With its cute design and affordability, the Samsung Mini is an appealing handset for young phone users.
Look and Feel
Weighing 80g, the Samsung Mini, given to us by Carphone Warehouse, seems slightly plastic-like and light, but still feels like it could take a few knocks. The phone is compact, which is great for portability, but the touchscreen is rather small. This is combated with the stylus, which I personally found pretty useful for fast texting.
The Hello Kitty design is a must-have for fans of all things cute. It definitely won’t appeal to all, but its pink and white colours look well together along with the Hello Kitty logo at the back.
Interface
The interface is easy to use. It has four home screens: one main one, one for a calendar, one for favourite contacts and one for its built-in social networking apps.
The stylus also helps with the phone’s navigation. As the screen is on the small side, the stylus lets you select things more precisely. I found that if I went a bit too quick through the menu, however, it would open apps I didn’t want to open, but overall, it’s a pretty usable device.
Internet
The internet connection is a bit slow and the small screen sets back usability for browsing online.
The interface for internet use is somewhat limited, too, only allowing you to zoom in and zoom out at two specific points.
Extras
The phone comes with a built-in FM radio, which works fine for catching up with your favourite stations. It includes a music player, which can support a micro SD card of up to 8GB.
The handset has a built-in 1.3mp camera. It’s incredibly basic, though it has a variety of nice features, such as framing effects and quick view for photos.
Overall
While basic and definitely at the lower end of the market, I could see the Samsung Mini suiting a young girl with a limited budget quite well. It’s a cute, fun phone, which handles light media use decently.
The Samsung Mini costs €59 on prepay and is free on billpay.
