I’m sure the Android faithful know that old Sammy decided to deliver a smaller version of their popular Galaxy S3 smartphone, a handset that although smaller than its larger brother still packs many of the same features. And if you are over here in the United Kingdom, and have been considering picking up the Samsung Galaxy S3 mini, you can now pre-order the handset from Carphone Warehouse.

For those in the UK that are contemplating pre-ordering the smaller version of the Samsung Galaxy S3, Carphone Warehouse are offering the Galaxy S3 mini on pay monthly as a free handset from £25 per month, whilst upgrades are the same as pay monthly, along with offering the smartphone as a SIM free device for £299.95, with the handset becoming available as of the 8th of this month.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 mini does sport a smaller 4-inch touch screen, and whilst many prefer a larger display, there are those that can get along with a smaller display with ease, and also the main draw on a device’s battery is the screen, so a smaller screen means less power being drawn to light it up, so it does have its advantages.

Furthermore, the Galaxy S3 mini does come sporting Android Jelly Bean 4.1 right out of the box, an OS that delivers new features such as improved Google Search, offline voice typing, along with a blocking mode feature that enables the user to limit what the handset notifies you about such as call reminders and texts.

The Android handset also features a 1GHz dual core processor, a 5 megapixel rear facing auto-focus camera with LED flash, 720p video @30fps, a VGA front facing snapper, NFC, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage, microSD expansion up to 32GB, all the usual Google services, and a 1500mAh battery.

The mini S3 also supports Smart Stay, a feature that enables the user to look at the display and the device will recognise your face, and will keep the screen bright until you look away, with the feature actually recognising the users eyes and tracks them until they look away, and should help alleviate the display dimming early when you are looking at it.

However, one does have to consider that although the smaller model is offered for free on contract for £25 a month, Carphone Warehouse is offering the full sized Galaxy S3 as a free device on pay monthly from £28 a month, so it is only £3 extra a month to have the bigger model, and let’s face it 3 pounds isn’t all that much these days.

So one does have to take into consideration that perhaps the Samsung Galaxy S3 mini is a tad overpriced for what the device offers. Do our readers agree the Galaxy S3 mini is somewhat on the pricey side or do you think it is priced about right, or do you prefer the full sized SGS3?