The almost-one-year-old smartphone is free on AT&T Next

Mar 16, 2015 23:18 GMT  ·  By

Samsung released the Galaxy S5 mini on the market last year in July with Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system out of the box.

Almost one year after that, US-based carrier AT&T has decided to add the handset to its vast portfolio of Android smartphones.

Although this doesn't really make sense considering Samsung already has quite a few other Android phones newer and better, AT&T will be selling the Galaxy S5 mini beginning this week.

Samsung Galaxy S5 mini will be available from March 20 for free on AT&T Next. Additionally, the smartphone can be had for $99.99 with a two-year agreement or $428.99 outright. It's also worth mentioning that the smartphone will be available in Charcoal Black.

The only difference between the Galaxy S5 mini launched last year and the one to be released this week at AT&T is the OS. The AT&T version will ship with Android 4.4.4 KitKat operating system out of the box instead of Android 4.4.2, which isn't too much of an improvement.

A mid-range specced Android smartphone with IP67 certification

Moving on to specs, the Galaxy S5 mini is equipped with a 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos 3 Quad 3470,  complemented by a Mali-400MP4 graphics processing unit and 1.5GB of RAM.

The smartphone packs 16GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded up to 64GB via microSD card slot. Unlike the Galaxy S5 that sports a 5-inch display, the mini version comes with a smaller 4.5-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display that supports HD (720p) resolution.

The Galaxy S5 mini is IP67 certified (dust and water resistant) and features a fingerprint sensor, which is placed under the Home button.

The smartphone also comes with an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p), as well as a secondary 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls and selfies.