Samsung Galaxy Mini 2

In the world of tech, big doesn't necessarily mean beautiful, and expensive doesn't mean good. So it's no surprise Damien McFerran was reasonably impressed with the Samsung Galaxy Mini when he reviewed it last May, awarding this tiny budget blower three stars and calling it a "cheap and cheerful addition to the Galaxy stable".

Now the Galaxy Mini 2 is back on the scene, with a similar design, but sporting a pumped-up screen resolution. Is this little Android phone worthy of your attention?

I've gone hands-on with the Mini 2 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Read on for my first impressions and the key facts on this little mobile.

Design

The Mini 2 is set to live up to its name -- though the screen is a smidge bigger than the first Mini. Whereas the earlier model measured 3.14 inches on the diagonal, this screen is a 3.27-inch affair. That's still a rather small display -- compare it to the iPhone 4S' screen, which is 3.5 inches and no beast itself.

Along with the physical size, the Mini's display resolution has been increased as well. The first Mini was a tad blurry thanks to its 240x320-pixel display, so I'm glad to see Samsung has boosted that to a more palatable 320x480 pixels.

While more pixels is a good thing, this screen doesn't look great -- this little panel isn't a patch on the classy screens you'd find on more expensive phones. As a result, the Mini 2 probably won't be great for watching video.

Elsewhere the design is looking largely the same as the previous Mini -- this phone is quite chunky, with a rounded, textured back. It's 11.6mm thick, though there's an NFC version -- which could one day be useful for making payments using your mobile -- that is a shade thicker at 11.9mm.

It's charmingly chunky at 11.6mm, or 11.9mm if you opt for the NFC-enabled version.

One thing we're happy to see still in place is the Mini 2's colourful rear. It's rare to find a mobile these days that offers a splash of colour, so the bright lemony hues of the Mini 2 in the image below cheers me right up. I've also seen a grey version -- I would hope that when it goes on sale, there are a few different colour options available.

Android software

The Mini 2 will arrive running Android, which is Google's own mobile operating system. Android is brilliant, because it grants you access to the thousands of apps available through Android Market, many of which are totally free to download.

Stick a few key apps on there (Facebook and Spotify spring to mind) and you'll likely find the Mini 2 becomes a lot more useful. Sadly, this phone won't be running the latest version of Android -- the Mini has version 2.3 Gingerbread, rather than 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich -- but for many folks I suspect that won't be an issue.

Having an out of date operating system is embarrassing for high-end smart phones, where you'd expect to see the latest, greatest version of Android showcased, but seeing as the Mini 2 will likely be very cheap when it goes on sale, I predict this omission will be forgivable.

Expect to see a slew of Samsung apps pre-installed on the Mini 2, including the company's Social Hub and Music Hub apps, as well as its ChatON messaging service. Samsung's TouchWiz Android skin will be in evidence throughout.

Samsung will bung on a load of its own apps, for sure. We'll let you know soon whether or not they're worth keeping.

Often we find these manufacturer-added apps are just annoying and deserve to be quickly deleted. We'll see how much value they add soon enough.

Hardware

The Mini 2 doesn't offer particularly impressive hardware, though again the flip-side will be that it should be very cheap. There's an 800MHz processor running under the bonnet, which isn't very fast in this day and age. I didn't find the Mini 2 painfully slow, but at the same time I wasn't blown away by its speed. You get 4GB of storage, which isn't a lot, but you can bump that up using a microSD card.

There's a 3-megapixel camera on the back -- that isn't many megapixels. There's no auto-focus either, which is a shame. Don't expect any photographic masterpieces, but at least sharing the photos you have taken will be made easy by the Android operating system.

The camera on the back is only 3 megapixels and there's no auto-focus.

Outlook

The Mini 2 doesn't have much to offer in terms of hardware, but it could win me over with a low price tag. I left my hands-on feeling positive, and if you're shopping for smart phone features on a tight budget, I think this will be one to consider. Stay tuned for the full review.