phone with many features is just right to fit into my
jean pocket or in a small purse with ease. Since this phone has EXCEEDED
all of my expectations, here is my very detailed review of this very
special and fun to use Mini S3 phone. My goal in this review is to help
in your buying decision one way or the other regarding this phone.
Update
8/24/13 - Just received today, the newest firmware/OS for the 4.1.2 OTA
(on my phone directly) as it was updated from Samsung and this is very
new at this date of Monday, August 5, 2013 and arrived in my phone's
Notification area today. After the upgrade completed, I noticed at once
that this phone is lightning fast and the touchscreen is very, very fast
and responsive! This is the THIRD update that I received since I
purchased this phone in April 2013. Each update is not that large,
however, it enhances the performance of this phone. Very encouraged as
if the updates keep coming regularly, perhaps
4.2.2 will be coming to
the S3 Mini. And from my research, it is possible that the S3 Mini may
receive the 4.2 OS but it will be a while longer...Till then, I shall
keep on trying to update and keep you informed...
PROS:
- SIZE
AND WEIGHT: Perfect size for me as it fits easily into my jeans pocket
or smallest purse. And I purchased a leather vertical case that clips to
my waistband so I take it with me to the gym to listen to my music or
radio when I work out.
- STANDARD REGULAR SIZE SIM CARD: The S3
Mini has a regular/standard Sim card slot. (Note the S3 regular phone
and S4 phones accept a micro Sim. Good to know as I did not have to cut
my Sim card, I just placed it into the S3 Mini and I was good to go, and
I did not have to set up the APN settings for Internet and MMS as the
setup did this for me automatically). This is good to know if you want
to use your regular Sim card and not have to deal with settings
yourself. What a great feature.
- Phone call clarity etc. - No
matter what my location using this phone for phone calls the clarity of
calls is loud and clear whether on the phone's speaker, headset etc. I
even had to turn down the volume quite a lot as the calls come in so
well.
- WiFi/3G (Internet): Connects to any WiFi I have tried
very quickly and easily. And when not near a WiFi, I use AT&T for
data and easily get 3G and found the data to be very fast, almost as
fast as my home WiFi is. (For browser, I installed Opera Mini free from
Playstore and found it to be a very easy to use and fast browser).
-
Overall speed, performance, smoothness, picture quality of the
screen--very fast and peppy. And I found a way to SAVE on both memory
and on battery. What I did was to go into Apps/ Manage Apps and DISABLED
the apps I don't use. Without rooting the phone, you cannot uninstall
pre-installed factory apps, but you can disable them. Disabling the ones
you don't use makes the phone run faster and frees more memory! Since I
am a techie, I know which ones to disable and which ones not to
disable, so if in doubt, please ask me in the comments and I will be
glad to assist you in this.
- BATTERY LIFE: This phone has given
me the BEST battery life of ANY smartphone or that I ever owned. And I
use 100% brightness. For me, even at 100 brightness, if I use WiFi or
Data just when I need it and then turn it off, I get all day into the
night on one single charge! (I charge nightly and the phone is at 100%
ready to go the next morning).
- EXTERNAL SLOT FOR MICRO SD CARD -
This helped to sell me on this phone as I can add my personal music,
photos, videos and more to this phone!
And I placed a 32g in mine
for music, files etc. *Keep in mind where External SD cards are
concerned: They are JUST for your personal files: music, videos, photos,
and other files. When you install apps from Playstore or other sources,
they store either in INTERNAL Memory Card or sometimes in the phone
area (most store in the INTERNAL SD AREA). This is the law of the land
where Android is concerned and ALL newer Android devices (including
Samsung) work this way when storing your downloaded apps are concerned.
- INTERNAL STORAGE SPACE:
This
phone is advertised at 8GB of Internal space. The 8GB is the space
BEFORE the drive was formatted, OS installed and then factory apps
installed. So what I had on the phone BEFORE I installed any apps it had
4.75GB left. This is how it is on any flash drive, SD card, Hard Drive
as formatting alone takes up space.
Also, since 3.0 Android and
above, you cannot save any apps to your personal SD card. Instead the
apps are installed one way or the other to the INTERNAL SPACE. However,
the good thing is that your personal files as photos, music, videos, and
more can be installed to your EXTERNAL SD Card so you do have that
space for yourself.
