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Is a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini smartphone on the way?

According to a new report, Samsung could soon unveil a slimmed-down version of the Galaxy S4 handset. 

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Reuters
The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini is shown next to a full-sized Samsung Galaxy S3. A Galaxy S4 Mini is reportedly on the way.
  • By Matthew Shaer

Next week, at a big press event at the Earl’s Court expo center in London, Samsung will unveil the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, the pint-sized cousin to the Samsung Galaxy S4 smart phone. 

That's the word today from the Wall Street Journal, which sources its report to "a person with knowledge of the matter." So no, we shouldn't take this as gospel. (Samsung is not commenting on the rumors.) But this isn't the only piece of S4 Mini news to land in the past week: Engadget also recently spotted a listing for a "Galaxy S4 mini" on the Samsung UK site. Predictably, the listing was subsequently removed.

Meanwhile, there's the fact that last year, in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, a Samsung marketing exec confirmed that the company would release a smaller version of the Galaxy S4. 

Bottom line: The S4 Mini is probably coming, and soon. But will it be any good? Monitor readers may remember that Samsung tried this trick before, with the Galaxy S3 Mini, which underwhelmed most reviewers (the device was called a "major letdown," an "iPhone 4-sized pea-shooter," and a "disappointingly low-level afterthought"). 

"For now, Samsung seems to be doing just fine with the larger, 5-inch Galaxy S 4," notes Chloe Albanesius of PCMag.com. "On Thursday, the company confirmed that sales of the new smartphone had topped 10 million units globally less than one month after its debut. In fact, it took the uber-popular Android phone just 26 days to reach the 10 million-sold milestone, making it Samsung's fastest-selling smartphone to date." 

For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.

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