The Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini will be officially launched in India this coming week, according to industry sources, and will be priced at around Rs 26,000.
The phone, which carries a 4.5-inch Amoled HD display, is currently available in India in the grey market through channels like eBay, but these purchases do not carry the company’s official warranty.
Once it is officially launched, the S5 Mini will carry an official warranty from Samsung, besides being cheaper. Ebay sellers are quoting Rs 30,000 for the model, and after launch, the phone will be available on online retain websites for a price of Rs 26,000.
Given its rather limited specifications — the display, for example, is just 1280 * 720 pixels in resolution — the phone would rapidly fall to the mid-range level over the next two months. Potentially, the phone would reach a price of Rs 18,000-19,000 in 5-6 months.
The S4 Mini, whichi was launched in India a year ago, was also priced at Rs 27,000 in the beginning. It is now available for Rs 17,000.
Despite the name, the Mini is primarily a mid-range phone, and comes with a rather low-fi quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex A7 processor. Other phones with similar specifications, minus the Amoled display, are available for less than Rs 10,000 in the Indian market.
Sony too recently launched a high-priced mid-range phone, the Xperia C3, which is being sold for Rs 22,900, despite being similar in specifications to phones that cost Rs 9,999 or less.