Samsung confirmed on Oct. 10 that it will be announcing its Galaxy S3 Mini in Germany. On Thursday, Oct. 11, the company officially took the wraps off its Galaxy S3 Mini at an event in Frankfurt.

Samsung's flagship smartphone, Galaxy S3, has been received well by smartphone enthusiasts and has given stiff competition to rival high-end smartphones in the market. Now, with the little brother Galaxy S3 Mini joining the smartphone race, rivals smartphone makers will have to find something exceptional to pull the rug from underneath Samsung's feet.

"The GALAXY S III introduced a new concept of smartphone that has proven hugely popular around the world. We're now delighted to bring its revolutionary design, intuitive usability and intelligence to the GALAXY S III mini in a more compact form," said JK Shin, President and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics. Shin further added "We continue to make every effort to provide extraordinary mobile experiences to meet a wide variety of user needs."

As the name of the smartphone suggests, the Galaxy S3 Mini will be smaller than the Galaxy S3 and will pack in hardware which will be less enhanced when compared to the original Galaxy S3.

The Galaxy S3 Mini will sport a 4-inch Super AMOLED display with 800 x 480 pixels resolution, and weighs 3.93 ounces. The phone features a dual-core processor clocked at 1GHz. The smartphone features a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and 720p video. The device also includes a VGA front-facing camera for video chat.

A 1500mAh battery powers the Galaxy S3 Mini. The device will offer 8/16GB on-board storage with the option to expand up to 32GB using a microSD card. The device also includes 1GB of RAM.

The smartphone runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The device will be Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Near Field Communication (NFC) capable..

Samsung has not confirmed the pricing and availability dates of the Galaxy S3 Mini, but smartphone enthusiasts will be keen to lay their hands on the latest Samsung device as soon as possible.

The Galaxy S3 has been well-received in the smartphone industry, time will tell if the Galaxy S3 Mini appeals to smartphone users just like the Galaxy S3.