Apparently the Galaxy S3 Mini just wasn’t mini enough for some of Samsung’s customers, as the new Galaxy Fame has recently been revealed, and it’s even smaller than the previous smallest S3 Mini.

The screen itself is just 3.5 inches, whilst the display is a resolution of just a poor 320x480. Other specs of the handset manage to match the ‘budget’ feel of the handset, including a 1GHz processor, a 5MP camera, and a measly 4GB internal memory.

The specs are low, but is the price low enough to justify its low performance?

Build Quality

The Galaxy line has managed to amalgamate into one simple shape and design over the last two years, and the Galaxy Fame shares the same curves that are ever present on the Galaxy S3 and S3 mini.

Obviously the size has been downgraded significantly from the Galaxy S3, but despite its small size, it’s incredibly comfy in the hand.

This could be one of two reasons: the Galaxy Fame manages to keep the strong, sturdy build quality that is found in the Galaxy S3 and other Galaxy line products, despite it being constructed mainly of plastic, or the small size gives us enough room to access all of the phone with one hand, and thanks to the curved pebble-like edges, there aren’t any un-holdable areas due to edgy corners and sharp extremities on the handset.

Screen Quality

There really isn’t much that can be done to a 3.5 inch due to quality, and there’s no uncertainty that Samsung cut costs here. The LCD screen has a poor resolution of just 320x480 pixels across its 3.5 inch display.

When going from a higher spec’d screen, it’s easy to notice the jagged lines on all edges on the screen, and pixilation is even more noticeable when playing animated images or video. On top of the poor pixel quality, the Fames viewing angles are poor, the brightness of the device is of a new low for Samsung, and it’s practically impossible to read the display in broad daylight.

The build of the handset may be appealing, but the LCD display is sickening. 

Software

OEMs have managed to pack the most updated Android OS’s into the most low end handsets despite their low hardware. The Galaxy Fame is a perfect example of this, as it comes with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, and of course on top of that, a TouchWiz overlay has been applied to the device.

We have some features that have managed to make it onto the weak hardware of the handset, including motion gestures, active widgets, and the ability to turn off an incoming call by putting the Fame face down on a solid surface.

In terms of widgets, the Galaxy Fame has everything it can muster, including alarm clock widgets, note widgets, toggle switches and other notification widgets that can help with your day to day activities.

Hardware

With all the widgets, overlay, and software it’d be surprising to see the handset run smoothly out of the box, and even if it did, it won’t be long before the internal memory is full, and the measly 512MB RAM gets overrun with conflicting tasks to work on.

The processor is pretty poor too, and at just 1GHz, the single core processor won’t help you run any intensive games, and you’ll be lucky to get Angry Birds running without some frame drops after long sessions.

Camera

Despite the other poor hardware found within the Galaxy Fame, the 5 Megapixel camera manages to retain a decent quality. Compared to other low end choices, the camera is a big improvement.

Although the images produce quite noisy results, and the detail isn’t great, but it produces enough color to get a few snaps out of it. The video quality however is incredibly pixilated, and without an incredibly steady hand, focusing on a particular scene is almost impossible.

Summary

The build quality is of far superior quality to other handsets in the same range, and the camera out surpasses other low-ends, however the hardware is poor, and the 512MB RAM, 4GB internal memory, and 1GHz single core processor doesn’t really justify the software that has been heavily clunked onto the phone, and it truly brings the Galaxy name to shame.

There are other alternatives at cheaper costs like the HTC Desire X, or even a second hand previous flagship like the Galaxy Nexus could be a better choice than the Galaxy Fame, and after 3 years in the Android market, Samsung is still using low end specs that were found in previous models for similar costs.

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