**I have a few apps I downloaded from the
Playstore, but no games so I still have about 4.08 GB left on my phone
for more apps later should I wish to install them.
- CAMERA - The
5MP camera concerned me that is UNTIL I took both indoor and outdoor
pictures and even video. Well, I was pleasantly surprised. When I
printed out some close up and other shots, I was really happy with the
detailing in the pictures. And it compared to the picture quality I had
with my Samsung Galaxy Note with 8MP camera, so what a happy surprise!
Turns out to be a pretty good camera.
- Bluetooth Speed and Performance - The Bluetooth paired quickly with several devices and copied files at a great rate of speed.
CONS:
-
Adobe Flash is not supported in this phone or ANY ANDROID DEVICE after
4.0 OS. The only way to get flash is to get a archived flash and use a
high end browser such as Puffin or Maxthon Browser. So downloading the
older archived flash gives the ability to view SOME internet videos, but
this is better than no flash at all. Keep in mind this is a problem
with ALL brands of Android devices with 4.0 OS and higher it is just
after 4.0 Android came out, the NEW and best flash is NOT supported for
Android devices. It is what it is...
- Very small instruction
"manual" provided with the tablet, however, I went to the Samsung site
and downloaded the full manual and saved it in PDF on my laptop for
reading anytime I need it. If you want the link for the manual, let you
know in the comments and I will give it to you.
- This phone will
NOT accept an OTG (On the go) USB plug for flash drives, mice, etc.
This was not a problem for me, I just plug in the USB Cable to copy
files to the phone. So no big deal.
-
- International Phone so NO
US WARRANTY. Not a problem for me because I have learned over time that
if a device is going to fail, it usually does it within the first 30
days. This phone has been great--no problems at all!
-
- No NFC except on the model with the N on the model number. I do not use NFC so I have no problem with that.
Bottom
line: Would I buy this phone all over again? Yes I certainly would.
Will this phone be the best for you? Yes, if you do not expect every
bell and whistle feature from the BIG S3, want just the most important
features, want a smaller and more lightweight phone that will do all the
basic things of a Smartphone, then I totally recommend this phone!
Hope
this review has assisted you and thank you for reading it. Please feel
free to ask me any questions in the comment area and I will answer all
questions in a very timely manner.
149 of 162 people found the following review helpful.
REVIEW Return Policy - BUYER BEWARE (for ShopEBest)
By Tabin
I felt that my Samsung phone was a defective one. I have three
phones in the family and mine gets dropped calls/inability to
text/missed texts etc. I attempted to return this defective phone only
to receive an email saying I can't because it's pass the 14 day period.
If you review the return policy, you will see it's EXTREMELY difficult
(if not impossible) to make any kind of return even for a defective
product. If you used the phone for more than 30min, you can't return it
without a 50% restocking fee. Wow. Chances are, you will use it for
more than 30min. Honestly, I wouldn't buy a phone after reviewing the
policy. It is my fault for assuming amazon has a standard 30day return
policy and for assuming amazon takes care of their customers. I would
rather pay full price at a legitimate store for the warranty alone.
Cell phones are never guaranteed to function properly. Do you want to
take that $300 risk?
Here's the important stuff that I quote from the return policy:
"All International phones are not USA manufacture warranty, and no our store warranty neither, including the accessories
If
there is returned and refund needed, has to be return item within 14
business days from the delivery, and with buyer own expense. After 14
days there is no returned and refund acceptable no matter what problem
on the phone.
Our 14 days return period only effect for defective
phone, or ShopEbest sends out wrong order. Any other reasons would cost
buyer 20% to 25% of restocking fee.
50% restocking fee will be
charger, if buyer returning phone not as brand new condition and not in
resell able condition , such as missing plastic bag, phone's life time
minute has been used more than 30 minutes, writing on the box, screen
protector is missing on the screen, missing accessories, etc.
All
unlocked phone's feature is not 100% guarantee suitable to all locked
same network frequency carrier. Due to every carrier has their own
network frequency and setting on their features. Please kindly check out
if the phone's 2G, 3G or 4G suitable for your phone carrier, before
place the order."
UPDATE: Don't get this if you plan to use
T-mobile. T-mobile runs on a different frequency band that this phone
doesn't support. Your phone will WORK but it won't be as good as a
phone that also works with ALL of T-mobile's frequency bands.
See all 824 customer reviews...
