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The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini is of course a touch device, the regular creamy white colour means fingermarks do not show apart from on the screen. The official colour is Ceramic White and other colours are available. It is 12x6x1cm.

On the right side is the on/off button and on the left side the volume up/down rocker. On top is the earbud connection via 3.5mm jack. The base has the only other connection a micro USB one to charge the unit.

It of course has a reasonable camera (5MP) and a VGA one facing for things like Skype and this together with its LED flash are mounted centre of the back towards the top. Beside the camera lens is the speaker output.

Remove the units back inserting a finger nail in the small gap at the top of the back surround, it then pops off quite easily. To replace it just lay it in position – it only goes one way because of the camera, flash and speaker and just press round the edges to seal.

While the back was off you can insert your SIM and micro SD card. The SIM goes towards the top and the micro SD card near the base.

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The viewable screen is 8.7x5.3cm and below this the only control not on the screen the ‘Home’ button. To the left and right are two other buttons of the soft variety the one on the right is ‘Back’ and the one on the left ‘Menu’.

While I know I am in the minority to regularly turn a phone off it take 40 seconds to boot and 4 seconds to power off.

In the box are a pair of reasonable earbuds with a 1.2metre lead and three spare sets of silicon buds. A mains charger of 1.5metres ends in the micro USB connection. There is also a small 36 page Getting Started Guide.

Sadly less than half the pages have helpful information the rest the obligatory safety advice. If you want the full manual then you will need to go online and find the exact model from the Samsung site. If you do this while out and about and not in a Wi-Fi hotspot it will cost money depending on contract or PAYG.

However if at home and you have wireless then anything that needs clarifying can be done easily for no cost.

The screen is of course reflective and when off it could be used as a mirror but assuming the sun is not right behind you the screen is still readable.

It comes with Android 4.1.1 and 8GB of internal storage, this can of course be increased by the addition of a micro SD card currently this could add another 32GB.

For those with a less than recent phone then the motion sensing (it can be turned off) can make certain tasks a matter of a twist of the wrist, this works well when you have worked out what tasks can benefit from it.

Battery life is important and it varies a lot between 2G and 3G useage. Talktime is 470 minutes on 3G and 850 minutes on 2G. Standby time is 360 hours on 3G and 460 hours on 2G.

`This is a nice easy to use phone that of course can connect to the Internet and therefore to the rest of the world this means that provided you can work with the small screen you can always be in touch wherever you are.

The Samsung Galaxy S III mini is available either on contract or PAYG from the various phone chains or should you prefer unlocked (meaning you can insert any SIM from any network) from the link below it can be purchased for £202.49 including delivery.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009PIZCI8?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634